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Author: Joel Kristenson
Last Updated: 5/8/2014
Overview
This article will show you the different ways you can find possible duplicate records (Voters/Donors/Contacts) in your database. Even the most conscientious organizations will get duplicate records from time to time due to uncontrollable factors.
Outline
#1 Find Possible Duplicates
#2 Assign Possible Duplicates to an Attribute En Masse
#3 Related Resources
#1 Find Possible Duplicates
Navigate to your contact list (Voters/Donors/Contacts). In this example I used a nonprofit database where we renamed Donors to People and Orgs. Click here to learn how to customize labels in your database.
Load up a list of records you want to search through for duplicates. If your database has a large amount of records i.e. 100k – 1Milliion+ you may want to run this process in different chunks. In my example I loaded all 10,496 records.
Click [File] > Utilities > Find Possible Duplicates
The ”tie breaker” columns include:
- Middle Name
- Birthdates
- SOS (Secretary of State Number)
- Address
- Last Name
- First Name
Example: If you select only name and address, people with different middle names will be listed as a possible duplicates.
You can change around the options to fit your needs – every time you run the process you will need to start with a new contact list.
If you lower the numbers for characters to include in the address and name you will likely find more duplicates but they could be false positives. For instance it could be a Sr. and Jr. living at the same address with similar names.
In my example I lowered the 3 thresholds to 8, click [OK] when you’re ready to run the process.
Trail Blazer will display a progress bar, if you’re working with millions of records it will of course take some time and you may want to launch a separate session of TBZ.
Once complete it will prompt you with the results and a recommendation to assign this list an attribute of “Possible Duplicates”. Click here to learn how to set attributes en masse.
In my example I had 36 possible duplicates from my entire list of about 10,000 records.
Click [OK] to finish.
Here’s a sample snapshot of my duplicates:
From here it’s at your discretion how to proceed. Some options would include:
- Delete out the duplicate records
- Merge contact records
- Perform drag-and-drop merges to combine information into a single record
- Run automatic merging (requires records match exactly for merge to work)
- Assign the list to an attribute such as “Possible Duplicates”
In my example I chose to assign these records to an attribute called “Possible Dupes” en masse – the next section walks through that process.
#2 Assign Possible Duplicates to an Attribute En Masse
After you’ve got the list of possible duplicates on your screen click [Edit] > Set > Set Attributes
Click the Assign selected attributes to donors radio button and check the box of the attribute you want to set. *Attribute would have needed to be created previously, click here to learn how.
Click [OK] to proceed. Click [OK] again after prompted with the security warning.
You’ll be notified when the process is complete. You can now search by that attribute in the future.
#3 Related Resources
Article: Regular Maintenance – Best Practices
Article: Merge Contact Records
Video: How to Manage Duplicates
Video: Attributes – Assign en masse
3rd Party Learning Resource: How to Find Duplicates in Excel
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