As long as people are typing on keyboards, errors will happen. Duplication is arguably the most common type of error in Salesforce, and of those, accounts and contacts are the most popular.
Creating a strategy to identify duplicates is a multi-phased approach.
Phase 1: Before data is entered
Salesforce offers a few options to help handle duplicates. Before data is entered, matching rules and duplicate rules can be set up and activated. This will warn or prevent users from creating records that are triggered by the matching rules.
Phase 2: Whenever data is manually entered
One of the easiest ways to manage duplicates is to avoid them completely. Before a record is manually created in Salesforce, a quick search (using the global search) should be done to confirm the record doesn’t already exist.
Phase 3: On a scheduled basis
On a weekly or monthly basis, a system-wide duplication check should be performed by a dedicated team, super user, or system administrator. The person performing the task needs to have delete functionality, as merged records require this permission.
There are a few ways to identify duplicate records.
- Duplicate reports: To report on duplicates, create a Report Type with the target object as primary object (e.g. Contact or Account) and then the object “Duplicate Record Items” as the related object.
- Manually exporting and reviewing: Using tools such as Salesforce Data Loader, users can export a large amount of data. Then scripts can be created and executed on the exported data to identify potential duplicates.
- Third party tools: The most popular ones are Duplicate Check from Plauti and Apsona
The takeaway
Creating processes to prevent and identify duplicates are necessary. Duplicate data erodes users’ trust in the system. Managing duplicates on a regular basis is far better than waiting until it becomes a much more significant effort.