Data Deduplication & Merge

What is Deduplication?

Deduplication identifies and resolves duplicate records in your CRM. Over time, the same person or company may get entered multiple times — from imports, web forms, manual entry, or different team members.

How Duplicates Happen

• Same lead enters from website AND a trade show import
• Two reps manually create the same lead independently
• CSV import doesn't catch existing records
• Same person with slightly different name/email/phone

Finding Duplicates

Automatic Detection

ZenTraq automatically checks for duplicates when:

• Creating a new lead — Warns if email or phone already exists
• Importing CSV — Flags matching records before import
• Web form submission — Checks against existing records

Manual Duplicate Search

1. Go to Leads → Actions → Find Duplicates
2. System scans for records matching by:
   • Email address (exact match)
   • Phone/Mobile number (last 10 digits)
   • Name + Company combination
3. Results show grouped duplicate sets

Duplicate Criteria

Match Type	Confidence	Example
Same email	High	john@acme.com = john@acme.com
Same phone (last 10)	High	+919876543210 = 9876543210
Same name + company	Medium	"John Doe at Acme" = "John Doe at Acme Corp"
Similar name + same phone	Medium	"Jon Doe" + same phone as "John Doe"
Same email domain + name	Low	j.doe@acme.com ≈ john.doe@acme.com

Merging Duplicates

How to Merge

1. From the duplicate results (or select 2 records manually)
2. Click Merge
3. Choose the Primary Record (the one that survives)
4. For each field, select which value to keep:
   • Keep primary's value
   • Keep secondary's value
   • Keep both (for multi-value fields)
5. Review the merged result
6. Confirm merge

What Happens During Merge

• Secondary record is deleted
• All activities from both records combine into the primary
• All notes, tasks, and communication history merge
• Linked deals/invoices point to the primary
• Tags from both records are combined
• Custom field values preserved per your selection
• The merge is logged in activity history

Merge Rules

• Owner: Choose one owner (typically the more active one)
• Created Date: Keeps the earlier date (first interaction)
• Lead Source: Choose the original source
• Status: Keep the more advanced pipeline stage
• Activities: ALL activities merge (nothing lost)
• Files/Documents: ALL preserved

Preventing Duplicates

During Creation

• Real-time duplicate check as users type email or phone
• Warning popup: "A lead with this email already exists. View existing?"
• Option to proceed (create anyway) or navigate to existing record

During Import

• Choose duplicate handling before importing:
  • Skip duplicates — Don't import matching records
  • Update existing — Overwrite with import data
  • Import all — Create even if duplicate exists
• Review flagged duplicates before confirming import

Via Web Forms

• If form submission email matches existing lead:
  • Don't create a new lead
  • Log activity on the existing lead
  • Notify the assigned owner of renewed interest

Duplicate Dashboard

View your duplicate situation:

• Total suspected duplicate sets
• Duplicates by entity type (Leads, Contacts, Accounts)
• Most common duplicate fields (email, phone, name)
• Duplicates created this week/month (trend)

Bulk Deduplication

For large-scale cleanup:

1. Go to Settings → Data Management → Deduplication
2. Select entity type (Leads, Contacts)
3. Choose matching criteria (Email, Phone, Name+Company)
4. Run scan — shows all duplicate groups
5. For each group:
   • Auto-select primary (most complete record)
   • Review and adjust
   • Merge or skip
6. Process all groups

Tips

• Run dedup monthly — Catch duplicates early before data diverges
• Choose the right primary — Pick the record with more history/activity
• Check before import — Always use duplicate detection on imports
• Standardize data entry — Consistent formats reduce duplicates
• Use email as primary key — Most reliable unique identifier
• Train your team — Teach them to search before creating new records
• Don't panic — Merge preserves all data, nothing is truly lost