Module 4 · Scale and maintain · Lesson 12 of 13 · 20 minutes
Clean up my workflow
Everything visible in your Quorum setup is current, named consistently, and owned by a named person.
The BMS scenario
Two sessions of searches, sheets and tags have accumulated, and nobody's sure which views are current.
When to use it
End of session, at a region reassignment, or when someone new joins the team.
Why it matters
A setup with duplicate searches, stale sheets and unowned dashboards is where trust in the data quietly erodes — people start double-checking things Quorum was supposed to answer for them. A scheduled clean-up is cheaper than the doubt an unclean setup creates during session.
Before you start
- An hour blocked, ideally right after a session adjourns.
- Agreement on the naming pattern before you rename anything.
Field guide
- Naming pattern applied across searches, sheets, dashboards, alerts
- Use one consistent pattern — Issue — Region (owner) — everywhere, in the same pass, so half the setup isn't left in an old convention.
- Archive vs. delete
- Archive by default for anything from an adjourned session; delete only confirmed true duplicates, since archived items preserve context you may need again.
- Owner field or description on each surviving item
- Record an explicit owner on everything that stays — an ownerless item is the one that goes stale first.
If your situation is different
- If you're cleaning up mid-session rather than at adjournment, focus on ownership and naming rather than archiving — wait until adjournment to archive session-tied material so you don't lose something still in use.
- If you inherit a setup with no naming convention at all, spend the first clean-up agreeing the pattern and doing a full rename in one pass, rather than applying it only to new items going forward.
- If you're not sure whether an item is still in use, check what alert or dashboard depends on it before archiving — don't assume silence means it's dead.
Step by step
Steps describe the general Quorum workflow. What your seat shows depends on the BMS subscription — check with your Quorum admin if a control isn't there.
- 1
Inventory what exists
List your saved searches, sheets, dashboards and alerts in one pass. You can't clean what you haven't seen.
Do this in Quorum
- 1.1Inventory first: list every saved search, sheet, dashboard and alert you can see.
- 1.2Mark each as keep, rename, or retire — decide before you touch anything.
- 1.3Do this with the team in the room if possible; ownership questions resolve in seconds together and take days over email.
You know it worked when: Every item has a keep/rename/retire decision.
- 2
Archive anything tied to an adjourned session
Archive rather than delete where you can, so historical context survives without cluttering the working view.
Do this in Quorum
- 2.1Archive anything tied to an adjourned session rather than deleting it, so historical context survives.
- 2.2Check the alert and dashboard an item feeds before archiving it, in case it's still in quiet use.
- 2.3Ask the owner first before archiving anything shared, even if it looks dormant.
You know it worked when: Nothing from an adjourned session is still active in the working view.
- 3
Reconcile issue tags to the agreed list
Merge near-duplicates and retag the smaller set. Do this before next session's triage, not during it.
Do this in Quorum
- 3.1Reconcile issue tags to the agreed list: merge near-duplicates and retag the smaller set.
- 3.2Do this before next session's triage starts, not during it.
- 3.3Update the shared tag-definitions doc the same day you make a change, so it doesn't drift from reality.
You know it worked when: No near-duplicate tags exist, and the definitions doc matches reality.
- 4
Put a name on everything that stays
Every remaining search, sheet, dashboard and alert gets an owner and a name a colleague can read cold.
Do this in Quorum
- 4.1Rename the keepers to the team pattern: Issue — Region (owner), with the session where relevant.
- 4.2Rename in one pass so half the setup isn't left in the old convention.
- 4.3Assign an owner to every surviving item and record it in the name or description.
- 4.4Book the next clean-up in the calendar before you close the tab.
You know it worked when: Names follow one pattern with no exceptions, no item is ownerless, and the next clean-up is scheduled.
Common mistakes
Deleting something shared without checking with its owner first.
Fix: Archive as the default action; only delete confirmed true duplicates, and always ask the owner first if it's shared.
Renaming half the setup and leaving the rest in the old pattern.
Fix: Do the rename in one pass across everything, not incrementally.
Reconciling tags during triage instead of before it.
Fix: Finish tag reconciliation before the next session's triage starts, so triage isn't interrupted by taxonomy decisions.
Treating clean-up as a one-off instead of scheduling the next one.
Fix: Book the next clean-up in the calendar before closing the tab on this one.
Prompts to run in Quincy, inside Quorum
Quincy is the agentic layer in Quorum — it works on your live data. Copy a prompt into Quincy after you log in. If you want the steps explained first, ask the site guide.
- "List all my saved searches and flag any with overlapping keywords that might be duplicates."
- "Which of my tracked bills have tags that don't match the current issue list?"
Practice it now
- 1) Take the ten oldest items in your setup and resolve every one of them today.
Done looks like this
- A setup a new joiner could read without a tour.
- A recurring clean-up in the calendar.
When to stop and ask
If you can't tell whether an item is shared with others, who owns it, or whether archiving will affect a colleague's view, confirm with a Quorum admin or the BMS account team (Michael Fuentes, michael.fuentes@quorum.us) before removing or renaming it.