How to Merge Duplicate Constituent Records

When the same person or organization ends up with more than one record, merging combines them into one so your history and totals stay accurate. Merging is permanent, so review carefully first.

When to merge

Merge when you find true duplicates, for example a person entered separately as a donor and a volunteer, an imported record that duplicates an existing one, or two records with different spellings of the same name.

The merge wizard. Pick the record to keep and the one to remove.

Merge duplicate constituents

1. Go to Constituents (CRM) > Constituent List and click Merge Duplicates. This opens the merge wizard.
2. Find Duplicates: use Manual Selection to pick the two records yourself, or Auto-Detect Duplicates to choose a match field (such as email) and let Argenta list likely duplicate groups.
3. In Manual Selection the two search boxes are Record to Keep (Primary) and Record to Delete (Duplicate). Each one takes a constituent name or an ID. In Auto-Detect Duplicates you choose a Primary Match Field (Constituent Name, Email or Cell Phone) and click Find Duplicates.
4. Click Next: Compare Records.
5. Compare & Resolve: review the two records side by side and choose which details the surviving record keeps. Going Back to an earlier step and returning keeps the choices you have already made, as long as you are still comparing the same two records. Pick a different pair and the comparison starts fresh from those two records' own values.
6. Confirm & Execute: confirm the merge. The kept record absorbs the other's history, and the duplicate is removed.

Start from two records you can already see

When both records are in front of you on the Constituent List, you do not have to search for them again. Tick exactly two rows, open Choose Bulk Action, pick Merge Two Selected Records, then click Run Bulk Action. Argenta opens Merge Duplicate Constituents with the pair already filled in: the older of the two records goes into Record to Keep (Primary) and the newer into Record to Delete (Duplicate). Carry on from Next: Compare Records as above.

Check whether that is the way round you want before you go on. The older record is not always the fuller one, and both boxes can still be changed on the screen. Tick any other number of rows, or use Select All Records That Meet The Current Filter Criteria, and Argenta asks you to check exactly two records first. If either record is one your own permissions keep you from seeing, neither box is filled and you can pick the pair by hand instead.

The constituent list, with search, filters and bulk actions.

Before you merge

• Decide which record should survive (usually the one with more complete information or more history).
• Double-check you have the right two records; the merge cannot be undone.

When Argenta will not let you merge. Neither record can be set to view only, and a locked record can only be merged by a Master Admin. The records Argenta keeps for your Stripe and PayPal payments cannot be merged at all. You also need more than view-only access yourself, and if your own permissions are limited to a chapter, division, department or precinct, both records must sit inside it. Argenta also checks the email addresses the surviving record would end up with. If either the primary or the secondary one is not a valid address, the merge stops with nothing merged, and the message names the address so you can go and correct it. This can happen on an address nobody has just typed, because the merged value is taken from what the two records already hold, so correct it on whichever record holds it and then merge them again.

After the merge

• Files uploaded to the deleted record's Files tab move across to the surviving record, so an attachment on either record is still there afterwards.
• The deleted record's Notes, Contact Log entries, Engagements and Follow-Ups move across as well, so anything written against the duplicate is still readable on the record you kept.
• Payments move too, including Stripe charges, membership payments and withdrawals, so the surviving record holds the whole payment history for both.
• The surviving record carries the combined giving history, and its Donor Level is recalculated from that new total, so the band can move up. See What are Donor Levels in Argenta?