Managing Duplicate Profiles

Maintaining clean, accurate lists has never been easier. The Potential Duplicates feature automatically identifies profiles that have matching information, and allows you to quickly merge two or more matching profiles into a single record.

If you find duplicate Profiles that the portal does not flag as potential duplicates, you can still merge them directly from the People list, as described later in this article.

Manage Potential Duplicates

As you add or modify profiles, the portal automatically compares them to other profiles that have similar key values. When the portal identifies profiles as potential duplicates, it places the profiles into groups, which you can review at any time. You can choose to either merge two or more profiles in the group, or to ignore the similarities, which will remove them from the potential duplicate grouping.

Duplicate Profiles

In the admin portal, go to Profiles > People, then click on the Potential Duplicates button.

The Potential Duplicates table shows the following information: 

• The first and last name of each profile contained in the Groups of Potential Duplicates

• The total number of profiles from each group

• The profile details that match

• The date modified for the most recently updated profile in each group

In the Actions column, click the three dots on the right-hand side of the screen, then select the View option, or click on the table row.

The expanded Potential Duplicates window shows additional details for each profile:

• Profile name

• Primary phone number

• Primary email address

• Primary address

• Date of birth

This additional detail can give you enough information to decide which profiles should be merged, or if any of the profiles should be ignored.

Ignore Selected Profiles

To ignore one or more of the profiles in the group, click on the checkbox next to each profile, then click the Ignore Selected button.

From the confirmation window, click the Yes, Ignore Selected button to confirm that you wish to ignore the profiles selected.

The confirmation window closes and the Potential Duplicates table no longer shows the profiles in the group.

Merge Profiles from the Potential Duplicates Window

Click the checkbox next to each profile you wish to merge. To select all profiles, click the checkbox in the column header. Click the Merge Selected button to open the Merge Profiles window and start the merge.

The Merge Profiles window appears and shows all fields that have differing values. If the information in a field is the same for all profiles, the field does not appear in the window.

Most profile fields require you to make a single selection, with the exception of phone number, email address, and street address. A profile can contain more than one of each of these items; therefore, you can select one or more to keep. By default, all of the options are selected, and you can uncheck any you wish to discard.

Additional details about the information in the merge window:

• By default, the information from the most recently updated profile is pre-selected.

• If any profiles being merged were verified in the past by any of the phone numbers or emails being retained, the final profile status will remain verified.

• If you select more than one verified phone number or email address to retain, the most recently verified phone or email is designated as the Primary in the final profile. If none of the selected phone or emails have been verified, the most recently modified phone or email is designated as the Primary in the final profile.

• If you select more than one address to retain, the most recently updated address is designated as the Primary in the final profile.

• The Primary phone, email, and address can be changed in the final profile once the merge is completed.

• If you are using the Member Directory, when the directory fields across profiles are all either set to Yes or all set to No, you will not be able to change the option from this window.

After selecting the details you wish to maintain on the merged profile, click the Merge button.

Once the profiles have been merged, you return to the Potential Duplicates table. The merged profiles are no longer visible in the group. If all the profiles were merged, that group disappears from the table.

Merge Profiles from the People List

You can still merge profiles from the People list. Once you find the records you would like to merge, click the checkbox next to each profile.

With the records selected, click the Merge # People button.

The Merge Profiles window appears as described above.

Merged Profile

After merging potential duplicates or individual profiles, the newly merged record appears for you to view and edit as necessary.

Unique values from profile fields not shown in the Merge Profiles window (tags, relationships, households, and activity) all remain in the merged profile. If you have custom fields set up, the data from the most recently modified Profile will be preserved, and the data from all other records is lost.