Removing Duplicates Utility in Tour deForce

Purpose

The purpose of this document is to provide instructions for using the Find and Remove Duplicates utility.

 

The Find and Remove Duplicates utility is used to find and combine duplicate Account or Contact records.  The Find and Remove Duplicates utility is typically used when a duplicate Account or Contact record has been created in Tour de Force and needs to be removed from Tour de Force.

 

Once the duplicate Account or Contact records have been identified, the Combine Records utility can be used to combine and remove the duplicate Account or Contact records.  

 

This technical bulletin contains the following sections:

 

1. Overview of the Find and Remove Duplicates utility
2. Finding and Removing duplicate Account records
3. Finding and Removing duplicate Contact records

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Overview of the Find and Remove Duplicates Utility

The Find and Remove Duplicates utility can be used by the Administrators of Tour de Force to quickly scan all the Account or Contacts records in Tour de Force to detect for duplicate records.  Once the duplicate Account or Contact records are identified, the Combine Records utility can be used to remove or combine the duplicate Account or Contact records.

The Find and Remove Duplicates utility is divided into five sections:

• Duplicate Search 
• Search Exclusion List
• Duplicate Records 
• Source Items 
• Destination Items

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Duplicate Search Section

The first section of the Find and Remove Duplicates utility is the Duplicate Search section. The Duplicate Search section is used to set specific criteria for filtering information during the scan process.

There are several fields and functions associated with the Duplicate Search section:

• Item Type - This field is used to specify whether to scan for duplicate Account records or duplicate Contact records.
• Search Criteria – This field contains all of the User Defined Fields (UDFs) associated with the Tour de Force Account and Contact forms, that can be used as filter criteria for the scan process.  

For example, the process to check for duplicate Account or Contact records can be based on several criteria:

• The Name associated with the Account records.
• The BSICustomerID associated with the Account records.
• The BSICustomerID and the BSIShipToID associated with the Account records.
• The Name and phone numbers associated with the Account records.
• The Name associated with the Contact records.
• The email addresses associated with the Contact records.

Up to three criteria can be set in the Search Criteria fields before scanning for duplicate Account or Contact records.

Note: The scan process can be restricted to one or more Account Packages when setting the Search Criteria.

• Find Duplicates – This button is used to perform the scan process for duplicate Account or Contact records.
• Clear Grids – This button is used to clear the Duplicate Records grid after a scan is performed.
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The Search Exclusion List

The second section of the Find and Remove Duplicates utility is the Search Exclusion List. The Search Exclusion List is used to specific characters or phrases to ignore during the duplicate or scan process.

If the word “Company” is added to the Search Exclusion List, then the scan process ignores the word “Company” when searching for duplicate records.  For example, if one user adds an Account record named MRH and another user adds an Account record named MRH Company, the scan process detects that these Account records are duplicates.

Characters and phrases can be added to the Search Exclusion List. To add a character or phrase to the Search Exclusion List, type the word or phrase in the Char/Phrase field and then click the Add Record button.

 

The Duplicate Records Grid

The third section of the Find and Remove Duplicates utility is the Duplicate Records grid. The duplicate Account or Contact records display in the Duplicate Records grid based on the criteria selected, after the duplicate scan is performed.

Users can create a new Account or Contact record, as well as perform various actions using the tool bar in the Duplicate Records grid.

 

 

Source Items and Destination Item

The fourth and fifth sections of the Find and Remove Duplicates utility is the Source Items and the Destination Item sections

• The Source Items section is used to specify the Account or Contact records that need to be combined or merged into another Account or Contact record.

• The Destination Item section is used to specify the destination Account or Contact record for the merge process.  

Note: The Account or Contact records specified in the Source Items field are combined or merged with the Account or Contact record specified in the Destination Item field.

 

Account or Contact records are added to the Source Items and the Destination Item section by dragging and dropping the Account or Contact records into the grid.

Multiple Account or Contact records can be specified in the Source Items grid, while only one Account or Contact record can be specified in the Destination Item grid.

Click the Combine Items button to access the Combine Records utility.

