Deleting Records in Bulk

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There may be situations where you need to delete more than ten records at one time. In this situation, you may submit a general work request to have this done for you. What will be required in your part of the request is to include a file of the records that should be removed. Continue reading to learn the what should be included in the work request. 

What should be included in the Work Request?

  • You must indicate the Screen from which the records should be deleted within the work request title.
  • You must include a list of the record IDs. You can get these IDs by running an "Export Data" report or via Web Services. (If you are unable to access the Web Services article, please review this article: Access to additional Help Center content)
    • If using "Export Data" to retrieve IDs, select the option "Record and DSA IDs" to include the ID column as part of your export.

mceclip0.png

    • Ensure the IDs have not been reformatted by a program such as Microsoft Excel. For guidance on preventing the reformatting of numbers, review Helpful Excel Formulas and Tips to Format CSV Data Imports
    • Finally, copy the IDs to a .txt file to attach to your work request and verify the formatting is correct

Record ID Examples

Correct Record ID Formatswrs-bulkdelete-correct.png
The ID column has been properly reformatted to a number with 0 decimal places, which shows the Record ID in full. This column may now be copied to a .txt file for submission.

Incorrect Record ID Formatswrs-bulkdelete-incorrect.png
Here the record IDs have been converted into a Scientific Notation by Excel. This format is not a valid ID and Watermark is not able to remove records with this value.

wrs-bulkdelete-truncated.png

In this example, the Record IDs have been truncated as a result of saving the Excel file without reformatting the number field. These IDs will no longer work for deletion, and a new Export is needed to obtain the corrected IDs.

Note: we will not delete fewer than 10 records on a screen, given that no time efficiencies can be achieved compared to manual deletion in such cases.

Warning: This deletion is permanent.  Please make certain that every record whose ID you've included for deletion should be deleted.  It might also be a good idea to run an Export Data report to back up the deleted records.

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