Filters and Sorting

It is Wednesday morning. Clara, a QA manager at a biologics facility, walks into the weekly CAPA review meeting. She has 340 items across three boards. She does not need to see all 340. She needs to see: "All overdue CAPAs assigned to the Quality team, sorted by due date ascending." In ProBeya, that takes about five seconds.

Filters and sorting help you cut through the noise and focus on exactly the items that matter right now. They work across all views (Board, Table, Timeline, Calendar) and can be saved for one-click access.

Quick Win: Three Filters Every Pharma User Needs

Before we dive into the mechanics, here are three saved views that every QA manager should create on day one:

Saved view name	Filter logic	Why you need it
My Open Actions	Assignee is Me AND Status is not Done	Your personal to-do list, updated in real time
Overdue CAPAs	Due Date is before Today AND Status is not Closed	The fire list for your weekly review meeting
Critical Deviations This Month	GMP Classification is Critical AND Created At is in the past 30 days	Trend data for your monthly management review

Quick Filters

The top bar includes one-click quick filter buttons:

• Me — show only items assigned to you
• Due This Week — show items with due dates in the current week
• Status — filter by a specific status value

Quick filters apply instantly and stack with advanced filters.

Advanced Filters

Click the Filter button in the top bar to open the filter panel:

1. Click + Add Filter.
2. Select a field (Status, Assignee, Priority, GMP Classification, Batch Number — any column on your board).
3. Choose an operator.
4. Set the value.
5. The filter applies immediately — no "Apply" button needed. Results update client-side in milliseconds.

Operators by Field Type

Field type	Available operators
Text (Short Text, Long Text, Email, URL, Phone)	equals, not equals, contains, does not contain, is empty, is not empty
Number (Number, Currency, Percentage, Rating)	=, !=, >, <, is empty, is not empty
Select (Status, Priority, Single Select)	equals, not equals, is empty, is not empty
Date	equals, is before (after), is between, is relative (past/next N days), is empty
Person	equals, not equals, is empty, is not empty
Checkbox	is checked, is not checked
Tags / Multi Select	contains, is empty, is not empty

Combining Filters

• Multiple filters are combined with AND logic by default (all conditions must match).
• Click the AND/OR toggle to switch to OR logic.
• Build complex queries with filter groups: (Status is "Open" OR Status is "Under Investigation") AND Priority is "Critical".

Date-relative filters are your best friend

Use "is relative" on date fields to create dynamic filters like "Due in the next 7 days" or "Created in the past 30 days." These filters stay relevant over time without manual date updates — perfect for recurring meetings.

Real-World Filter Scenarios

Here are filters Clara uses throughout her week:

Monday Morning: What Happened Over the Weekend?

Filter: Created At is relative to past 3 days Sort: Priority descending

Shows every new deviation and action created since Friday afternoon. Clara scans this before the Monday standup to catch up on weekend shift activity.

Wednesday: CAPA Review Meeting

Filter: Status is any of [CAPA Assigned, CAPA In Progress] AND Due Date is before Today Sort: Due Date ascending

Shows every overdue CAPA, oldest first. Clara walks through these one by one with the team.

Friday: Management Review Prep

Filter: GMP Classification is "Critical" AND Created At is relative to past 30 days Group By: Root Cause Category

Shows this month's critical deviations grouped by root cause. Clara uses this view to identify systemic patterns for her Pareto analysis.

Anytime: "Show Me My Stuff"

Quick filter: Me Sort: Updated At descending

One click. Clara sees everything assigned to her, most recently touched first.

Sorting

Click the Sort button in the top bar:

1. Click + Add Sort.
2. Select a field to sort by.
3. Choose Ascending or Descending.
4. Add additional sort rules for tie-breaking (e.g., sort by Priority descending, then by Due Date ascending).

Table View Column Sorting

In Table view, click any column header to sort by that column. Click again to toggle direction. Click a third time to remove the sort. A chevron icon indicates the active sort direction.

Manual Order vs. Sort Rules

When no sort is active, items maintain their manual sort order — the order you set by dragging cards on the board. When a sort rule is active, drag-and-drop reordering is disabled and the sort icon shows an active indicator.

Sort disables drag reordering

If your board suddenly stops letting you drag cards, check whether a sort rule is active. Clear the sort to return to manual ordering.

Saving Views

When you have built a filter+sort combination you use regularly, save it:

1. Configure your filters and sorts.
2. Click Save View in the top bar.
3. Name it (e.g., "Overdue CAPAs - Quality").
4. Choose personal (only you) or shared (visible to all workspace members).

Saved views appear in the view switcher dropdown for one-click access. See Saved Views for more.

How Filters Behave in Each View

View	What happens to filtered-out items
Board	Cards disappear from their groups. Empty groups remain visible so you can still add items.
Table	Rows disappear. Group headers with no matching items collapse.
Timeline	Items vanish from both the left panel and the Gantt bars.
Calendar	Items are removed from their day cells.

Clearing Filters

• Clear one filter: click the x icon next to the filter rule.
• Clear all filters: click Clear all in the filter panel.
• Filter indicator: when filters are active, the Filter button in the top bar shows a highlighted state (badge or color change). This prevents the common mistake of wondering "where did my items go?"

The silent filter trap

The most common support question in ProBeya is "My items disappeared!" The answer is almost always an active filter. Before you panic, check the filter icon in the top bar. If it is highlighted, click it and clear all filters. Your items will reappear instantly.

Performance

Filters and sorts are applied client-side after the board data is fetched. This means they respond instantly — no server round-trip, no loading spinner. Even on a board with 500 items, toggling a filter feels immediate.

For very large boards (1000+ items), consider using server-side pagination in Table view combined with filters to keep the dataset manageable.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
Items missing from the board	Check if a filter is active. The filter icon highlights when filters are on. Clear all filters to see everything.
Sort not working as expected	Text fields with mixed formats (e.g., "10" sorting before "2") sort lexicographically. Use Number fields for numeric sorting.
Saved view not appearing for teammates	Verify it was saved as "shared." Personal views are visible only to you.
"Contains" operator not available	It only works on text fields. For select fields, use "equals" or "is any of."

Next Steps

• Board View — apply filters to your Kanban columns
• Table View — see how sorting interacts with inline editing
• Custom Fields — understand the field types that filters operate on