# Managing Clinical Operations Person & Organization Objects You can use the _Person_ object to associate a person's information with documents, while the _Organization_ object lets you associate an organization with documents. Using these objects, rather than a custom picklist or text field, provides more robust functionality for filtering, searching, and reporting. This makes it easier to reuse documents like CVs, medical licenses, lab certifications, and other TMF content that stay the same for a single person or organization across many trials. On your study personnel's _Person_ object records, you can set their _Study Role_ and _Contact Information_.
## Creating and Editing Organization Records {#organizations} You can create and edit _Organization_ records from **Global Directory > Organizations**, **Business Admin > Organizations**, and from within a related object record, such as _Study Organization_ and _Study Site Organization_ records. To create or edit an _Organization_ record: 1. Click the **Create** button, or click into an existing _Organization_ record and click **Edit**. 2. If creating a new _Organization_, select an **Organization Type** in the dialog and click **Continue**. 3. Fill in details about the _Organization_. 4. Optional: Click the binoculars icon in the **USN** field to open a dialog to search for and select a _Research Site Name_ with a valid [USN (Universal Study Number)](/en/lr/76166201/#universal-site-number). Your selection here will automatically populate and lock the _Organization_ field. Clear the **USN** field to unlock the **Organization** field. 5. Click **Save**. Vault includes an orange "connected" icon (Connected Icon) in the header of the object record details page for all _Organizations_ that use SiteVault and have a valid [USN value](/en/lr/76166201/#universal-site-number). This icon indicates that you can transfer documents and data to that site's target Vault via [Veeva Site Connect](/en/lr/64231/). When an Admin activates the _Available as Study Site_ field on the _Organization_ object, selecting **Yes** for the field on an _Organization_ record allows you to select it when creating [_Study Sites_](/en/lr/4345/#study_sites). When active, Vault enables the _Available as Study Site_ field as a required field on the _Institution_ object type by default.While you cannot remove the field from the _Institution_ object type, you can, however, add the field to additional _Organization_ object types. An Admin must activate the _Available as Study Site_ field to use this functionality. This field is automatically enabled for Vault with [OpenData Clinical](/en/lr/845620/). ## Merging Records Clinical Operations supports [merging duplicate records](/en/lr/659058/) for _Person_, _Contact Information_, _Organization_, and [_Location_](/en/lr/13951/) objects in the Global Directory. To enable merging for these objects, navigate to **Admin > Settings > Application Settings** and select the **Enable Merges for Global Directory Object**. You can only initiate record merges through the Vault API or the Vault Java SDK. Learn more about how to execute a record merge in the Developer Portal. Vault will block the merging of records in the following cases: * The duplicate _Person_ record has a related _User_ record. * The duplicate _Person_ record has a related _Study Person_ record used for security or [Site Connect](/en/lr/64231/). * The duplicate _Person_ record has a related _Study Person_ record with a Study connected to Study Training. * The duplicate _Person_, _Organization_, _Location_, _or Contact Information_ record is controlled by [OpenData Clinical](/en/lr/44699/). ### Merging Person Records When configured on the _Person_ lifecycle, users with the appropriate permissions can select the **Merge Persons** action to merge duplicate _Person_ records in the Global Directory. This action enables Business Admin and other data stewards to merge duplicate _Person_ records without requiring the use of external tools.  To merge duplicate **Person** records using the **Merge Persons** action: 1. Navigate to **Global Directory > Personnel** tab. 2. Select the **Merge Persons** action on the _Person_ record you want to keep as the main record.  3. In the dialog, select the checkbox for each duplicate **Person** record you want merged into the main _Person_ record. 4. Click **Merge**. For successful merges, Vault designates the original _Person_ record as the main record and retains its existing field data. Vault deletes the selected duplicate _Person_ records and updates all corresponding child records pointing to the duplicate _Person_ records to point to the new main _Person_ record. ## Promote Person to User You can create a user record for a person using the **Promote Person to User** action on an existing _Person_ record. This action creates a _User_ object record, automatically populates the _Source Person_ field on that _User_ record, and populates the _User_ object reference field on the _Person_ record. Using the **Promote Person to User** action rather than creating a new user directly prevents Vault from creating duplicate _Person_ records. You must configure the action on an _Active_ lifecycle state of the _Person_ (`person__sys`) object. Once configured, the action will be available on _Person_ records in the appropriate lifecycle state. ## Document Field Defaulting on the Contributor's Organization Field {#contributors-organization-field} When configured, Vault can automatically populate the _Contributor's Organization_ document field when a user creates a document of a given type. To do this, the _Organization_ field must be populated on that user's _User_ object record. Then, when the user creates a new document, Vault automatically populates the _Contributor's Organization_ document field with the user's defined organization. Users can manually update this field from the Doc Info page, if necessary. Including a document field that references the _Organization_ object allows Sponsors to measure and compare CRO performance. For example, your organization could run a report to monitor timeliness, with a DateDiff function calculating the difference between the _Document Date_ field and the _Approval Complete Date_ field, grouped by CRO. ## How to Enable Organization Field Defaulting To allow Vault to automatically populate the _Contributor's Organization_ field when a user creates a document, you must first enable the feature. Navigate to **Admin > Settings > Application Settings** and select the **Enable Contributor's Organization Document Field Defaulting** checkbox. Next, add the shared _Contributor's Organization_ field (`contributors_organization__v`) to any document types, subtypes, or classifications for which you want Vault to populate the field. If you want to prevent users from updating this field manually, you can also [configure field-level security](/en/lr/2942/) to set this field to _Read-Only_. Note that Vault only populates this field on documents of the correct type for a given user when the _Organization_ field (`organization__v`) is populated on that _User_ object record. Users must also have _Read_ permission on the _Organization_ object. ## Related Permissions | Type | Permission | Controls | | ---| ---| --- | | Security Profile | Users: Manage User Object | Grants the ability to execute the _Promote Person to User_ action | | Security Profile | Object: {Object Name}: View, Edit, Delete | Required to start record merges | | Security Profile | Application: Object: Merge Records | Required to read, edit, and delete the records on the object to merge. Learn more about [object permissions](/en/lr/22824/).| | Security Profile | API: Access API | Required to use the Vault API.| | Security Profile | Vault Java SDK: Read, Create, Edit, Delete | Required to use the Vault Java SDK. Learn more about other related Vault Java SDK permission in the Vault Java SDK.|