Developer

krish-vaid

Krish Vaid

potential-duplicates

Potential Duplicates


## Introduction

Duplicate Contacts are a common challenge in Salesforce. Over time, the same person may be added more than once, leading to inconsistent data, duplicate communication, wasted time, and inaccurate reporting.

Salesforce provides Matching Rules and Duplicate Rules to help identify records that may represent the same person. The free [Potential Duplicates](/products/merge-duplicates) app makes it easier to find and review these records without manually searching through Contacts.

In this article, we’ll walk through a simple example of identifying duplicate Contacts using [Potential Duplicates](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EcyysUAB&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=report_and_export_duplicates&utm_content=potential%20duplicates). We’ll also show how to make those identified duplicates available in a Salesforce report and export the results to XLSX for further review or analysis. This method works for any object where Salesforce lets you create duplicate rules: Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Individuals, or Custom Objects.

Potential Duplicates is free and rated 5 stars on the AppExchange, so you can follow along in your own org as you read.

<a className="btn btn-primary" href="https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EcyysUAB&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=report_and_export_duplicates&utm_content=get_the_app_top">Get Potential Duplicates Free</a>

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## Identifying Potential Duplicate Contacts

To demonstrate the duplicate detection process, we first created 10 pairs of duplicate Contacts. Each pair contains two Contacts with matching information, giving us a set of known duplicates to work with. Salesforce comes with some default duplicate rules, but if you need to adjust your duplicate rules, check out our article: [Duplicate records in Salesforce](/blog/duplicate-records-in-salesforce).

### Find Duplicate Contacts

If you’ve recently changed your duplicate or matching rules, run a duplicates search first. Go to the Bulk Merge tab in the [Potential Duplicates app](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EcyysUAB&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=report_and_export_duplicates&utm_content=potential%20duplicates) and click Run Duplicates Search. Once the job completes, you’ll get an email. Potential Duplicates groups the matching records into Duplicate Record Sets, making it easier to review Contacts that may be duplicates.

From the Bulk Merge page, users can open a duplicate set and review the Contacts to determine whether they are actually duplicates and whether further action, such as merging the records, is required. But sometimes you want to review duplicates with others before merging them. For that, you might want to run a report you can export (or send on a schedule with [Report Sender](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EJdlFUAT&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=report_and_export_duplicates&utm_content=report%20sender)).

![Run a duplicates search from the Bulk Merge tab.](/uploads/run-duplicates-search-bulk-merge.png)

Run a duplicates search from the Bulk Merge tab.

## Reporting on Identified Duplicates

While [Potential Duplicates](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EcyysUAB&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=report_and_export_duplicates&utm_content=potential%20duplicates) makes it easy to identify and review potential duplicates, you may also want to create a report containing those records. This can be useful when you need to analyze the duplicates, share the results with other users, or export the data for further review.

Salesforce stores the relationship between a duplicate Contact and its duplicate set through Duplicate Record Set Items. We can use this relationship to create a Custom Report Type and make the identified duplicates available in Salesforce Reports.

### Create a Custom Report Type

Create a new Custom Report Type from Salesforce Setup with the following configuration:

| Setting | Value |
| ----- | ----- |
| Primary Object | Contacts |
| Related Object | Duplicate Record Set Items |
| Relationship | Each Contact must have at least one related Duplicate Record Set Item |

Selecting “Each A record must have at least one related B record” ensures that the report only includes Contacts associated with a Duplicate Record Set Item.

![Custom Report Type configuration for Contacts and Duplicate Record Set Items.](/uploads/custom-report-type-duplicate-record-set-items.png)

### Create the Duplicate Contact Report

After you create the Custom Report Type, create a new report using it.

Add the Contact and Duplicate Record Set fields you want to display, then group the records by Duplicate Record Set Name.

Grouping by Duplicate Record Set Name keeps Contacts belonging to the same duplicate group together, making the results easier to review.

![Duplicate Contact report grouped by Duplicate Record Set Name.](/uploads/duplicate-contact-report-grouped.png)

*Tip: If you include the Duplicate Record Set ID and the Duplicate Record Item ID, you can use those in any ETL tool to delete record sets or items that are not a duplicate. Note that they may get recreated after future duplicate scans if you don’t update the matching rule or the data.*

### Export the Results

After reviewing the report, use Salesforce's standard Export functionality to download the results.

