Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook (also known as the Outlook client) integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook and can take the way your company does business to a new level of productivity! With that being said, it can be tricky at times to set up if you haven't followed the installation steps correctly. In today's blog, we are going to take a look at one of the possible roadblocks you may be running into that might be preventing your users from successfully connecting to the Outlook Client. Let's get started!

After downloading the correct version of the Outlook client that you need and successfully entering your CRM org information and credentials, you should see a screen in the Outlook Configuration Wizard that verifies your connection to your CRM organization, similar to the example below:

If instead you see a screen displayed like the one below. "You do not have persmission to access these records. Contact your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Administrator." In this case, you have likely encountered a snag in obtaining your desired access:

Since the error mentions permissions, you may assume that the logical first step would be to check your security roles. However, in this case, the problem is a little more complicated.

When a user is created in CRM, if their Client Access License (CAL) Information Access Mode is set to "Administrative", they will not have access to CRM data and will thereby see the error above when they try to connect Outlook to CRM. To check your setting, navigate to your user record and verify the Access Mode located under the Administration tab.

Changing the Access Mode to "Read-Write" will now allow the user to successfully connect Outlook to CRM. Please note that this setting is separate from having the System Admin security role. A user could have the System Administrator security role, but if their Access Mode is set to "Administrative", it will still prevent them from connecting to the Outlook client.

Hopefully this provides you with a place to start if you ever encounter this error when installing the CRM for Outlook client. Looking for more information about the Outlook client? Check out our blog on how to configure the Outlook client via a second federation.

Happy CRM'ing!