Merging Patrons

Theatre Manager is designed to keep all information about a patron on one record. If a user duplicates a record by mistake, the duplicate records may be combined. Merging patron records will combine the detail information stored in two separate records into one of the original records. Because merging is such a powerful task, it is recommended that this function be limited to specific individuals within your team. The process of merging is actually two tasks:

1. Finding the duplicate records
2. Combining the duplicates into a single Patron.

Searching and Merging is particularly important when Patrons have the opportunity to buy tickets online. If tickets have been sold to each of the duplicate patrons, the merged patron will now have all the ticket purchases. As well, donation, personnel, media, and membership information are similarly combined.

For example, Jim Smith purchases some tickets online, and enters his work address, telephone number and email, as he will be using the receipt for his expense account. However, when Jim enters this information into the on-line system, he has added himself as a new patron. This can be troublesome for both Jim and you.

To keep accurate patron records, you periodically check and merge these duplicate patron records.

As you can see by the above graphic, you must carefully consider each patron before merging them.

Finding Duplicate Records

1. From the main window, click the Patron  button. The Contact List opens.
2. Enter the search criteria to locate duplicate Patrons and click the Search button. The Patrons matching the search are displayed.
3. Click the Duplicates  button. The Duplicate Search Options window opens.

   

4. From this window, you can choose to search by the:
   • List–this list is made up of the search criteria displayed in the Contact List dialog, or
   • Database—this will search the entire database looking for any possible duplicates and then display them in the list.  

   For example, Jim Smith’s partner has a different last name, but shares the same address, telephone and contact information, you may want to merge them into the same household.

    

   

5. As you can see in this example, Jim Smith has been added as James Smith through on-line ticket purchase. There are now two Patrons (Jim and James) to be merged into a single Patron record.

    

6. Once you have identified your duplicates, highlight them and click the Merge button.

   The Merge button gives you the option of combining the highlighted patrons: Into a common household (for example you searched for the same address and are merging patrons into a household record) or Into a single patron.

    

   7a. You choose combining the selected patrons into a common household.

   

   1. Select the Patron to remain and click the Merge button. The Merge Records dialog opens.
   2. The dialog asks you to confirm your choice. Click the Merge button. You are returned to the Contact List window and the Primary patron remains.

   7b. You choose to combine the selected patrons into a Selected Patron.

   

   1. Select the Patron to remain and click the Merge button. The Merge Records dialog opens.
   2. The dialog asks you to confirm your choice. Click the Merge button. You are returned to the Contact List window and the Primary patron remains.

   <	In our example, there is now a single patron record for Jim Smith, containing the data added and tickets purchased with the other Patron number. This makes both, your corporation and the Patron’s, record keeping easier.