Summary
Join It gives your organization control over how potential duplicate members are handled. With Merge Rules, you can decide when membership records should be automatically merged — or not merged at all — based on your preferences.
How to Set your Merge Rules
To configure Merge Rules in your organization:
From the dashboard, go to Members
Select Member Settings
Click on Merge Rules
From there, you’ll see several merge rule options available. Each is described in more detail below:
Limited Merge Scenarios (default)
Merge Matching Records
Merge Similar Records
Do Not Merge
Description of screenshot: Displaying where to edit the Merge Rules
Merge Rule Options Explained
Limited Merge Scenarios (Default)
This is the default setting and takes a conservative approach to auto-merging. Records are only merged in the following cases:
Prospective + Active Membership:
If there's a Prospective membership and an Active membership that share the same email, the records will be automatically merged.Multiple Prospective Memberships:
If multiple Prospective memberships share the same email, they will be merged into one record.
Merge Matching Records
This setting expands the criteria for automatic merging. It includes everything in the "Limited Merge Scenarios" plus:
Matching Membership Type:
If two records share the same email and the same Membership Type — and one is Active while the other is Inactive or expiring within 14 days — they’ll be merged.
Merge Similar Records
This is the most inclusive option and removes the Membership Type requirement. It includes everything above, and also:
Matching Email (Any Membership Type):
Even if Membership Types differ, Join It will merge the records if they match on email and meet the status conditions (one Active, the other Inactive or expiring soon).
Do Not Merge
With this setting, no membership records will be automatically merged — giving you full manual control over your member database.
What Happens When Records Are Auto-Merged?
Here’s how Join It handles the data when two records are automatically merged:
Joined Date: The earlier date is preserved
Expiration Date: The later date is kept
Membership ID: The older Membership ID is retained (if available); otherwise, the newer one is used
Default Info (e.g., Company, Job Title, Birthday): Newer information takes priority
Custom Fields: New custom field responses are prioritized
Membership Payments: Payments from both records are merged into the new record
Eventbrite Orders: Orders are combined and associated with the merged record