Managing and using Custom Lists

Last updated: April 7, 2026

What are Custom Lists?

Custom Lists allows you to screen against your own proprietary datasets of persons or companies within the Mesh platform. These custom lists are stored and managed within Mesh and can be integrated into your screening and monitoring workflows.

How to use Custom Lists

You can manage your Custom Lists and the entities within them through the configurations page of the Mesh platform.

1. Creating a new Custom List via File Upload

  1. Navigate to the Custom Lists page. Find the Custom Lists page within the Configurations section of Mesh.

  2. Create a List. Select to create a new Custom List

  3. Name the List. Enter a unique name for your new Custom List.

  4. Upload your file. Select the option to upload a file of entities to your new list. The system accepts file formats such as CSV or XLSX. You can download a template of the acceptable file format for guidance.

  5. Process the upload. The system will process the file, uploading valid entities to your custom list database. If any errors are found within the entities, the system will cancel the upload and provide notification explaining the necessary corrections.

2. Updating an existing Custom List

Once a list is created, you can use a file upload to efficiently update, extend, or replace the entities it contains.

  1. Select the Custom List. Navigate to the Custom Lists page and select the list you want to update.

  2. Upload the update file. Upload a new file containing your updated or new entities.

  3. Process entity changes. The system will process the file:

    • If an entity in the file has a new unique identifier (UID), the system will create a new entity in the custom list.

    • If an entity in the file has an existing UID, the system will update the data for that entity.

    • You can also use this process to effectively archive entities by flagging those entities to be archived

3. Screening with Custom Lists

To use a Custom List for screening, you must include it in a Screening Configuration.

  1. Add to Configuration: All active custom lists will be available for selection when you create or edit a screening configuration.

Note: a collection can contain either Custom Lists or ComplyAdvantage data sources, but not a combination of both.

  1. Screening: When a customer or payment is screened against this configuration, the entities within the Custom List are checked using the specified search options and fuzziness.

  2. Case Management: If a match occurs, the hit will be displayed in the screening case as a separate row with a risk type of "custom list". This hit will contribute to the items to review count.

Monitoring: If a customer is monitored against a configuration that includes a Custom List, the list will be in scope of every monitoring run, and any changes to the list will be applied to the next run.