Select Excel (.xlsx) as the export format and click Export. You can use the resulting file for further analysis, share it with other users, or keep it for reference. Once you’ve decided how you want to merge the records, return to the CloudAnswers Bulk Merge tab to start the process.

![Exporting the duplicate Contact report to XLSX.](/uploads/export-duplicate-report-xlsx.png)

### Review Results on a Schedule

If you want to send this to yourself or other admins on a regular basis, you can use Salesforce report subscriptions or the [CloudAnswers Report Sender app](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EJdlFUAT&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=report_and_export_duplicates&utm_content=cloudanswers%20report%20sender%20app). That way, the team knows when duplicates are increasing or decreasing and can discuss when to do a bulk cleanup.

In Report Sender, you just set up a report schedule with your new report, choose the schedule you want, and add your admin team. It's also helpful to add a link to the Bulk Merge tab so people can jump in and start merging.

![Scheduling the duplicate Contact report with Report Sender.](/uploads/report-sender-duplicate-schedule.png)

---

## Conclusion

[Potential Duplicates](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EcyysUAB&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=report_and_export_duplicates&utm_content=potential%20duplicates) provides a convenient way to identify and review duplicate Contacts (or any object) in Salesforce. Once you identify duplicate records, you can use Salesforce Reports to review or export them.

By creating a Custom Report Type based on Contacts and Duplicate Record Set Items, you can report specifically on Contacts that have been identified as potential duplicates. Grouping the results by Duplicate Record Set Name makes it easier to see which Contacts belong to the same duplicate group, while exporting the report to XLSX provides a convenient format for further analysis or sharing.

Together, [Potential Duplicates](/products/merge-duplicates) and Salesforce Reports provide a practical workflow for identifying, reviewing, and reporting on duplicate Contact records.

Ready to clean up your own org? Potential Duplicates is free to install and takes just a few minutes to set up.

<a className="btn btn-primary" href="https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EcyysUAB&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=report_and_export_duplicates&utm_content=get_the_app_bottom">Install Potential Duplicates Free</a>

*Questions about Potential Duplicates or your duplicate cleanup process? [Let us know](https://cloudanswers.com/contact).*


Find duplicate Contacts

Run a duplicates search from the Bulk Merge tab in Potential Duplicates. It groups matching Contacts into Duplicate Record Sets so you can review them.

Create a Custom Report Type

Build a Custom Report Type with Contacts as the primary object and Duplicate Record Set Items as the related object, requiring at least one related item.

Create the duplicate Contact report

Add Contact and Duplicate Record Set fields to a new report, then group the results by Duplicate Record Set Name so matching Contacts stay together.

Export the results

Use Salesforce's standard Export functionality and choose Excel (.xlsx) to download the report for review, sharing, or further analysis.

Review results on a schedule

Use Salesforce report subscriptions or the CloudAnswers Report Sender app to send the duplicate report to your admin team on a recurring schedule.

In this article, we’ll walk through a simple example of identifying duplicate Contacts using Potential Duplicates. We’ll also show how to make those identified duplicates available in a Salesforce report and export the results for further review or analysis.

identifying-and-reporting-duplicate-contacts-in-salesforce-with-potential-duplicates

Identify, Report, and Export Duplicate Contacts in Salesforce

Salesforce Consultant

5-ian-cosgrove

Ian Cosgrove

for-administrators

For Administrators

As consultants and app providers, we get to see a LOT of Salesforce orgs, and one thing that almost everyone has in common is bad data – it takes consistent, proactive work to ensure the data in Salesforce is clean and accurate. We love to leverage native tools, and we think Salesforce duplicate rules are powerful, so we always make sure our clients have them set up to prevent duplicates. But in our experience, duplicate management falls into two buckets: records that are definitely duplicates, like two contacts with the same email, and records that might be duplicated, but someone who knows the data might have to review. The second bucket is what we call potential duplicates, and it takes much more work to keep these out of your system.

Six years ago, we released our [potential duplicates component](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EcyysUAB&tab=d&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=bulk_merge_blog) to help show potential duplicates on custom objects and standard records where the standard Salesforce duplicate component didn’t exist. We released it for free because we felt it should be standard—it’s a great, simple tool for users to help determine which potential duplicates actually need to be merged. Since then, it has helped thousands of companies keep their Salesforce clean.

