The Search Hub within GEMS contains an Advanced Search feature which can be used to return data that can then be exported as an Excel, Word, or plain text file.

Use the Advanced Search to return and export data related to multiple Business Entities/Companies, Person entities, Activities, and Documents. For example, if you need to return and export a list of appointments for a selection of your Business Entities/Companies, create an Advanced Search to extract that appointment data and export that list.

Advanced Searches can be saved as Saved Searches, which can then be re-opened for easy access.

1. Locate and open the Search Hub, which will appear across the top of your GEMS page.

2. Select the type of data you'd like to return in the Search GEMS for dropdown. In the scenarios below, we'll be returning data from Business Entities/Companies, so we'll select Business Entity/Company.

3. Click Advanced on the right side of the Search Hub. An Advanced Search page opens in a new GEMS tab.

Once on the Advanced Search page, build your Search using the Columns, Criteria, and Order by sections. In the scenario below, we'll build a Business Entity/Company Advanced Search that returns all current appointments for active companies whose jurisdiction is either Delaware or Ontario.

The Columns section determines three things about your Search:

GEMS will provide certain columns by default; in our scenario, because we're creating a Business Entity/Company Search, GEMS starts with columns for our companies' Names and Entity Types. We therefore need to add columns that will bring in data related to:

1. Click the Add icon next to one of the default columns.

2. Type the name of the Screen that the data field you want to add comes from in the leftmost field of your new column. As you type, GEMS will suggest possible Screens in a dropdown—click the name of the appropriate Screen to select it.

3. Select the data field you'd like to add in the dropdown to the right of the Screen name.

4. If necessary, use the Move Up and Move Down arrows to move the column. The first column will appear on the leftmost side of your Search results, the second column to the right of the first, and so on.

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for each column needed.

Only items that match the criteria entered in the Criteria section are returned in your final search results.

In our scenario, we want to return all current appointments for active companies whose jurisdiction is Delaware or Ontario. Therefore, we need to create criteria so that the search results do not return historical appointments, non-active companies, and companies from jurisdictions other than Delaware or Ontario.

We will create a criterion to filter for active companies first.

1. In the Field Name dropdown, select the field you wish to filter on—in our case, Business Entity Basics.Status.

2. Select the appropriate condition in the Condition dropdown. In our scenario, we want to return all companies whose status is exactly Operating, so we select Is equal to.

3. Enter the desired value in the Value field if your Condition requires it. In this example, we enter Operating, since the Is equal to condition requires a value for the field to be equal to.

Our search will now return only companies with a status of Operating, but we do not yet see only current appointments and Delaware and Ontario companies. Consequently, we need to add additional criteria, starting with a criterion to only return current appointments.

1. Click the Add icon next to the existing criterion.

2. Select the appropriate value, And or Or, in the Action dropdown. And means that both the criterion you are currently creating and the criterion immediately above it must be true for returned items; Or means that either the criterion currently being created or the one above it must be true for returned items. Since we want our results to contain both active companies and current appointments, we select And.

3. Complete the Field Name, Condition, and Value fields just as you did when creating your first criterion. To return current appointments, we select Date Resigned in the Field Name field, Is blank in the Condition field, and we can leave the Value field empty because the Is blank condition does not require a value.

4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 for each criterion needed. In the screenshot below, we have added all the criteria needed to return current appointments for companies whose status is Operating and whose jurisdiction is Delaware, but we have not yet added a criterion to include those companies whose jurisdiction is Ontario—to add that last criterion, we need to understand how to group criteria.

Multiple criteria sometimes need to be grouped together in order for the Action values to function as intended, particularly when multiple criteria use the same Field Value. Consider the example in the following screenshot:

In this example, the Search returns current appointments for active Delaware companies, however, it also returns all appointments for all Ontario companies. When the Search reaches the Or action at the front of the Ontario criterion, it interprets the Ontario filter as a clean break from the criteria that came before.

To prevent this break from happening, we must group the Ontario criterion with the Delaware filter immediately above it, causing the Search to interpret both jurisdiction criteria as one contained step.

1. Click the Add icon next to the criterion with the Field Name that is going to be used again in the new criterion—in our case, next to the criterion with Business Entity Basics.Jurisdiction.

2. Complete your Action, Field Value, Condition, and Value fields for your new criterion.

3. Locate the first criterion that uses the Field Value you are working with. Enter a single left parenthesis in the ( dropdown.

4. Locate the second criterion that uses the Field Value you are working with, which needs to be immediately beneath the first. Enter a single right parenthesis in the ) dropdown to group both criteria.

The order in which the results are displayed depends on the values within the Order by section.

For our scenario, let's say we want the results sorted by jurisdiction, so that the Delaware entities and their appointments are listed first and the Ontario entities and their appointments are listed second.

1. Select the Column you wish to sort your results by in the Field Name dropdown. In our example, we'll select Business Entity Basics.Jurisdiction.

2. Pick either Ascending or Descending in the Order dropdown. Ascending means results will proceed from A to Z (if they are words) or from smallest to largest (if they are numerical). Descending will list them in the opposite direction.

After one order is applied, you may want the results to have an additional order. For example, after sorting your entities by jurisdiction as we've done above, you may then want to see the entities sorted by name within each jurisdiction.

1. Click the Add icon next to the most recent line in the Order by section.

2. Select the desired values within the Field Name and Order dropdowns for your new line.

At any point during or after the process of building an Advanced Search, the results of the Search can be viewed and exported.

1. Locate and select the Search icon at the bottom of the page to view the results.

2. Click the Export button above the results that appear to export the results as an Excel, Word, or text file.

3. Select the Advanced Search bar above the results to return to building an Advanced Search.

Advanced Searches can be saved as Saved Searches. Saved Searches can be re-opened quickly and can also be used in other areas of the GEMS database such as entity Snapshots, Dashboards, the Reporting Module, and Activity Workflows.

In the example below, we'll save the Advanced Search we built earlier, which returns active appointments for companies in Delaware and Ontario.

1. After building an Advanced Search, locate the Search Name: field. Enter the name you wish to give your Search.

2. Write a description of your Search in the Search Description: field if desired.

3. Tick the Private checkbox if you wish to make this Search visible only to you. Leave it unchecked if you want all users to be able to open the Search.

4. Tick the Default checkbox if you wish to make the Search's parameters the default parameters for all times you use the Search Hub in the future. Otherwise, leave this checkbox unchecked.

5. Tick the Favorite checkbox if you wish to make the Search a Favorite for your account. Favorite Searches can be launched through the Search Hub's Show Favorites button.

6. Tick the Available in Reporting checkbox if you intend to use this Search's parameters in the Reporting Module.

7. Click Save.

Advanced Searches that have been saved as Saved Searches can be opened from the Advanced Search page.

1. Navigate to the Advanced Search page by following the steps in Open the Advanced Search Page.

2. In the Saved Search: field at the top of the page, highlight the text within the field, then begin typing the name of the Saved Search you wish to open.

3. Click the name of the Search when you see it appear in the dropdown.