How to mass delete incorrect constituent addresses

Emma DarbyshireMezzanotte

We have had some of our existing constituents cleaned to reveal those who have incorrect mailing addresses. How do I transfer these 700 constituent ID's from an Excel list to RE NXT to enable me to then mass delete all their address information? I've looked at various imports and queries and done some online searching and just can't get my head around how to achieve this. TIA

Dariel Dixon

@Emma DarbyshireMezzanotte I would not delete incorrect addresses, as these are historical records that should stay on the system, as long as they were put on the record accurately. You can just add the new records in and inactivate the incorrect ones. To answer the question asked, you would have to have some data to be able to put import the data back in. You would need either the constituent ID or Import ID, to tie it back to the correct record.

If you wanted to inactivate the older records, you would need information from the AddressImportID as well as some other fields. What information do you have in the excel spreadsheet? Do you have any constituent information outside of the name and address?

Rachel Kauer

@Emma DarbyshireMezzanotte

Hi Emma,

I would agree with Dariel and urge you to not delete or override historical address data. It is best practice to never delete or override any data.

What I would do in your shoes instead would depend on if the clean up revealed the correct addresses just identified records with no valid address? Or both?

For mass new address updates without deleting or overriding existing data:

Use Import: See page 21 for how to update existing records, and page 28 for creating an import file.

For mass invalid addresses without deleting or overriding existing data:

Mark the records as “Has no Valid Address”

Use a query to group your records and a global change to that group.

Query:

Create a query of the records with invalid addresses, you may have to do this in a manual way.

1. Constituent Query
2. Criteria: Constituent ID
3. Operator: Is One Of
4. Enter each ID
5. Run Query and review!

Global Change:

WARNING: Be very sure to make sure you include/attach the query before you hit change now, else all database records will be changed. Be sure to also check create a query of changed records and exceptions just in case.

1. On the navigation bar, click Administration, Globally Change Records
2. Select Constituent as the global change type and click New Change
3. Include a query of records to change
4. In the Show box select Biographical
5. Select the field named Constituent has no valid addresses
6. In the Edit Change Parameters screen enter:
   • Operation: Replace
   • Replace: Unchecked
   • With: Checked (or visa versa)
7. Mark any additional selections on the Global Change screen and click Change Now