Recently created SharePoint lists report

ManageEngine SharePoint Manager Plus helps administrators stay on top of new content being created across their SharePoint environment. The Recently Created Lists report, one of more than 140 prebuilt SharePoint reports, surfaces every list and document library provisioned across your sites within a defined time window.

What is the Recently Created Lists report in SharePoint Manager Plus?

The Recently Created Lists report is designed to give admins quick visibility into provisioning activity across their tenant, with filters for tenant, site, and creation date built in. These primarily include the list name, base type (such as a document library or generic list), creation timestamp, last item activity, total item count, and unique permission status along with other key list properties.

Why you need a recently created lists report

Without a tenant-wide view of newly created lists and libraries, IT teams can miss important governance issues. A list created outside the approved provisioning workflow, a duplicate library created by a business unit, or a list with unique permissions can remain unnoticed until it becomes a larger administrative or security issue.

Native SharePoint tools do not provide a simple, centralized view of newly created lists across the tenant, which makes large-scale review difficult. PowerShell can retrieve this data, but it requires scripting, maintenance, and manual formatting before the results are useful for recurring review.

A recently created lists report gives you that visibility, helping you stay ahead of provisioning risks rather than chasing them after the fact.

• Detect unauthorized list creation: Identify lists provisioned outside approved workflows or during unusual hours, which may signal compromised accounts or shadow IT activity.
• Audit permission posture from day one: Spot lists created with unique (broken inheritance) permissions and verify whether the access scope is appropriate before sensitive data is added.
• Prevent data sprawl: Find duplicate, empty, or test lists shortly after creation and clean them up before they accumulate into long-term technical debt.
• Enforce content type and naming standards: Verify that newly created lists conform to organizational naming conventions, base type policies, and content type guidelines.
• Monitor provisioning patterns: Track creation trends across sites and tenants to detect automation errors, bulk creation spikes, or coordinated misuse.

What does the Recently Created Lists report show?

Using SharePoint Manager Plus, you can filter the report with the following fields:

• Microsoft 365 Tenant/Farm: Select the specific tenant or farm where you want to analyze recently created SharePoint lists.
• Site: Filter by individual sites to narrow the scope of the report to specific business units or projects.
• Within the last number of days: Set a custom time window (e.g., the last seven, 30, or 90 days) to view only lists created within that duration.

The Recently Created Lists report displays the following details for every list.

Native SharePoint admin portals and PowerShell vs. SharePoint Manager Plus

To review recently created lists in the SharePoint admin center, administrators typically need to inspect sites individually. While the SharePoint admin center provides basic administrative visibility, it does not offer a simple tenant-wide rollup of newly created lists and libraries for recurring review.

PowerShell can help retrieve list creation data across multiple sites, but it still requires custom scripts, ongoing maintenance, and extra effort to schedule, filter, and format the output. That makes it less practical for teams that need a repeatable and review-ready reporting process.

Benefits of SharePoint Manager Plus' Recently Created Lists report over SharePoint reports

With SharePoint Manager Plus' Recently Created Lists report, you get the power and granularity of PowerShell, with the convenience of an admin center.

For a more detailed comparison, check out this page on how to create a SharePoint list.

Features that enhance the Recently Created Lists report

SharePoint Manager Plus provides several built-in tools to help you manage, automate, and secure the data found in the Recently Created Lists report:

• Custom reports and delegated administration: Save granular filters as custom reports, then delegate them to help desk technicians using role-based access controls so they can monitor list creation within their assigned scope without elevated privileges.
• Export reports: You can download the report in multiple formats, including CSV, PDF, HTML, or XLSX, for sharing data with department heads or maintaining offline records for compliance.
• Automated report generation: Set the Recently Created Lists report to be generated at specific intervals (daily, weekly, or monthly) to conduct list creation audits regularly without fatigue.
• SharePoint alerts for bulk list creation: Configure instant alerts to notify admins when an unusual number of lists are created within a short window, when lists are created with unique permissions, or when lists are provisioned outside business hours.
• List permissions management: Modify list permissions for users and groups directly from SharePoint Manager Plus' interface, eliminating the need to switch between consoles.

Reports that complement the Recently Created Lists report

If you are auditing how content gets provisioned across your SharePoint tenant, SharePoint Manager Plus provides several other reports that complement the data found in the Recently Created Lists report:

Recently Modified Lists report: Tracks updates made to lists after creation, including schema changes, view modifications, and setting updates, helping ensure new lists continue to comply with governance policies as they evolve.

List Permissions report: Provides a granular view of permissions across all lists, including unique permissions, broken inheritance, and externally shared lists, ensuring newly provisioned lists do not expose sensitive data.

Modified List Items report: Tracks changes made to items inside a list, providing forensic detail when investigating who changed what and when.

Document Library report: Surfaces every document library across your sites along with key attributes like size, item count, and last activity, making it easier to spot newly created libraries that are growing fast, sitting idle, or duplicating existing content.

Inheritance Broken Lists report: Flags lists and libraries that no longer inherit permissions from their parent site, which is helpful for catching newly created lists that broke inheritance during provisioning.

Other features of SharePoint Manager Plus

• SharePoint management: Grant, remove, or copy SharePoint permissions, and manage group members in bulk without relying on complex scripts, simplifying your SharePoint administration.
• SharePoint reporting: Access over 140 prebuilt and custom reports for SharePoint, including permissions, site usage, content inventory, and security insights, all from a centralized dashboard.
• SharePoint auditing: Maintain a comprehensive, searchable audit trail of all activities across your SharePoint environment, including user actions, permission changes, and content modifications.
• SharePoint alerting: Get real-time alerts on critical events such as permission changes, suspicious user activities, site access anomalies, and policy violations.
• Delegated administration: Empower help desk technicians with granular, role-based access to perform specific SharePoint administrative tasks, without elevating native privileges.
• SharePoint migration: Simplify SharePoint migration by enabling seamless content and permission migration across sites and tenants, with minimal downtime and full visibility into migration progress.