Merging Duplicate Contacts
When company profiles are imported from the New Zealand Companies Office, Connectworks creates a profile for each director and shareholder that the Companies Office has recorded against the company in your Clients>Contacts list.
However, as the Companies Office does not provide a "unique identifier" on individuals, this often leads to two (or more) profiles being created for the same person (for example, where an individual is both a director and a shareholder of the same company or where an individual owns shares under multiple allocations). There may be additional duplicates of a contact appearing due to being part of a trust or holding roles in multiple organisations.
It is essential to ensure that there is only one copy of each person held in your Contacts list. It is important to merge rather than delete these duplications, to record all their roles into a single profile. There are many reasons that this is important, such as:
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Maintaining accurate oversight over all of a client's roles across multiple entities.
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Preventing client due diligence and identity checks from being performed on the same individual more than once, potentially incurring unnecessary fees.
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Ensuring the client is not set up with multiple Connectworks accounts.
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Ensuring that updating a contact's personal information (such as phone number or address) will update the details held in all the associated entities.
Contents
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Merging Contacts After Importing Companies or Setting Up Trusts
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How to Remove Duplicates when the Contact has a Login Account or Completed Centrix Check
Merging Contacts After Importing Companies or Setting Up Trusts
Following importing a Company, setting up a Trust, or using our bulk import service, you will need to merge the duplicate contacts which have been created.
1. From your firm workspace navigate to Clients>Contacts.
2. Using the search bar begin typing the client's name until all copies of the client appear in the list.
3. Things to check before merging:
If your firm has been using Connectworks for client engagement you will need to check if the client has a Connectworks login account attached to any of the profiles. To do this:
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Select the tick box next to the client's name. In the slide-out which appears check for the field "Connectworks -Yes, has a login account" or "Connectworks -No, has no account" (see screenshot below).
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If any of the duplicate profiles show "Connectworks - Yes, has a login account" treat this profile as the Primary Contact, which will be selected first and all other duplicate profiles will be merged into.
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If all duplicate profiles show "Connectworks -No, has no account", but one of the profiles has more complete information (such as stored documents, identity verification or Centrix check, or additional address/contact details) treat this profile as the Primary Contact, which which will be selected first.
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If none of the above points applies you may select any of the profiles as the Primary Contact.
Check each duplicate profile to identify if there is a Primary Contact before proceeding with the next steps of the merging process.
Important: If you identify there is a Primary Contact, this should always be the first profile selected using the tick box when merging.
4. Select the tick box of the profile you have identified as the Primary Contact, then select all other profiles for the client (up to a maximum of 9 profiles, plus the primary contact). A list will begin to appear in the slide-out menu.
5. When you have selected all duplicate versions of the contact select "Merge" using the "..." menu.
After successfully merging all of the contact's profiles you will see a full list of the contact's associated entities, and their roles within them, appearing under the "Related Associations" field of the slide-out. You can generate a .pdf report listing the client's roles using the "..." menu's "Export Summary" option - this can be helpful for creating Directors Interests Registers.
How to Remove Duplicates when the Contact has a Login Account or Completed Centrix Check
When a client has a Connectworks login account or a completed Centrix check, you may find that you are unable to merge their profile. Instead, the duplicates must be removed manually in their associated entities, and replaced with the correct contact profile.
1. From the Clients>Contacts list locate the duplicate to be removed (always the profile with no login account or Centrix record).
2. Select the contact for removal tick box and locate the related association's section at the bottom of the slide-out panel. Click the entity name link to enter the workspace of the related Company/Trust.
NB. If there is more than one associated entity you need to repeat this process for each entity appearing as a related association.
3. In the Company/Trust workspace navigate to the Admin* tab in the left column.
*For trusts, this tab is called Parties
4. Select Edit by the contact to be removed and place a Z in front of the person's surname so you can easily identify it as the duplicate to be removed. Update & close.
5. Select the Add person button in the top left and then search & add the correct profile (the version not showing a Z). Assign their role/s as a director, trustee beneficiary, etc. (if applicable). Update & close.
6. Select the Z duplicate and Edit. Remove any assigned roles using the I made a mistake, and "remove from history" option. Then Update & Close.
Steps 7-9 will only apply if there are share parcels assigned to the contact, which need to be reassigned. If there are no share parcels to reassign, skip to step 10.
7. If the Z contact is showing as a shareholder Navigate to the Shareholders>Share Register>Shareholdings tab in the company workspace.
8. Select the tick box of the relevant share allocation and then select update in the slide-out panel.
9. Select Add to update with the client shareholder.
10. In the subsequent form search for and add the correct profile to the share parcel, and remove the "existing party" version (leaving the commencement & retirement date fields blank). Then select Update.
11. You will return to the Update shareholding screen, here simply remove the shell shareholder company. Click Update and Close
12. Now return to the Admin tab, where the entity should show “no assigned role” beneath their name. If this appears you can select the tick box, then use the "..." drop-down menu to delete.
13. Finally, return to the overall Clients>Contacts list and locate the entity. If there are no related associations showing against their name when selected with the tick box, you can now discard the profile using the "..." drop-down menu.