Search, Filters & Saved Views

Every list page in Helm WMS carries the same set of controls in its header: Filters to narrow the list, a search box to jump straight to a record, and a column selector to decide what the list shows. This article explains what each one does, how to build and save a filter you use often, and how to save your own column layout.

What the Header Controls Do

The three controls sit side by side and look similar, but they do different jobs. Using the right one is the difference between finding something in seconds and scrolling.

Filters narrows the list itself. It is the only one of the three that changes which records you see, and the count in brackets on the Filters button tells you how many conditions are active.
The search box looks across your whole account. Type three or more characters and Helm returns matching orders, products, customers and page names in a dropdown; clicking a result opens it.
The column selector decides what the list shows. It is the sliders icon at the right-hand end of the header, and it opens View Manager, where you choose the columns and their order.

Example scenario: a courier queries a consignment that went out last Tuesday. You open Shipment History, paste the consignment reference into the search box, and Helm takes you straight to it. Later the same day you need every order for one customer that has not been picked yet. That is a job for Filters, not for search.

Before You Start

Filters, saved filters and column layouts are all held per page. A filter saved on Orders does not appear on Inventory, and each list keeps its own column layout.
Saved filters belong to you alone. Nobody else in your company sees the filters you save, and you cannot see theirs. Column layouts are personal too, but those can be copied from a colleague.
Multi-condition filters are on Orders, Inventory and Customers only. Every other list has the standard filter panel, which is enough for most work. There is no way to switch the others over.
Search needs at least three characters. Below that the dropdown tells you how many more it needs.
Some pages appear in search only on full warehouses. Where your warehouse's Warehouse Mode is Basic, the pages that exist only under Full are left out of the Pages results.

Filtering a List

The filter panel is headed with the name of the page you are on and lists the filters that page offers.

Choose Filters in the page header, then pick a filter from the list to open it and set your condition.
Use More Filters at the foot of the panel to see everything the page offers, and Less Filters to collapse it again.
Set as many filters as you need. They all have to be satisfied, so each one narrows the list further.
Choose Clear All Filters at the foot of the panel to start again.

The list refreshes as you go, and your filters are written into the page address. That means a filtered list can be bookmarked or pasted to a colleague, and it will open with the same filters already applied.

How you set a filter depends on what it filters on.

Filter	How you set it
A list of options	Tick the options you want, or use Select All to take the lot. Where a filter offers more than eight options, a box at the top of it finds one by name. The toggle at the top right switches the filter between Including and Excluding, so you can ask for everything except a handful of values.
A date range	Pick Today, Yesterday, This Week, Last Week, This Month, Last Month or Last 3 Months, or choose Custom and select the dates yourself. Confirm with Apply; Clear removes the range.
A quantity or value range	Choose Greater Than, Less Than, Between or Is, then type the figures.
Free text	Type the words you want to match.
A set of references	Type a value and press enter to add it, then repeat. Several values can sit in one filter, so you can pull up a specific handful of records at once.
Your own fields	Custom Fields, on Orders, Inventory and Customers, filters on the custom fields your company has set up.

Why Your Filter List Differs From a Colleague's

The short list of filters shown before More Filters is not fixed. Helm tracks which filters your company applies most often on each page and lifts those to the top, so the panel gets closer to how your operation works the more it is used. Nothing is hidden by this: everything the page offers is still under More Filters, and a filter you have already set never drops out of view.

Building a Multi-Condition Filter

Orders, Inventory and Customers have a second filter mode for questions the standard panel cannot ask, such as every order whose delivery postcode begins with a given district. Choose Advanced Mode at the top right of the filter panel, which is then headed Advanced Filters.

Choose Advanced Mode in the filter panel.
Type the first few letters of the field you want on the query line, then pick it from the list that appears.
Choose an operator. Depending on the field you can use Is, Is not, Contains, Does not contain, Begins with, Ends with, Greater Than, Less Than and Between.
Enter the value and press enter to add the condition. It appears in the list below the query line.
Add further conditions the same way. Conditions in the same group all have to be true, so each one narrows the result.
To widen the search instead of narrowing it, choose Add Or Group. Groups are numbered and separated by Or, and a record that matches any one group appears in the list.
Click a condition to edit it, or use the bin icon on it to remove it.

Going back to Basic Mode keeps only the conditions that use Is, plus Is not on a list filter, and clears the rest. You are asked to confirm for some conditions but not for all of them, so do not rely on being warned. Bookmark the page address before you switch back if you want to keep the query, because your conditions are held in it.

Saving & Reusing a Filter

A combination you set up every morning is worth saving once. Saved filters sit at the top of the filter panel and apply the whole set in a single click.

Set the filters you want first. Save as New stays greyed out until at least one condition is active.
Open Saved Filters at the top of the filter panel.
Choose Save as New, type a name, and choose Save.

To use it again, open Saved Filters and click its name. Clicking the name of the filter that is already applied clears it again, so the same click both applies and removes. Once you have more than eight saved filters on a page, a box appears at the top of the list so you can find one by name.

