Merging duplicate givers
From time to time, you may end up with some duplicate giver records. They can be identified using the Duplicated Givers report in the Giving module's Data Cleansing reports.
Additionally, when viewing a giver's profile page, you might also see an Information message alerting you to a potential duplicate giver, with the option to Merge (explained below) or Ignore (which will dismiss the message and prevent it from appearing again).
Merging duplicate givers
Selecting Merge from either the Duplicate Givers report or a giver profile Information message (shown above) will open the Merge givers page, with Giver 1 being the giver you were viewing when selecting Merge and Giver 2 being the duplicate. It's important to remember that during the merge process, information selected for retention (explained below) will be merged into Giver 1. Giver 2 will be deleted.
Working within the Merge givers page, review each section methodically, selecting which elements of Giver 1 or Giver 2 are to be merged and retained - select the radio button against the respective entry to be retained.
The Merge page takes you through the following sections (depending on the modules and module settings your church has):
- Giver information - name, Giver reference, bank reference, Site etc.
- Address
- Contact Details - phone, email, communication options
- Spouse Details - where Giver 1 or Giver 2 is marked as a couple or where a Gift Aid Split is held (the UK only)
It is not possible to choose not to merge one or more elements of data - for example, you cannot choose to not merge Tags - all Tags for Giver 2 will be merged into Giver 1 - in this scenario, you should remove tags from Giver 2 before completing the merge, or remove the tags after the merge is completed.
When you are happy that radio buttons have been selected for all the data to be retained, select Save to complete the merge process. Giver 1 will be retained with all the selected fields of data and Giver 2 will be deleted. This process is irreversible.
A merge record is added to the Changes log for the merged giver.
What data is merged?
Beyond the radio button options provided selectable on the Merge givers page, the following additional giver data is also merged and retained.
- Giver tags
- All donations
- All pledges
- All declarations (the UK only)
- Giver Notes - including any Note visibility restrictions (e.g. restricted to "Just Me" or a particular User Group).
- Communication logs and Changes logs
- Linked giver links - If Giver 1 has a linked Address Book contact, that link is retained. If Giver 2 has a linked Address Book contact but Giver 1 does not, the Giver 2 link is retained. If Giver 1 and Giver 2 both have linked Address Book contacts, only the Giver 1 link is retained
- Multi-site - if Giver 1 and Giver 2 are assigned to a different site, a radio button is selectable on the Merge givers page to select which Site the merged giver is added to. A giver can only be assigned to one site