Bulk Operations and Export

Overview

Bulk operations and Excel export let you efficiently manage large identity inventories without editing each record individually. Admins can select any combination of organization identities and apply review, type, status, relationship, or merge changes in a single action. The Excel export produces a structured workbook covering all organization identities and their vendor accounts, suitable for audits, reporting, or offline review.

Bulk Actions

Selecting identities for bulk action

1. Go to Posture > Identities.
2. Select individual rows using the row checkboxes. Once at least one row is selected, the bulk actions toolbar replaces the filter bar above the datagrid.
3. To extend the selection to every identity matching your current filters, open the toolbar’s selection menu and choose All (N).

Bulk actions require the Administrator role; other roles don’t see the toolbar.

Available bulk actions

Mark Reviewed / Flag for Review

Marks all selected identities as needing review, or clears the review flag from all of them. Use Flag for Review to queue identities for a periodic check, then Mark Reviewed once the review is complete.

Type

Sets the identity type for all selected identities: Human, Service Account, Bot, Shared Account, or Unknown. Use this when onboarding a batch of service accounts or after a directory import that produced many Unknown-type identities.

Status

Updates the status for all selected identities: Active, Inactive, Deprovisioned, or Pending. Useful for mass offboarding workflows or marking a cohort of contractor accounts as inactive after a project ends.

Relationship

Sets Internal or External on all selected identities. Use this to classify a group of new contractor identities as External, or to update identities after an acquisition brings external users into your internal directory.

Merge

Merges the selected identities into one of them. Merge appears when you have picked two or more rows individually (not with All (N)). Choose the identity to keep under Merge into: and click Merge. All vendor identities and emails from the other selected identities are transferred to the target, and the other identities are removed.

Caution

Merging cannot be undone. Review the selected identities carefully before confirming. The target identity keeps its own name and primary email, and every other selected identity is removed from the identity list.

Assigning owners

There is no bulk owner action. To give a service account, bot, or shared account a human owner, open the identity and set its Owner, or right-click its row and choose Set owner…. Owners apply only to non-human identities, and setting one clears the identity’s needs-review flag.

Excel Export

Export format

Click Export Excel on the Identities or Vendor Identities tab to download an Excel workbook. The workbook contains:

• Summary sheet — the organization, export date, and counts of organization identities, human identities, service accounts, vendor identities, connected integrations, and identities needing review.
• Organization Identities sheet — one row per organization identity with the columns Name, Email, Type, Status, Relationship, Owner, Review Status, Last Seen, and Recommendation.
• Vendor sheets — one sheet per connected identity integration (e.g., “GitHub”, “Slack”) and one per manually tracked vendor that has identities. Each lists that source’s vendor identities with account name and owner, username, email, role, type, status, last seen, created and removed dates, MFA, and recommendation, plus blank columns for recording an access review.

The export reflects the current state of all identities at the time of download; filters on the page don’t affect it.

Practical Workflows

Cleaning up service accounts

1. Filter identities by Type is Service Account and Has Owner is false.
2. Open each result and set its Owner to the responsible team member.
3. Setting an owner clears the needs-review flag; use Mark Reviewed for any you’ve checked but left without an owner.

Onboarding review

1. After a large directory sync that imports many new identities, filter by Status is Active and Needs Review is true.
2. Review each identity to confirm the type is correct (human vs. service account).
3. Use Type to correct any misclassified identities in one step.
4. Clear the review flag with Mark Reviewed once the batch is verified.

Offboarding audit

1. Export the current identity inventory with Export Excel.
2. Share the Organization Identities sheet with your HR or IT team for cross-referencing against your HR system.
3. Return to Fencer and filter to the identities that should be deprovisioned.
4. Apply Status and choose Deprovisioned for the confirmed leavers.

Examples

Marking a batch of contractor accounts as External:

1. Apply the filter Type is Human and search for the contractor email domain (e.g., @contractor.example.com).
2. Select a row, then choose All (N) from the toolbar’s selection menu.
3. Apply Relationship and choose External.
4. All matching identities are updated immediately.

Merging duplicate identities in bulk:

1. Identify two identities for the same person (different emails used in different tools).
2. Select both rows.
3. Click Merge and choose the identity with the primary email as the target.
4. The other identity’s email is kept as an alternate email on the target.

Troubleshooting

• No bulk actions toolbar — bulk operations require the Administrator role. Contact your organization admin if you need access.
• Merge isn’t offered — select at least two rows individually. Merge isn’t available after choosing All (N).
• Export is missing a vendor sheet — a sheet appears for each connected integration with identity support and for each manually tracked vendor with identities. Connect the integration, or import the vendor’s identities, and re-export.
• Owner assignment isn’t available for an identity — owners apply only to non-human identities. Change the identity’s type first if it is misclassified as Human.

Related pages

• Identity Management
• Vendor Identities and Syncing