Quick Start Guide - Your First Search!

Videos - Getting Started with Avantis

* Please note: at the bottom of this page is a 55-minute full recorded Avantis training session which replaces a live training session.  Just scroll to the bottom to take it in in part, in whole, piecemeal, or all at once.

Your First Search - Overview 

1. Steps 1 to 6 are necessary
2. Steps 7 to 12 are optional
3. We also suggest you take in our full online training here - Full Avantis Demo (60 mins) (video also appears at the bottom of this page)
1. This training will introduce a lot of tips and tricks to streamline your workflow and get you the best results and experience using Avantis
2. The demo can be consumed in smaller 5- or 10-minute chunks at your convenience
4. Below are the most important 12 steps in constructing a search

1 - Pick a dataset

Dataset	Source	Description
Securities Filings	SEDAR and SEC	- If you're looking for filings from either SEDAR+ or the SEC (annual reports, financial statements, circulars, etc.), start here. - The bulk of most users' research is done in this dataset, as it contains all filings as a searchable dataset with over 100 criteria and full-text search.
Companies	SEDAR and SEC	- If you're looking to create a company list or simply view all information for a company in depth without searching their filings, start here. - For more information on creating company lists, see How to Create and Use Company Lists.
News	SEDAR and SEC Company Press Releases	- Sourced from 13 newswire services, including all TSX-recommended newswires and investment sites that profile issuers. - For press releases not yet filed on SEDAR or the SEC, this is often the earliest place they're published. - A great source for the most immediate delivery of email alerts.
Insider Transactions	SEDI and SEC	- If you're looking for records of insider transactions and trades, start here.
Audit Fees	SEDAR Filings	- If you're looking for one table covering multiple companies’ audit fees paid, audit-related fees, tax fees, etc., start here. - Extracts fees from filings and presents them as a table where each record links back to the source documents.
Auditor Change	SEDAR Filings	- If you're looking for one table covering multiple companies’ auditor changes—including change date, previous auditor, successor auditor, change reason, etc.—start here. - Extracts change data from filings and presents them as a table where each record links back to the source documents.

 

2 - Add criteria

1. Add criteria that you'd like to use in your search by clicking on the + Add criteria button
2. Click into any criteria added to your Search Panel
3. Use dropdowns to reveal options, where applicable
4. Use type-ahead fields to filter suggestions, where applicable
5. Choose selections of interest to limit search results
6. See search Narrow Searches Using Search Criteria for more detail
7. For a labeled screenshot of the Search Panel, see Search Panel
    

3 - Add a full text search 

Do this only if you are looking to see specific language or disclosures highlighted in your results

1. You can search for simple words or phrases or else use Terms and Connectors searching to increase the level of control you have over the kinds of results you get
2. See Search for Terms and Phrases (Full-Text Boolean Searching) for more information and resources
   
   1. For a labeled screenshot of the Search Panel, see Search Panel
    

4 - Click Search

1. Click the blue Search button on the upper right

5 - Navigate your results

1. More Company Details - launch the company profile for access to financial, stock pricing, and additional disclosure information
2. Navigation and viewing 
   1. Search results - navigates to previous and next search results
   2. Full screen - launches the document in full screen mode
   3. Launch in new tab - launches the document in a new browser tab
   4. Close - closes document and returns to result list
3. Avantis AI Chat - ask questions against this document in a chat format, very useful way to extract insights
4. Document Category/Description - Category or Description of document
5. Keywords in Context (KWIC) - see the context in which your full-text search terms appear
6. Full-text search - change your full-text search to highlight new keywords
7. Full-text search Help - Click the question mark icon (on the right) to launch full-text search help
8. Download or Print, Translation View includes
   
   1. PDF download
   2. MS Word conversion download - convert to MS Word and retain all formatting
   3. Excel table extraction - extract all tables from this document to Excel and retain all table formatting including borders, shading, font, etc.
   4. Print - includes printing to PDF, printing only specific pages, and printing with KWIC highlighted
   5. Translation view opens a second copy of the current document in a pane beside it in the other language it was filed in
      1. If a document was only filed in one language, this feature will not do anything - it only works on documents that were filed in both languages on SEDAR
9. Results List Selector
   1. Click to toggle between full results list and abbreviated results list view
   2. Hold and drag to resize frames
10. Viewing Pane - either shows Keywords in Context (KWIC), AI chat, or document Table of Contents (TOC)
    
    

6 - Click into the Issuer Profile 

1. Company Profile tabs - click into the various tabs of information related to this company
   
   1. See Viewing Enhanced Issuer Profile for more detail
2. Securities Selector - select which securities pricing to view from among a list of all securities sold on North American exchanges
3. Search results - navigates to previous and next search results
4. Viewing Options 
   1. Search results - navigates to previous and next search results
   2. Full screen - launches the document in full screen mode
   3. Launch in new tab - launches the document in a new browser tab
   4. Close - closes document and returns to result list

7 - Download results 

8 - Choose and sort your result list columns

1. Select the data points you would like added as columns to your result grid using the Column Chooser
2. Add columns to your grid
   
   1. If you know the name of the datapoint (industry, province, market cap, etc) you want to add, use the type-ahead box at the top of your column list to find it's match(es) below.
   2. Scroll to the bottom of your column list to open categories and see additional datapoints within them to add as columns.
   3. See Select and Reorder Search Result Columns for more detail
3. Sort columns using the "hamburger" icon on the right of each data point (the two short horizontal lines)
4. Add columns to your grid
   
   1. See Select and Reorder Search Result Columns for more detail

9 - Export your result list as a spreadsheet

10 - Save your search

1. Active search name
2. Select saved search dropdown arrow - click to see the full list of saved searches
3. Save, alert, share setting, etc. icons
   
   1. Save icon - click to save your active search
   2. Save As dropdown arrow - click to save as a new search name
   3. Mark as favourite - to move to the top of your saved searches list
   4. Save as alert - see Setting Up, Managing, and Sharing Alerts for details
   5. Share search with other members - Saving and Sharing Searches
   6. Rename search
   7. Delete search
4. Saved searches list
5. Alert, share, and move icons

11 - Add an alert to your search       

1. Enable the alert
2. Enable notifications (otherwise results will be compiled in the alerts module but will not be actively sent to you via email)
3. Choose an email frequency (real time to weekly) according to which you would like to receive results
4. Add tags to alerts for easy searching or organizing, or else add the same tag to group search results from separate alerts into one combined email notification
   1. If combining results into a combined email notification , also ensure you've also selected the same Email frequency in step 3 above
5. Show document preview in email - provides a preview for each alert results

See Setting Up, Managing, and Sharing Alerts for more detail

12 - Share your search with other members 

 

Click on the Share Search (two people side by side) icon beside the name of your active search (or beside the name of any search in your Saved Searches drop down menu)

1. Choose members you would like to share your search with
2. Search for members to add
3. Set up alerts for them if so desired (
   1. Set up alerts for members individually by clicking the alert (bell) icon on the right of their name
   2. Set up alerts for multiple members collectively by clicking the checkboxes on the left of their names, and then the global alert (bell icon above the list on the upper right, beside Search)

See Saving and Sharing Searches for more detail

 

Video - Your First Training Session - Recorded Demo