Possible duplicates
A tidy-up report that finds likely-duplicate clients and patients and lets you merge them with two clicks.
Over time - especially after a data import - the same client or animal can end up entered twice. Settings → Duplicates finds the likely twins and lines them up side by side.
Nothing happens automatically. The report only suggests. You look at each pair, decide, and only then merge. Looking is completely safe.
Imports are checked too, before anything is created - see Data import.
What it looks for
| Record | Flagged when they share |
|---|---|
| Clients | A phone number, an email address, or a name |
| Patients | A microchip number, or the same owner and a similar pet name |
These are the same signals behind the gentle "possible existing record" heads-up when you're creating a client or patient. This page just gathers them up after the fact.
They're suggestions, not certainties. Two different people really can share a landline, and two littermates really can both be "Bella". The report errs on the side of showing you a pair so you can judge.
"Not a duplicate"
Two littermates really can both be Bella, and a mother and daughter really can share a landline. Press Not a duplicate on a pair and it stops appearing in the report.
It settles one question, not the pair forever. Dismissing two Bellas answers the same owner and name question. If someone later records the same microchip on both, that's new and much stronger evidence, and the pair comes back for another look - which is exactly what you'd want.
A group of three keeps showing until all three pairings are settled: deciding two of them are different animals says nothing about the third.
Merging
Tick two records in a group → Merge. That opens the same merge dialog used elsewhere: pick which to keep, resolve any differing fields, confirm.
Merging is permanent - the duplicate is removed and there's no undo. The report makes duplicates easy to find; the care before the final click is the same as always.
For exactly what's kept, and which conflicts block versus warn, see the full write-ups: merging clients and merging patients.
Can't see the page or the Merge action? It needs management permission.
When to run it
- After importing data from another system - imports are a classic source of double-ups.
- Every so often as housekeeping, so reminders, statements and search all point at one record per client and pet.