Introduction
The Search and Replace Wizard enables you to replace a user in one or more Internal Contact Types to which the user is assigned. You can replace them in any or all companies/business entities and/or contracts to which the Internal Contact Type is assigned.
You can also use the wizard to resign a user from one or more Internal Contact Types for one or more companies/business entities and/or contracts.
For example, John is assigned to the Internal Contact Type ‘Legal Contact’ and ‘Legal Contact’ is assigned to Company A and Company B. John is also assigned to the Internal Contact Type ‘Verifier’ for Company B and Company C. If you want to replace John with Paul as the legal contact for Company B and the verifier for Company C, you can use the Search and Replace Wizard to do this in a few clicks.
When you are replacing the user in more than one Internal Contact Type or more than one company/business entity and/or contract, the Search and Replace Wizard saves a lot of time compared to replacing users in Internal Contact Types one company/business entity and/or contract at a time. The following table illustrates the steps you would need to take with each method.
One Business Entity at a Time | Using Search and Replace Wizard |
Open the first Business Entity or Contract record. | Open the Search and Replace Wizard |
Navigate to the Internal Contacts screen | Search for the user to replace and the replacement user |
Edit the existing Internal Contact record to add the Effective To date for the current user | Select the Internal Contact Type in which to replace the user |
Create a new Internal Contact Record for the replacement user | Select the entities in which to replace the user |
Repeat the above steps for each Internal Contact in which you want to replace the user in | Select the combination of business entity/contract and internal Contact Type in which to replace the user |
Repeat the above steps for each company/business entity and or contract in which you want to replace the user | Review your selections and replace the user in all the selected combinations of business entity/contract Internal Contact Type. |
Before you can use the Search and Replace Wizard, you must have set up the following items that you intend to use.
Internal Contact Types
GEMS users
Companies/Business Entities and/or Contracts
Who can use the Search and Replace Wizard?
The Search and Replace Wizard is a tool for Edit and Admin users to search for and replace users in Internal Contact Types on a large scale.
It is possible to limit the Search and Replace functionality for Edit users, such that Edit users can use this wizard to replace or remove themselves from an Internal Contact Type to which they are assigned but they cannot search for, replace, or remove any other users.
To limit the functionality for Edit users, do the following:
Navigate to Admin > System Management > General Options and click the Edit button.
In the Search & Replace wizard section, select the ‘Edit Users can only Search and Update their own Internal Contact Types’ checkbox.
Launching the Search and Replace Wizard
To launch the Search and Replace Wizard, search for it using the Wizard search in the main search bar. Click on the search result to launch the wizard.
Step 1: Search and Replace Wizard - Select Users and Internal Contact Types
On the Select Users and Roles page of the Search and Replace Wizard:
Click in the Former User field to view a list of all active users that are currently assigned to Internal Contact Types in GEMS. If you enter a few letters of the user name you are looking for, the list is filtered to contain only those users whose names contain that letter combination. Select the user you wish to replace.
The Internal Contact Types section at the bottom of the page is updated to list all the Internal Contact Types to which the user is currently assigned.
The ‘Former User Date Effective To’ field controls which Internal Contact Types are displayed for selection in the ‘Internal Contact Types’ section. It contains today’s date by default. If the former user you are looking for:
Current Assignments: This is assigned to the Internal Contact Type as of today’s date, i.e. where the ‘Effective To’ date is either blank or in the future, then leave the default date as it is.
Past Assignments: Was previously assigned but is not assigned as of today’s date, i.e. where the ‘Effective To’ date is in the past, change this date to the former user’s ‘Effective To’ date for the Internal Contact Type.
Future Assignments: Is assigned with an ‘Effective From’ date that is in the future, then leave the default date as it is.
The Internal Contact Types section at the bottom of the page will be updated to display all Internal Contact Types of which the user was a member on the date you specified for both their business entity and contract assignments.
Click in the Replacement User field to view a list of all active GEMS users. Select the user you wish to assign to the Internal Contact Type in place of the user selected in the ‘Former User’ field.
Please note: If you want to remove the former user without replacing it, leave the Replacement User field blank.
Once you have selected the replacement user, two additional fields are displayed on the page. These are ‘Replacement User Date Effective From’ and ‘Replacement User Date Effective To’. Enter the required values in these fields.
In the Internal Contact Types section, select the Internal Contact Types in which the replacement user should replace the former user.
Please note: If you are removing the former user without replacing it, these are the Internal Contact Types from which you want to remove the user.
Click Next.
