ProDon:Searching and Eliminating Duplicates

Introduction

This procedure allows you to find clients duplicates in an active list. A duplicate occurs when there are more than one file for the same client.

The active list is the list that is displayed onscreen in the "Client management", the "Task management" or in "Analysis & History".

If a filter or a search is made, the number of items onscreen decreases, but it still is the active list.

To conduct a duplicates search, you must always go through the Client management.

Searching Duplicates

To obtain a duplicates list, you need to use the "Customized lists" tool. To do so, click on the "" icon in the Client management and select the "Static list" option.

A: Select the option "All potential duplicate clients in the active list".	B: Click on the button to name the future list of duplicates.

C: In this window, name the list distinctly.	D: To create a customized list, click on " Confirm addition".

E: Click on "Edit criteria".

F: This screen will appear. You then have to choose the duplicates detection criteria.	G: When the criteria are selected, click on " OK".
CAUTION: If the box "Same organization and same department/service" is checked, both must be identical. Therefore, if the companies' names are the same, but the service is different, they will not be detected as potential duplicates.

H: This box is usually checked by default and allows you to automatically filter the duplicates list after the addition.	I: Click on " Add to the clients list".

A: The clients who are potential duplicates are grouped. Alternating colours allow you to differentiate them quickly and easily.	B: Note that three icons will be added at the upper right side of the grid.
NOTE: If the box of the previous step H was not checked, you would have to do a filter to obtain the result onscreen. See the "Filter Data (Queries)" document for more details about filters.

Remove a Client from the List of Duplicates

The button " Remove the client from the list of duplicates" allows you to remove a client from the list.
A: Get positioned on the client in the group of duplicates you want to remove.	B: Click on .
CAUTION: If there are two clients in a group of duplicates, by clicking on "Remove the client from the list of duplicates", the second client will also be removed automatically.

There are only two clients left in the group of duplicates out of the initial three.

Remove a Group of Duplicates from the List

The button " Remove the group from the list of duplicates" allows you to remove an entire group from the list of duplicates.
A: Get positioned on one of the clients you want to remove from the group of duplicates.	B: Click on .

The group disappears and the alternating colours adjust accordingly in order to better differentiate the groups of duplicates.

Merge a Group of Duplicates

The button " Merge the duplicates" allows you to access the merge duplicates interface.
A: Select a client in the group of duplicates to merge.	B: Click on .

A: This column contains the names of the processed fields for each line.	B: This column contains the information of the first client to be merged.
C: This column contains the information of the second client to be merged.	D and E: These two columns contain the information of the other clients to be merged. A maximum of 10 clients can be processed at the same time. If the group contains more than 10 clients, the client resulting from the merge will be placed in the group of duplicates with the remaining clients.
F: This column contains the desired result of the merge.
NOTE: By default, the first available information in client order is entered in column F "Result". For example, if column B "Client 1" is empty and columns C "Client 2" and D "Client 3" contain information, column F "Result" will contain the information of column C "Client 2".
EXCEPTIONS: For the information corresponding to a check box, the answer "Yes" is always selected if it is available for one of the clients to merge.

A: In this example, the two first clients are duplicates.	B: This client is not a duplicate, so you should remove him from the list.
C: This client is not a duplicate either, so you should also remove him from the list.	D: To remove clients 3 and 4 from the list of duplicates to merge, click on " Remove from merge".
NOTE: This option is not available if there are only two clients to merge.

This window opens.
E: Using the drop-down list, select the client to be removed from the list of duplicates to merge.	B: Click on " OK".

After clicking on " OK" the "Question" window will close automatically. From the merge duplicates window, click again on " Remove from merge", to be able to remove the other clients who are not duplicates.

G: Using the drop-down list, select the client to be removed from the list of duplicates to merge.	H: Click on " OK".

I: The "Result" column has been refreshed and the information is put back in client order, if it came from the removed client. The "Result" column contains all the information of the "Client 1" column.	J: Note that the " Remove from merge" button is no longer there since there are only two clients in the merge.

K: It is also possible to assign the information corresponding to a particular client column to the "Result" column. To do so, you need to click on the header of the column. In this example, the "Result" column now contains all the information of "Client 2".

L: The only fields that remain untouched by this function are the fields highlighted in blue at the bottom of the merge grid. For these fields, the merge is compulsory and there is no other option.

M: It is also possible to choose manually the wanted result for each orange line. To do so, you need to click on the white cell to be edited in the "Result" column. A button of the drop-down list then appears and displays the possible choices.

NOTE: You can also type the desired information in each of the fields where it is possible to enter information in the client file.

Details and Additional Exceptions

For the "Gender" field, it is always possible to select either "Male" or "Female". You can also delete the information to to leave the cell empty.

For the "Language" field, it is always possible to choose from all the languages available in ProDon.

For the fields corresponding to a check box, it is possible to select "Yes" or "No" only if the answers are available for one of the clients present in the merge interface. For example, if all the clients have "No" at the "No receipt wanted" field, it will be impossible to select "Yes".

For the fields: "Sector, Canvasser, Designated gift, of date type, customized fields of predefined or numerical list type", you must choose from the available choices in accordance with the clients present in the merge interface. For example, if none of the clients has a sector of activity, it will be impossible to choose one.

For the "Categories" field, you must select the information corresponding to a particular client or merge the information of all the clients.

Many verifications are done when merging, some will require your intervention and others will apply automatically. For instance, it is impossible to merge a client for whom you have selected "No" at the "Deceased" field and for whom you would have entered a date of death.

It is possible to double-click in the "Adress", "Comment" and "Message" fields in order to see the complete information even if it contains several lines.

The green lines contain an identical piece of information for each client.

The orange lines contain different information for at least two clients.

The blue lines contain information that will inevitably be merged.

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Document name: ProDon:Searching and Eliminating Duplicates

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