7 years ago I could enter a customers phone number into the search box and hit enter and up would come his order. Why was this removed like 6 or 7 years ago. This feature should have been an option from day 1 and maybe it got removed by accident I dont know, but you can not search orders or customers via phone number still. This feature has gotten many upvotes in the suggest a feature forum thing but nothing we ever ask for gets done, ever!
Since you are fixing stuff now with the new layout why not add this feature back in, would take 30 mins from a qualified coder, or outsource your coding to india, whatever needs to be done please. Make the changes we need.
or Open your source on Gethub and let the world help out.