Integrating SharePoint with Dynamics 365: Documents Where You Need Them

The native SharePoint Dynamics 365 integration puts a Documents tab directly on your CRM records, so a salesperson opens an account and sees every contract, quote and email attachment for that customer without leaving Dynamics. Files physically live in SharePoint, where they get versioning, co-authoring and cheap storage, while Dynamics provides the customer context. It’s included in your licences, takes under an hour to switch on, and has one significant caveat around permissions that catches almost everyone out. Here’s how it works, how to set it up, and when plain attachments are still the better choice.

How Does the Native Integration Actually Work?

Microsoft calls it server-based SharePoint integration, and “server-based” is the important word: Dynamics 365 talks to SharePoint Online directly, so users never need a separate sign-in, and nothing gets installed on their machines. Once enabled, document-enabled tables (Accounts, Opportunities, Cases and any custom table you choose) show a Documents tab under the record’s Related menu.

Behind the scenes, Dynamics creates Document Location records that map each CRM record to a SharePoint folder. Upload a file from the Documents tab and it lands in that folder; drop a file into the folder from SharePoint or Teams and it appears on the CRM record. Both views show the same files, because there’s only one copy. The Documents grid supports upload, checkout, version history and opening files straight into Word or Excel Online.

What Folder Structure Does Dynamics Create?

By default, Dynamics creates one document library per enabled table on your chosen SharePoint site, then one folder per record inside it, named with the record name plus its unique ID, for example account/Contoso Iberia_A1B2C3D4. The ID suffix looks ugly but prevents collisions when two records share a name, so leave it alone.

During setup you can instead choose folder structure “based on entity” for Account or Contact. With the Account option, an opportunity’s folder is created inside its parent account’s folder, so everything about one customer sits under one tree. Most SMEs find this far easier for humans browsing SharePoint directly. Decide before you enable entities, because restructuring folders after months of use is tedious. If you’ve added custom tables for your industry, they can be document-enabled too; our walkthrough on customising Dynamics 365 CRM for your business needs covers when custom tables make sense in the first place.

How Do You Set It Up? Step by Step

You’ll need a System Administrator role in Dynamics and a SharePoint site ready to receive documents (create a dedicated one, for reasons the next section makes clear). Then:

1. Create or pick a SharePoint site, for example yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/crm-documents, and note its URL.
2. Open Document Management settings. In a model-driven app go to Settings (gear) > Advanced Settings > Document Management, or reach the same area via the Power Platform admin centre under your environment’s settings, then Integration.
3. Run “Enable Server-Based SharePoint Integration”. Choose Online, paste the site URL and let the wizard validate it.
4. Run “Document Management Settings”. Tick the tables to enable (start with Account, Opportunity and Case; you can add more later) and choose whether folders are based on the Account structure.
5. Confirm library creation. The wizard creates the document libraries on the site automatically.
6. Test with one record. Open an account, go to Related > Documents, upload a file, then find it on the SharePoint site to confirm the round trip.

Microsoft’s official documentation on setting up Dynamics 365 to use SharePoint Online covers edge cases like multiple sites and moving an existing integration.

The Permissions Caveat You Can’t Ignore

SharePoint security and Dynamics security are completely separate systems, and the integration does nothing to connect them. Your carefully designed CRM security roles, business units and record-sharing rules do not apply to the documents. Anyone with access to the SharePoint site can browse every folder in it, including folders for records they can’t open in Dynamics.

Picture a Valencia manufacturing SME where sales territories are locked down in CRM: a rep who can’t see a competitor territory’s opportunities can still read their quotes if the SharePoint site is open to all staff. The practical mitigations, in rough order of effort:

• Use a dedicated site for CRM documents and grant access only to CRM users, never “Everyone”
• Keep genuinely sensitive files (HR issues, legal disputes, payroll) out of the integration entirely, on a restricted site
• Split very sensitive tables onto a second SharePoint site with tighter membership, since Dynamics supports multiple sites
• For strict per-record security requirements, accept that you’ll need custom automation or third-party tools to sync permissions, which is real engineering effort

For most SMEs the dedicated-site approach is proportionate. Just make the trade-off consciously, with GDPR in mind, rather than discovering it after a data-access complaint.

