How to Create an Advanced Filter

Utilising the the advanced filtering feature step by step!

Angel Chessum avatar
Written by Angel Chessum
Updated over a week ago

Advanced Filtering is the ability to sift through your data in Trail and find the information for your business needs!

Currently, Advanced Filtering works on every piece of information that is contained within the page you are filtering from πŸ‘

Examples of filters you can create:

  • All Activities due between now and the 5th of December?

  • All the contacts who live in Queenstown?

  • Whose birthday is in September within your client database?

Learn more about how to use this handy feature!

In this article you will learn:

  • Step 1: Pick the page to use Advanced Filtering on

  • Step 2: Choose to create a Personal or an Organisation Filter

  • Step 3: Creating your new Filter - Conditions & Narrowing/ Broadening your search

  • Step 4: Finishing Up

  • Questions about Advanced Filtering?


How to use Advanced Filtering

Step 1: Pick the page to use Advanced Filtering on

Advanced Filtering is located at the top of the page as a 'slider' icon and can be accessed in the following tabs; Activities, Contacts, and Products.

Your results from filtering will match the data type for that page.

Example 1

Looking for a list of upcoming Activities associated with a particular Adviser, use the Activity filter on the Activity page. This will give you more details about the activity and allow you to bulk manage the Activity.

Example 2

Remember on the Contact page - you can access either the Contacts Filter or the Profiles Filter. Ensure you select the right one for the results you want. πŸ’‘

For using the Advanced Filter for looking for Contacts with upcoming birthdays, you will need to select Contacts view, not Profile view, because birthday information in Trail is tied to individual Contacts. This will give you the right results.

This is why you need to carefully consider which page to use Advanced Filtering from, that would bring the data results you are after.

Step 2: Choose to create a Personal or an Organisation Filter

The difference between Personal Filter and Organisation Filter :

  • Personal Filter - these saved filters are only viewable within your Trail Account.

  • Organisation Filter - these saved filters can be viewed and applied by anyone across the organisation πŸ‘

Any filter you save will also be listed here. To use a Saved Filter, select "Apply".

Personal Filters:

Organisation Filters:

Depending on your organisation's Permission Settings, you may be able to create a filter for use across your organisation. Click the 'Create New Filter' button while in the 'Organisation Filter' tab and the filter you create will be able to be accessed/used by your entire organisation.

Step 3: Creating your new Filter

Setting Conditions for your Filter

Select the parameters you would like to filter by using the drop down boxes.

Object

This is the object in Trail that has information attached to it.

e.g. Profile, Activity, a Home Loan, an Insurance Policy.

Field

Under the Object, there will be fields of information you can select for the object.

e.g. for Profile as an Object, the Fields available would be Name, Type, Status etc.

Operator & Value

This allows you to specify what you want to know about that particular field of the object.

e.g. for the object Profile, and the field "Profile Source", I want to find ones that "Is" "Referred".

Some Objects and Fields will give you more options for the Operator:

Operator options and their results:

Operator

Meaning

Needs a "Value" input

Is

Gives results that have this exact value.

Yes, usually a dropdown list

Is Not

Excludes this exact value from the results

Yes, usually a dropdown list

Is Empty

Gives results where this field is empty

No

Is Not Empty

Gives results where this field has at least something in it.

No

Contains

Gives results that include an exact match of keyword at any position in the e.g. Profile Name

Yes, needs a keyword input

Starts With

Looking for the exact match of keyword at the beginning of the e.g. Profile Name.

Yes, needs a keyword input

Does Not Start With

Excludes any exact match of keyword at the begining of the e.g. Profile Name

Yes, needs a keyword input

Ends With

Looking for the exact match of keyword at the end of the e.g. Profile Name.

Yes, needs a keyword input

Does Not End With

Excludes any exact match of keyword at the end of the e.g. Profile Name

Yes, needs a keyword input

The options shown in these dropdowns can be based on the page you're accessing the Advanced Filter from as mentioned here.

Narrowing Your Search

To narrow down your results, select the dashed ' + ' icon located under the filter conditions. Make sure they are grouped together under the "where following criteria are met" as this means it is a cluster of conditions that you're narrowing down on.

Example

The following filter will return a list of Contacts that match these conditions:

  • Profile source is "Referred"

  • Profile status is "Existing Client" so it is someone you have worked with

  • Profile owner is a particular adviser

Broadening Your Search

To broaden your results, select the "Add Condition" button located below the heading "Also show ... where the following criteria are met".

This ensures that you are adding another cluster of conditions - essentially the results will be matching the first cluster of conditions "OR" the next cluster of conditions you add.

Example

The following filter will return a list of Contacts that

Condition set 1: have an Insurance Opportunity in the "New Leads" Pipeline Stage

-OR-

Condition set 2: have an Insurance Opportunity in the "Fact Find Sent" Pipeline Stage.

Step 4: Finishing Up

Name your Filter

You will need to give your filter a name before you are able to 'Save' or 'Apply' the filter. If you are going to save this filter for future use, make sure the name accurately reflects what this filter does / describes the results produced. πŸ‘

Save and Apply Filter

Select Save if you would like to re-use the filter again -

OR if not, then just select Apply to generate a list of Contacts that match your parameters.

Spot Checking Results

You may need to trial and error with the Advanced Filter to confirm your filter works how you intend it to. The best way to do this is to spot check the results.

To do this, depending on which page you are using the Advanced Filter from, you can:

  • Right click and "Open in a new tab" on the client's clickable Profile results. Do this for a few to spot check a few results.
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  • If it is a specific Activity, Contact or Product you need to check, then click a few of the results in the list to check it is a result you want/ expect to appear.

If you're unsure, you can always email our Support Team (support@gettrail.com) to ask us to double check as well! It would be helpful to know your intentions and what you're aiming to achieve with the filter.

Downloading Results

Once the Advanced Filter has generated a list that matches your parametres and needs - then if you have the Business Admin rights, you can use the cloud icon on the top of the page to export the list as an Excel Spreadsheet πŸ‘

To exit the filter, simply select the Exit Filter option that is also located at the top of the page.


Questions about Advanced Filtering?

Check out this article with tips on how to best use this feature.



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