Have you ever wondered if your opportunities in Dynamics CRM are slipping through the cracks? What about follow up activities or open cases? It's easy to create Advanced Find searches to look for items that are in the past. Here's how to work with past due records in Dynamics CRM:

1. In Advanced Find, navigate to the entity you wish to search. For this example, we're searching for past due Opportunities.
2. Select Status Equals Open so that you don't collect won or lost records.
3. Select Est. Close Date Last X Days and enter the number of days past you'd like to review. (For this example, we'll select 30 days.)

The great thing about this query is that if saved, it will always reach back for the records which are open that are past due within 30 days so the date won't need to be updated.

It's also worth noting that there is a similar "Last X Years" option when looking for old records. You might use this when exploring deals lost to a particular competitor over time, or deals won in a particular region during a specific time period.

Another useful area to create a rolling view is to catch past due Activities. You can create a similar view using the Last X Hours option. I set mine for the last 72 hours.

Shazam!

Looking for other tricks for more ways to use searches? Try:

• Displaying a Filtered View in the Site Map in CRM 2011
• How to Search for Related Records

Happy CRM'ing!