How do saved searches and search alerts work?

A saved search keeps a bill search so you can open it again with one click. With alerts on, we check it on a schedule and tell you when something new matches.

Save a search

1. On Browse Bills or Tracked Bills, type a keyword or build conditions in Advanced search.
2. Click Saved searches, then Save this search.
3. Give it a name. Tick Share with the team if everyone on staff should see it (see below for who can share).
4. Leave Also check uploaded amendment packets ticked if you want packets checked against this search. It only matters for searches with words to find in amendments or anywhere.
5. Click Save.

The keyword and the advanced search conditions are saved. On Browse Bills the quick filters (category, chamber, party, sponsor) are not saved. On Tracked Bills the position, priority, "On your website" and portfolio filters are saved with the search.

To open a saved search, click Saved searches and click its name. If you change an open search, Save changes to "name" updates it, or Save as a new search keeps both.

Your organization can keep up to 100 saved searches.

Private and shared

• Private searches are listed under Mine. Only you can see them. Not even your organization's Owner can see another person's private search.
• Shared searches are listed under Shared by the team. Everyone on staff can see and open them.

Anyone on staff, including Viewers, can save private searches. Sharing a search, editing or deleting a shared one, and making a shared search private need an Owner or Editor. Use Rename, Share with the team, Make private and Delete under the search's name.

The "new" count

Once alerts have run on a shared or private search, the menu shows how many bills are new since you last opened it, for example "3 new" (above 20 it shows "20+ new"). When you open the search, those bills carry a New label in the list. Each person has their own count.

Turn on alerts

Click Alerts under a saved search, then tick Check this search and tell me (or the people below) about new matches.

You hear about:

• a new bill that matches,
• a new bill text or amendment that matches,
• a bill that matches again after it had stopped matching.

You never get an alert when a bill stops matching.

The first check only records today's matches. It sends nothing, so you are not flooded with every bill that already matches. You hear about new matches from the next check on.

When to check sets the schedule: every day, once a week, or on chosen days, at a time you pick, in the time zone you pick. The default is every day at 7:00 AM in your state capital's time zone. Click Save schedule after a change.

Who can manage alerts

• On a private search, you manage the alerts and you are the only one who hears about them.
• On a shared search, an Owner or Editor turns alerts on or off, sets the schedule, and chooses who hears about matches under Who hears about new matches. Each person can be set to Email, Digest or Off. Click Save recipients.
• Anyone who can see a shared search with alerts on can change their own setting under How I hear about new matches.

Email sends a message for each check that finds something. It lists the first 50 bills, and when there are more, all of them come in an attached spreadsheet. Digest puts new matches into your email digest instead (set digests up under Notifications, see the article on notifications and digests). Every new match also appears in Notifications either way. Matches from a private search are only shown to you.

Your organization can have alerts on for up to 25 saved searches at a time.

Send current matches now

Click Send current matches now to get an email with every bill that matches right now. It does not wait for the schedule.

History

Click History to see each check, what triggered it and what it found. On a check that announced bills, See the bills from this check opens them. The link in an alert email (Open the search) does the same.

When alerts pause

• On hold: the search matches more than 10,000 bills, or relies only on "starts with" words shorter than four letters. Narrow the search and checking starts again.
• Waiting: the word search for your state is still being built. Checking starts on its own when it is ready.
• Checking stopped after several failed checks in a row. Save the settings again to restart it.

Stop the emails

Every alert email has a Stop these emails link at the bottom. It asks you to confirm, then turns your delivery for that search to Off. Other people's settings do not change. You can turn it back on from the saved search in the portal.

If this does not solve it, email support@conservativestates.app and tell us your organization's name.