OnlineFundraising may contain duplicate Contacts. Users can easily search for and merge duplicate Contacts with select Contact information and while keeping transactional data.
1. Find the Contact to keep (target)
Lookup the Contact in OnlineFundraising. Go to Transactional > Contacts and search using either phone number or email. The search result will be two or more Contacts in the case of duplicates.
Select the Contact to keep in OnlineFundraising. We recommend chosing the Contact to keep based on:
- Created timestamp: Contacts are sorted by newest first
- Contact information: Select the Contact with the most complete set of information
The selection should be made with external systems in mind. For example, CRM-systems often benefit from keeping the oldest Contact in order to preserve lifetime values or similar.
Please note: You will be able to select exactly which Contact information is kept in the system. The following steps describe how this is done.
The image exemplifies a Contact search using phone number with multiple results.
2. Select Contact to merge with (source)
2.1. Select Merge
In the Contact window, select the action Merge.
2.2. Lookup Contact to Merge With
Once you have clicked Merge you will have the option to search for the Contact to merge with. This is can be achieved in more ways than one:
- (Recommended) Click the arrow next to email or phone number. This action populates the search field with the selected value.
- Or type the email or phone number in the search field.
2.3. Select Contact in Search Result
The search result contains a list of Contacts that have a matching phone number or email (depending on your search). Select the Contact you wish to merge with from the list.
3. Select Contact Information and Review Result
Selecting a Contact to merge with opens a pop-up window which allows you to select Contact data and review the result.
3.1. Select Contact Data
Source (Contact to merge with) and Target (Contact to keep) are displayed next to each in order for the user to easily select Contact data to keep. The Target data is selected by default.
3.2. Review Result
The resulting Contact data are summarised in the right-most column. Review the results before merging.
Important: If a field is empty for both of the Contacts, the field is omitted from the overview. In this example the address fields are empty, hence they are omitted from the overview.
4. Merge Contacts
Upon clicking Merge the pop-up closes, and the user lands on the remaining acitve Contact (source).
The Contact is now updated with the following information:
- Contact data as selected by user
- Payments, Subscriptions and Payment methods have been transferred (regardless of status)
- Change log is updated to reflect the merge event.
The Contact which was merged into the remaining Contact is archived. To access the archived Contact, go to the Change log and follow the link in the corresponding merge event. It is possible to navigate back to the active Contact by clicking View merged on the archived Contact.
5. Unmerge Contacts
It is possible to unmerge Contacts. From the archived Contact, select Unmerge. As a result the archived Contact is reactivated and Contact data and entity connections are restored.