For assistance with the Combine Records utility, refer to Technical Bulletin 4400 – Using the Combine Records Utility.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Finding and Removing Duplicate Account Records

Use the following procedures to access the Find and Remove Duplicates utility to search for duplicate Account records:

1. Open the Tour de Force Administration Console.
2. Expand the Data Clean Up Utilities folder.
3. Select the Remove Duplicates item.

4. Click the Launch: Remove Duplicates button.

 

 

Users can access the Find and Remove Duplicate utility from the Tour de Force | Admin Utilities menu if the user has been granted permission rights to this utility. Permissions for the Find and Remove Duplicates utility can be set in the User Permission utility in the Tour de Force Administration Console.

5. In the Item Type field, select Account.

 

 

6. Use the Search Criteria fields to specify up to three criteria for filtering for duplicate Account records in Tour de Force.

To check for duplicate Account records in Tour de Force based on the Customer ID field associated with the Business System, select BSICustomerID in the UDF Search Field #1 field.

 

 

 

7. Click the Red X to save the Search Criteria values.

 

8. Click the Find Duplicates button to start the scan process.

Once the Find and Remove Duplicates utility processes, all of the potential duplicate records display in the Duplicate Records grid.

 

 

9. Click and drag the source records into the Source Items grid.

 

For example, click and drag the duplicate Account record with a BSI Customer ID of 30004 (A & B STAINLESS VALUE INC) into the Source Items grid.

 

 

Note: More than one Source record can be specified and combined into the Destination record.

 

10. Click and drag the destination record into the Destination Items grid.

 

For example, click and drag the original Account record with a BSI Customer ID of 30004 (A & B STAINLESS VALUE INC) into the Destination Items grid.

 

 

11. Once the Source Items and Destination Items have been specified, click the Combine Items button.

 

 

Note:  Clicking the Combine Items button opens the Combine Records utility in the Tour de Force Administration Console.

 

12. Click the Combine button to merge the Account records in the Source Account grid with the Account record in the Destination Account grid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

13. Click the OK button to close the Operation Complete dialog window.

 

 

Note:  Refer to Technical Bulletin 4400 – The Combine Records Utility for more information associated with the Combine Records utility.

 

14. Close the Combine Records utility.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Removing Duplicate Contact Records

Use the following procedures to access the Find and Remove Duplicates utility to search for duplicate Contact records:

1. Open the Tour de Force Administration Console.
2. Expand the Data Clean Up Utilities folder.
3. Select the Remove Duplicates item.
4. Click the Launch: Remove Duplicates button.
5. In the Item Type field, select Contact.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Use the Search Criteria fields to specify up to three criteria for filtering for duplicate Contact records in Tour de Force.

 

To check for duplicate Contact records in Tour de Force based on the Email field associated with the Contact record, select Email in the UDF Search Field #1 field.

 

 

7. Click the Red X to save the Search Criteria values.

8. Click the Find Duplicates button to start the duplicate scan process.

 

 

Once the Find and Remove Duplicates utility processes, all of the potential duplicate Contact records display in the Duplicate Records grid.

 

9. Click and drag the source Contact records into the Source Items grid.

 

For example, click and drag the duplicate Contact record with an Email address of john.clayton@easternsales.com into the Source Items grid.

 

 

 

Note: More than one Contact record can be specified and combined into the Destination record.

10. Click and drag the destination record into the Destination Item grid.

 

For example, click and drag the original Contact record with an Email address of john.clayton@easternsales.com into the Destination Item grid.

 

 

 

11. Once the Source Items and Destination Item have been specified, click the Combine Items button.

 

 

 

Note:  Clicking the Combine Items button accesses the Combine Records utility in the Tour de Force Administration Console. 

12. Click the Combine button to merge the Contact records associated with the Source Contact grid with the Contact record in the Destination Contact grid.

 

 

 

13. Click the OK button to close the Operation Complete dialog window.

 

 

 

Note:  Refer to Technical Bulletin 4400 – The Combine Records Utility for more information associated with the Combine Records utility.

 

14. Close the Combine Records utility.