Dynamic Records & List Views Trail

Why list views matter

Marcus Tan · Sales Manager

"My reps waste ten minutes every morning scrolling the entire Opportunity list, hunting for their own open deals. Multiply that by eight reps, every single day."

A plain "show me everything" list stops being useful once you have hundreds or thousands of records. What every user actually needs is a small, relevant slice of that data. And it should stay up to date automatically — not get rebuilt by hand every single morning.

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What this means for you

Reps land on exactly the records that matter to them. No daily manual filtering, and no missed deals hiding in a long list.

Anatomy of records & list views

Every object — whether it's a standard one like Lead, or a custom one your admin built — automatically gets a record list. You can page through it, search it, and sort it, with no setup needed. On top of that, a List View is a saved filter you can name and reuse. It narrows a long list down to just the records you actually need.

Concept	Detail
Record identity	Every record has a public ID (called a `hexId`) shown on screen and used behind the scenes — the internal database number is never shown to you
List View	A saved set of filters (a field, a comparison, and a value) applied to one object
Sharing-aware	Lists only ever show records the current user is allowed to see — the same visibility rules used everywhere else in SmartLite apply automatically
Lookup search	A "Lookup" field lets you search for and link to another record — for example, linking a Contact to its Account. Typing into it searches matching records live, as you type

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No extra security work needed

List views automatically use the same sharing rules as everything else in SmartLite. So a saved view can never accidentally show a record its creator wasn't allowed to see in the first place.

1 Build "My Open Deals This Quarter"

Open the Opportunities listClick Opportunities in the main navigation menu.

Start a new list viewClick the view switcher, then click New List View.

Name itCall it "My Open Deals This Quarter".

Add filtersStage ≠ "Closed Won", Stage ≠ "Closed Lost", Owner = Me, Close Date within this quarter. ("Stage" tracks how far along a deal is.)

Save and select itThe list now shows only your open, relevant deals. Pin it as your default view so it's what you see first.

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Try the lookup search too

On any record's edit form, click into a Lookup field (like Account on a Contact) and type a few letters. Notice it searches live instead of loading every single Account into a giant dropdown.

Day-to-day: reps

Land on your pinned viewOpen the object and your saved filter is already selected — no re-filtering each morning.

Switch views for a different sliceUse the view switcher to jump between "My Open Deals" and any other saved view your team shares.

Day-to-day: sales managers

Build a team-wide viewCreate a view like "All Reps' Stale Deals" so the whole team works from the same shared definition.

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What to try next

Look at the Reports trail — reports use the same filtering idea as List Views, but built for sharing summarized numbers instead of a working list.

Test what you learned

1. What ID do you actually see for a record on screen, instead of the internal database number?

Its hexId

Its row number in the table

Its creation timestamp

2. Can a saved List View ever show a user records their sharing rules say they shouldn't see?

Yes, list views bypass sharing rules for performance

No — list views apply the same sharing/visibility filter as every other list

Dynamic Records & List Views: The Right Records, One Click Away

Why list views matter

Anatomy of records & list views

1 Build "My Open Deals This Quarter"

Day-to-day: reps

Day-to-day: sales managers

Test what you learned

Badge Earned: Pipeline Navigator