Running an Auto Merge

There are two steps to an Auto Merge: compile and merge. The compile step builds a list of People records to household or merge based on criteria that you select on the Automated Merge page. At the completion of the compile step, Summary and Detail reports are generated for review. The merge step households and merges records found with the compile step. You can perform these steps separately or back-to-back as a single process. If you run them as a single process, the merge step begins immediately after the compile step is complete without any intervention on your part. If you run the steps separately, you can review the records that have been found with the compile step and exclude from the merge those records you don't want merged or householded.

A log file is generated during both steps to provide feedback on the progress of the Auto Merge. Your IT consultant can assist you with interpreting the information in the log file should you have questions during the compile or merge process or after the Auto Merge is complete.

There are several things to keep in mind when planning an Auto Merge:

• You should run Address Checker on your database or on the selected records you plan to use in the Auto Merge. Auto merge compares addresses and looks for an exact match in order to determine if records should be merged or householded. If addresses have not been normalized through Address Checker, duplicates and households may not be located during Auto Merge.

• A good, verified backup from the previous day is essential prior to running Auto Merge.

• You should disable the backup for the night that you're running the Auto Merge.

• Users should not be in IQ while the merge is running; they may be in the system during the compilation process.

• It's a good idea to run the Auto Merge over the weekend, especially for a large database.

Note: The following records will not be merged or householded with Auto Merge even though they meet the criteria you set:

• Board records

• People records with Gift workflows

• Records with an Affiliation Code of NO_MERGE, NO.MERGE, NO MERGE, NOMERGE, DO_NOT_MERGE, DO.NOT.MERGE, DO NOT MERGE, or DONOTMERGE

• People records already examined by the current Auto Merge process.

The first thing that happens during an Auto Merge is the identification of sets of People records that belong in the same household based on matching Zip codes and Addr1 and Addr2 data, and criteria that you enter on the Automated Merge page. Those records are reviewed to any that are duplicates based on merge criteria that you select.

To run an Auto Merge:

1. Click the People tab and select Auto Merge on the submenu.

2. Select Add AM Job on the actions menu.

3. On the Automated Merge Record page, select options as appropriate.

4. Select the appropriate merge action:

Compile and Merge – A background job is started to identify records to be merged and householded. The records are placed into sets, and any sets that meet the criteria for manual merging are moved to the Manual Merge list. Finally, records in the remaining sets are merged and householded. Once the process is complete, the Auto Merge job appears on the Auto Merge History page with a status of Merge Complete.

Compile Only – A background job is started to identify records to be merged and householded. The records are placed into sets, and any sets that meet the criteria for manual merging are moved to the Manual Merge list. Once the process is complete, the Auto Merge job appears on the Auto Merge History page with a status of Compile Complete. You will not be able to perform another Auto Merge until you run the merge process for this Auto Merge or interrupt it. Note that if you've selected Create Manual Merge/Household Set in the Merge/Household Automatically or Manually field, your only option is to compile, and the only button available at the bottom of the page is Compile Only. In this case, all the records found during the compile process will be placed in the Manual Merge list for manual merging.

Once the Compile process is finished, you can print and review a detail report of records found during that process and exclude records before you run the merge step. It's important that you review, exclude records, and run the merge process as soon as possible.

Merge/Household – A background job is started to merge and household the records that were found during the Compile process. This button appears at the bottom of the Automated Merge page only when you've run the Compile process separately and only when it's complete.

8. Click OK in response to the confirmation message.

You can cancel the Auto Merge during either the compile or merge process by selecting the Interrupt/Cancel action on the Automated Merge page.

Background Processing

All automated merge processes are run as background jobs. This means they are sent to the database server and processed there instead of on your workstation. Click the Background Jobs submenu link under My IQ to view a listing of queued and running background jobs for your IQ user-id. This listing includes all background jobs, not just those for Auto Merge.

If you interrupt the automated merge compile or merge, you stop the background process. If you interrupt the merge process, some records will have been merged and householded, and others will remain unmerged and unhouseholded.