Why do duplicate entries appear?
Departments may maintain separate registers, a file may be imported twice or a new record may be created after a label change. Sometimes one entry describes a set and another describes a component.
Similar entries are not always duplicates. A company can own many identical devices. Comparing identifiers, documents and usage history helps distinguish these cases.
How do duplicates affect everyday work?
They overstate available equipment and complicate assignments. One record may point to a repair provider while another points to a user. During inventory, teams waste time looking for an item whose extra record exists only in the data.
Documents can also become separated: a repair or handover may be linked to a different record from the one used by other departments.
What does cleaning the register achieve?
After identity is confirmed, a primary record can retain the linked history. Previous identifiers remain useful for finding older documents. Addressing the cause of duplication is equally important, so new receipts do not recreate the same problem.
