Find and Merge Duplicate Companies or Contacts

Overview

Over time, CRM data tends to accumulate duplicates — the same company entered twice, a contact with two profiles, activity split across records that should be one. Duplicate Management gives your team a structured way to find, review, and merge those records before they cause problems.

Nothing is merged automatically. You stay in control of every decision.

What's in This Article

Getting to Duplicate Management

1. Go to CRM in the left navigation.
2. Select Duplicates from the top menu > 3 dots.
3. Choose either the Company Review or Contact Review tab.

The page loads your current duplicate review queue. Each tab shows a count of pending groups — for example, "Contact Review 11" means there are 11 contact groups waiting for your attention.

If results look outdated, use the Refresh option on the page to kick off a new scan.

How Duplicate Matching Works

The system scans your records and groups ones that share strong similarities. It doesn't guess based on a single field — it looks for patterns across multiple data points.

For companies, it checks: company name, email, phone number, website, address, and other company details.

For contacts, it checks: name, email, phone number, website, linked company, title, address, and other contact fields.

The more overlapping details two records share, the more likely they'll be flagged. Two contacts with the same name and email address are a stronger match than two contacts who just share a city.

Understanding Confidence Levels

Some duplicate groups display a confidence level alongside the match:

Strong match — Multiple details align closely. These are worth reviewing first.

Needs review — Records look related but have some differences. Check carefully.

Weak match — A possible match, but the records need closer inspection before acting.

Confidence levels are a starting point, not a verdict. Always review the records yourself before approving a merge.

Reviewing a Duplicate Group

Each group in the queue contains two or more records that may belong together. Here's how to work through one:

1. Open a Group

   Select a group from the left-hand queue. The detail view opens on the right, showing the records side by side with their fields laid out for comparison — names, email addresses, phone numbers, linked companies, and more.

2. Choose the Primary Record

   The primary record is the one that will remain after the merge. Select it using the Primary radio button at the top of the record column.Pick the record with the most complete and accurate information. When in doubt, keep the one with the longer activity history.

3. Select Which Records to Merge

   Check the duplicate records you want to merge into the primary. You don't have to merge every record in the group — if one doesn't belong, leave it unselected.

4. Review Field Values

   For fields where the two records have different values — like different phone numbers or company names — you'll be able to choose which value carries over to the primary record. Take a moment here. It's easy to accidentally discard a useful email address or an updated phone number.

5. Approve the Merge

   When you're satisfied with your selections, click Queue to Merge (or use the A keyboard shortcut to approve).Your selections are queued for processing. The merge won't appear instantly — it runs in the background. Once complete, the duplicate records are consolidated into the primary, and related data (activity, notes, invoices, tags, attachments, custom fields) moves over where possible.

   
   

Keyboard Shortcuts

Working through a long queue? Use these shortcuts to move faster:

Manually Merging Records

Sometimes you know two records are duplicates even if they don't show up in the suggested queue — maybe they use slightly different spellings, or one has incomplete contact details.

Manual merge lets you handle these directly:

1. Open Duplicate Management and choose Companies or Contacts.
2. Click Manual Merge (top right of the page).
3. Search for and select at least two records.
4. Choose the primary record.
5. Review field values and approve the merge.

The process is identical to the regular queue — same review steps, same outcome.

Using "Pick Recommended" and "Merge Approved Records"

• Pick Recommended — Automatically selects the recommended primary record and merge candidates for the current group. Useful for speeding through high-confidence matches.
• Merge Approved Records — Submits all groups you've approved in the current session for processing. The badge count shows how many are queued.

Why a Record Might Not Appear in the Queue

If you're expecting to see a duplicate but it's not showing up, a few things could explain it:

• The latest scan hasn't finished yet — try refreshing.
• The records don't share enough matching details to be flagged.
• The records use different spellings, old contact information, or incomplete data.
• The records were already reviewed or merged in a previous session.
• Duplicate Management isn't enabled for your organization.

If you're confident two records are duplicates, use Manual Merge — you don't need to wait for them to appear in the queue.

Why a Suggested Match Might Not Actually Be a Duplicate

Two different records can look similar if they share a common name, phone number, or domain. The system flags these for human review precisely because it can't make the final call.

If a suggested group isn't actually a duplicate, leave the records unselected and don't approve the merge. There's no penalty for skipping — the records stay separate.

Tips for a Clean Review

• Keep the record with the fullest history as your primary — it tends to have the most connected activity and notes.
• Double-check email and phone fields before approving, especially when the values differ between records.
• When in doubt, skip it. It's better to leave a possible duplicate unmerged than to combine records that shouldn't be together.
• Use Manual Merge proactively — don't wait for the system to surface records you already know are duplicates.

Need Help?

If you're unsure whether two records should be merged, leave them as-is and loop in your administrator. Merges can be difficult to undo, so it's worth taking an extra minute when you're not certain.