Avoiding duplicates

[sum3]

Hi, for the benefit of all, could you list what steps are taken to avoid duplicate accounts when adding a donation? Presumably you check some combination of email address and mailing address. It would be great if you could list the precise steps taken here, so that we can account for it within our systems, as well as propose improvements. For example, I believe I've noticed a case where a case-insensitive compare of the address could have avoided a duplicate account.

If this is documented somewhere, please let us know where, and if not, consider adding it.

Thanks!

[CnP.Support]

Good day!

We simply check for email. We don't worry about address- address is a Household issue.

You may add as many emails as you want for a contact. If any of those emails match then we add the transaction to that CONTACT. If the CONTACT does not exist then we create an ACCOUNT first and then create a CONTACT under that ACCOUNT.

Duplicates cannot be created if the person uses the same email address or an email that is listed for the contact.

Hope that makes sense.

[sum3]

Well, we have cases where there's an account in our system, with no contact, and the opportunity is being assigned to this account. The account had the same name and address as the incoming donation.

At the same time, there was another account in the system, that does have an a contact record, which had the same email address as the incoming donation, but the opportunity was not assigned to this account/contact.

It seems there must be some matching against the account, either the account name, or address, or something. And, it seems this is taking higher priority than the email address.

[CnP.Support]

From inside of your SalesForce account please select the C&P Settings area and uncheck the Household Update option.

Please repost your information and let us know if that worked for you.

[sum3]

update households has been unselected for some time, we don't use households. we have organizations, patrons, and opportunities checked, "update patrons", and households unchecked

[sum3]

And, we've got another case (happened today), where a new contact & account are created, but the opportunity isn't assigned to the new contact/account, it's assigned to an existing account/contact in the system with the same name and (a variation of) the same address. In this case the existing contact didn't have an email address.

[CnP.Support]

Good day!

As was stated before we only match emails. If a contact does not have email we can't possibly match it with a new payment and will create a new contact & account. We update a contact record with new payment only if the email matches.

A contact may have many emails associated with it and one of those emails has to match before we update its record. In this case you stated that the original contact did not have an email so we naturally have no way of finding it.

Finding a match based on name is not practical since multiple "John Smith" may exist and updating one record based on the payment of another may have a worst outcome than creating a new one.

Of course if have any ideas as to how we can accommodate your situation we can gladly consider it.

[sum3]

Well, maybe the subject line is misleading. I've described two different types of cases where you're assigning the opportunity to an account which has no email address in any contact records. Can you explain how this is happening? What is the method by which an opportunity is assigned to an account and contact?

[CnP.Support]

Good day.

How about if we discuss this over the phone and then I submit a summary in the forum. It will be easier to discuss this so we can figure out what is going on.

What is your organization's name and can we reach you using the number listed in the account?

[CnP.Support]

One point that I forgot to ask.

Have you disabled HOUSEHOLDS through the Household settings in Salesforce?

For Households to be totally disabled you first have to disable it in Salesforce and then in C&P Settings. I just want to make sure that Household is completely disabled. Households creates accounts by itself and if not set right it will generate multiple accounts.

I looked up your organization and I can call you at your convenience to go over this.