COBBLESTONE SOFTWARE

Contract Insight — User Guide

Mass Update Contract Field Values

Data Management: Changing a Field Value Across Many Records

Note: Each procedure in this guide begins at the Contract Insight homepage, so any section can be followed on its own. A bulk update changes live records and cannot be undone; it should be performed by an Application Administrator.

1. Overview

Some corrections are the same correction repeated many times — a status that needs retiring, a department renamed, a value entered inconsistently across a batch of records. Doing that one record at a time is slow and error-prone, so Contract Insight provides a screen that applies the same change to every record matching a filter.

A bulk update is built in three parts: the table holding the records, a filter describing which of them to change, and the field and value to set on each match. Before anything is applied, the matches can be previewed so the number of affected records is known in advance.

The change is applied in one action and cannot be reversed, so the filter deserves as much attention as the new value — a filter that is broader than intended updates records that were never meant to change.

2. Accessing the Bulk Update Screen

To open it:

From the Contract Insight homepage, click Administration at the bottom of the left navigation menu. On the Administration page, under Configuration & Fields, select Bulk Update.

The screen presents the update as three numbered steps — 1 · TABLE, 2 · FILTER, and 3 · SET FIELD → VALUE — with a confirmation tickbox and the Apply bulk update button beneath them. Steps 2 and 3 appear once a table has been chosen.
 

3. Before You Update

The banner at the top of the screen sets out what a bulk update does:

• It changes many records at once and cannot be undone — there is no reverse operation
• The intended sequence is to build a filter, preview the matches, then confirm before applying
• Records under a legal hold are never updated, and are left out of the change

Preview the matches every time, even for a filter that looks obvious. The count it returns is the clearest check that the filter describes the records you have in mind and nothing more.

Note: The Apply bulk update button stays unavailable until the update is fully specified and the confirmation tickbox has been ticked, so an incomplete update cannot be run by accident.

4. Building the Update

Steps:

1. From the Contract Insight homepage, click Administration at the bottom of the left navigation menu. On the Administration page, under Configuration & Fields, select Bulk Update.
2. Under 1 · TABLE, choose the table holding the records — for example Contract Details. The filter and value steps appear once a table is selected.
3. Under 2 · FILTER (all conditions must match) — at least one required, choose the field to test from the — field — dropdown, choose an operator, and enter the value to compare against.
4. Click + Add condition to add further conditions where the records need narrowing. All conditions must match, so each one added makes the selection smaller. The × at the end of a row removes that condition.
5. Click Preview matches and read the count shown beside the button — for example “21 record(s) match”.
6. Under 3 · SET FIELD → VALUE, choose the field being changed from the — field to change — dropdown, and enter the new value in the box beside it. 

Note: The field being changed does not have to be one of the fields used in the filter — you can, for example, match on a department and set a status.

5. Filter Conditions and Operators

Each filter condition is a field, an operator, and a value. The operators available are:

• equals and not equals — an exact match, or everything except it
• contains — the value appears anywhere in the field, useful for partial text
• >, <, ≥ and ≤ — comparisons for numeric and date fields
• is blank and is not blank — the field has no value, or has any value at all

Note: Conditions are combined with AND — a record has to satisfy every condition to be included. To update two sets of records that have nothing in common, run two separate updates rather than trying to express both in one filter.

6. Previewing the Matches

Preview matches reports how many records the current filter selects, without changing anything. The count appears beside the button, and the confirmation tickbox beneath the steps updates to name the same number — for example “I understand this will update 21 record(s).”

Use the preview as a sanity check against what you expect. A count far larger than anticipated usually means a condition is missing or an operator is broader than intended; a count of zero means the filter matches nothing and the update would do nothing. Adjust the conditions and preview again until the number is right.

Note: Re-run Preview matches after every change to the filter. The count reflects the last preview, not the current conditions, so an edited filter needs previewing again before it can be trusted.

7. Applying the Update

Steps:

1. Confirm the preview count is the number of records you intend to change.
2. Check the 3 · SET FIELD → VALUE entries once more — the field being changed, and the value being set.
3. Tick I understand this will update N record(s). The tickbox names the number from the preview.
4. Click Apply bulk update.

Note: To clear a field rather than give it a value, enter null as the new value — the box itself prompts with “new value (or ‘null’)”.

8. A Quicker Alternative for Simple Value Swaps

Where the change is simply replacing one value of a field with another everywhere it appears, and no filtering is needed, the Transfer Records screen offers a shorter route. From the Administration page, under Configuration & Fields, select Transfer Records. 

Then use the Change one field’s value everywhere it appears panel on the Contracts tab: choose the FIELD, the value to REPLACE, the value to replace it WITH, and click Change value.

Note: That panel offers only values already in use, and it has no preview. Bulk Update is the better choice whenever the records need narrowing by a condition, the new value is not yet used anywhere, or the number of affected records should be checked first.

9. Verifying the Result

Steps:

1. Open the area the update affected — for example the Contracts list for a change to Contract Details.
2. Filter the list on the new value and confirm the expected number of records now carry it.
3. Filter on the old value to confirm the records that should have changed no longer appear.
4. Open one or two of the updated records and check the field on the record itself.
5. Where a record page offers it, use Actions → View History to confirm the change was recorded against the record.

Note: Check soon after running the update, while the filter you used is still to hand. If the wrong records were changed, the fastest correction is usually a second bulk update that reverses the change on exactly those records.

10. Quick Reference Summary