Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sharepoint Integration: 3 Easy Steps

Storing documents inside Dynamics 365 runs up costs quickly. Dataverse file storage is priced as a premium transactional store, designed for structured CRM records, not PDFs, contracts, and attachments. SharePoint, which most Microsoft 365 subscribers already have, supports up to 25TB per site and is built specifically for files. Connecting the two keeps your CRM records where they belong and moves your documents somewhere purpose-built for them.

Microsoft’s native server-based integration handles this in three steps. Once active, your team can open, upload, and manage documents directly from Dynamics 365 records. The files live in SharePoint. The access point stays in Dynamics 365.

There are two things worth knowing before you start. First, both your Dynamics 365 environment and your SharePoint site must be on the same Microsoft 365 tenant. Second, the integration does not automatically sync CRM security roles to SharePoint. By default, users may be able to see documents in SharePoint even if they don’t have access to the related CRM record. You can address this after setup, but it’s not handled out of the box.

This guide covers the full 3-step setup, what each step does, and the key configuration decisions you’ll need to make along the way.

Prerequisites for Microsoft Dynamics 365 SharePoint Integration

Before you begin, make sure the following are in place:

Requirement	Details
Active Microsoft Dynamics 365 account	Must be a Customer Engagement app such as Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, or Marketing
Active SharePoint Online account	SharePoint Online is required for Dynamics 365 Online environments. On-premises SharePoint is supported only for Dynamics 365 on-premises
Same Microsoft 365 tenant	Both your Dynamics 365 environment and your SharePoint site must be under the same Microsoft 365 tenant. Cross-tenant connections are not supported
System Administrator role in Dynamics 365	You need the System Administrator security role or equivalent permissions to configure document management settings
SharePoint site collection	At least one site collection must be configured and accessible before you run the integration wizard
Server-based SharePoint integration	This is the only supported method for Dynamics 365 Online. The older client-side integration was officially deprecated by Microsoft in 2020 and cannot be re-enabled
Correct SharePoint permissions	The account used to set up the integration must have permissions to read and write to the SharePoint site collection being connected

What is Microsoft Dynamics 365?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a business program that includes ERP and CRM features. It is intended to give users more flexibility and help them transform every business operation into a competitive advantage. It includes over a dozen tools and services to meet the demands of any organisation and boost productivity. The nice part about Microsoft Dynamics 365 is that it offers many tools as individual packages, such as ERP, CRM, Sales, and so on, and users can subscribe to the packages that their firm requires.

Key Features of Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics 365 provides business solutions for a variety of corporate processes, including Finance and Operations, Customer Service, Sales, Marketing, Human Resources, and Commerce, among others. A few more noteworthy features of Microsoft Dynamics 365 are listed below:

• Building No-Code Apps: With Microsoft Dynamics 365, customers may create apps that meet their specific needs. With the point-and-click capability, it is simple to create apps without coding.
• Sales Insights: Microsoft Dynamics 365’s intelligent technology processes CRM data and identifies patterns and opportunities in order to deliver the best possible help. It also analyses your daily communications and actions in order to guide and prioritise your daily duties.
• Analytics and Visualization: Microsoft Dynamics 365 interacts with Power BI to give you powerful visualisation tools and analytics to help you deliver superior insights. It also aids each department in gaining a better understanding of the company’s operations.

What is Microsoft Sharepoint?

Microsoft’s SharePoint is a document collaboration and management software. SharePoint is used by businesses to create websites. This tool includes features like Notifications and Approvals, as well as Lists and Libraries, to help users be more productive. SharePoint enhances content sharing and collaboration on a company’s intranet. Users develop Websites and portals that engage customers by sharing their message, resources, and news across the firm.

Key Features of Microsoft Sharepoint

• Quick Navigation: Users can put landmarks on pages to make navigation easier, and use a variety of keyboard shortcuts to speed up the process of documenting activities.
• Security: SharePoint allows users to customise security settings at each checkpoint based on their needs. You can also set up policies for archiving and auditing, as well as the actions that must be followed when business data expire. This aids the organization’s compliance efforts while also allowing it to properly regulate and manage essential information operations.
• Social Connections: It includes features such as Social Networking, a News Feed, and Tagging, as well as the ability to search, locate, and connect with people based on their skills, organisational positions, and relationships.

How to Set up Dynamics 365 Sharepoint Integration?

Step 1: Enable server-based SharePoint integration

Sign in to the Power Platform Admin Center. In the navigation pane, select Manage, then select Environments. Choose the environment you want to configure.

In the command bar, select Settings. Expand Integration, then select Document management settings.

Source: https://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/D365-SP-Document-Management-Settings.png

Select Enable server-based SharePoint integration.

Source: https://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/D365-SP-Document-Management-Settings.png

A wizard will open. Select Next to proceed.

Source: https://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/D365-SP-Server-based-SharePoint-Integration-Wizard-625×456.png

Step 2: Configure the SharePoint connection

The wizard will ask whether your SharePoint sites are Online or On-Premises. For Dynamics 365 Online environments, select Online.

Source: https://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/Server-based-SharePoint-Integration-Wizard-Location-625×468.png

Enter the URL of the SharePoint site you want to connect. You can copy this directly from the SharePoint site’s main page. The wizard will validate the URL when you click Next.

Source: https://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/D365-SP-Screenshot-of-Configure-Server-Based-SharePoint-Integration-Prepare-Site-625×487.png

Note: The SharePoint site must be on the same Microsoft 365 tenant as your Dynamics 365 environment. The wizard will return a validation error if it is not.

