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Merging Duplicates

When you discover that a person in your database has two records (what we call a duplicate), you will want to merge the information from one record to the other.  This merge process occurs only after someone has verified which two records are duplicates, decides which record to keep and which information is correct. The normal rule of thumb is that you keep the older record or the one which has church membership information, such as Decision, Baptism, Etc. or the one which is in the correct family. However, that is your decision to make.

The merge process is done using the Merge Controller, located under Other Management on the Person page. A user must have the Manager role (your Admin can create this role if it is not in your database) or be an Admin in order to access this link.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If the duplicate record has Contributions, Enrollments, etc., the Admin must complete the Part 2 process (using the Merge Fields and Move Related Records button) in order to move these items prior to deleting the record. 
 

MergeDropDown-Manager

The Merge Controller has 2 parts.
Part 1

Once the duplicates have been identified, the person who has the Manager user role (see Note re roles below) decides which Basic information to move to the other record and then actually moves that information using the Merge Controller. This basic information is what is one a person’s Basic tab as well as their family address.

Part 2

Once the Basic Information has been merged, the Admin uses the Merge Controller to complete the process by moving the Enrollments, Attendance, Registrations, Contacts and Contributions and then deleting the duplicate record. 

NOTE: The Merge Process does NOT move Membership or Related Families information. That must be handled using the normal process. Also, if the record you are keeping is not in the correct family, you will need to do that the normal way.

Merge Process – Part 1:

Once the duplicates have been identified, and the Manager knows which record to keep, he can start the merge. 

     
  1. Find Record 1 - the record whose information will be moved (and the record that will ultimately be deleted). This will be called the From Record.
    2.  
  2. Select Merge Controller from the Other Management dropdown. This will open the standard Search dialog box.
    3.  
  3. Using the Search dialog, find Record 2 (enter the name or PID#, press Search, then Select the person). This is the record which will receive the merged information (and is the record that you want to keep). This will be called the To Record.     

    Search

    4.  
  4. Using the radio buttons, select the correct information – that is the information on the From Record that you want to be moved or the information on the To Record that you want to keep. If neither record has the correct information, select the radio button in the Alternate Value column and enter the correct information or select it from the dropdown.     

    RadioButtons

  5. When you have the fields selected, click the Merge Fields button     

    Merge

    6.  
  6. Once the merge is complete, the To Record will open so that you can verify that the record is correct. Look at the System-Changes tab where you can reverse any changes that you made in error.     

    Reverse

  7. After you are satisfied that the To Record is correct, you are ready to complete the process by notifying the system Admin to complete the Merge and Delete the From Record.  An easy way to notify the Admin would be to copy the URL while you are on the Merge Controller page, and paste that into an email.  Or you can give him the PID #s for each record.
 

Sample Email:

Subject: Duplicates

 

Admin,

Please complete the merge and delete the following:

http://test.bvcms.com/Merge?PeopleId1=864401&PeopleId2=896300

http://test.bvcms.com/Merge?PeopleId1=45811&PeopleId2=78945

2nd Sample Email:

Subject: Duplicates

Admin,

Please complete the merge and then delete the From Record for each of the following sets of records:

From Record = # 914448               To Record= # 906576

From Record = # 91578                 To Record= # 458

HELPFUL HINT: On the Merge Controller page, the People ID #s for each of the records is a toggle link which will open a new tab for each person’s record. This allows you to keep 3 tabs open and move back and forth from the Merge Controller to viewing the full record for each person if you need to verify any information that is not included in the Merge Controller.

 

Toggle

After receiving notification from the Manager, the system Admin will complete the Merge/Delete process as follows:

NOTE: If you are using the URL as described above, you will skip steps 1-3, as you will already be on the Merge Controller page with the correct records.

  1. Find the From Record
    2.  
  2. Select Merge Controller from the Other Management dropdown.
  3. Find the To Record using the Search dialog box
    4.  
  4. Check the Delete box and then click the Merge Fields and Move Related Records button (If you prefer not to delete the record at this time, you can leave the Delete box unchecked and delete the record later by using the Delete Person link under Other Management on the person’s record.)    

    MergeMoveDelete

    5.  
  5. This will move the Enrollments (Current and Previous), Attendance History, Registrations and Contributions from the From Record to the To Record and then delete the From Record
    6.  
  6. The process takes a few seconds, so wait until the screen refreshes and displays the remaining, merged record.

 

Note about roles.

Your System Admin should assign the Manager role to the person who will be responsible for moving this basic information. For most churches, this will probably be the New People Manager.

For some churches, this entire process outlines above will be handled by one person - identifying the duplicate, merging the basic information, merging the Enrollments, Contributions, etc. and ultimately deleting the duplicate record. If that is the case in your church, that person must have the Admin role.

However, these tasks can be divided so that one person (who does not have to be an Admin) can do the first part of the process – that is, identify the duplicate records and merge the basic information (Name, Contact Info, etc.). That person needs the Manager role in order to use the Merge portion of the Merge Controller.

The next part of the process must be done by the Admin. That is the final merging of Enrollment, Contributions, etc. and the deleting of the duplicate record. This can be done in one step. See above.