Understanding Client Matching Using the Data Import Tool (DIT)

Table of Contents

• Full Matching

• Regular Matching

• No Matching

• TargetClientID Match Only

• Note on Clarity XML & Clarity CSV imports

Overview

When a file is introduced to the Data Import Tool (DIT) and client matching is not turned off completely (No Matching strategy), the DIT looks at the imported file(s) external_id and attempts to match it to all external_ids stored in the Clarity Human Services database import mapping tables.

If the external_id exists in the Clarity Human Services database mapping tables, the importer will update that record within Clarity Human Services, as it has already been matched in a previous import. 

If the external_id is not found, it will look at the client record contents to determine a match, as explained below.

Full Matching 

If the Full Matching client-matching strategy is enabled, the matching algorithm will leverage the following fields from the imported file to search for an existing match within the Clarity Human Services database:

• ssn_quality
• ssn
• name_quality
• first_name
• last_name
• dob_quality
• birth_date

This is an all-or-nothing approach. This means that all the above fields must match 100% with what is currently stored in Clarity Human Services for a client record. The Clarity Human Services client record will be updated with the client information being imported. If all of the above fields are not matched, the record will not be imported, and no new client will be created.

The Full Matching strategy will never add new clients into Clarity Human Services.

Regular Matching 

The Regular Matching client-matching strategy goes through a multi-step comparison to determine a match. The steps are outlined below, starting with the introduction of the file.

1. The importer first looks for the following conditions in the imported file:

    

   ssn_quality = 1

   AND

   ssn is not NULL

    

   If the above conditions are met and there is a Clarity Human Services match, the Clarity Human Services client record is updated with the client information from the file.  If not, the process continues.

2. If the above conditions are not met, the following conditions are checked:

    

   ssn is not NULL

   AND

   last_name is not NULL

   AND

   dob_quality = 1

   AND

   birth_date is not NULL

   If the above conditions are met, the importer will perform a Clarity Human Services client search using the following fields:

   last four digits of SSN

   last_name

   birth_date 

     

3. If the above conditions are not met, the following conditions are checked:
   
   ssn is not NULL
   
   AND
   
   last_name is not NULL
   
   AND
   
   first_name is not NULL
   
   If the above conditions are met, the importer will perform a Clarity Human Services client search using the following fields:
   
   last four digits from SSN
   
   last_name
   
   first_name
   
   If the above conditions are met and there is a Clarity Human Services match, the Clarity Human Services client record is updated with the client information from the file.  If not, a new client record is created.

No Matching

When the No Matching client-matching strategy is enabled, the system first checks if there is a matching TargetClientID. If there is a match, the record is updated to the existing matched target Client record.

If a TargetClientID match is not found, the algorithm stops there and adds a new record. 

TargetClientID Match Only

The TargetClientID Match Only client-matching strategy is available for Clarity CSV. With this match strategy and with the improved No Matching strategy, when a TargetClientID (the 9-character Clarity Unique ID) is present in a Clarity CSV record file, it automatically updates that existing target Client Unique ID if present in the receiving Clarity system.

However, there are differences between the TargetClientID Match Only and the No Matching strategy.

• With the TargetClientID Match Only strategy, no new records are ever created.

• With the No Matching strategy, if a TargetClientID isn’t found, the system will create a new record.

                                                                                                                                                                                  Updated: 06/16/2026