Trade counters and B2B operations teams running Microsoft Dynamics face a familiar problem: customers and suppliers increasingly message on WhatsApp, but that conversation history lives outside the CRM where the rest of the sales and account record sits. Stitch, the WhatsApp business communication platform, connects WhatsApp directly into Dynamics so messages, template rules and after-hours automation all sit alongside the customer or supplier record your team already works from.
This guide walks through the technical setup, based on a documented Stitch onboarding engagement, covering the Chrome extension overlay, template message rules under Meta's conversation window policy, and out-of-hours automation.
Before starting the integration, confirm the following are in place:
Start with the core WhatsApp Business Account setup on the Stitch-AI platform. This follows the same onboarding process used across Stitch-AI's CRM integrations. The account setup establishes the foundation everything else builds on: your business identity on WhatsApp, your verified sender profile, and the connection point that later gets overlaid onto Dynamics.
Once verified through Meta Business Suite, your company name displays to customers and suppliers instead of a raw phone number, which matters for trust in ongoing supplier and account communication.
With the WhatsApp Business Account live, the next step is layering it onto Dynamics itself.
The Chrome extension overlays the WhatsApp inbox directly on top of Dynamics, so your team can message customers and suppliers without leaving the CRM interface. This is the same underlying mechanism Stitch-AI uses across other CRM integrations, adapted here for a Dynamics environment.
Note: you can also highlight a phone number directly on a Dynamics page and right-click to send a WhatsApp message immediately, without needing to first search for the contact inside the WhatsApp inbox.
Once messaging works from within Dynamics, configure notifications so nothing gets missed on either side of the conversation.
Notifications for unread or assigned chats appear directly within the CRM interface, so operations teams don't need to keep a separate tab open to monitor WhatsApp traffic. Individual users can further customise how they're alerted:
These are personal settings rather than company-wide defaults, so each team member configures their own preference. The underlying read/unread status, however, is shared: the system marks messages as read or unread for the entire team inbox, so one agent picking up a supplier query updates the status for everyone else with access.
With messaging and notifications running, the next step is deciding how conversations get distributed and owned across your trade counter or operations team.
Incoming chats start as unassigned. Bots or team members then assign each chat to an individual or a team, and every conversation has a clear owner from that point. Reassignment is straightforward, and permission settings allow visibility across users, so a manager can see conversations even if they aren't the assigned owner.
This is the step most trade counter teams need to get right, because it governs when you can message freely and when a template is required.
Meta enforces a 24-hour conversation window: a business can only send free-form messages to a customer or supplier within 24 hours of that contact's last message. Outside that window, any outbound message must be sent as a pre-approved template, formatted with the required top-and-tail structure.
Warning: a template sent outside the 24-hour window without Meta pre-approval will not deliver. Build your template library before you need it for time-sensitive supplier communication, not in the moment a delay actually happens.
Trade counters rarely run 24-hour desks, but suppliers and customers message whenever it suits them, so out-of-hours handling needs to be built into the template strategy rather than left as an afterthought.
Because messages outside the 24-hour conversation window must use pre-approved templates, an out-of-hours auto-response should itself be built as a template, such as a "team's late" or "we're closed" message with quick reply buttons letting the sender choose next steps, for example requesting a callback or confirming their query can wait until morning. This keeps the interaction compliant with Meta's rules while still giving the customer or supplier an immediate, useful response rather than silence.
Once one-to-one messaging and automation are running smoothly, extend the setup to cover bulk communication for supplier updates or trade promotions.
New conversations can be started by typing a phone number in international format, for example +44 for the UK, or by searching existing contacts already synced from the CRM. For broader outreach, bulk importing contacts from your CRM is supported, letting operations teams run compliant WhatsApp broadcast marketing campaigns for pricing updates, stock alerts, or seasonal trade promotions.
Bulk broadcasting can be run from the web app or the Chrome extension by scraping phone numbers directly from CRM pages, and the platform has been demonstrated handling broadcasts of up to 35 contacts on screen at once. Bulk messages can use either approved templates or natural free text chat, depending on whether the recipient falls inside or outside the 24-hour window.
With the integration live, the final setup step is putting reporting in place so operations managers can track performance and stay audit-ready.
The platform provides analytics on template usage, delivery, open, and reply rates, with quick reply templates consistently showing higher engagement. Administrators can also download full chat histories in CSV format, which supports GDPR compliance checks and internal audit requirements.
A few practical points make the Dynamics integration run more smoothly day to day:
The WhatsApp icon isn't appearing next to phone numbers in Dynamics. This depends on the specific CRM page and typically requires additional configuration; check with your Stitch-AI onboarding contact rather than assuming it's a platform fault.
A template message isn't sending to a customer or supplier. Confirm you're outside the 24-hour conversation window and that the message is being sent as a pre-approved template with the correct top-and-tail formatting, rather than as free text.
Team members report conflicting notification behaviour. Since notification preferences are set per user rather than company-wide, check each individual's email, pop-up, and mobile alert settings rather than looking for a single shared configuration.
A completed conversation keeps reappearing in the inbox. This is expected behaviour: archived chats automatically return to the inbox if the customer or supplier sends a new message.
Integrating WhatsApp into Microsoft Dynamics through Stitch-AI gives trade counter and B2B operations teams a single view of customer and supplier conversations without leaving the CRM they already rely on. The Chrome extension overlay handles day-to-day messaging and notifications, template rules keep communication compliant with Meta's 24-hour window, and out-of-hours automation ensures no supplier or customer query goes unanswered outside working hours. Teams needing deeper record-level integration beyond the extension overlay can extend the setup via API, with IT or developer support.
