Searching in list: Tips and Troubleshooting

If you run a search in Sumac and get some unexpected results, review your search criteria to ensure that they are correct, and reflect on what you're trying to find.

Common reasons for unexpected search results

Search criteria are not specific enough.

While criteria may have been set up correctly, the criteria could be too general.
Solution: refine and focus the search by including more targeted criteria

Data has been entered into the database differently than Sumac expects.

This can result in search criteria finding the wrong thing, or nothing at all. For example, you are looking for information on a campaign but the information has been entered as an event.

Solution: Find out about how the data is being recorded to ensure searching is on the appropriate field.

Data has been entered inconsistently.

If one person has been entering things one way, and others entered it another way, Sumac may only find part of the data in search results.

Solution: Find out why the data is inconsistent and ensure that data entry is consistent. To clean up historical data, use Sumac's Bulk Edit command to do lots of records at once.

Tips to remember

Think carefully about what is being looked for. What are the individual criteria of the targeted search?
Break the search into its individual components. For example, which contact types vs which cities. This helps Sumac know exactly what to find and is easier for you to build an accurate search.
Outline what you want to define in your search first, then work backwards from there. In other words, define what the end result should be, then consider what search criteria, connectors, or search operators will get you there.

For even more powerful searching check out How to use Search Builder

Check out more training videos/articles to learn more about Sumac