Why Use SharePoint Instead of Attachments?

Three reasons: cost, versioning and collaboration. Attachments and notes are stored in Dataverse, and Dataverse capacity is priced far higher than SharePoint storage. As of 2026, additional Dataverse database capacity costs roughly 40 US dollars per GB per month, while storage on the document platform runs at a fraction of that, and your tenant already includes a sizeable pooled amount. Letting attachments pile up is one of the most common reasons SMEs get surprise capacity warnings in the Power Platform admin centre.

Versioning is the quieter win. A quote stored as an attachment is a dead file: to revise it, someone downloads it, edits it and re-uploads a copy. The same quote in SharePoint keeps its full version history, supports two people editing simultaneously, and shows up in Microsoft 365 search and Copilot. Document handling rarely makes feature top-ten lists, yet it removes daily friction in the same way as the capabilities in our post on Dynamics 365 features that boost sales performance.

Attachments still have a place. Email attachments tracked from Outlook, small one-off files on a case, or environments where you genuinely can’t govern a SharePoint site are all fine as attachments. A sensible rule: anything a human will edit again, or that belongs to a customer’s long-term record, goes to SharePoint; incidental files can stay as attachments.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the integration cost extra?

No. Server-based SharePoint integration is included with Dynamics 365 and SharePoint Online licences, and nearly every Dynamics customer already has SharePoint through Microsoft 365. The only costs to watch are extra storage if you exceed your tenant’s pooled allowance, and any consulting time for setup, which is typically measured in hours rather than days.

Can I move existing attachments to SharePoint?

Yes, but not with a built-in button. Common approaches include Power Automate flows that copy note and email attachments into the right record folders, and third-party migration tools built for exactly this job. It’s worth doing if attachments are eating your Dataverse capacity, since the storage savings usually pay back the migration effort quickly.

What happens to documents when I rename or delete a CRM record?

Renaming a record doesn’t rename its SharePoint folder; the original folder name (with the ID suffix) keeps the mapping intact, so nothing breaks. Deleting a record does not delete its documents. The folder and files stay on the site, which is usually what you want for compliance, but plan a periodic cleanup for genuinely orphaned folders.

Does it work with the Dynamics 365 mobile app and Teams?

Yes. The Documents tab is available in the mobile app, and because files live in standard SharePoint libraries, they’re accessible from Teams as well. Dynamics 365 also offers deeper Teams collaboration features that pin a record’s channel and files together, which builds on the same underlying SharePoint integration.

Should sales and service teams share one SharePoint site for CRM documents?

Usually yes, at least to start. One dedicated site keeps setup simple, keeps the folder tree in one place, and matches how the integration was designed to work. Split onto a second site only when two conditions meet at once: a group of documents is genuinely sensitive, and the people who shouldn’t see it currently have site access. Legal disputes, HR cases and payroll files are the classic candidates. The practical middle ground many SMEs land on is one main site for accounts, opportunities and routine cases, plus one restricted site for a single sensitive table. Whatever you choose, review site membership twice a year; teams change faster than permissions do, and stale access is how document leaks actually happen in practice.

Getting Started

Enable the integration in a sandbox first, test the folder structure decision with real record names, sort out site membership, and only then switch it on in production. The setup itself is quick; the structure and permissions decisions are what deserve thought. AlishBit configures this integration as a standard part of our Dynamics 365 CRM projects for businesses across Spain, including the SharePoint governance side that generalist IT support often skips. If your systems landscape reaches beyond CRM, our guide to Business Central integration architecture covers the same connection patterns for ERP. If you’re weighing up outside help, our notes on choosing a Dynamics 365 partner in Spain are a good place to start.