You don't have to know which filters to pick. Tell Planning data the work you're after, the way you'd tell a customer, and it fills in the filters for you to check.
Describe the work
Click Planning data in the sidebar.
With no filters set yet, the page opens on describing the work. If it shows the filters instead, click Describe with AI under Where.
Under What work are you after?, write the jobs you do, how recent you want them, and anything you'd rather leave out. A sentence or two is plenty, for example "Approved loft conversions and rear extensions from the last 90 days. No new-build flats."
Click Set my filters.
Buildscout says back what it's looking for, in plain words, above the filters. Every filter it set is filled in below, so you can check it and change it. The map and the count update straight away.
If you'd rather choose the filters yourself, click I'll pick them myself.
What it can set
From what you write, Buildscout can set the kinds of work, words to leave out, words in the documents, the decision, the dates, planning agents and company names, the application type, the use, the property value, the number of homes, the EPC rating and the materials. It only sets what you mention.
It leaves your search area alone, unless you say where. If you name a place, such as "within 5 miles of Reading", it searches round that place. If it can't find the place on the map, it tells you and keeps searching where it was.
Change it or start again
Change any filter yourself, the same as any other search.
Click Describe it again to write a new description.
Click Undo at the top of the filters to put the search back as it was before.
Why my other filters disappeared
Each description starts afresh: the filters it doesn't set from your new words are cleared. Your search area stays as it was. If you lost something you wanted, click Undo, or add the filter back by hand.
Why it says it couldn't set the filters
If you see "Couldn't set the filters from that", try again with a little more about the work, or pick the filters yourself. You need to write at least a few letters before Set my filters can be clicked.