What
This article explains what to do if an error message appears when trying to merge Candidate Contact records.
When you merge two Contacts, if there are any associations, you will not be able to merge them - if you try, it will error.
A Contact record could have an association to a Shortlist for example, or an Application or to Evidence records, maybe other data records too. They are different record types but ultimately all associations. These are common associated records that will cause a merge error, so if you get an error, check if any of these associations exist, and if so, you will need to remove them.
Where
Home > Contacts > Merge
How
1. When trying to merge two Contacts, there are sometimes active items within both Contact records which can cause issues trying to merge. To merge two Candidates for example, navigate to the Contacts focus from the main sitemap in the far left menu panel, and then after understanding which two Contacts need to be merged, select them both and click Merge as shown:
2. A secondary window can appear at this stage due to any identical fields in which both Contacts have data. You are able to merge the records by choosing the relevant data fields, and even view other fields with conflicting data. Once you have decided on which information to merge, click OK:
3. This is now the stage at which sometimes an error message can appear:
A shortlist record already exists linking this vacancy & candidate. Operation aborted.
This message means that one of the Contact records has an active Shortlist and cannot be merged, therefore one of the records will need to be deactivated or deleted.
4. Sometimes a different error can appear when trying to merge.
Changes to the Candidate are not permitted. Upload new evidence instead.
The cause of this is that on the secondary record there are Compliance Evidence items associated with the Candidate. To find these you need to go into their record, then to Related and then to Compliance Evidence. This means that the secondary Contact that needs to be merged has active Compliance Evidence. Navigate to Related > Compliance Evidence for that secondary Contact, for which any Compliance Evidence data will now need to be deleted in order for the merge process to work successfully. These Compliance Evidence items will need to be deleted.
We strongly advise that the customer has copies of the documents before deleting. These entries will then need to be manually re-added on the master record. Once the Compliance Evidence items have been deleted from the secondary record, you should be able to merge the two records as required.
IMPORTANT NOTE: We advise to ensure that copies are retained of the Compliance Evidence that's about to be deleted, so that it can be re-added on the master Contact record after the merge has been completed.