Contact File Maintenance in ZonePro SQL

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1 Contact File Maintenance in ZonePro SQL When your parcel data is converted and installed into ZonePro there is typically one record per parcel. Each of these records in turn has one owner name listing. These names are extracted and moved into the Contact File database. At this point then you will have one Contact File record for every property record. Many of these Contact File records are of course duplicates because there are numerous people and entities who own multiple property records. Ideally the most effective Contact File database is one that only has one record for each unique person or entity. This document explains some of the options available to help eliminate duplicate records from the Contact File database. Why Bother Eliminating all the duplicates from the Contact File database can be a time consuming process. The good news is that ZonePro works just fine whether you have duplicates or not. You can still issue permits and violations regardless of the state of your Contact File database. But, there are definite advantages to cleaning up the Contact File database. These advantages are best illustrated by three of the buttons at the bottom of the Contact File Screen. When you get rid of duplicate Contact File records you can go to just one record in the Contact File Screen click on the Show Property button and see all of the property records that that person is associated with. Likewise you can click on the Show Violations button to see all of the violations associated with one person across all of their property holdings. The same holds for the Show Rentals button.

2 Not a Simple Delete You can't simply delete duplicate Contact File records as you come across them. Let's say that "George Jetson" is listed twice in the Contact File database. For both records he is linked as the "Owner" to one property record. If you just deleted one of these Contact Records, then one of the property records would be left without an "Owner." What you really want to do is merge the duplicate Contact File records so that only one "George Jetson" record remains but it is now linked as the "Owner" to both property records. Contact File Upkeep in the Windows Interface In the Windows interface for ZonePro SQL the option for merging Contact File records is found under the Applications 1 tab of the Maintenance Options Screen. Clicking on the Contact File Upkeep button launches the Contact File Merge Screen. You can look up known duplicates by typing in a name in the Search box. To continue with our example above I would type in "Jetson" and hit <Enter>. I would expect at least two records to display in the Names to Consider scroll box. I would then use the middle Move button to move the two George Jetsons over to the Names to Merge scroll box. The next step is to pick one of these two names to be the Lead Name; that is, the record I want to keep that the other is merged into. As you select each record you'll see the details of that record listed below the scroll boxes. You select the Lead Name by right-clicking on the one you want in the Names to Merge list. The final step is to click on the Merge Names button. A message will display to confirm the request

3 after which the two Contact File records will be merged into one with both property records now assigned to it. You don't have to type in a name to use the Contact File Merge Screen. You can ask ZonePro to search for duplicate candidates for you by using the Suggest button. Left-clicking on the Suggest button brings up a browse screen showing the 20 names (full names) that appear most frequently in the Contact File database along with a count of how frequently they appear. Selecting a name from this list automatically copies all the matching records into the Names to Consider scroll box. The Suggest button also has a right-click option. This option displays a list of the 20 last names that appear most frequently in your Contact File database. One thing to note about the Names to Consider scroll box is that regardless of which method you use to add names to this list, you can keep appending more names. This allows you to merge names that have variations in spelling, etc. Match & Merge Option in the Staff Web Site The Staff web pages offer several options for merging Contact File records. The Match & Merge option can be accessed any time you are viewing a record in the Contact File screen.

4 Clicking on the Match & Merge button takes you to the Contact File Match & Merge screen where a grid will display showing any other Contact File records that have the same Last Name value as the starting record. The starting Last Name value is displayed in a field box which you can edit and then click on the Revise Search to refresh the grid with a new set of matches. The left most column in the grid is a Tag check box. You can mark one or more records and click on the Consolidate Tagged Records button to merge the selected records with the starting record. In this scenario the starting record is always the Lead Name. Duplicate Name Maintenance in the Staff Web Site Two more options for merging Contact Records can be accessed via the Contact Search screen. Follow it to the Contact File Maintenance screen. Here there is an option to Review Location Duplicates and another to Review Contact Name Duplicates. Let's look at the Review Contact Name Duplicates first because it is very similar to the option in the Windows interface. Clicking on the Review Contact Name Duplicates button takes you to the Contact File Name Count screen where you'll see a list of the 50 most frequently occurring Combo Names and a count of how often each appears. This list is a variation on the lists you get when using the Suggest button in the Contact File Upkeep Screen in the Windows program. As described earlier, the Suggest button can produce two lists. The first is based on frequency of the full name appearing. The second is based on the frequency of the jus the last name value. The Combo Name list is based on the frequency of a combination of the first initial plus the last name. This compromise seems to provide a useful breakdown for finding duplicate names in the database. You can click on the Names option to see all of the records that make up a Combo Name listing. This allows you to determine if there are any names that could be merged in the group.

5 For each name in the list you can click on the Links option to see what property records that contact record is already associated with. The Jump options in the last two lists allow you to jump to the selected Contact File record or Property record to review the details of that record more fully. The Links column is a useful addition that shows you how many property records are already linked to each Contact record. Usually the record with the most existing links makes the best Lead Name candidate. Once you have found a group that has potential merges in it, you click on the Merge option in the Combo Name list. This takes you to the Contact File Merge By Name screen where you will see a grid very similar to the one in the Match & Merge screen. The big difference is that you do not have a starting Contact record, which means you have no predefined Lead Name. In this screen you tag all of the records that you wish to merge and then click on the Choose Lead Record button. This brings up a drop-down list of the ID Codes of the records you have just chosen. You must select one to be the record that is kept. The others will be deleted and their property links will be merged with the kept record. This is an important point to consider about merging Contact File records. You aren't actually merging data in the chosen Contact Records. Only the Lead record has its data preserved. The other records are deleted. What you are merging are the links. Therefore if you have a phone number or notes in one of the records that is not the Lead, that information will be lost unless you manually copy it into the record that will become the Lead.

6 Note that this screen has the option to show 10 or 20 names at a time. This is because you can only tag and merge names that are on current page. Duplicate Location Maintenance in the Staff Web Site This final option works very similar to the Duplicate Name option except that it starts with a listing of duplicate addresses that appear in your Contact File database. Clicking on the Review Location Duplicates buttons brings up the Contact File Location Count screen. This screen displays a grid showing the top 50 most frequently appearing addresses in the Contact File database. Often these kinds of duplicates are good candidates for merging.

7 Just as in the Name Count screen, you can review all of the Contact records associated with a given address by clicking on the Names option. The subsequent Links option and the Merge option behave identically to the Name Count screen so I will not repeat any comments related to those options. A couple of final notes: You can access the Name Count and Location Count screens in the Staff web site without having to log in, but you need the property security clearance to be able to actually merge names. Because a merge is essentially deleting duplicate records, a Contact File Access Level of 1 is needed. Secondly, I strongly recommend experiencing the Name Count and Location Count screens. The information they present about your community can be quite interesting (even apart from the whole merge process). They also make the merge/maintenance process much more entertaining. It may be a stretch to say that they make it fun but it is not a bad way to spend some spare time. Any time you can improve the data in your system, you make your ZonePro program a more useful and powerful tool.