Merge Accounts

Feature Overview

It is often useful to merge two accounts together such that their applications, activities, communications, etc are combined into a single record.

This may be useful when:

• A single Practitioner has multiple credentials and has created separate user accounts for each. Since each account references the same "person", the two accounts can be merged together.
• A Practitioner with a lapsed credential wishes to reactivate their credential, and they create a new account rather than logging into the original one.
• Records are imported from an external system, resulting in multiple accounts for the same person.

The merge process works like this:

• The user identifies the two Member accounts that will participate in the merge
• One Member is identified as the "persistent account", the other as the "merged account". After the merge is complete, the persistent account will remain in the system. The merged account will be gone, and supporting data belonging to it will belong to the persistent account instead.
• Similarly, if both accounts have instances of the same Role, the user will choose a "persistent Role" and "merged Role". The persistent Role will remain, and any data belonging to the merged Role will belong to the persistent Role instead.

Using the feature

The Merge feature is accessed via the 3rd level navigation links in the Admin → Members area. The Merge Accounts link will only appear if the user has the MergeAccounts permission.

Initially, the Merge page consists only of two text boxes.

Use these boxes to identify the accounts that will participate in the merge. When you pick a Member, its details will be loaded onto the page for review.

Choosing which Account Profile to keep

When two accounts are merged, one account profile is retained (the "persistent" account) and the other is removed (the "merged" account). The merge interface displays both profiles side-by-side so that you can choose the one you want to keep.

By default, the account on the left is designated as the "persistent account", but you can click on the header of the right-hand column to choose to keep that account instead.

Choosing which Role Instance to keep

When a given Role exists only for one of the selected accounts, then it will be selected by default. There is nothing for you to do in this case; the Role, along with all of its attributes and applications, will be linked to the persistent account after the merge operation.

If both of the selected accounts contain an instance of the same Role, however, then you must choose one set of attributes to keep. You may select either the values belonging to the persistent account or those belonging to the merged account, but you cannot pick and choose individual attribute values.

All Applications are always merged to the persistent account

Unlike Role attributes, where you must choose one set to keep and the other set is discarded, applications from both Role instances are merged onto the persistent Role. If there are applications on the merged Role that are not wanted, you may delete them from the persistent account after the merge is complete.

Preview the merge

Once you are satisfied with your selections, click the Preview Merge button at the bottom the screen. You will then see a single-column view showing only the persistent data, and none of the removed data.

If you are happy with the result, click the orange button to save your changes. This cannot be reversed, so make sure you're satisfied before continuing.