Once validation succeeds, select Finish. Server-based SharePoint integration is now active.

Source: https://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/D365-SP-Screenshot-of-Configure-Server-Based-SharePoint-Integration-Validation-status-625×477.png

Step 3: Configure document management settings

Go back to Document management settings within the same Integration panel. Select Document management settings from the list.

Source: https://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/D365-SP-Document-Management-Settings-1-625×283.png

Select the entities you want to enable for SharePoint document storage. Common choices include Account, Contact, Lead, Opportunity, Case, and Quote. Select Next.

Source: https://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/D365-SP-Entities-for-which-you-store-documents-in-D365-536×625.png

Validate the SharePoint URL once more when prompted, then click Next.

Source: https://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/D365-SP-SharePoint-URL-validation-625×266.png

You will be prompted to define a folder structure. You have three options:

• No automatic folders: Folders are not created automatically
• Based on Account: SharePoint folders follow the path ../Account/<account name>/<entity name>/<record name>
• Based on Contact: SharePoint folders follow the path ../Contact/<contact name>/<entity name>/<record name>

Source: https://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/D365-SP-Select-Folder-Structure-625×289.png

Select Next and wait for the document libraries to be created. This may take a few moments. Select Finish once complete.

Source: https://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/D365-SP-Dynamics-365-integration-successful-screenshot-524×625.png

The integration is now live. Open any enabled entity record in Dynamics 365, such as an Account, and you will see a Documents tab. Files uploaded here are stored in SharePoint. The Source column confirms the storage location as SharePoint.

Source: https://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/Documents.png

On the SharePoint side, you will see the corresponding folder structure created for the entities you enabled.

Source: https://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/D365-to-SP-SharePoint-after-integration-625×392.png

Note: When uploading documents through Dynamics 365, the file size limit is 50MB per file and you can only upload one file at a time. Files larger than 50MB can be uploaded directly in SharePoint and will still be accessible from within Dynamics 365.

Source: https://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/D365-to-SP-SharePoint-after-integration-625×392.png

Why Integrate SharePoint with Dynamics 365?

Dynamics 365 handles customer relationships well. It is not designed to store large volumes of files. SharePoint is. Connecting the two gives you a purpose-built document layer for your CRM without adding a separate platform to manage. For teams building broader data workflows, this integration is one of several data integration best practices worth applying early.

1. Moving documents out of Dataverse reduces storage costs

Dynamics 365 stores data in Dataverse. Structured records, relationships, and activity data belong there. Attachments, contracts, PDFs, and email files do not. Dataverse file storage add-ons cost around $2 per GB per month, compared to SharePoint which is significantly cheaper and already included in most Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Organizations running high volumes of document-heavy records in Dataverse often find storage costs climbing faster than expected.

SharePoint supports up to 25TB per site and is optimized for exactly this type of unstructured file storage. Routing documents to SharePoint instead of Dataverse keeps your CRM storage lean and your costs predictable.

2. Your team can access documents without switching applications

Once the integration is active, users see a Documents tab directly inside Dynamics 365 records such as Accounts, Contacts, Leads, and Opportunities. They can open, upload, and manage files from within the CRM interface. The files are stored in SharePoint, but the access point stays in Dynamics 365.

This removes the need to search across SharePoint separately. For sales and service teams working primarily inside Dynamics 365, that matters. Context switching to find a contract or proposal is a productivity drain that the integration eliminates.

3. Version control and compliance are handled at the file level

SharePoint maintains a full version history for every document. Teams can review earlier versions, restore files, and see who made changes and when. Only the latest version appears in Dynamics 365, but all previous versions remain accessible in SharePoint.

This is particularly relevant for organizations with regulatory requirements. SharePoint supports audit trails, access logging, and retention policies at the library or file level. For larger organizations managing data across multiple systems, this aligns with how enterprise data integration handles governance at scale. For industries handling sensitive customer documents such as financial services, healthcare, or legal, this provides a compliance layer that Dataverse file attachments do not.

4. Workflow automation can be triggered by document activity

Combining the integration with Power Automate allows teams to build workflows that respond to document events in SharePoint. A common example is contract approval routing: when a contract is uploaded to a SharePoint folder linked to an Opportunity in Dynamics 365, a flow can notify the relevant approvers, update the CRM record on approval, and log the outcome.

These automations run within the Microsoft ecosystem without requiring third-party tools. The combination of SharePoint and Power Automate covers most document workflow scenarios that teams would otherwise handle manually or through separate software. Teams running into friction with manual document processes will recognize these as common data integration problems that automation helps resolve.

5. External users can access shared documents without a Dynamics 365 license

SharePoint permissions can be configured to allow external users to access specific documents or libraries without holding a Dynamics 365 license. This is useful when sharing proposals with clients, legal documents with external counsel, or project files with contractors.

Access is controlled through SharePoint’s permission model. Administrators can set view-only or edit rights at the site, library, or file level, independently of what those users can see in Dynamics 365. This keeps sharing flexible without expanding your CRM license footprint.

Conclusion

This guide walked you through connecting Microsoft Dynamics 365 to SharePoint in three steps: enabling server-based integration in the Power Platform Admin Center, configuring your SharePoint connection, and enabling document libraries for the entities you use. Once complete, your team can access and manage documents directly from CRM records, with SharePoint handling the storage.

Two things worth addressing after setup. First, review your folder structure. The default options are limited, and a poorly planned structure becomes harder to fix as record volume grows. Second, check your permissions. By default, Dynamics 365 security roles do not sync to SharePoint. Users may be able to see documents they should not have access to unless permissions are managed separately.

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