In case you are not sure of the records that have been duplicated, you can let CRM run a check on modules using the De-duplicate tool. CRM will automatically find and merge exact matches. In case of conflicts in field values, you must manually resolve the conflicts and merge records.

Consider the following image. There are three exact matches and there are two records in which the just phone number field differs. In this case, CRM will auto-merge the first three records and prompt the user to resolve conflict in the last two records. Once the conflict has been resolved, the records will be merged.

To merge duplicate records using the De-duplicate tool

1. Click the Leads, Accounts, Contacts or Vendors tab.
   
2. In the [Module] Home page, under [Module] Tools, click Deduplicate [Module].
   
   (Module refers to the tabs like Leads, Contacts, etc.)
   
3. In the Deduplicate [Records] page, click the fields by which you would like to search the duplicate records.
   
   
   
   You can select up to 3 fields. CRM will search for duplicates based on these fields.
   
   For example, if you select Email and Company, CRM will look for records in which the Email ID and Phone fields are the same.
   
   Note that fields that you have marked as unique appear here. If you have not marked unique fields, CRM will display a standard set of unique fields for the module.
   
4. Click Find and Merge Duplicates.
   
   A popup window informing you of the de-duplicate function appears. Click OK.
   
   
   
   If the duplicates found by CRM are exact copies of each other, CRM will automatically merge them. In that case, this requires no further action from the user.
   
   Note that in the case of auto-merge, the record with latest "Last Activity Time" will be considered as the master record.
   
   In case there is a conflict in some of the field values between the duplicates, then you must resolve the conflict and then manually merge the records.
   
    
   

Resolve conflicts in de-duplication

A conflict in de-duplication refers to a case where the field values within duplicates are different. For example, there are two records called David Smith, where all field values except the phone number are the same. In this case, CRM does not know which record to consider as the final and merge them. This is an example of a conflict and this must be resolved by the user. There are two ways to resolve conflict in de-duplication.

• Resolve immediately - When CRM throws a popup on the conflict, you can immediately resolve it by click Resolve Now.
  
• Resolve later - If you are busy with other activities, click Resolve Later. You will be sent an email notification on the de-duplication details. Access the link to resolve conflict from this email. Note that this link will be valid only for three days.
  

Once you click to resolve conflict, you will be taken to the Deduplicate [Records] page, where the particular record and the number of duplicate entries found are displayed. Click View.
(You can switch between the tabs to view the duplicates under each selected field.) 

1. As per the example above, there are two leads with the same field values except for the phone number. So in the Deduplicate Leads page, you can see that the records are listed as columns.
   
2. Select a Master Record. You can click SELECT ALL, if you wish to take all the master record values as final and merge the duplicates.
   
   
   
   If not, click the radio buttons near the corresponding fields of other records to instruct CRM on which field values should be considered "final" in order to merge duplicates.
   
   The values thus selected appear under the MASTER RECORD column.
   
3. Once you have resolved the conflicting values, click Merge.
   
   A warning message is displayed, informing you of the consequences of the merging of records. Once you are sure, confirm the action.
   
   The duplicates will successfully be merged as seen below.