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.
Check Require submitters to be logged in to Church Center in a form's Settings tab if you want to ensure people are logged in before filling out the form.
Important
When a log in is required for a form, the form can not be embedded.