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Duplicate Finder Routine

Search your database for duplicate records.

When this routine determines that two records are likely to be duplicates, the routine creates a Contact Relationship record between those two records. The relationship is Duplicate Of and is visible under each Contact's Relationships sub-page. These relationships are also visible in the Contact Relationships page in People Lists. More importantly, individuals with rights to combine contacts see these duplicates listed when performing the normal Combine Contacts routine.

Required Matching Conditions

The nightly duplicate finder routine looks at the following. These five conditions must be true:

  1. The first four characters or last four characters of Last Name must match.
  2. The First Name or Nickname must match.
  3. Genders cannot be different.
  4. Date of Birth cannot be different.
  5. Household ID cannot be the same.
    • This routine does not look for duplicates within the same Household as it is common for family members to have the same last name, email, and/or first name.

Additional Matching Condition

In addition to the required matching conditions, one of the following must match:

  • The Email Address
  • The Mobile Phone
  • The Home Phone
  • The Home Phone of the first record matches Mobile Phone of the second record.
  • The Home Phone of the second record matches Mobile Phone of the first record.
  • The same Address Line 1 AND City
  • The same Donor ID AND Routing number AND Account number

Here are some reasons the Duplicate Finder wouldn't note records as duplicates:

  • Conflicting Gender values (that is, an empty value in one and not the other won't disqualify them).
  • Conflicting Date of Birth values, including Time
    Note: An empty value in one and not the other won't disqualify them.
  • The records are already related somehow.
  • The records are already in the same Household.

The routine also checks for Spanish and Latin characters, so the routine can find them when one record has it and another duplicate record does not (for example, "Canas" will match for "Cañas").

For details on handling Contacts that aren't actually duplicates, but might be perceived as one, see the Combine Contacts Tool.

View All Records Identified as Duplicates

  1. Go to People Lists > Contact Relationships.
  2. Select the Duplicates and/or Possible Duplicates view.
All duplicates or possible duplicates display in the view.