Please note: If you are an Edit user, depending on the system settings configured by your administrator you may only be permitted to replace yourself in Internal Contact Types:
The ‘Former User’ field will contain your name and it will not be editable.
The ‘Former User Date Effective To’ field will be today’s date by default but you can enter a different date if required.
The ‘Replacement User’ field is mandatory. You cannot remove yourself from an Internal Contact Type without specifying a replacement.
The ‘Replacement User Date Effective From’ field will default to the day after the date in ‘Former User Date Effective To’. This field is also mandatory.
The ‘Replacement User Date Effective To’ field will not be displayed.
Step 2: Search and Replace Wizard - Select Companies
The ‘Select Entities’ page of the wizard contains a list of all entities to which the user is assigned as a part of one of the Internal Contact Types you selected in the previous step. To select the entities in which you want to replace or remove the former user in the Internal Contact Types, do the following:
If you need to do so, filter the entities displayed results by expanding the Advanced Search section and defining an advanced search. For a guide to searching in GEMS, please see the Advanced Searches Tutorial.
Select the entities for which you want to replace or remove the user. These entities are added to the Selected Entities section. Then click Next.
Please note: If you do not select any entities in this step, all the entities displayed will be carried forward to the next step.
Step 3: Search and Replace Wizard - Select Replacements - Companies
On the ‘Select Replacements’ screen, a list of the entities you selected in the previous step is displayed together with all the selected Internal Contact Types to which the former user is assigned. If the user is assigned to multiple Internal.
Contact Types in an entity, a separate record is shown for each Internal Contact Type. To specify the entity/ Internal Contact Type combinations in which you want to replace or remove the former user, do the following:
Select the entity/ role combination(s) for which you want to replace or remove the verification user. You can also use the ‘Select All’ checkbox to select all the displayed combinations.
Once you are happy with your selections, click Next.
Step 4: Search and Replace Wizard - Select Contracts
The “Select Contracts” page of the wizard contains a list of all entities to which the user is assigned as a part of one of the Internal Contact Types you selected in the previous step. To select the contracts in which you want to replace or remove the former user in the Internal Contact Types, do the following:
If you need to do so, filter the contracts displayed results by expanding the Advanced Search section and defining an advanced search. For a guide to searching in GEMS, please see the Advanced Searches Tutorial.
Select the contracts for which you want to replace or remove the user. These entities are added to the Selected Contracts section. Then click Next.
Please note: If you do not select any contracts in this step, all the entities displayed will be carried forward to the next step.
Step 5: Search and Replace Wizard - Select Replacements - Contracts
On the “Select Replacements – Contracts” screen, a list of the contracts you selected in the previous step is displayed together with all the selected Internal Contact Types to which the former user is assigned. If the user is assigned to multiple Internal Contact Types in an entity, a separate record is shown for each Internal Contact Type. To specify the contract/Internal Contact Type combinations in which you want to replace or remove the former user, do the following:
Select the contract/role combination(s) for which you want to replace or remove the verification user. You can also use the ‘Select All’ checkbox to select all the displayed combinations.
Once you are happy with your selections, click Next.
Step 6: Search and Replace Wizard - Finish
On the Finish page of the Internal Contact Wizard, review the summary information displayed. If you are satisfied, click the Update button to replace or remove the former user in the selected Internal Contact Types in all the selected companies/ business entities.
The Audit Trail is also updated with all the changes made by the Search and Replace Wizard.
Notes on Effective From and Effective To Dates
The following notes illustrate the basis on which GEMS populates the ‘Effective From’ and ‘Effective To’ dates for former and replacement users:
If you remove a former user without specifying a replacement user, the ‘Effective To’ date of the former user is set to the date selected in the ‘Former User Date Effective To’ that was specified in the ‘Select Users and Roles’ field. A message is displayed on the ‘Finish’ page to this effect.
If you replace a user whose assignment to the Internal Contact Type begins in the future, i.e. the ‘Effective From’ date is in the future, there will be no record kept of the former user’s assignment on the company/business entities and/or contracts Internal Contacts page[1]. This is because you have replaced the user before they began their assignment as the Internal Contact.
When you replace a user whose ‘Effective To’ date is either blank or in the future, the ‘Effective To’ date of the user is changed to the date selected in the ‘Former User Date Effective To’ that you specified on the ‘Select Users and Roles’ field.
When you replace a user whose ‘Effective From’ and ‘Effective To’ dates are both in the past, no change is made to the former user record.
The dates for the replacement user depend are the replacement user dates you specified in Step 1.
[1] Records are kept on the Audit Trail.