Searching and Reporting: Finding information in Sequoia

The following modules in Sequoia have 'Find' functionality.

• Jobs
• Customs declarations
• Customs warehousing
• NCTS movements
• Air inventory
• ETSF

Although obviously the search criteria and results of any search are different, the layout of the forms and the way you build up search criteria is exactly the same.

The modules listed above have a 'Find' folder which, if you select it, looks like the illustration below.

The Search criteria panel allows you to specify what you are searching for.

The search criteria can range from the very simple and specific (such as "find me the declaration with this DUCR") to very complex, grouped searches resulting in a range of records being returned in the results list.

Creating your search

The top of the display shows the Search criteria panel.

The examples below use Find declarations to explain how to search but all the other modules work in exactly the same way.

What to search for

The first textbox on this panel is labelled "Choose what to search for". Use the icon to the right of the box to display a list of information you can search for.

The list will obviously depend on which module you are searching in.

The list is not necessarily limited to 'header level' information. For customs declarations for example, you can also search for certain 'item level' information (such as CPC code, document reference).

How to search for it

Once you have selected what you wish to search for, you specify how to search for it in the text box to the right, labelled "Choose how to search for it".

The available choices are context sensitive, depending on whether what you are searching for is a date, a number or text.

For most of these choices (e.g. 'equals', 'is greater than', 'is between') you will then be prompted to specify a value. For others (e.g. 'is last month', 'is blank') you won't.

Adding more search criteria

Once you have specified the 'what', 'how' and value, another row will automatically be added beneath the details you have just added (as shown below).

In this way you can further refine what to search for.

For these additional criteria there is also a box to the left where you can specify 'AND' or 'OR'.

For example, you might want to find all declaration records where the 'Badge' was 'DAA' or 'DAB'.

Be careful which of these you choose. The search results for [Badge = 'DAA' or 'DAB] will be completely different to [Badge = 'DAA' and 'DAB - which will return no records as a declaration can only have one badge]

Grouping search criteria

Using the above example, you might want to add even more elements to your search.

As soon as you add a second row (as shown above) a button will appear below and to the right, labelled [Add group].

Clicking that button will add another search criteria panel (as shown below).

This allows you to add yet more search criteria to further refine the results.

How you group elements and whether you use 'and' or 'or' to separate different elements has a huge impact on the results that are returned.

Saving search criteria

If you have repetitive searches - for example you run a monthly report for your customer which you then export to a spreadsheet - then you can save the search criteria so that you don't have to build up the search every time.

If you are using a date (such as the acceptance date of a declaration) as part of a search you are going to do regularly (e.g. for a monthly report for one of your customers) then you should consider using 'is last month' for example rather than using 'is between' and specifying the first and last date - which you would have to change every time you run the search.

To do this, once you have entered all the search criteria, click the [Save] button. You will be prompted to enter a name for your search (as illustrated below).

Enter a name and click [Save] on the dialog.

Your search will now appear in the list of saved searches - just above the Search criteria panel (as illustrated below).

Selecting your saved search from this list will automatically fill in the search criteria that you saved.

Search results

Once you have specified what you want to search for, click the [Search] button.

Provided that records matching your search criteria are found, the results will display in the results list.

You can open a record by double-clicking the row on the list. You can also open the record - or perform other functions such as exporting the data - by right clicking the row on the list and selecting from the menu.

Adding and removing columns

Columns can be added and removed from the search results grid by accessing the 'Column Chooser' function.

This is on a per-user basis so the grid can be configured to support your individual circumstances.

To remove a column from the grid, right-click any column and select 'Column Chooser' from the options:

This wil open the Customization window in the bottom right of the grid:

Drag any column you no longer wish to be displayed from the grid into this window (move your cursor over the column and hold down the left mouse button, then move your mouse until the cursor is over the Customization window and release the left mouse button).

Any columns which are not currently displayed will be shown in the Customization window:

To add new columns to the grid, or restore previously removed columns, access the Column Chooser and simply drag the column name from the Customization window up to the grid column where you would like the new column positioned.

Any new columns added to any of the find search results grids will normally be 'hidden' by default and can be accessed from the Column Chooser. This is a restriction within Sequoia due to the way the grid column layouts are stored on a per user basis.