How to merge duplicate member households in club software

Open a household under Members → Households and go to the People tab to invite another adult, change the primary contact, transfer ownership, move an adult to another household, or merge a duplicate record. Managers and admins can make these changes.

• Invite another adult: enter their name and email at the bottom of People. They receive a link to join the household with their own sign-in. Use Revoke invitation if the address was wrong.

• Make primary contact: sets which adult club emails and bills are addressed to. Other adults who opted in are copied.

• Transfer ownership: hands the household's owner badge (who can invite or remove other adults in the member portal) to another adult on the household.

• Move adult to another household: moves one adult into a different existing household when a family splits or someone was added to the wrong record. If they were the owner or primary contact, another adult left behind takes that role. The last adult can't leave a household unless it is only a prospect. Billing history stays where it was.

At the bottom of People, Swim Ops offers two ways to combine duplicate records depending on whether the duplicate has billing history:

1. Consolidate duplicate prospect — for a prospect record with no membership, membership waitlist, invoice, payment, credit, or bond history. Select the Destination household to keep and confirm; adults and family members move over, along with the bookings the prospect has not canceled (see "What moves with a merge" below), any program waitlist places and help requests, and any program registrations it already canceled. The empty duplicate stays on file as a closed record that points to the one you kept. A prospect that is still registered for a program is refused: cancel that registration first. It is also refused for some of the same reasons a merge is (the same program, lap swim session, guest visit or caregiver pass on both households, or a booking being changed right now; see "When a merge is refused"). Unlike a merge, a consolidate does not look at the destination's membership waitlist place.

2. Merge into another household (keeps financial history) — for a duplicate that already has invoices, payments, credits, or a bond. Choose the Survivor household to keep and confirm. People, family members and the household's bookings that were not canceled, declined or picked up move to the survivor; invoices stay on the household you merged away, and past invoices, payments, credits, and bond entries roll up onto the survivor's statement. When a connected tool such as Claude asks for a merge, the approval page lists what would move by name, then adds the warnings it can check ahead: the same program on both households, the same lap swim session, the same guest or caregiver pass, and the membership waitlist. It does not check for a live membership, an open invoice or a booking being changed right now, so the merge can still be refused for those after you approve.

What moves with a merge

A booking moves unless it was canceled, declined, picked up or already settled (a lottery request the draw has decided, a waitlist place that was answered), so nothing is left on a household no one can sign in to. Swim Ops goes by what happened to a booking, not by its date: a camp week, lap swim session, lesson or rental that already took place but was never canceled moves with the rest.

• People and family members, program registrations (canceled ones too), program waitlist places, and help requests.

• Camp registrations that were not canceled (including a week that has already run), and camp lottery requests still waiting for the draw.

• Camp and lap swim waitlist places (not the membership waitlist; see below). A place keeps its position in line, its camper, and any offer it holds.

• Lap swim bookings and swim lesson bookings that were not canceled, including ones for sessions that already happened. A lesson that is waiting for its payment counts; a lesson whose hold ran out does not.

• Facility rental requests that are waiting for approval or approved, including ones for a date that has passed.

• Shop orders that have not been picked up yet.

• Guest visits dated today or later, and this season's caregiver passes that are still active. These two have no canceled or finished state to go by, so they use the date and the season instead.

• Open tasks and portal notices.

The merge changes who a booking belongs to and nothing else: not its status, date, price, place in line, lane or stock.

What stays on the household you merged away

• Invoices, payments, credits, and the bond. They roll up onto the survivor's statement. If a booking that moved is later canceled or moved to a cheaper week, the credit goes to the household that paid for it, so it shows on the survivor's statement but sits on the old household's record; the survivor cannot apply it to its own invoices. A new charge for a booking that moved (a more expensive camp week, a rental approved after the merge) goes to the survivor.

• Bookings that were canceled, declined, picked up or voided. Past guest visits and past-season caregiver passes also stay, with the invoices they were billed on.

