Fellowship One currently implements a passive model requiring manual intervention when matching a web account to a an Individual account within Fellowship One. It was originally developed this way to ensure security such that one could not impersonate the Sr Pastor or some other individual just because they knew some personal details about them. So while the account can be created on WebLink, and you can proceed with the functions, you won't have access to historical giving records until the web account is manually matched to the proper Individual account. We have entertained a two-way handshake where we attempt to auto-match and send login info to the email acct we have on file (not the one they provided). But that's still in the planning stages.
It's also true, if not proactively managed on a weekly basis, that the total number of unmatched weblink accounts can rise dramatically. However, we've found that even the largest accounts manage them fairly well if they keep up with it from week to week.
Duplicates are a long running issue with many ChMSs. I know we've converted custom systems and standard ones like (ACS, Shelby, and others) in which there were many duplicates in the source data as well. In some cases, especially where churches relied upon small custom Excel files or Access DBs to supplement their ChMS then duplicates were a real nightmare. Getting the data into one integrated system like F1 is the first step.
With that said, I fully agree we have some work to do. The first step will be the Rapid Data Entry project to be released in Nov/Dec of this year, it will include automatic address verification\correction (on select Editions) and automatic duplicate checks. We'll then be incorporating those same mechanisms into the rest of the application (WebLink, Check-in, etc.)
Curtis Simmons
SVP, Product & Services