This section of the Automated Merge page lets you set general Auto Merge options, including whether to merge or household the records, whether to merge and household automatically or manually, the method of identifying matches, and the destination record when merging. Note: People records with Record Security will automatically be excluded from the Auto Merge.
There are three actions that the Auto Merge can perform: it can merge duplicates, it can link household records, or it can do both.
Merge Only
Household Only
Merge and Household
This field lets you choose the People fields you want IQ to compare when identifying records to be merged or householded. In addition to these selections, you can choose additional options for finding records to household or merge in the sections that follow.
Name, ZIP Code and Primary
Home Street Address Line 1 & 2
Name, Organization,
Zip Code and Primary Business Street Address Line 1 & 2 (Merge Only)
If the primary business addresses match, the records are identified for auto merge; the matching addresses will be merged, and all other addresses will be added to the destination record.
If the primary business and primary home addresses match, and if there are no other non-matching primary addresses, the records are identified for auto merge; the matching addresses will be merged, and all other addresses will be added to the destination record.
If the primary business and primary home addresses match, and if one of the non-destination records has another non-matching primary address, the records are identified for manual merge; the matching addresses will be merged, and all other addresses will be added to the destination record.
Note: There is no householding of records that match on the primary business address information and information in the last name field. This ensures that people with the same last name who work at the same business are not householded.
Name and Email Address
When you select this option, a third option appears under the Options for Finding Records to Household section: When E-Mail Address Matches and Last Name Does Not Match. This option lets you determine what to do with records when the last name is not a match.
E-Mail Address as Name
Only Using Email Address
Voter ID and Last Name
Provider
ID
Provider Voter ID and Last
Name
In order for records to be considered possible duplicates, first names must match at least partially. The partial match must be at the beginning of the names. Christopher and Chris, John and J. are matches; Robert and Bob, Robert and Bert aren't. There are some exceptions to this rule when more than two records are placed in a set and depending on which record is the destination record. For example, Chris and Christine are found to be a match and placed in a set because the beginning of the longer name matches the shorter name. If Christopher is then found, it is compared to both Chris and Christine and because Christopher does not match Christine, Christopher is not added to the set.
Two otherwise matching records, one of which has a first name and one of which doesn't, are always considered to be a match: Mr. Jason Summers and Mr. Summers are a match if all other criteria are met. Two records are also considered a match when neither has a first name if all other criteria are met.
IQ automatically uses the nickname table to determine whether first names are a match when identifying duplicate records during an Auto Merge. So, for example, a first name of Robert and a first name of Bob would be considered a match. Nicknames are stored in a code file, which allows you to add, change, or delete nicknames as needed for your office.
Note: Any record with a first name containing the word "and" is not considered with this option and is only merged with another record with an identical first name.
When using one of the options that checks addresses, Auto Merge identifies records as duplicates based on their primary address (home or business) only. It does not consider secondary addresses (such as those entered for summer residences, etc.) when identifying duplicate records. When Auto Merge merges duplicate records with matching home or business addresses, the addresses are merged into one primary address. Secondary addresses are placed in the destination record as secondary addresses. If two secondary addresses are identical, there will be two identical secondary addresses in the destination record.
You can choose to merge and household all records that meet your merge criteria either automatically or manually with options in this field. If you select Merge/Household Automatically, records in all of the sets created during the compile process are merged and householded, with the exception of those you exclude. If you select Create Manual Merge/Household Set IQ will place the records that meet your criteria in the Manual Merge. This option is not available when E-Mail Address as Name is selected for the Method of Identifying Matches. Note: If the System Settings for "Allow deletion of People with Open or Closed Workflow records" and "Allow deletion of Agency Contacts with Open or Closed Workflow records." are set to No for your IQ system, Manual Merge will not take place if the record(s) deleted by the merge have open or closed workflow.
When records are identified
as duplicates, one of them must be selected as the destination
record. Options in this field let you identify either the record that
was added first or the one added most recently as the destination record.
If you've added voter registration data to your People database, you might
want to select the Most Recently Entered
Person option. The selected option also applies when two households
are combined but no records are merged