• Signed agreements. They stay on the old household as the record of what it signed and do not count as the survivor's. The survivor's adults sign their own the next time a waiver or rule is needed (for example the camp waiver for a camper who moved, the lap swim rules or the facility rental agreement). The approval says so when the old household has signed anything.

• Household notes, messages and activity.

• Automated workflow messages already scheduled for the old household. The merge does not cancel them.

When a merge is refused

A refusal always says why, and nothing is changed: a merge is all or nothing. You will see:

• A live membership. If both households hold a live membership, have one of them leave the club first (Members → Renewals, Leaving the club; any bond is returned as a mailed check). If only the household you are merging away holds the live membership, keep it as the survivor instead, or have it leave the club first.

• An open invoice on the household you merge away. Settle, void or reissue it on the survivor first.

• The membership waitlist. If either household is on the membership waitlist or holds a membership offer, the merge says, for example, "The household being merged away is on the membership waitlist or holds a membership offer, and a place in that line does not move to another household. Staff cannot take a household off the waitlist: a place ends only when an offer to it is accepted, declined or runs out, so a household that has not been offered a place yet cannot be merged until then. Open Waitlist (under Members) to see where it stands, and merge again once the place has ended." A place in that line belongs to one household and is never combined.

• The same program on both households. The message names the program: cancel the registration or remove the waitlist place on one of the two households first, then merge again.

• The same lap swim session on both households. "Both households are already waiting for or booked into ..." the session, and one household cannot wait for a session it is booked into, or wait for it twice (several swimmers of one household can be booked into the same session). Staff cannot remove a lap swim waiting-list place, so ask a member of the household that is waiting to leave the waitlist (Lap swim in the member portal, then Leave waitlist), or cancel the booking (Lap swim under Programs, open the session on the Calendar, then Cancel beside the swimmer). Then merge again.

• The same guest on the same day. "... is logged on both households, and a guest can only be logged once a day." Void one of the two visits in the Guest log (the Void button on its row), then merge again.

• The same caregiver pass. "Both households have a ... pass for ..., and a caregiver can have only one pass a season." Staff cannot remove a pass: ask a member of one of the households to remove it (Caregiver passes in the member portal, then Remove), then merge again.

• A booking being changed right now. "A booking that this would move is being changed right now, so nothing was changed. Try again in a minute." Someone is booking, canceling or paying for it at that moment. Wait a minute and try again. The same sentence ends an undo or a consolidate. A guest visit or caregiver pass added while the merge was running gets the same kind of answer ("... so nothing was changed. Try again.").

A member who books for the old household in the moments after a merge sees "This household's account was combined with another one, so nothing was saved. Reload the page and try again." Nothing is saved, and a reload shows the household they belong to now.

Undo a merge

If a merge was done by mistake, open the household that was merged away (its page says which household it was merged into) and a manager or admin can select Undo merge there. It returns what the merge moved: people, family members, program registrations, program waitlist places, help requests and the bookings above. Each booking goes back only while it is still on the survivor and has not been canceled, declined or picked up since:

• A booking that was canceled on the survivor since stays where it is, and so does anything the survivor made after the merge.

• A camp registration, lottery request or camp waitlist place stays on the survivor if its camper does not go back to the old household with the undo (for example, a camper staff moved elsewhere after the merge).

• The approval says the undo may be refused. If a guest visit, caregiver pass, or lap or camp waitlist place would now clash with one the old household already has, or a booking is being changed right now, the undo is refused in words and nothing is changed. A lap swim place that clashes is cleared the same way as in a merge (ask a member to leave the waitlist). Clear the clash and try again.

• Invoices and signed agreements were never moved, so there is nothing to put back. A merge done before bookings moved with it carried only registrations, waitlist places and help requests, and its undo returns only those.

For join applications flagged before a second household is created, see Reviewing possible duplicate households.