When duplicate profiles are created, Organization Administrators and Managers can merge those profiles using the Duplicate Detector or directly from a person's profile.
Duplicate profiles can be created in the following ways:
-
Importing a CSV file
-
When a person uses a different email address or phone number to
-
register for an event
-
join a group
-
give
-
fill out a form
-
log in to Church Center
-
Danger
Merging profiles cannot be undone.
If you have merged any profiles that were added to the database through an import, do not undo the import. Undoing the import will completely delete the merged person from your database, removing any scheduled positions, registered events, donations, etc.
When a person is merged with another profile, the following will happen:
-
all email addresses will be kept on the Primary profile
-
all phone numbers will be kept on the Primary profile
-
the highest permission level for each app will be transferred to the Primary profile
-
donation information will be merged to the Primary profile
-
all data from profile fields with multiple data points will be kept on the Primary profile
-
profile fields with only one data point will retain the Primary profile's data
-
all Name fields
-
Demographic info (birthdate, gender, marital, anniversary, grade, school)
-
Membership Type
-
Profile Status (active or inactive)
-
Custom Fields, except data in Checkbox types.
A Checkbox custom field allows for more than one data point, so the data from both profiles will be kept after a merge. All other custom field types only allow for one data point, so only the data stored in one the Primary will be kept.
The Duplicate Detector will suggest a potential duplicate based on:
-
Exact name matches
-
Double metaphones (names that sound similar, like John and Jon)
-
Common nicknames
From those matches, the following criteria are not considered as duplicates:
-
Genders that are set differently; however, if the gender is set for one and not for another, it will leave them in the potential duplicates list.
-
Profiles that are in a household together.
-
Names that are the same but have different suffixes (Jr., Sr., etc.).
From the Dashboard, either click the duplicate in the list or click View Duplicates to see a list of all the duplicates in your database.
View the list of people who have duplicate profiles then select X potential duplicate to see the duplicates.
You can also see if a person has a duplicate right from their profile. If the Actions button is orange, you know it has a duplicate for review.
Click Review from the Actions dropdown to see the duplicates.
The Primary profile will show along with any potential duplicates. The one with the most accurate information should be the primary profile; if it's not, you can choose one of the duplicates to be primary.
-
Click Ignore if you’re certain these people are not duplicates, and they will then be in the ignored duplicates list. We will not suggest the two as duplicates again.
-
Click Merge Duplicate to combine this profile into the primary one. Any information that is different in the two profiles will be added to the primary profile.
Once you've confirmed the action, click View More Duplicates to merge any other duplicates.
If you know you have two people that are the same, go to the duplicate profile to merge it into the primary profile.
Click Merge Profile from the settings gear to search for the primary profile.
Search for the primary profile to keep and choose it from the list. All contact information and activity in any application will be moved from the Person To Remove to the Person To Keep. After the merge, this duplicate profile will be completely removed from your account.
If you're on the profile you want to keep, you can click the box under Person to Remove to search for the duplicate, and that person will replace the listed person.
After the merge is complete, you will be taken to the Person To Keep's profile page.
