Merge Entity Button

Use the Merge Entity button if you have two households or organizations that need to be merged together. This may arise because the two are duplicate entries of the same household or organization or because two households have merged into one for other reasons, such as a marriage.

When you are merging two entities, you are essentially keeping one household or organization, and moving the people, with the addresses, giving history, and other information from the other one, and then deleting it. You are left with one household or organization where before you had two.

Before you merge the two, you need to decide which one you want to keep and which one you want to move and delete.

When the entities are merged, an attempt is made to determine if the names from the two entities refer to the same people. For example, while it may be obvious to a human that William and Bill Jones are the same person, the computer does not know this. When the merger is complete, the new entity may now have both names, even though they are the same person. When this happens, you can use the Merge People button to merge those names into one name.

To merge two households or organizations into one, do the following:

1. Look up the household or organization you are merging from and open the Bio tab. This is the one that will be emptied out and deleted.
2. From the Profile tab, click on the Merge Entity button.
3. Look up the household or organization you want to merge this entity into.
4. Click on the View Details button.
   1. This displays details about both households or organizations. Scan through this data to make sure you have selected the correct two entities to merge.
   2. WARNING: Once the merger is complete, it cannot easily be undone.
5. If you are sure you have selected the correct entities, click on Merge.
   1. The two households or organizations are merged. Note that you may still see the old household or organization bio tab. Close this tab.
6. Open the bio tab for the household or organization you merged into. You should review the information, cleaning up by doing any of the following steps that may be needed:
   1. Merge any duplicates that your find using the Merge People button.
   2. Create a couple from two individuals if appropriate.
   3. Make sure the correct name is marked as primary.
   4. Review the household name, selecting a different name if desired.
   5. Delete any duplicate addresses, phones or emails.
   6. Make sure the remaining addresses, phones and emails are attached to the correct names and the correct preferences are selected.