The Seven-Day NetSuite Diet: How to Find and Clean Up Unused Searches

NetSuite’s saved searches are a powerful way for admins and users to get the information they need. But because they’re so easy to create and run, it’s often faster to make a new search than to find an existing one that might work just as well. 

IT team members rarely have time to check in with each other and ask ‘Did you do this already?’ before creating a new search. The result is that technical debt builds up, productivity suffers and, with enough searches in your system, performance can suffer, too. 

We recently helped a client clear out the old searches that had accumulated in their account — effectively taking them from cluttered to cleaned up in a few short steps. Here’s a walkthrough of the process using Strongpoint’s Automated Search Cleanup tool:

Creating a Cleanup Rule

Step One: Get Started

create clean up rule strongpoint

Go to Strongpoint > Automated Search Cleanup > Search Cleanup Rules > New

Enter a name and description for the search

Turn on notifications

With notifications enabled, search owners have seven days to approve or deny the deletion. Alternately, you can skip this step and start the cleanup right away.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Two: Set the Filters

set filters strongpoint

Use basic filters to identify candidates for archive

Look for a specific search by name or Scriptid

Use date last used criteria to find old/inactive searches

For this client, we filtered for searches last run more than 12 months ago.

Refine the results with advanced filters

Narrow your search to a specific owner/department

Or use the exclude function to search everything but the selected values

We recommend starting with basic searches, then using additional filters to obtain more targeted results.

 

Step Three: Run the Cleanup

run cleanup strongpoint

Preview the results

Before proceeding, you’ll have the ability to preview candidates for deletion and get rid of anything that must be retained.

Strongpoint will automatically identify and omit searches from managed bundles; searches with critical dependencies; searches with change/approval policies and other customizations that, if deprecated, would affect technical or business processes.

Press Run Now to start the process

This will send the initial alert to search owners; once the seven day waiting period is up, all searches are archived automatically

Go to Strongpoint > Automated Search Cleanup > Search Cleanup Status for real-time updates

 

Getting Granular

After the initial cleanup, you can create rules with increasing granularity to target other candidates for deprecation — while remaining confident in the integrity of your system. Just as importantly, the process is as fast and easy as running a search, something any busy IT professional can appreciate.

See It in Action

With Strongpoint, cleaning up your NetSuite account is simple and safe — even if you don’t have the time and resources to take on a major project. See it in action by booking a demo with our team today:

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