How to modify noncustomizable entity in MS Dynamics CRM 4.0 (Add Product price column to Price List Item view)

For one of the clients, there was a simple and understandable yet not-that-easy-to-do requirement to add a price next to each product displayed as price list item under the price list. MS guys probably forgot about the basic need of anyone setting up the product catalogue and price lists and that is quick and easy review of the prices of the products.

The first idea is to go to the Customizations area, where you can customize entities, find the corresponding view, add and reshuffle columns according to requirement, publish, done. Not that easy this time. Although the Price List entity is displayed as Customizable, when you actually want to customize it, it turns out it is not. And you cannot even see any forms and views related to this entity. That should basically prevent you from modifying it and preparing you for an unpleasant situation where client is told - “this is not possible…” And clients like it very much!

But there is a little trick that can do it and let you modify the view of product list items so that you can add amount field (price) to the view.

In MS CRM 4.0 SQL database there is a table containing settings for all entities present in the system and it is called… Entity. In this table there is a column named IsCustomizable and this is set to 0 (zero) for the PriceList entity.

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio
2. Connect to MSCRM database (not the config one, but the real one with MSCRM tables)
3. Run following update command:

update ENTITY
set ISCUSTOMIZABLE = 1
WHERE NAME = 'ProductPriceLevel'

note: Entity is a DB synonym for Metadata.Entity table

Then you can drill down to the corresponding view in the CRM / Settings / Customization / Price List Item.

When you open the entity page you can see the node for Forms and Views - not present there previously, and you can modify the view - Product Price List - Price List as any other views in the system. Add column Amount (Base), save and publish. After that you can see that there is price displayed next to each Price List Item (Product) in that particular view.