Finding duplicate members and nonmembers

The Duplicate Search enables you to find the people (members and nonmembers) that are likely duplicate records for the same person. There are 4 "Confidence levels" to choose from - enabling you to find the most obvious duplicates, then cast a wider net for the less obvious duplicates.

Choose the "more.." menu option (under the People menu section) and click on the "Duplicate people" link.

Resolving duplicates

1

Searching

The options for "Confidence level" are listed from highest to lowest - choose the highest levels to find most of the duplicates.

2

Deciding

Click the "Search" button to see the results and use the "Name" links to compare the potential duplicates. 

Use the following criteria to decide which records to keep:

Member vs Nonmember - While it's important to fix a duplicate when both records are "Member", there are often good reasons to leave a duplicate when one of the records is a "Nonmember" - unless the records are in the same church.

Original record - Keeping the oldest record will preserve the member's history. This usually requires initiating the transfer that should have happened earlier.

Most history - However, keep the newer record if it includes member history (e.g. transfers). Use Notes to preserve any history from the older record.

3

Fixing

The best way to drop a duplicate record depends on the member's history. The most common scenarios are:

Nonmember - Change status to "Deleted nonmember".

Includes transfer history - Change status to "Duplicate member".

No transfer history - "Undo" last change, then change status to "Deleted member".

For the steps to make these changes, see Fixing duplicate members and nonmembers.