How to Manage and Merge Duplicate Contacts

This article describes how to configure cross-company duplicate prevention rules and merge existing duplicate contact files within the FORTH system. It was developed for users with standard CRM access and administrative permissions who need to prevent duplicate contact creation across companies and merge existing duplicate records.

The article is organized into the following sections:

• Overview
• Prerequisites
• How to Access
• How it Works
• Configure Duplicate Management Settings
• Execute a Contact Merge
• Troubleshooting / FAQ
• Assistance

Overview

Duplicate contact records create confusion, divide customer history, and reduce reporting accuracy. The FORTH CRM prevents duplicates entries across affiliated companies during contact creation and merge existing duplicate files without data loss. This saves time, ensures contact integrity, and keeps account data centralized.

Prerequisites

• Administrator access to view the Admin tab and configure company-wide Settings.
• Standard user access to the FORTH CRM Contacts tab.

How to Access

Configure Duplicate Management Settings

1. Log in to the FORTH CRM.
2. Navigate to Admin > Settings > Duplicate Management.
   

Access the Contact De-Dupe Tool

1. Log in to the FORTH CRM.
   
2. Click the Contacts tab.
3. In your browser address bar, replace the word index at the end of the URL with dedup.
   
4. Press Enter.

How it Works

Configure Duplicate Management Settings

1. In the Select a company dropdown menu, select the companies you want to cross-check.
   
2. You can select all available companies using the checkbox, or use the search field to filter the list.
   
3. Click Add Company on the right side of the page.
4. In the Companies Cross Checked section, click the right-facing arrow next to the selected company to expand its settings.
   
5. In the Search Field dropdown menu (shown in the image above), select up to four criteria to use for duplicate checking: 
   • Email, 
   • Phone Number, 
   • Social Security Number (SSN), 

   • or TPid (External ID).
     
      

     WARNING: When a contact is being created, all of the selected fields here must match to avoid creating a duplicate. If one field matches, but another selected field doesn't, the record will not be counted as a duplicate, and a new contact can be created.

     For example, using the above image as our setting, if a contact is being created with the same SSN as someone else, but their phone number is different, the system will allow the contact to be created.

6. Use the directional buttons to choose from the list of available companies that will be cross-checked.
7. Click Save Changes. A confirmation banner indicates that the system saved your settings.
   
8. Once your settings have been saved, you will only see the Duplicate Management function working when creating a new contact. After saving, attempting to save a new contact will fail if it shares the same value(s) as one of the fields that you configured the duplicate management tool to check against.
9. You will see a yellow banner appear, like the one shown below. This banner indicates that the duplicate SSN/phone number/email address/etc. is already in use, and it reports the contact that already uses that information.
   

Execute a Contact Merge

1. On the Merge Contacts page...
   
2. ...select the field you want to search by from the Search By dropdown menu.
   
3. Enter your search term in the Filter field and click the green checkmark button.
4. Review the grouped results to confirm whether the records are true duplicates.
   
5. Select the Master radio button for the record you want to retain.
6. Select the Merge checkbox for the duplicate record you want to consolidate.
   
7. Click Merge / Dedup. The page refreshes and removes the consolidated record, transferring unique data to the master file.

Troubleshooting / FAQ

Why did the system permit a contact with a matching phone number? 

All configured search fields must match before the system flags a record as a duplicate. For example, if you configure both SSN and Phone Number, a contact with an identical phone number but a different SSN is accepted.

Why did Duplicate Management not clean up existing duplicate records? 

The Duplicate Management tool only checks new records during creation and does not eliminate duplicates retroactively.

Why does the company list not update after saving? 

The Duplicate Management page does not refresh automatically when you save or delete a company. Refresh your browser to see updated records.

Why is a contact ineligible to merge? 

You cannot merge contacts who are enrolled, dropped, or graduated.

Can I reverse a completed contact merge? 

Merging records is permanent and cannot be undone. Verify all information before you click Merge / Dedup.

Can you provide an example of applying duplicate management?

For example, a user is modifying settings for Company B and enables Company C and Company D but not Company F. When a user under Company B saves a new contact record, we check for duplicates across Company B and Company C based on the key field (email, phone, ssn, etc.) but not Company F.

Assistance

For further assistance, reach out to support@setforth.com.

Article Revision History

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