When someone gives, joins a group, or fills out a form, they have to enter their name and email address. If those fields don't match an existing profile, the system will create a new profile. Prevent people from creating duplicates by encouraging them to log in to Church Center or by emailing specific instructions.
Warning
In Registrations, if someone registers a person not in their household, a duplicate profile will be created even if the registration contact uses the same name and email address as their existing profile.
More Information:
It's safer to create a new profile that can be merged with the correct person than to add the wrong person's information to an existing profile. Our products use a few fields in combination to determine if a profile matches one in your database. All fields must match exactly, or the system will create a new profile.
For example, if we have this person:
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First Name: Bob
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Given Name: Robert
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Last Name: Smith
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Home Email: bob@home.com
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Work Email: bob@work.com
Any Church Center activity under "Bob Smith" or "Robert Smith" will be tied to this existing profile, no matter which email is used. If he uses "Bobby" or "bob@other.com," then a new profile will be created.
When a person is registering for an event, making a donation, signing up for a group, or filling out a form, they are doing this from the Church Center website. In order to ensure their information is attached to their profile, ask them to log in.