Cleaning Up CiviCRM Before Go-Live (Post-Testing)
Before launching your CiviCRM instance, it’s important to remove test data created during configuration, testing or training. Below is a checklist of key steps to clean up contacts, contributions, events, memberships, and users.
1. Deleting Test Contacts from CiviPlus
When you delete a contact from CiviPlus any associated records will also be deleted, so you do not need to delete them individually. This includes:
Relationships
Custom Field data
Memberships
Event Registrations
Activities
Contributions
Cases
If the Civi contact to be deleted also has a Drupal user account (for example they can log onto the Self-Service portal) you need to cancel their Drupal account before you can remove them from Civi.
Deleting the Drupal user account(s):
Navigate to the SSP admin page and select People from the menu
Browse or search for the account you want to delete / cancel
Click Cancel account at the right of the row
Check the option to "Delete the account and its contents" and then click the Cancel Account button to delete/cancel the Drupal account.
Note: You can also bulk delete/cancel Drupal accounts by selecting multiple accounts from the list and then selecting "Cancel user account" from the Bulk operations options at the bottom of the screen.
Check the option to "Delete the account and its content" and click the Next button
You will be asked to confirm the deletion, click the Confirm button to complete the operation/
Deleting the contact(s) from CiviPlus
Once you have cancelled any associated Drupal accounts you can remove the CiviPlus contact(s) them from the system
To delete an individual contact go to the contact record and click the DELETE CONTACT button
You will be asked to confirm the deletion, and once you have done that you will be shown a screen that allows you to permanently delete the contact from CiviPlus.
You can also delete multiple CiviPlus contact in one operation. To do this, use the Advanced Search operation to list the contacts you want to remove. Select multiple contacts from your search results list and click the "Delete Permanently" option from the Actions box.
You have the option to view the contacts that will be deleted, before clicking the DELETE CONTACTS button to permanently remove them and their associated records from the system
2. Review and Delete Other Test Records
You may have created other items in CiviPlus during testing that should be reviewed removed before go live. (Note: You may decide to simply disable rather than delete this elements in case you need to refer to them at a later stage, or re-enable for testing at a later date.)
Memberships Types
Events and/or Event Types
Case types
Relationship Types
Custom Data and Tags
Cleanup Tips
Use consistent naming during testing (e.g., John Test, test@compuco.io) so that it is easy to find contacts to be removed
Use SearchKit to build reusable clean-up queries
Export data before deleting if in doubt