What is the preferred method of updating Money fields in Dynamics CRM 2013 via Web Services? - web-services

Question

I have an entity in CRM that has some Money fields on them. At the time of the creation of the entity there is no value for those fields, so the entity is created and saved. However if I then have values and go to update them (either through the UI or Web Services) I basically get an error stating "The currency cannot be null".
In the UI:
I then get a red circle with an X through it if I go to update the value.
In the code (web service call):
var crmService = new CrmServiceReference.IFAAContext(new Uri(crmWebServicesUrl));
crmService.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
var crmAccount = crmService.AccountSet.Where(a => a.AccountId == accountId).FirstOrDefault();
crmAccount.myitems_MoneyValueItem.Value = 10.0m;
crmService.UpdateObject(crmAccount);
crmService.SaveChanges()
I then get the "The currency cannot be null" on the .SaveChanges() call.
In the code (second attempt):
var crmService = new CrmServiceReference.IFAAContext(new Uri(crmWebServicesUrl));
crmService.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
var crmAccount = crmService.AccountSet.Where(a => a.AccountId == accountId).FirstOrDefault();
var crmCurrency = crmService.TransactionCurrencySet.Where(c => c.ISOCurrencyCode == "AUD").First();
crmService.SetLink(crmAccount, "TransactionCurrency_Account", crmCurrency);
//crmService.SaveChanges() /* tried with this uncommented as well to try and "set currency" before setting value */
crmAccount.myitems_MoneyValueItem.Value = 10.0m;
crmService.UpdateObject(crmAccount);
crmService.SaveChanges()
So this attempt fails in the same way, however if I run it a second time (without the currency and SetLink) so that the currency was saved before then it does work - hence the atempt to do a second .SaveChanges() but really need it to sort of work the first time through.
In the code (third attempt):
var crmService = new CrmServiceReference.IFAAContext(new Uri(crmWebServicesUrl));
crmService.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
var crmAccount = crmService.AccountSet.Where(a => a.AccountId == accountId).FirstOrDefault();
crmAccount.athos_MoneyValueItem= new CrmServiceReference.Money() { Value = 10.0m };
crmService.UpdateObject(crmAccount);
crmService.SaveChanges()
This doesn't appear to work either

Answer 1

When you create a new record containing a Money field (or updating an existing one where no Money fields are filled before) , you need to specify the currency, the right field to set is TransactionCurrencyId (logical name transactioncurrencyid), it's a lookup (so inside the code is an EntityReference) to the currency entity.
assuming you have the Guid of your currency stored inside the currencyId variable:
var crmAccount = crmService.AccountSet.Where(a => a.AccountId == accountId).FirstOrDefault();
crmAccount.TransactionCurrencyId = new EntityReference(TransactionCurrency.LogicalName, currencyId);
crmAccount.myitems_MoneyValueItem = new Money(10.0m); //better to update the money field with this syntax
crmService.UpdateObject(crmAccount);
crmService.SaveChanges()

Answer 2

CRM 2013 expects a Money object for a currency field.
crmAccount.myitems_MoneyValueItem = new Money(10.0m);
You shouldn't have to explicitly declare a currency unless your CRM organization doesn't have a default currency set (and since you need to set this when creating an organization, it should always be set).

Answer 3

It looks like if I do a lookup on currency (shame as an extra data call) and then use that to set the TransactionCurrencyId it then "works" ... seems like I shouldn't have to do this as I do have a default set for the organisation though. But this does appear to be working in that it results in being able to update those fields.
var crmCurrency = crmService.TransactionCurrencySet.Where(c => c.ISOCurrencyCode == currencyCode).First();
var crmService = new CrmServiceReference.IFAAContext(new Uri(crmWebServicesUrl));
crmService.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
var crmAccount = crmService.AccountSet.Where(a => a.AccountId == accountId).FirstOrDefault();
crmAccount.TransactionCurrencyId = new CrmServiceReference.EntityReference() { Id = crmCurrency.TransactionCurrencyId, LogicalName = "transactioncurrency", Name = crmCurrency.CurrencyName };
crmAccount.myitems_MoneyValueItem.Value = 10.0m;
crmService.UpdateObject(crmAccount);
crmService.SaveChanges();

Answer 4

i am doing the same thing as you but unable to set the money field value during service.create.
I have already put in
entity.Attributes["transactioncurrencyid"] = currencyGuid;
entity.Attributes["new_moneyfield"] = new Money(123.45M);
but in the end, the record is created with the transactioncurrency field populated, while the money field is blank.
Its a custom workflow on CRM online 2016 by the way..