Written by: Karen Suhaka | March 31, 2017

If have a bill number you already know about that you’d like to add to one of your bill sheets, the quick search screen is the fastest way to do it. If you have a list of bill numbers quick search is still a good way, or you might want to type them right onto your bill sheet.

Easiest Way to Add One Specific Bill: Quick Search

First, type the bill number, like HB18 (with no space), into the search box all the way at the top of the screen.

Second, click the track button next to the bill you want, and add it to the bill sheet you want it on.  Done!

Advanced Tips

To save time you can put the state abbreviation in to go straight to your bill, like COHB1001.

If you aren’t finding your bill, and you tried HB18 and that didn’t come up with your bill, you might try H18 (without the B) before giving up. You can check this guide to state bill numbers; when searching by bill numbers this way you don’t have to worry about the 0s (like HB018) but you do have to worry about getting the correct letters. You can also just enter the number without the letters and hope for the best.  If you get back too many results then choose your state and search again. Of course you can also try searching for the bill by keywords, if you happen to know some, like the title of the bill.

 

Easiest Way To Add Multiple Bills: Quick Search

Search for your first bill as described above. Then switch the search from all of to any of:

Now you can type in all your bill numbers, separated by a space or comma, or just paste them in from a list you have elsewhere. Probably you will want to narrow down by state. Then click search and you can use the list button to add all your bills click click click.

Entering Bill Numbers Directly On a Bill Sheet

Another option is to go to the bill sheet you want to add the bills to then go to the query tab and scroll to the bottom where the bill number box is. Here you can type your bill numbers in, although it needs to be one at a time and in the right format. See about 20 seconds of this video to watch how it is done:

 

About BillTrack50 – BillTrack50 is a user friendly free service that provides legislation research in all 50 states and federally. BillTrack50 also offers legislation and regulation tracking across the nation with tools to help organization stay on top of changes (bill sheets and alerts) and share legislation they are tracking with key stakeholders (legislator scorecardswidgets and stakeholder pages). If you are interested in learning more about how BillTrack50 saves organizations time and money, sign up for a demo and try it out BillTrack50 Pro for a month, for free.