A short guide to the Consolidate Accounts screen — and why team admins sometimes can't log in.
Every so often a team manager will tell you their login "doesn't work" — they sign in fine, but the roster they're supposed to manage isn't there. Nine times out of ten it isn't a permissions problem. It's that the person exists twice.
Why it happens
When someone registers a team, they type their own name in. If they've been on the system before under a slightly different version of that name, there's no way for the platform to know it's the same human — so it creates a second person record.
You now have two halves of one person:
- Dave Chambers (1748) — the record you assigned the Hornets team admin role to. Correct permissions. No email address on it, so no way to log in.
- David Chambers (1758) — the record he actually signs in with. Working login. No admin role.
He logs in successfully and sees nothing, because the permissions are sitting on the other half. Consolidating the two records puts the role and the login on the same account, and it just works.
Where to find it
Go to People in the left-hand menu — the page is headed Personnel — then the Consolidate Accounts tab next to "List of People".
The one rule that makes the screen readable
In small print at the top of the page: "Bold indicates an account that can be logged in on." That one line is the most useful thing on the screen. Every row reads Transfer [source] to [destination] — you want the destination (the one being kept) to be the bold one, because that's the account the person can actually reach.
The three lists
| List | What it is | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Exact Matches | Identical names. Almost always the same person registering twice. | Pre-ticked for you. Skim the names, then run them as a batch. |
| Similar Matches | Near-misses — nicknames, typos, missing letters. Dave vs David. | Unticked by default, and they should be. Read each one and tick only the ones you're sure about. |
| Previously Reviewed Matches | Suggestions that have already come up before and haven't been actioned. | Nothing, usually. Worth a skim once a season in case something was set aside by mistake. |
Doing it
- Start with Exact Matches. They come pre-ticked. Read down the list once — you're looking for anything that's obviously two different people who happen to share a name. If nothing jumps out, leave them all ticked.
- Work through Similar Matches one at a time. This is the list that fixes the team admin problem, and it's the list that can do damage if you rush it. Tick only what you're confident about; anything you're unsure of, leave it — it'll still be there next time.
- Check the direction on anything you tick. The destination (second name in the row) should be bold. If the bold account is on the left, don't tick it — use the manual panel described below to merge it the right way round.
- Scroll to the bottom and hit Consolidate Selected Accounts. There's one button for the whole page, so before you press it, scroll back up and confirm nothing is ticked that you didn't mean to tick — including in the Previously Reviewed section.
- Test one. Ask the manager you just fixed to log in. Confirming the first one worked as expected is worth the two minutes before you do the rest of the season's roles.
The Hornets fix, specifically
In the Similar Matches list you'll find:
Only the right-hand name is bold, which tells you 1758 is the account he can log in on and 1748 is the placeholder holding the admin role. Tick it and consolidate — the role moves onto the login, and the Hornets roster appears for him.
Two things to watch for
1. Near-matches that aren't the same person
The matcher works on spelling, not on people. Sitting in the Previously Reviewed list is this:
Adam and Ava are two different people who share a surname — quite possibly siblings in the same club. Both sides are bold, meaning both are real accounts with real logins. Merging them would fold one person's history into the other's and there's no clean undo. It's correctly sitting unticked; leave it that way.
Rule of thumb
If you can't say out loud why two records are the same person, don't tick the box. An unmerged duplicate is a minor annoyance. A wrongly merged pair of siblings is a phone call you don't want.
2. People who appear in both lists
Occasionally the same person is scattered across three records. Mel Brogan is the example on your site right now:
Same source record, two different destinations — and both destinations are bold, so she has two working logins. Ticking both won't sort it out; you need to decide which account she actually uses, merge into that one, and then deal with the leftover separately. When you spot a three-way like this, the quickest path is usually to ask the person which email they log in with.
When the matcher misses one
Some duplicates are too different for the matcher to spot — a maiden name, a completely different nickname. The Manually Consolidate Accounts panel on the right handles those:
- Source Account (Inactive) — the spare record, the one that disappears.
- Destination Account (Active) — the one that survives. This must be the account they can log in on.
Get those the right way round before you press the button. There's no undo on a consolidation.
Keeping it from building back up
Duplicates accumulate naturally with registration volume — it isn't a sign anything's set up wrong. Three habits keep the pile small:
- After each registration window closes, run the Exact Matches. Two minutes, low risk, clears the bulk of it.
- Before you assign team admin roles for a season, spend five minutes on the Similar Matches. This is the one that prevents the "I can't log in" emails, because you're merging the duplicates before the roles land on the wrong half.
- When you assign a role, check the record has an email address on it. If it doesn't, that account can't be logged in on, and the role isn't going to reach anybody.
The short version
Exact Matches are safe to batch. Similar Matches need your eyes. Always merge into the bold account. And if you're not sure two records are the same person, leave them alone.
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.