Merge History
Every time you merge two person records together, TimelyChurch writes a permanent entry to the Profile Merge History log. This article explains what the log shows, how to open it, and how to recover from a merge that should not have happened.
Why Keep a Merge Log?
Merging two people feels destructive: you collapse two histories into one, and the secondary record is archived. A reliable record of merges gives you:
- Accountability: Who merged whom, and when.
- Recovery: If a merge was wrong, you can see who was involved and what was moved.
Where to Find It
The Profile Merge History page ("Audit log of merged person profiles") does not have a link in the menus yet. To open it:
- Open the People page.
- In your browser's address bar, add
/merge-historyto the end of the People page address and press Enter. (The address ends in/people/merge-history.)
You will see a list of every merge in your church, newest first.
What Each Entry Shows
| Column | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Date | When the merge happened |
| Primary Profile | The record that was kept, with its ID. Click the name to open the profile. It reads Deleted if that record has since been deleted. |
| Merged Profile | The name of the record that was merged in, with its ID and the word archived |
| Merged By | The staff member who performed the merge |
| Records Transferred | The first few kinds of records that were moved (for example, notes, groups, or donations) with a "+N more" line when there are others, or No records transferred |
On a phone, each merge appears as a card with the same information.
If no merges have happened yet, the page says "No profiles have been merged yet."
What a Merge Moves
When two records are merged, the secondary record's related data moves to the primary profile. This includes donations, pledges, attendance and check-ins, group memberships, volunteer roles, notes, follow-ups, form submissions, family links, and custom field values. Blank details on the primary (such as email, phone, address, or birthdate) are filled in from the secondary record, and the secondary record is deactivated and archived.
See Duplicate Detection and Merge for how to merge.
Recovering from a Bad Merge
A wrong merge can be recovered, but it takes some manual work. There is no one-click "Undo Merge" button because the related records (donations, attendance, and so on) have already been moved to the primary profile.
Recovery Pattern
- Open the Profile Merge History page and find the bad merge. Note the name (and ID) of the Merged Profile.
- On the People page, open the Views dropdown and choose Archived, then find that person.
- Open the Actions menu (⋮) at the end of their row and click Restore. Restored records are still inactive, so open their profile and choose Activate from the profile's Actions menu.
- Open the primary profile and manually move back anything that belongs to the restored person (most often family links, group memberships, and notes), and correct any contact details that were copied over.
If there has been a lot of activity on the merged record since, this can be tedious, so it pays to catch mistakes early.
Tip: If you discover a bad merge quickly (same day, before the primary person has any new activity), it is much easier to recover than if it has been weeks. Build a habit of checking the merge history shortly after a duplicate-cleanup session.
Best Practices
- Double-check before you confirm. The side-by-side Compare & Merge Profiles page (from a profile's Merge Profiles action) shows both records and asks you to type the secondary person's name before merging.
- Add notes when merging. A one-line "Confirmed by phone with John" helps the team remember why.
- Review the merge history during cleanup pushes. This catches mistakes early.
- Train more than one staff member on merging. When only one person knows how merges are done, mistakes go unnoticed.
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Verified against TimelyChurch 8.205.308 on 2026-10-23.