A Duplicate Finder Routine runs regularly on your MinistryPlatform system to search for duplicate records. The duplicate records identified by this routine must share multiple values in common (such as email, date of birth and phone) in addition to having similar names. While this routine is good at catching many duplicates, it won't catch all of them - sometimes there is data that only an actual user can discern. As such, it's important that all users are trained to keep an eye out for duplicate Contact records.
When a duplicate Contact record is found, you should indicate a "Duplicate Of" Relationship for the duplicate Contacts. This process does not combine the duplicates; rather, it notes the duplicate records so that a trained user can later use the Combine Contacts Tool to review and eliminate one of the records.
For details on handling Contacts that aren't actually duplicated, but might be perceived as one, see the Combine Contacts Tool.
The Contacts with "Duplicate Of" Relationships should be regularly reviewed and combined using the Combine Contacts Tool. A SPoC or some other trained user should plan to do this at least weekly.
The Contact Relationships page in the People List folder will show all designated Contact Relationships. This is the page on which a user could search for the relationship type of "possible duplicate" and find all of the potential duplicate relationships within their system. Utilize the views "Duplicates" and "Possible Duplicates" to identify and correct Contacts marked by these respective statuses. Relationships relating a Contact record to itself should be removed and can be found in the view "Fix Delete Related 2 Self".