The bin icon beside a saved filter deletes it immediately. There is no confirmation step and no way to bring it back, so check you have the right one before clicking.

Save as New lives in the standard filter panel, so a query built with operators other than Is cannot be kept as a saved filter. Bookmark the page address for those, as described above.

Choosing & Saving Your Columns

Every list ships with a default set of columns, but the columns that matter to a purchasing manager are not the ones a despatch supervisor needs. The column selector at the right-hand end of the header opens View Manager, where you set your own.

Open the column selector.
Under Add or Remove Columns, tick a column to add it and untick it to take it away. Columns that are not shown by default sit in the same panel, so this is where you find the ones you did not know existed.
Under Drag to Arrange Columns, drag the columns into the order you want, or use the cross on one to remove it. Action columns are fixed and cannot be moved or removed.
Where the list supports them, turn on Show Tags to show the tags on each record, or Show Items to show the products on each order.
Choose Save. Reset to Default puts the list back to Helm's standard columns, and Cancel closes without saving.

Helm will not save fewer columns than the list needs and tells you the minimum if you go under it. Your layout is stored against your account rather than your browser, so it follows you to another computer.

Copying a Colleague's Layout

Use View at the top of View Manager loads someone else's column layout for the same list, which is the quickest way to match a view a colleague has already built. Pick the person under Users, choose Apply, then Save to keep it as yours. As soon as you change anything the button reads My View, so you can tell you are back on your own layout.

Searching

The search box searches your account rather than the page, so it is the fastest route to a specific record and the wrong tool for narrowing a list. Press Ctrl and K, or Command and K on a Mac, from anywhere to jump into it. Type three or more characters and Helm groups what it finds into the sections below. Only one section is open at a time, so click a heading to open it and whichever was open closes.

Section	What it holds
Exact Matches	The record whose reference you have pasted in. Orders, purchase orders, deliveries, picks, shipments, batch despatches, movements and inventory checks are all covered. The reference has to be complete, since this is an exact match.
On this page	Matches from the list you are on, up to five of them, with the record opening when you click it. Most list pages offer this section.
Orders, Inventory, Customers	Matching records from across your account, whichever page you started from. On Orders, Inventory and Customers the section for the page you are on leads.
Pages	Pages in Helm whose name matches what you typed. Everyday words work as well as the exact title, so stock finds Inventory and goods in finds Deliveries.

Where there is more to show, Load more results at the foot of the Orders, Inventory, Customers and Pages sections brings in the next few. If a search or a filter leaves a list empty, the page offers Clear Search, Clear Filters or Clear Filters & Search so you can get back to a full list in one click.

Letting Helm Suggest the Filters

On Orders, Inventory and Customers you can type what you are after in plain English instead of setting filters by hand. Type more than two words and AI Suggested Filters appears at the top of the dropdown; press the button on it to have Helm read your wording and propose filters. The proposals are listed under Suggested Filters with the field, the operator and the value, so you can see what each one will do. Nothing is ticked to begin with, so tick the ones you want and choose Apply to set them on the page. Apply stays greyed out until at least one is ticked.

Best Practices & Notes

Save the Views People Keep Asking For

The combinations worth saving are the ones behind a recurring question: what is late, what is short, what is waiting on a supplier. Name them the way the question gets asked rather than after the fields they use, so the name still makes sense in six months.

Share the Address, Not the Filter

Saved filters cannot be shared, but the page address carries your filters, so pasting the link gives a colleague exactly the list you are looking at. It is also the only way to keep a query built in Advanced Mode.

Check the Archive Before Assuming Something Is Missing

An archived record does not appear in the normal list however you filter it. Where a list can be archived there is an archive box icon in the page header, and resting your pointer on it names the list it covers. Switching it on shows the archived records instead of the live ones, which is worth trying before concluding that something has been deleted.

FAQ

Why Can't I See Advanced Mode on This Page?

Multi-condition filters are available on Orders, Inventory and Customers only. Every other list uses the standard filter panel, and there is no setting that adds the link elsewhere.

Can I Share a Saved Filter With a Colleague?

No. Saved filters are personal to your account. Apply the filter and send the page address instead: your filters travel in it, so the link opens the same list for them.

I Deleted a Saved Filter by Mistake. Can I Get It Back?

No. Deleting a saved filter removes it for good, so the only route back is to set the filters again and save them under the same name.

Why Doesn't Typing in the Search Box Narrow the List?

Because the box searches your account rather than the page. Use Filters to narrow the list, and the On this page section of the dropdown to open a record on it.

Will My Column Layout Follow Me to Another Computer?

Yes. Column layouts are saved against your user account rather than the browser, so signing in elsewhere gives you the same columns.

Why Did the Order of the Filters Change?

The short list adapts to the filters your company uses most on that page. Nothing has been removed: choose More Filters to see the full set.

If a record still is not where you expect it, clear your filters, check the archive icon if the list has one, then search its full reference before raising it with support. Those three checks account for most missing records.

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