Earlier this year we exported all our addresses to an excel file which we then farmed out to a service to go through and correct for us. When the company provided us with the corrected information I imported the corrected addresses back in. Because import did not over-write the address data that was in the system, it simply shifted any existing address to an "alternate" address, and created a new primary address, we now have two problems: 1) Many of our constituents have the exact same address on their accounts twice, once as the primary and once as an alternate, and 2) (and this is the bigger problem of the two), much of the contact information has now been shifted to the alternate address, therefore If the address had phone numbers or email information, that information was shifted to the alternate address. ie) If we had John Doe at abc street, phone 555-555-5555, all of that information is now in the alternate address, but in the primary address we only have John Doe at abc street. Any thoughts or suggestions as to how I can correct my error? I'm not so terribly concerned about the duplicate addresses as I am about having all available contact info on the primary address.
Note: It is for this reason that I completely loathe the fact that there is no easy, or cost efficient, way to have a sample database that is based on your own company's actual data. I DID test my import on the sample database, but because that info is so wildly different from what we actually have in our live system, I just didn't catch the problem....which now exists on thousands of constituent records.
It sounds like you added new records as opposed to updating existing records? I find it helpful when sending addresses out to be updated to create the file using admin/import/create import file. This way all of the fields are included with the appropriate headers.
I would also watch using the following checkboxes when you import:
Create new table entries
Import records not found as new records
The most important thing I have ever learned about working with databases is to alwatys do a backup before your run the import so you can restore back to it should there be a problem.
That is very good advice for all of us to remember.
Thank you, Laurel.
I took a look at global change, and you *might* be able to do a replace.. but I don't think you can do an address delete...Did you save a query of the addresses that got added (as part of your import)? This is a bit above my pay grade so you might want to talk to an actual Blackbaud rep and see if they can help you with this particular fix.
Adding to the list of suggestions. You can do an address export and sort all the address based on postcode and run a duplicate macro to highlight it.
it is bit of going around, but you will have absloute control on wht address you import back.