linking addresses mass update possible?

Madeleine Holdsworth

Is there a way to mass update to link an address.  I discovered that there is an incorrect address for numerous individual relationship records to one organization and determined that whoever updated these relationship records did not link the address to the organization. So in the person's individual constituent record the incorrect address appears in the address tab (type business even though I determined it is actually a home address) and it is not their organization's correct address.  The correct address appears on the org record.  The org has many individual relationships (99.9% have their own constit record) and we do not want to have to update one by one.  I don't know how/who/why this was done but this org is important to us and we need to correct the address on the individual relationship record (and what appears on the indiv constituent record).

Amy Dana

It sounds like your best bet will be to do a new address import.That way you can update everything at once without having to go into every single record.


Here's the Knowledgbase directions: https://kb.blackbaud.com/articles/Article/41472. Be sure to do the export first so that you have the correct AddressID. Otherwise RE will get really confused about where to put the info on the Constituent record.


Also, is the address shared with the Individuals and the main Organization? If so, it might be that when the Org address was changed somebody clicked the box to only change the address on that Consitutent and not on all shared records. Or the Individual addresses may be separate records from the Organization's, so you may want to look at your procedures for updating a single address that is/should be shared across multiple records.

Gina Gerhard

But not sure if importing addresses will actually create the link?  I seem to remember that you cannot import addresses and establish the correct link.


I think you may have to add a 'dummy' address (which would be correctly linked), then export out that dummy address and put the correct data in, then reimport it back. You'd then have a linked address with the correct information.  


But not sure ...

Madeleine Holdsworth

Thanks for both suggestions. I will look into it further using your suggestions.  I sure wish RE tracked changes to records more extensively...I would like to hunt down whoever on my staff that botched this up!

Laura Useche

Hi, Madeleine,


Have you been able to test whether the new address import creates the link? I'm looking at doing the same type of clean-up on our system.