The manage duplicates feature helps grant managers identify and manage duplicate applications. Duplicate applications are detected based on a configurable similarity threshold and can also be manually assigned. When duplicates are confirmed, duplicate applications are archived, while the selected primary application remains active for reviewing.
Duplicate management is non-destructive:
- Applications are not merged
- No data is moved between applications
- Duplicate status can be reversed or changed
How duplicates are identified
Award Force automatically identifies duplicates when applications have:
- The same or very similar application name
- The same category
Duplicate detection compares application names using a configurable similarity percentage.
Set the similarity threshold
You can control how strict duplicate detection should be.
- In the Manage workspace, go to Forms
- Click the ellipsis (three dots) next to your form and choose Form settings
- Open the 'Advanced' tab
- Adjust Duplicate identification minimum similarity percentage
- Click Save
The similarity threshold can be set between 50% and 100%. The recommended similarity threshold is 80–85% (default: 85%).
Scan for duplicates
Duplicate detection must be triggered manually.
- In the Manage workspace, go to Applications
- Click Manage duplicates in the bottom-left corner of the page
Click Scan for duplicates
The scan compares each application with previously created applications and displays any potential duplicate sets.
Each duplicate set includes:
- The primary application
- One or more potential duplicates
Confirm duplicate applications
Once duplicates are identified, review each duplicate set.
Grant managers can:
- Compare applications if needed
- Change the primary application
- Mark applications as Not a duplicate
- Confirm and archive duplicates
To confirm duplicates:
- Review the applications in the duplicate set
- Select the correct primary application if necessary
- Click Confirm + archive duplicates
Archived applications are removed from normal application views but remain accessible; see Archiving applications.
Primary applications
The primary application is the application that will be reviewed. By default, the first submitted application becomes the primary application, but grant managers can change this selection.
Only submitted applications can be selected as the primary application.
Set duplicates manually
If the automatic scan does not identify duplicates, managers can mark them manually.
Duplicates can be set:
- From the Applications list view
- As a bulk action
- From the application ellipsis (three dots) menu
This can be useful when applications differ significantly in spelling or naming but refer to the same submission.
Display duplicates to reviewers
Duplicate information can optionally be shown to reviewers.
- In the Manage workspace, go to Reviewing > Settings > Score sets
- Select the desired score set
- Open the 'Display' tab
- In the 'Display' box, select Duplicate applications count and, if desired, Duplicate applications list
- Click Save
When enabled, a duplicates panel appears at the bottom of the application during reviewing.
Reviewers can see:
- The number of duplicate applications
- The applicants or nominators
- Optional links to view duplicate applications
All reviewing actions—scoring, commenting, and voting—apply only to the primary application.
Good to know
- Duplicate detection compares application names within the same category.
- Only submitted applications can be selected as a primary application.
- Duplicate sets cannot be confirmed if none of the applications are submitted.
- Duplicate scans process up to 3,000 applications per batch. Running another scan continues processing remaining applications without rescanning completed applications.
- If an application name or category changes after confirmation, the application will be flagged for rescanning.
- Changing the similarity threshold requires running a new scan.
- Previously confirmed duplicates remain unchanged after threshold adjustments.