How to Trash Clients via Bulk Actions

The **Trash Clients** bulk action trashes every client returned by one saved search. Trashing is reversible for as long as the client stays in the trash, so use it to clear records you no longer work with rather than records you need to erase immediately.

### Overview

- **What it is:** An **Action Type** on the **Bulk Actions** page. The **Create Bulk Action** card describes it as "Move clients to the trash."
- **Why it matters:** Trashing one client at a time does not scale to hundreds of stale records, and a bulk run applies the same criteria to every client in a single pass.
- **Who uses it:** Staff assigned a role that includes the **create bulk actions** and **update bulk actions** permissions.
- **Expected outcomes:** Every included client is trashed and drops off the **Clients** list, that client's outbound messages that have not been sent yet are deleted, and you receive an email with a PDF report when the run finishes.

### Prerequisites

- An eCourtDate account signed in to the agency that owns the clients (the agency name shows in the switcher at the top right of the page)
- A role with the **create bulk actions** permission (to create and run an action) and the **update bulk actions** permission (to save and schedule one)
- The criteria that identify the clients you want to trash, such as a status, a type, a group, or an entry in **Assigned Users**
- An understanding of your agency's **Auto Delete Trashed Data** setting in **Admin** > **Settings** > **Data and Retention**, because trashed records are deleted for good that many days after they are trashed

### How-To Steps

1. Click **Bulk Actions** in the main navigation.
2. Enter a name in **Action Name** on the **Create Bulk Action** card.
3. Select **Trash Clients** in the **Action Type** dropdown.
4. Click **Create** to open the new action on its own page.
5. Enter a number in **Limit** in the **Search Clients** panel to cap how many clients this run can trash.
6. Apply the filters that describe the clients you want to trash:
   - **Search** for a name, a reference, or other text
   - **Client Status**, **Client Type**, or **Client Aliases**
   - **Assigned Users**, **Assigned Judge**, or **Creator**
   - The client group and organization pills, which switch on and off as you click them
   - **Events from date** and **Events to date**, which match clients by the dates of their events
7. Check **Archived** if the run should cover archived clients, because the search skips them by default.
8. Click **Search** to save the action and refresh the preview table.
9. Review the count above the table, which reads as loaded rows out of total matches, such as 25 of 1,240 Clients.
   - Click **Load more** to pull in the next 25 rows
10. Click **CLIENTS CSV** to download the loaded rows as a record of what you are about to trash.
11. Click the green check in the **INCLUDE** column beside any client you want to leave out, which turns it into a red X.
12. Click **Live Run** to trash the included clients now.
13. Click **Schedule Run** instead to run the action later, then set **Scheduled Date** and **Scheduled Time** and click **Schedule Run** to confirm.

### What to Expect

The status badge beside the client count moves from dispatching to processing, then complete, and the count changes to the number of clients the run processed. A scheduled action is picked up every five minutes, so it starts within a few minutes of the time you set, and it is skipped if its scheduled time passed more than 24 hours ago.

Trashing stamps a trashed date on each included client and deletes that client's outbound messages that have not been sent yet. Clients that already carry a trashed date are skipped, so a second run over the same filters does not process them again.

When the run finishes you receive an email with the subject "Bulk Action: (your action name) is Complete" and a PDF report listing the clients processed, the clients excluded, and the search you used. The trashed clients drop off the **Clients** list until you check **Trashed** in the **Search Clients** panel there and click **Search**.

A daily cleanup then deletes records for good once they have been in the trash longer than your agency's **Auto Delete Trashed Data** setting, which defaults to 30 days. Until that happens, the clients can be restored.

### Best Practices

- Click **CLIENTS CSV** before **Live Run** so you keep a list of the clients you are about to trash, including the rows you excluded.
- Set **Limit** on purpose. An empty **Limit** stops the run at 1,000 clients, and **Admin** > **Settings** > **Data and Retention** > **Default Bulk Actions Limit** fills it in for new actions.
- Review the preview carefully, because **Trash Clients** has no simulate mode and **Live Run** starts immediately with no confirmation prompt.
- Run the filters once with a small **Limit**, check the result, then click **Duplicate** in the **Tools** menu and raise **Limit** on the copy.
- Click **Save Template** once the filters are right, then start your next cleanup from the **Bulk Templates** tab with **Import**.

### Frequently Asked Questions

**Q: Is trashing the same as deleting a client?**

A: No. Trashing stamps a trashed date on the record, and you can restore the client until the daily cleanup deletes it, which happens once it has been in the trash longer than your **Auto Delete Trashed Data** setting (30 days by default).

**Q: How do I find the clients I trashed?**

A: Go to **Clients**, check **Trashed** in the **Search Clients** panel, and click **Search**. **Archived** and **Trashed** cannot be checked at the same time.

**Q: How do I put the clients back?**

A: Create a bulk action with the **Restore Clients** type and check **Trashed** in its filters, because the search skips trashed clients otherwise. For a single client, open the client record and click **Tools** > **Restore**.

**Q: What happens to messages that have not been sent yet?**

A: The run deletes each included client's unsent outbound messages. Restoring the client later does not recreate them.

**Q: Does the run only trash the clients shown in the table?**

A: No. The table previews 25 rows at a time. The run uses the saved search, so it trashes every matching client up to **Limit**, minus the rows you turned to a red X in the **INCLUDE** column.

**Q: Can I run the same bulk action twice?**

A: Not with **Live Run**, which disappears once the action has run. Use **Tools** > **Replay** to queue the same action again, or **Tools** > **Duplicate** to open an editable copy.

### Troubleshooting

**Issue:** The run finished, but clients you expected to trash are still active.

**Symptoms:** The client count on the finished action is lower than the total your search returned.

**Solution:**

1. Check **Limit**, which stops the run at 1,000 clients when you leave it empty.
2. Check the **INCLUDE** column for rows you turned to a red X, since excluded clients appear in the PDF report but are never trashed.
3. Confirm the rest were not archived, because the search skips archived clients unless you check **Archived**.

**Issue:** A scheduled run never started.

**Symptoms:** The action keeps a scheduled status badge and the **Live Run** button is no longer shown.

**Solution:**

1. Wait five minutes, which is how often scheduled actions are picked up.
2. Click **Cancel Schedule** to return the action to draft, which brings **Live Run** and **Schedule Run** back.
3. Schedule the action again with a date and time in the future, and note that a scheduled time more than 24 hours in the past is never picked up.

**Issue:** You trashed clients your team is still working with.

**Symptoms:** Staff report that clients they are working with are missing from the **Clients** list.

**Solution:**

1. Create a bulk action with the **Restore Clients** type and check **Trashed** in the **Search Clients** panel.
2. Add the filters you used for the trash run, click **Search**, and review the preview.
3. Click **Live Run**, then check the restored clients for upcoming events, because a restore does not recreate the messages that were deleted during the trash run.

> **Important:** If you continue to experience issues after following these troubleshooting steps, sign in to eCourtDate and create a ticket by clicking the ticket button in the bottom right corner of the screen.

### Related Articles

- [How Bulk Actions Work](/how-bulk-actions-work)
- [How to Restore Clients via Bulk Actions](/how-to-restore-clients-via-bulk-actions)
- [How to Archive Clients via Bulk Actions](/how-to-archive-clients-via-bulk-actions)
- [How to Manage Clients](/how-to-manage-clients)
- [How to save and reuse bulk action templates](/how-to-save-and-reuse-bulk-action-templates)