Merging People Records

MN Dept. of Corrections staff, follow the directions HERE: Merging People: DOC special instructions

Sometimes you’ll find duplicate people who have been entered in your site. Person Merge is a super easy way to combine two records. 

The instructions below are for merging 2 student records. The same concept applies when merging staff and volunteer records.

1. Students tab: Search for the people names you want to merge.
2. On the Summary and Info subtabs, compare the records to confirm that the two people are the same. Check visible SSN digits, birthdate, gender, race/ethnicity, and address, phone, and email entries.
   Be certain these are the same people BEFORE you merge! There is no merge "undo" button.
3. Decide which record you want to keep. This will be Person One, the record you want to keep.
   
4. Write down the badge IDs for both records, writing a 1 next to the badge ID for Person One (again, the record you want to keep).  
5. Click on the Admin tab, then Person Merge.
   
   1. In the Badge ID One box on the left, type the badge ID of the record you want to keep.
   2. In the Badge ID Two box: type the badge ID of the record you want to merge into Badge ID One.
   3. Carefully confirm that you have selected the two students you really want to merge.
      *Double check their names.* <------ Seriously!
      Click the checkboxes, then type over the characters of their name that are displayed in the text box. 
      
      • Exception 1: When the last name has only 2 or 3 characters, type only what you see. Do not add a spacebar at the end. Example: The student's last name is Van. "Van" will appear in the confirmation boxes. Type Van, not Van(spacebar).
        
      • Exception 2: When the last name has 4+ characters, and the 4th character is a blank, you WILL use a spacebar. Example: The student's last name is Del Rio. "Del " will appear in the confirmation boxes. Type Del(spacebar), not Del.
   4. Click the Merge button.

Here's what happens for student records after the merge is complete.

• Assessments, Schedules, Benchmarks, Logs, History Items, Time, and Info from both records are combined onto the merged record.
  • Duplicate history items do not appear on the merged record.
  • Students currently enrolled in the same class on both records may show TWO entries on the Classes>Summary screen. Try to delete one enrollment. If you cannot, contact SiD Support at [e-mail] for help.
• The merged record will show Badge ID One details when the field will hold only one entry. Examples: Badge ID, SSN, Birthdate, Gender, Hispanic, Ethnicity. Exceptions: 
  • Current Name, Address, Primary & Secondary Phone, and Email show the most recent entries - which may come from the Badge ID Two record. Update the name and other details by creating a new name entry on the Students>Info screen (even if it existed in the past).
  • When the Badge ID One student photo is blank, the photo from Badge ID Two will be used (if available).