You should use filterToolbar option when you type the name of test case in the text box you data will fiter through the records, here is the code and working example demo
var mydata = [
{id:"1",invdate:"2010-05-24",name:"test",note:"note",tax:"10.00",total:"2111.00"} ,
{id:"2",invdate:"2010-05-25",name:"test2",note:"note2",tax:"20.00",total:"320.00"},
{id:"3",invdate:"2007-09-01",name:"test3",note:"note3",tax:"30.00",total:"430.00"},
{id:"4",invdate:"2007-10-04",name:"blah",note:"stuff",tax:"10.00",total:"210.00"},
];
jQuery("#list").jqGrid({
data: mydata,
datatype: "local",
height: 150,
rowNum: 10,
rowList: [10,20,30],
colNames:['Inv No','Date', 'Client', 'Amount','Tax','Total','Notes'],
colModel:[
{name:'id',index:'id', width:60, sorttype:"int"},
{name:'invdate',index:'invdate', width:90, sorttype:"date", formatter:"date"},
{name:'name',index:'name', width:100},
{name:'amount',index:'amount', width:80, align:"right",sorttype:"float", formatter:"number"},
{name:'tax',index:'tax', width:80, align:"right",sorttype:"float"},
{name:'total',index:'total', width:80,align:"right",sorttype:"float"},
{name:'note',index:'note', width:150, sortable:false}
],
pager: "#pager",
viewrecords: true,
autowidth: true,
height: 'auto',
caption: "Test Grid"
});
jQuery("#list").jqGrid('filterToolbar', { stringResult: true, searchOnEnter: false, defaultSearch: "cn" });
<table id="list"></table>
<div id="pager"></div>
toolbar search
functionality? – Unravel