Deleting former Donor Constituents

David Webb

There is an inability to Delete a Constituent if it is create in error and a Transaction is processed against it. Unless it goes through the Merge Utility (i.e. was a duplicate), even if the Transactions are removed from the Constituent cannot be Deleted, even if it serves no function (see article below).

https://kb.blackbaud.com/knowledgebase/articles/Article/96087

How do other institutions handle this; do you just mark Inactive and hope most users don't stumble across it, or have you figured out other safeguards against users accessing this erroneous ID?

Sunshine Reinken Watson

Work around: I usually have a test constituent and would merge it with that constituent to delete it. If you don't have a dummy constituent, I would add one for this purpose.

Allison Davis

If the Constituent was added in err, whose donation is it? Where should the transaction go? Is the transaction valid?

If the transaction is not valid, then that should also be deleted and/or refunded. Then you can mark the Constituent as invalid or delete the Constituent.