Posted on 30th Oct 19 by David Simpson
With Duplicate Record Handling you can search your Beacon database for those pesky duplicates that have snuck in. Finding and fixing duplicate records has never been simpler.
Ensuring that your database is free of duplicates is important. It helps you keep a single view of your supporters, ensures you don't accidentally contact someone twice, and keeps your reporting accurate.
Beacon makes it easy to find and merge these duplicates, using the standard filtering system.
Finding duplicates
When filtering records (e.g. people), you can use the is not unique option to find records that have duplicate values.
For example, if you wanted to find a list of all organisations that have duplicate names, you could use the following filter:
Similarly, you could do the same for people, based on their email addresses, names, or phone numbers:
When you find duplicates, you can merge them to keep your data nice and tidy:
Fields that you can use to find duplicates
The is not unique filter option is currently available for the following field types:
- Person name
- Short text
- Phone
- Number
- Currency
- Percent
- Location
Each of these is handled slightly differently. For example, if you filter by "Name (full)" then uniquess is determined by only the first and last name. The title (e.g. Mr) and middle name are ignored.
Documentation
If you'd like to find out more about how to use this feature you can read the documentation. The docs include an explanation of how duplicates are found for each field type as well as a suggestion for how best to surface duplicates on your Beacon dashboard.
It's time to try out this great new charity CRM feature...
Duplicate Record Handling is now live and ready for your to try right now. Log in to check your records for duplicates.
Excited about how Beacon helps to keep your data squeaky clean? Got charity CRM questions for us? Fire off an email to [email protected] or click the chat button in the bottom right corner of your Beacon dashboard.