Everything you customize in Dynamics 365 CE starts with a table — the container that holds one particular kind of record. You'll also hear the older term entity used constantly in documentation and by longtime consultants. They mean the same thing; this course uses "table."
- A table holds one kind of record; each row inside it is a single record
- "Table" and "entity" describe the same concept — table is the newer name
- Standard tables (Account, Contact, Lead, and more) ship built-in
- Custom tables are ones you design yourself for a business-specific need
- Every table is either user/team-owned or organization-owned
A table is a drawer for one kind of thing
Picture one drawer in a filing cabinet, labeled for a single category of paperwork. "Accounts" holds a folder for every company you do business with. "Contacts" holds a folder for every person. Track something unique to your business — say, "Court Bookings" — and you add a brand-new drawer just for that.
Every folder inside a drawer follows the same basic shape, because they all describe the same kind of thing. In Dataverse terms: the drawer is a table, and each folder inside it is one record.
Standard tables vs. custom tables
Dynamics 365 CE arrives with a large set of standard tables already built — Account, Contact, Lead, Opportunity, Case, and dozens more. You don't create these; they're part of the product, already wired into forms, views, and security.
When a standard table doesn't cover something specific to your business, you build a custom table. Once created, it behaves exactly like a standard one — its own forms, views, security, and connections to other tables — the only difference is that you designed it yourself.
| Type | Where it comes from | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Standard table | Built into Dynamics 365 CE out of the box | Account, Contact, Lead, Opportunity |
| Custom table | Created by a customizer for a business-specific need | Court Bookings, Equipment, Membership |
Who can see the drawer: ownership types
Every table also has an ownership type, which decides how its records are assigned and secured. Two flavors matter at a beginner level:
- User or team-owned — like a personal filing cabinet assigned to one person or a small team. Each record belongs to one owner, and security typically restricts who else can open it. Most day-to-day sales and service data (Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities) works this way.
- Organization-owned — like a shared reference binder sitting in the middle of the office. Not assigned to any one person, and generally visible to everyone with access. Good for reference data — a list of countries, or a set of product categories — where an individual owner wouldn't make sense.