Guide · Client management
Review and merge duplicate client records
A controlled review for possible duplicate names, emails, and phone numbers before selecting a surviving client record.
- Category
- Client management
- Best for
- Administrators and client operations teams
- Reading time
- 5 min read
- Content review
Scope of this guidance
This guide follows Pole’s reviewed client-merge process. A possible duplicate is not proof that two records represent the same person.
Step 1 of 4
Build the candidate set
Normalize spacing, case, punctuation, email addresses, and phone numbers before comparing records. Exact contact matches deserve attention, but a shared name or household contact still requires a person to review the context.
- Group records by normalized email, normalized phone, and closely matching names.
- Keep weak name-only matches separate from stronger contact matches.
- Exclude records already marked as merged from the active candidate set while keeping them available in history.
Step 2 of 4
Compare relationships before choosing a survivor
The survivor should be chosen from the whole relationship record, not from the newest spelling of a name. Pole's review data can include estate assignments and counts for plots, reservations, interactions, tasks, allocation episodes, payments, refunds, agreements, and ledger activity.
- Compare identity fields side by side and select the value to retain for each editable field.
- Review portal account state and every land or finance relationship attached to each candidate.
- Stop and resolve conflicting ownership or finance context before approving the merge.
Step 3 of 4
Record the merge decision
Use the reviewed merge action with an explicit survivor, selected field values, and a useful reason. Do not delete a source record merely to remove it from search; merge history helps explain earlier land and money records.
- Confirm the survivor and the source records in the final review step.
- Write a reason that another administrator can understand without private side conversations.
- If the candidate evidence changed during review, reload it instead of forcing a stale decision.
Step 4 of 4
Verify the merged result
A completed merge should be checked at the client record and at the relationships that moved. Verification is especially important where earlier reservations, allocation episodes, or finance rows keep a historical source-client reference.
- Open the survivor and verify the chosen identity fields and portal account state.
- Reconcile the displayed relationship counts with the pre-merge review.
- Search for the source records and confirm they are identified as merged rather than active duplicates.
Final checks
Confirm these points before treating the workflow review as complete.
- The match uses more evidence than a shared name.
- The survivor and each retained field value are explicit.
- Land, client, and Tenant Finance relationships were reviewed before the merge.
- The completed result and retained history were checked after the merge.
Continue the review
Continue evaluating this workflow
Review the related Pole workflow, then request organization access when your organization is ready to begin the application. Access is reviewed by Platform and is not created immediately.