Power Query Fuzzy-Merge for Employee & Vendor Matching
Seed: PQ queries: TableA (HR), TableB (AP); fuzzy merge settings: threshold 0.8, transformation tableADVERTISEMENT - IN-ARTICLE
Implementation Guide
Pattern for using Power Query's fuzzy merge to join HR and Accounts Payable vendor lists with name normalization, tokenization and threshold tuning. Includes transformation steps: lowercase, remove punctuation, trim tokens, keep highest match, and produce a match-score column. Also demonstrates progressive refinement via transformation table and manual overrides for confirmed matches. Ideal for cleaning supplier/payee duplicate problems or reconciling people-data across systems.
💡 Expert Q&A Insights
Q: \
How to choose fuzzy threshold?\" \"
Q: Start at 0.8 and backtest against known matched pairs; adjust for false positives/negatives.\"\n\"
Can PQ capture phonetic variations?\" \"