Cleaning Up Databases: How FileMaker Can Automate Data Hygiene

As the year comes to a close, many organizations naturally focus on financial reporting and compliance. Another important opportunity during this time is reviewing the health of your data. Over the course of a year, databases can accumulate duplicate records, incomplete entries, outdated information, and small inconsistencies that gradually impact system performance and reporting accuracy.

With Claris FileMaker, organizations can automate data hygiene processes that clean, validate, and organize their databasesensuring systems are optimized and ready for the new year.

Automatically Identify and Remove Duplicate Records

Duplicate records are one of the most common data quality issues, especially in systems with multiple users, imports, or integrations. FileMaker scripts can automatically detect duplicates based on:

• Matching email addresses or account IDs
• Repeated SKU or product codes
• Duplicate customer or vendor names
• Identical timestamps or transaction references

Once identified, FileMaker can flag records for review, merge duplicates safely, or archive redundant entries, reducing clutter and improving accuracy across reports and workflows.

Validate Records and Enforce Data Standards

FileMaker excels at enforcing data validation rules, ensuring records meet your standards before the new year begins. Automated scripts can:

• Identify missing required fields
• Validate date ranges and numeric thresholds
• Enforce formatting standards (emails, phone numbers, IDs)
• Flag incomplete or inconsistent records

By running validation routines before January, teams avoid carrying bad data into a new reporting cycle.

Archive Old or Inactive Data Automatically

Not all data needs to remain part of your day-to-day operations forever. As systems evolve, older records can still be valuable for reference or compliance without needing to stay front and center. FileMaker scripts make it easy to archive:

• Closed orders or completed projects
• Inactive customers or vendors
• Historical inventory records
• Prior-year transactions

Archived data remains accessible for reporting and compliance, but is removed from day-to-day operational views to improve performance and usability.

Prep Systems for the New Year

Data hygiene automation also allows teams to reset or prepare systems for the upcoming year by:

• Rolling over counters and sequences
• Clearing temporary tables
• Locking prior-year records
• Rebuilding summary caches and dashboards

These processes can run automatically during off-hours, ensuring systems are ready on January 1 without manual intervention.

Why It Matters

Taking time to clean up your database before January can deliver both immediate and long-term benefits:

• Faster system performance
• More accurate reports
• Fewer user errors
• Cleaner analytics and forecasting
• Reduced technical debt

Instead of starting the year by fixing old problems, teams begin with a reliable foundation.

Claris FileMaker makes year-end data hygiene efficient and repeatable through automated scripts that remove duplicates, validate records, archive outdated data, and prepare systems for the year ahead. With the right cleanup workflows in place, organizations can enter Q1 with confidence in their data and the systems that rely on it.

Interested in automating data cleanup and optimization with Claris FileMaker? Reach out here, and we’d be happy to help.