Checking+for+duplicate+records

Floss manual link: []

Duplicates typically happen when someone is added to the database using one bit of key information like an email address (e.g. attended a symposium) then is re-processed with a different value for that field (e.g. attends a facilitator training and now lists a different email address).

To check for duplicates - go to Contact / Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts Select the rule you want to use and click on 'Use rule'


 * About Dedupe Rules**

Floss Manual: []

Dedupe rules are used to find duplicate records - they are also used when importing to determine if each row being processed is a new record (no matching detail exist) or an update record (and an existing matching record exists already - just update).

Rules are based on listing fields to check, giving a score (weight) for each comparison field and nominating a threshold score - the weight score for each field that is a match is added up and if the sum exceeds the threshold then it's considered a duplicate (or an existing record for an import process.

As an example - the default rule (at the time of writing) is the 'Individual strict inbuilt' This rule checks for duplicates based on the Email field (you can edit the rule under Find and Merge Contacts to see what it checks) e.g if a the Find and Merge Duplicates report is run using this rule it will just search for contacts with the same email address. If an import is being done with this rule then it will treat a record where there is an existing contact with the same email address as an update.

Using this rule during an import has the unwanted result of treating an update record as a new record if the name and address details are the same but an alternative email address has been used. It ends up as duplicate record if a first and last name dedupe rule that doesn't include email address is run.