Sometimes you may end up with two accounts for the same person — for example, if they signed up twice using two different email addresses.
Rather than deleting or archiving one of the accounts — which could mean losing data if both have been used — you can merge them.
This article covers the following topics:
Duplicate detection system
Springly includes a built-in system that checks for potential duplicates when a new account is created.
The check runs on two levels to determine whether the person already exists in your database:
- First, the new contact's first and last name;
- Then, their email address and/or zip code.
If both conditions are met, the duplicate is detected and no new contact is created, since it's the same person.
Check out this article for more information on managing duplicates.
This detection system only applies to new accounts — whether contacts or structures — and is not retroactive.
Merging two accounts
Accessing the page
Go to Community > Settings > then open the Advanced Options tab.
Here, you can enter the two accounts you want to merge:
- Record 1 is the primary account: its field values will be kept if the same fields are also filled in on account 2.
- Record 2 is the merged account: its field values will not be kept if the same fields already have values in the primary account.
The email address from the primary account will be retained, and the person will no longer be able to log in with the second account's email address.
Identifying accounts 1 and 2
If both accounts have identical details (same name and email), the easiest way to tell them apart is to use the Contact ID.
Go to the Contacts page, click the "columns" icon, and select Contact ID to enable it.
Open the Advanced Options page in a new window and use the IDs to search for the accounts you want to merge.
What information gets merged
The following information is merged into the primary account:
- The field values from record 2 will not be kept if the same fields already have values in record 1.
- All transactions (donations, memberships, events, online shop) associated with record 2 are transferred to record 1.
However, the merge has limitations when it comes to accounting:
- There will still be two third parties in the accounting records (visible in the general ledger).
- As a result, book entries are not merged.
After the merge, it will not be possible to link a payment entry to the third party from account 2. We recommend settling any outstanding payables or receivables before merging.
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