Because records are added to the People database on
an ongoing basis, it's inevitable that there will sometimes be more than
one record for the same person in the database. IQ provides several ways
for you to identify and merge such duplicate records. It also lets you
identify the records of people who live at the same address and "household"
them
The Auto Merge process compares records in the People database, determines if they are duplicates or if they belong to the same household (based on parameters you select), and then merges or households them. Note: People records with Record Security will automatically be excluded from the Auto Merge. You can run Auto Merge in one of two ways, Compile Only or Compile and Merge/Household.
Compile
Only
Have IQ merge or household all of the sets it has found.
Review the sets that were found during the Compile step, exclude any sets that you don't want to be merged or householded, and start the Merge/Household process to merge or household records in the remaining sets.
Cancel the Auto Merge.
Compile
and Merge/Household
With the Manual Merge process, you review records in
a list and determine on a case-by-case basis whether they should be merged
or householded. There are four ways of generating lists of possible duplicate
and household records
merge the records if they're duplicates;
household the records if they have the same address; or
skip to the next set if you determine that the records should not be merged or householded.
If records are identified as duplicates, the merge process takes the information from both records and combines it into one record. The record ID that remains is the destination record. If records are identified as belonging to the same household, they remain separate records but are linked together with the same household ID. One of them is identified as the head of the household.
When two or more People records are merged, the destination record will contain all information from the merged records. Information in all destination record fields is retained. If a destination field is blank, data from the non-destination record field is used.
Merging retains all information in fields that allow
multiple values (such as affiliation codes and communications information)
and eliminates any duplicate information. For example, if two merged records
have multiple affiliation codes, all codes appear in the destination record.
If both records have the same code, it appears only once in the destination
record. If both records have information in a single-value field (for
example, Informal Salutation,
the one with the most characters is retained, except for the County,
Precinct, CRTE
and Cong. District
fields where the data in the destination record is retained. Text in the
Comments field of non-destination
records is appended to that in the destination record. Note:
There is a 4,000 character limit for the Comments
field
Merging adds all attached files, discussion topics, mail, workflow and event records, as well as links to People or other records, to the destination record.
When records that are merged are part of a multi-record household, all records will become part of the destination household, that is, they will all have the Household ID of the destination household. When householding through Auto Merge, IQ selects the destination household. A multi-record household is always selected as the destination household over a single-record household.
When People records are householded, the same Household ID is assigned to all of the records in the set. A householded record retains all of its original information (including workflow and correspondence history); the only thing that changes is the Household ID number if it's not the destination household.
With Auto Merge, records that have the same business address are not householded. If your database contains several people who work for the same company and have the same business address, they will not combine into one household during an Auto Merge. However, you have this option with the manual merge process.
When records are identified as duplicates, either through Auto Merge or Manual Merge, one of the duplicate records must be selected as the destination record. When records are merged, the information contained by the non-destination record or records is added to the destination record. The destination record retains its record ID.
When you merge records through Manual Merge, you must select the record that is to be the destination record. When records are merged through Auto Merge, you select an option to make either the record that was added first or the one added most recently the destination record.
Every record is a member of a household, even if it's a household of one. A single member of a household is by default the head of the household. When there are multiple records in a household, one of the records must be identified as the head. Identifying one member of a household as its head provides you with the ability to limit selections and mailings to just one person per household (the head).
When households are combined through Manual Merge, you
must select the record that is to be the head of the household. When households
are combined through Auto Merge, IQ selects the head of new household
based on the Automated
Merge Option you selected for the destination record