Searching for Duplicate Students

What is covered in this article? 

• How to search for duplicate students
• When to merge students 
• Merging students
• After merging students

How to search for duplicate students

• Navigate to Inquiries > Students List.
• Click Look for Duplicates at the top of the list.
• The system will search its collection of students and look for matches based on the following options:
  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Birth Date
• If the system returns a list of potential duplicates, then this means all of the above criterion was met. 

Note: You can choose to alter the Match duplicates by in order to relax the search criteria.  For example, you may not alway have the birthdate but you can match on first and last name or even just last name.

At a minimum, two options must be selected when using the Match duplicates by filter

When to merge students 

If the records are clearly duplicates i.e. more than one of the value are matching such as name and birth date then you should Merge the students in order to de duplicate the additional records.  This will also maintain any other contacts and activities associated with that student.

Note you can merge up to 5 records at any one time

To Merge students, do the following:

• • Select at least two (and no more than 5, otherwise the merge button will disappear) checkboxes on the left side of the page to enable the Merge button appear above the list
  • Click Merge
  • A dialog will be displayed where you can preview all the fields and select which fields you wish to keep from any of the students.  The end result will be one student with all the relevant fields you wish to keep.

Note: Once you decide to Merge there is no possibility of un-merging. Also after you merge the students, you will have the opportunity to merge the related contacts.

Merging students

As a result of merging contacts, there is a possibility that the same student was also linked with the original contact.  This will happen when the contact fills out multiple form on a school's website and includes the same child's information a second or even third time.

In this case, you will want to Merge the student records as well.  Merging students must be done from the Contacts section since each student may have several relationships with different contacts, think of a blended family.

It can be done under the following circumstances:

After merging students

• After you have Merged students, you will be presented with a second dialog giving you the opportunity to review any of the associated contacts that were associated with the merged students.  
• To merge, select at least two (up to 5) checkboxes on the left side of the dialog to enable the Merge button appear above the list. Only select the contacts that are duplicates.
• Click Merge
• A dialog will be displayed where you can preview all the fields and select which fields you wish to keep from any of the contacts.  The end result will be one contact with all the relevant fields you wish to keep, along with the relevant activity log information as well.
• Repeat this for any additional duplicated contacts