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Nested dropdowns in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations

Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (F&O) pages often use nested dropdowns.

A nested dropdown is a dropdown whose available options depend on the value you select in another field. For example, you select a country first, and then a city dropdown shows only cities for that country.

In Leapwork Studio 2026.1, the Dynamics 365 Fusion recorder and D365 F&O building blocks have been improved to work more reliably with nested dropdowns.

Use this article to learn how to:

  • Record interactions with nested dropdowns in D365 F&O.

  • Configure D365 F&O blocks to select values in nested dropdowns.

  • Understand limitations and good practices.

Nested dropdown support for D365 F&O is available in Leapwork Studio 2026.1 and later.

Before you start

To work with nested dropdowns in D365 F&O, you need:

  • Leapwork Studio and Controller version 2026.1 or later.

  • A test environment with Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations.

  • Access to the D365 Finance and Operations Fusion Recorder.

  • A supported browser configuration for D365 F&O testing.

For an introduction to D365 F&O automation, see:
https://docs.leapwork.com/leapwork-studio/latest/d365-finance-and-operations-fusion-recorder

How nested dropdowns behave in D365 F&O

In D365 F&O, nested dropdowns usually follow these patterns:

  • A parent field controls the content of a child dropdown.

  • When you change the parent field, the child dropdown:

    • Reloads its options.

    • Clears the previous selection.

  • Some pages use more than two levels, for example:

    • Region → Country → City.

    • Category → Subcategory → Item.

Previously, these controls could be hard to automate reliably because the relationship between fields was not always visible at the UI level. The 2026.1 enhancements help Fusion recognize these relationships more consistently.

Record nested dropdowns with the Fusion recorder

Use the D365 F&O Fusion recorder to capture your interactions with nested dropdowns.

  1. Open Leapwork Studio.

  2. Go to the Design area and open or create a flow.

  3. Start the D365 Finance and Operations Fusion Recorder.

  4. Navigate to the F&O page that contains nested dropdowns.

  5. In the application under test:

    1. Select a value in the parent dropdown.

    2. Wait for the child dropdown to update.

    3. Select the required value in the child dropdown.

  6. Stop the recorder.

The recorder generates one or more D365 F&O blocks (for example, D365 Set Element Dropdown) for each dropdown interaction.

In 2026.1, these recorded actions are better aligned with how F&O updates dependent fields.

Configure D365 set dropdown blocks

After recording, review and configure the created blocks.

  1. Open the generated D365 Set Element Dropdown block for the parent field.

  2. Check that:

    • The element reference points to the correct parent dropdown.

    • The value or text property matches the desired parent selection.

  3. Open the D365 Set Element Dropdown block for the child field.

  4. Confirm that:

    • The element reference is bound to the child dropdown.

    • The block is placed after the parent selection in the flow.

  5. If needed, insert a Wait or validation step between the parent and child selections:

    • For example, use D365 Click Element or D365 Validate and Get to confirm the child dropdown is populated.

Tip: If you see intermittent failures, add a short wait or a validation that checks that the child dropdown contains the expected options before selecting a value.

Handle multi-level nested dropdowns

If your page has more than two levels (for example, Region → Country → City), you can chain multiple Set Dropdown blocks.

  1. Record or create a D365 Set Element Dropdown block for each level:

    • Parent (first level).

    • Intermediate (second level).

    • Child (third level).

  2. Place the blocks in the correct order on the canvas:

    1. Select Region.

    2. Select Country.

    3. Select City.

  3. Insert waits or validations between steps if the page needs time to refresh options.

The 2026.1 enhancements help ensure that each dependent dropdown is recognized correctly, so recorded references remain stable even when intermediate options change.

Work with data-driven dropdown selections

You can also combine nested dropdowns with data-driven flows.

For example, you might have a table with:

  • Region

  • Country

  • City

To configure a data-driven scenario:

  1. Add a Data-Driven or Read Excel block to supply the values.

  2. Map the data fields to each D365 Set Element Dropdown block:

    • Bind the Region column to the parent dropdown block.

    • Bind the Country column to the intermediate dropdown block.

    • Bind the City column to the child dropdown block.

  3. Run the flow.

The flow selects different combinations of nested dropdown values for each row in the data source.

Troubleshooting nested dropdown automation

If your flow fails on nested dropdowns:

  • Check the parent selection
    Make sure the parent dropdown is successfully set before the child selection runs.

  • Verify timing
    Add a Wait block or a short delay between selecting the parent and child dropdowns if the page updates slowly.

  • Inspect element references
    Reopen the D365 F&O blocks and confirm that each element reference still points to the correct field after UI changes.

  • Re-record the affected steps
    If the page layout has changed, use the Fusion recorder again to update element references for the dropdowns.

If problems continue on specific pages, capture screenshots and logs from the failing run and share them with your internal experts or Leapwork Support.

Limitations

Support for nested dropdowns in D365 F&O in 2026.1 has some limitations:

  • Custom controls that do not follow standard F&O patterns may still require workarounds.

  • Very complex forms with dynamic content may need additional waits or validations.

  • Behavior can vary between different versions or customizations of D365 F&O.

If you encounter a nested dropdown that the Fusion recorder cannot capture reliably, consider:

  • Using D365 Click Element in combination with D365 Set Element Text or other D365 blocks.

  • Combining D365 blocks with generic web blocks in edge cases.