How to Find and Clean Up Duplicate Profiles in Planning Center

Why duplicates happen

Almost every church on Planning Center has duplicates. They are not a sign anyone did something wrong. They come from normal, busy church life.

• Check-ins: A parent creates a new family at a kiosk instead of finding their existing household.
• Forms and registrations: Someone signs up for an event with a different email than the one on file.
• Nicknames: Bob and Robert, Katie and Katherine, Mike and Michael end up as two people.
• Typos: A misspelled email or two swapped digits in a phone number are enough to create a new record.
• Life changes: A new last name after marriage, or a new phone number, looks like a brand new person.

Why it matters for ministry

• Inflated numbers: One person counted twice makes your church look bigger than it is.
• Missed people: Someone serving under one profile and giving under another never looks fully connected.
• Lost history: Group attendance and milestones like baptism get split across two records.
• Awkward follow up: Families get two emails, or a new guest gets a welcome text they already received.

How to spot duplicates by hand

If you are cleaning up on your own, start with the most likely matches and work outward.

• Sort by last name: Scan for the same last name with similar first names.
• Search shared contact info: The same email or phone on two profiles is usually the same person.
• Check recent profiles: Many duplicates are created in the last few months by check-ins and forms.
• Compare before merging: Look at birthdates, households, and history so you never merge two different people.

A simple monthly routine

• Pick one time a month: A short, regular review beats one huge cleanup a year.
• Start with the strongest matches: Shared email or phone plus a similar name.
• Decide, then record: Merge clear matches in Planning Center and note the ones you decided are different people.
• Fix the source: If most duplicates come from one form or kiosk, adjust that process.

How Ministry Lens helps

Ministry Lens has a Duplicate Detector that compares every profile in your Planning Center People database. It catches nicknames, sound-alike names, typos in emails, swapped phone digits, and last name changes, then sorts each pair by confidence so you can start with the clearest matches.

It never merges or changes anything in Planning Center. You review each pair, merge the real ones in Planning Center yourself, and dismiss the rest. Dismissed pairs stay hidden unless something important about them changes.