Abstract: A system prevents the creation of duplicate records and identifies, groups, and consolidates duplicate records and manages the associated workload. A method consolidates multiple records that are associated with a single entity and are stored in at least one record repository. The method involves identifying first and second records and applying record matching criteria to compare data element content of the first and second identified records to determine commonality data. The commonality data is indicative of a likelihood the first and second records are associated with a common entity. The first and second record content is merged into a composite record in response to the determined commonality data. One of the first and second records are selected as a surviving record based on earliest date of record creation or relative content of the first and second records.