Duplicate records

shani traum

Working my way through what RE thinks are duplicate records. Sometimes it's a case of two records with the same name - one with full info and the other with just an email address. So, there's no way to confirm they're duplicates - or not. One the one hand, I want the duplicate tool to be down to zero. On the other hand, I don't want to mark records as not-duplicates unless I know for sure. At some point down the road, the email only person could make a gift and then we'd have more info to determine the duplicate status but if I mark them as non-dupes, they won't be flagged as such and will not be found. So…what would you all do? Mark as “Not Dupes” or leave them in the tool as "possible dupes"?

JoAnn Strommen

@shani traum I understand the wanting possible dups to be ‘0.' I'm living with a couple common names in my possible list.

One option would be to contact the person you have all the info on and ask them if it is their email. Could say your doing a data clean up project and have this email. Is it theirs? Seems like many people use a specific email for online transactions than is their primary email. You'd know for sure. Or email the name/email record and ask for more info.

Question is: If the name/email person donates again using the same email but provides address/phone info, will flag as a dup to the name w/info record due to address/phone matching. I'm not sure if marking as non-dup for an email would prevent that. ?????

Otherwise, IMO, it is a guessing game. See what you can find in online records. Maybe you'll get more info. I would probably keep in possible list for time being if I can't find anything else. Even if you mark as non-dupe now, you can still find and merge records if you find it's same person later.

Dana Burton

@shani traum, I agree with @JoAnn Strommen - I too have some dups in my list because I don't have clear indication they are a match.

If you really want to clean up RE and have the time, I'd ask the email only (thank you PayPal people LOL) if they would please share a physical address as you are cleaning up potential duplicate records.

If you contact the people with the physical address, I would only give the portion prior to the @ symbol. It seems more confidential. Or maybe I'm weird that way.

I have some people that seem to change/rotate their email monthly!

Dariel Dixon 2

@shani traum - I leave them alone. Sometimes you'll get a piece of information later that may shed more light on the situation. It can pay to be patient about these things. I've never seen a database with zero duplicates, and I think it's quite unobtainable. I think as long as you are working on it and have it “within reason”, you'll be fine.

It's also infinitely easier to merge records later than to separate records that were merged inappropriately.