Now, we are introducing Potential Duplicates V2, which adds a powerful and commonly requested feature that allows you to scan your org for duplicates and merge them in bulk. Potential Duplicates V2 empowers our users to save countless hours and resources by enabling them to view and delete all duplicate records in their org. Let’s dive into this new powerful feature and see how it works.

# Bulk Merge

Bulk Merge is designed to simplify the lives of our admins. It allows you to merge hundreds or thousands of duplicates, dramatically reducing time and complexity.

Here’s how it works: with Bulk Merge, just like the componnet, you have to make sure that your Salesforce duplicate rules are set up on the object you wish to merge. Bulk Merge uses the [existing duplicate rules](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sales.duplicate_rules_create.htm&type=5)in your org and supports the merging of any object Salesforce allows. Once those are set up, you can launch the app and start finding and eliminating duplicates. Keep reading for more on how it works.

## Search for Duplicates

When you first go to the Bulk Merge tab, you may see duplicates there already. But if you don’t, or you’ve recently changed your duplicate or matching rules, you may want to start with a search. To do that, just make sure you have the object selected that you want to search and then click Run Duplicates Search. Then refill your coffee or work on something else because it’ll take a minute to scan through all the records. When you want, click Refresh to see all of the duplicates that it found. Then move on to either manually or automatically merging the duplicates that were found.

![](/uploads/wordpress/2025/02/image-1024x344.png)

## Manual Merge

Let’s take a look at a common occurrence: you and your team go to a trade show, and many of your colleagues start collecting contact information on potential prospects from the show. Sounds great, everyone is generating a ton of new connections, until they’re imported into Salesforce and you realize that a bunch of the “new connections” are people you’ve had in the system for years. After you have a conversation with the new guys about cross-referencing with the system before adding new people, you get started with the cleanup. This is a great use case for the manual merge feature in Bulk Merge, which lets you review every record before they’re merged, so you can make sure any new information is applied to the existing record while merging the excess data.

![](/uploads/wordpress/2025/02/AD_4nXf9RxItVQzR7k2OBuAyaMbqVw38pWYVA7Jrvd2PCeBfGNJcfxk2ilO59fRSulcX9Qx2FWEoqUEcwMKuBDB0AaITTv2_0xa8UWjz1CCQXEakNvHHPELmWjM9p9dzQxVHviZHn-mm-zkcDIwXKJD_RWPRrOAV.gif)

Manual merge empowers you to control the merge, keeping you in the driver’s seat for critical data merges.

## Auto Merge

Let’s look at another situation that happens from time to time. Your company uses an external system to receive orders and sync them over into Salesforce via a batch job. Unfortunately for your organization, there was an issue with the API which caused mass sync jobs that no one noticed for a few days. Not to worry, this is a perfect use case for the Automerge feature.

![](/uploads/wordpress/2025/02/AD_4nXf8dEK9J0R5UC1H0cP_4LN36x0Q7YOEKFn2WvMn-i-pzfmTICPtR0GFZF2FqpUHT59CYwRl7YpnFpl8K0CVf27lHqJBHw2IrNXN82ayYxWseiLCislZajRfzwPz4wnP8-BmhjPpbmn2-3ueukenYk7vEId7.png)

Automerge works by letting you choose which master record you want, Oldest, Newest, or the most recently modified. In this example, merging by the oldest record and letting the system do the rest would be the perfect solution for this problem, so let’s fix it!

![](/uploads/wordpress/2025/02/AD_4nXdhh89uE9H9jRQNPB_mB8AEIo9GXso64PIUR62yG2XwWB13DIUCNLeSg2u2JQSER9f_0b2thSQfWnL0NuV0x-iJHdSMYyyDy4spD5hWGJ2XY7gCPwMuAJ01pKHV95BTVC6xslBG3ol6HCKL6AvJqi-et9OD.gif)

In this example we merged 30 duplicate records, but as you can see there is the option to “Load More” at the bottom of the page. There is nothing stopping you from loading hundreds of records in a batch, selecting and processing them. Taking a process that would normally several take hours and reducing it into a 15 minute task. Automerge is a great tool for tasks like this, or merges where you trust the system to make the dceisions for you.

# Conclusion

Potential Duplicates v2 is the most capable data management application we’ve ever created. With the power of Bulk Merge and its options to manually or automatically merge records, it’s sure to assist your org with duplicates.

If you’re not already a Potential Duplicates user, this is the best time to start. We offer the application 100% free forever, so go ahead and start cleaning up your duplicates today!


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