Two records for the same person

Joining duplicates back together - there is no Merge button, and knowing what Xperios is actually looking for saves most of the frustration.

Step 1 of 8

First, check it really is a duplicate

One person has one record in Xperios and can hold several roles at once. A tutor who also has a child in lessons is not two accounts that have gone wrong - it is one contact wearing a Teacher tab and a Debtor tab, and that is how it is meant to be.

Their personal mail goes to Email and their teaching mail to Work Email, so the two stay apart. The sign-in looks like an email address but it is only a username - it does not have to match either.

Use the arrow keys to move between steps.

1. First, check it really is a duplicate

   One person has one record in Xperios and can hold several roles at once. A tutor who also has a child in lessons is not two accounts that have gone wrong - it is one contact wearing a Teacher tab and a Debtor tab, and that is how it is meant to be.

   Their personal mail goes to Email and their teaching mail to Work Email, so the two stay apart. The sign-in looks like an email address but it is only a username - it does not have to match either.

2. Find them

   Run the query Contacts - Duplicate or Similar(s). It lists the records that look like each other, which is both a tidy-up list and a way of checking whether something has gone wrong in bulk - a run of identical copies usually means a spreadsheet import rather than parents registering twice.

   Look at the columns it returns - title, name, email, land line, mobile, address. Those are the fields the matching actually uses, so the query is also a list of what you have to work with.

3. There is no Merge button

   This is the part nobody guesses. Xperios merges as you save: when you edit a contact and save it, it looks for others that match and joins them up. So merging two records means editing them until they match, then saving - not finding a command.

   Which is also why records merge when you were not expecting it - it is the save that does it. Here one of each pair has an address and a phone number and the other has only a name, which is exactly the state that will not join.

4. It wants three matching things, and the name counts as one

   Two records join when at least three pieces of data on the main Details tab agree. The name is only one of them, so a matching name alone will never be enough - and the same school, the same pupil number or the same parent do not count at all, because they are not on that tab.

   The reliable way: put the same placeholder into Address Line 1 and Post Code on both records, save so they merge, then clear the placeholder out of the record you are left with.

5. If it still will not go, look at the characters

   Two names that look identical can differ invisibly. A curly apostrophe against a straight one makes O'Neill and O'Neill two different surnames as far as the match is concerned, and that one has defeated people for days. Copy the surname from one record and paste it into the other rather than retyping it.

   A different date of birth will also hold two records apart - which is deliberate, because two children really can share a name.

6. Merging does not lose anything

   Worth saying plainly, because it is the usual worry. When we checked a merge against a backup taken before it, every tuition application, group membership, school link, pupil number and date of birth was still on the surviving record. What the merge removed was the duplicate contact and pupil rows, which is what it is for.

   If something genuinely looks absent afterwards, tell us and we can compare against the backup rather than guess.

7. If the wrong two were joined

   We can split them again - send us the names. Expect two things afterwards: you will have two records with the same name, so one needs renaming to the person it belongs to, and group memberships and hires may need putting back by hand.

   To put a hire back with its tuition, select the tuition, hold Ctrl and select the hire so both are highlighted, then use Link at the bottom.

8. Schools merge the same way

   Two sites that should be one school join on the same rule: edit both to the same name and address, then save. Afterwards check the school's Associations - the two lists get combined, so you can end up with two people both ticked as the primary contact.

   If the two were a primary and a secondary that pupils used to roll between, we need to set up a school type that spans both year ranges first. Ask before merging those.

Why this one is worth knowing

Almost all of the difficulty here comes from one thing: there is no Merge button. People look for a command, do not find one, and conclude the system cannot do it.

It merges on save, when three things on the Details tab match — and since the name is only one of those three, two records that obviously belong to the same person will sit there refusing to join until you give them a second and third thing in common.

The other half of the tickets are the opposite worry: records that merged on their own. That is the same mechanism seen from the other side, and nothing is lost when it happens.

The same ground, as reference

• Contacts — the contact record and its roles
• Anonymising a contact — when the answer is to remove somebody rather than join them up
• Queries — running Contacts - Duplicate or Similar(s)