Before merging contacts, you need to determine which contact is the Main contact, and which is the Duplicate contact (or Duplicate contacts, if more than one).
This is important, because after the linked records from the Duplicate contacts are moved over to the Main contact, the Duplicate contacts will be deleted.
During the merge, any objects linked to the Duplicate contacts will be moved into the Main contact record. These linked objects include:
•Communications |
•Social Media |
•Tasks |
•Products |
•Opportunities |
•Documents |
•Events |
•Credit Cards |
•Invoices & Payments |
(if the Main contact is not using Parent Credit Cards) |
•Relations |
However, the Main contact will not copy any information from the fields in the Duplicate contacts' edit forms.
•If the Duplicate contacts have any different entries under...
oContact (First Name, Last Name, etc.),
oMost of the tabs under Contact Information (Addresses, Phone Number, Email Addresses, Personal, Communication Preferences, Travel Information, and Territory/Region)
oSpouse Name and Child Names under Relations (although the individual Relations records are transferred over),
oRelationship Types,
oClassification,
oBilling/Accounting,
oCompanies,
oImage,
oProduct Categories (individual Product records are transferred over, but not the selections in the Product Categories fields),
or
oNotes,
...they will be overwritten by the Main contact's information.
•Also, if the Main contact is using Parent Credit Cards, the Duplicate contacts' credit cards will not be transferred over.
Therefore, if you want to keep some information from the Duplicate contacts that is not recorded on the Main contact - e.g. an additional email address, passport number, a spouse's name, some Notes, etc. - you need to manually enter that information in the Main contact's edit form before proceeding with the merge.
To illustrate how the information is transferred between merged contacts, we will look at an example.
•Let's say that a contact was accidentally entered in your database three times - Edward W. Winters, Ed Winter, and Ed W - and you want to merge them into one contact.
•You have determined that Edward W. Winters will be the Main contact, as he has the most information entered on his account.
•The Main contact record has Communications and an Event attached to it.
•One of the Duplicate contacts has a different linked Event, and the other Duplicate contact has a communication on its record. Also, one of the Duplicate contacts was assigned to the wrong company.
•You complete the merge process, merging the Duplicate contacts into the Main contact, Edward W. Winters.
•When the Duplicate contacts are merged into the Main contact, the Communications and Event from the Duplicate contacts move over to the Main contact.
•Note, however, that some of the information will not automatically transfer over from the Duplicate contacts to the Main contact.
For example, one of the Duplicate contacts has a different Email Address, and has some Dietary Notes that the Main contact doesn't have.
•When the contacts merge, the Duplicate contact's Email Address and Dietary Notes fields are overwritten by the Main contact.
Therefore, if you want to keep that information, you need to record it manually in the Main contact's account before merging the contacts.
•When you are ready to merge the contacts, go to Select & Merge Contacts.
