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How to "Delete" a User in CRM 2011

Post Author: Joe D365 |

For most businesses and organizations, there will be a need to remove user accounts from the system. When deactivating User accounts there are some important considerations and best practices to follow. For instance, in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, you can't delete a user directly.

Why you can’t delete Users in Dynamics CRM 2011…

The only way in Dynamics CRM to delete a User account is by direct SQL modifications. Many different tables reference a User account, so it is very easy to break the database in doing so. It is highly NOT recommended to use this approach, and isn’t supported by Microsoft.

Best Practices

  • Make sure to Re-assign any associated records/activities to another User or Team before disabling User. If you don’t Re-assign the records they will still be available, but they will still be assigned to the disabled user.
  • It is very important to ensure that there are no Workflows owned by the User to be disabled. All Published Workflows need to be owned by an administrative account, not an employee’s account.
  • There are situations where a User’s account only needs to be disabled for a short period of time, so records don’t necessarily need to be Re-assigned. (Example: the User went on vacation for a month). Take into consideration the User’s privileges for those records. If only the User can modify that record, then no one will be able to modify the record, if the owner is disabled.

Instructions

The first step is reassign the User’s records that will be deactivated. To do this, open the User account by clicking on Settings → Administration → Users.

Find the User’s account to be disabled and double click on it. Once the account has displayed, click Reassign Records in the ribbon at the top of screen. You will have an option to assign records to your own account, or assign to a User or Team.

Reassign records for the CRM 2011 user you want to delete/disable.

Once the User’s records have been reassigned, make sure that no Processes are assigned to the User. You can check custom processes by clicking Settings → Processes, and ensuring that the disabled User does own any of these processes.

On the User’s account display, you should also check Workflows/Dialogs by clicking in the left side Navigation pane.

Make sure no workflows or processes are associated with the CRM user you want to delete

Last, you can disable the User by navigating to the User’s account display, and click Disable → OK.  The window will refresh and user will now be disabled correctly.  Any licenses associated with the user will become automatically available when enabling/new Users.

Since User management is typically handled within an organization, it very important to train Microsoft Dynamics CRM system administrators within the business or organization on these best practices.

Let us know if this was helpful by commenting!

Happy CRM'ing!

Joe CRM
By Joe D365
Joe D365 is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 superhero who runs on pure Dynamics adrenaline. As the face of PowerObjects, Joe D365’s mission is to reveal innovative ways to use Dynamics 365 and bring the application to more businesses and organizations around the world.

3 comments on “How to "Delete" a User in CRM 2011”

  1. Hi,
    We have goals set-up for all our sales reps and it appears that when we disable one of them, the disabled user' goals aren't working anymore.
    Is there a way to retain the goals of a disabled users until the fiscal year ends?

    Thanks!

    1. Hi Gen - Yeah - we have seen this before. This appears to be by design. One semi-workaround that one of our clients is doing is to instead of disabling the user, make sure they can't login by changing their pwds and make the user a read-only user. Then when the fiscal year ends disable them.

  2. Hello,

    Can you help me setting up email router for CRM2015 with exchange server 2013 on-premise i am unable to find the link where it explain how to use campaigns and setup email configuration to send the emails out to contacts. ?

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