Duplicate records in Salesforce refer to the presence of multiple records with the same information within objects like Accounts, Leads, Contacts, etc.
In this Salesforce tutorial, I will explain different ways how to find duplicate records in Salesforce.
Find Duplicate Records in Salesforce
There are multiple resources that cause duplicated records in Salesforce without any intention, such as
- During the manual entry of the record, the user mistakenly creates a record multiple times.
- While importing data into Salesforce, duplicates can occur when a record already exists and is imported again.
These duplicate records in Salesforce create huge confusion, inaccuracy, a mess of records, and a poor user experience. So, it is necessary to find duplicates in Salesforce.
How to Find Duplicate Records in Salesforce
To find duplicates in Salesforce, you have three different ways given below:
- Using duplicate record sets items
- Using duplicate record reports
- Check duplicates of specific records from related section
Let’s learn each of the ways in detail, step-by-step to find duplicates in Salesforce.
Find Duplicate Records in Salesforce Using Duplicate Record Sets
You can find duplicate records by creating the list view in built-in object duplicate record sets in Salesforce. Below are the steps to find the duplicate records.
1. Log in to your Salesforce account in the lightning experience. Click on the “Gear” icon and select “Setup” to go to the setup home.
2. Click on the “App Launcher”, search for “Duplicated Record Sets”, and click.
3. Click on the “New” button to set up the duplicate rule that you want to fetch. Select the “Duplicate Rule” field and click on “Save”.
4. To get all the duplicate records, you need a new list view. For this, click on the “Gear” icon and select the “New” option.
5. Enter the “List Name” and the “List API Name” get automatically filled up. You can also set the sharing settings from “Who can see this list view”. Click on the “Save”.
6. Click on the “Duplicate Record Set Name” whose matching duplicate rule you want to check.
7. On the “Details” page, it shows the “Duplicate Rule” field showing that these duplicate records are from the duplicate matching rule you selected and the “Record Count” field shows that there are a total of 2 duplicate records.
To view the duplicate record, click on “Related,” and you will get the list of all the duplicate records.
How to Find Duplicates in Salesforce of Specific Records from Related
You can find the duplicate of the specific record if it exists in Salesforce. Below are the steps to find duplicates.
1. Click on the “Gear” icon and select “Setup” to go to the setup home in Lightning experience.
2. Click on the “App Launcher”, search for the “Object Name” whose duplicate record you want to check, and click on it.
3. Search the “Record” whose duplicate value to try to find and click on it.
4. Click on “Related” and search for a section named “Potential Duplicates of this contact”. If there is any duplicate record present similar to this record, it will show; otherwise, you will get nothing.
How to Find Duplicate Records in Salesforce Report
You can also find duplicate records using Salesforce reports. A report is a list of data generated based on filter criteria. Below are the steps to find duplicate records.
1. Log into the Salesforce account either in the Lightning or Classic interface and navigate to “Setup”. Then, search for “Report Types” in the “Quick Find” box.
2. Click on the “Continue” button and then select the “New Custom Report Type” button to create a custom report in Salesforce.
3. Fill in the details to define the custom report type.
| Fields | Description |
|---|---|
| Primary Object | Specify what type of records will be the focus of the report. |
| Report Type Label | Specify the name of the report type. |
| Report Type Name | The report type name field gets automatically filled and acts as an an API for the report type. |
| Description | Enter the extra information about the custom report type. It will be visible to the users who create reports. |
| Store in Category | Choose the category of custom report type to which the report belongs. |
| Deployment | Specify the deployment status that whether the report is ready to use or still in working condition. |
Click on the “Next” button to proceed.
4. Define the related records from other objects that will be returned as a result of the report. In case you are finding a duplicate record, you need to choose “Duplicate Record Items”.
To save the custom report type, click on the “Save” button.
5. After creating the record type, you need to create a report from it. Click on the “App Launcher” search and click on “Reports” or click on the “Reports” tab from the navigation bar.
6. Click on the “Category” under which you store the custom report type. Then, select the “Custom report type” that you have created for duplicate records.
Click on the “Start Report” button.
7. You can see that duplicate records are shown on the report. Now click on the “Save & Run” button.
8. The save report dialogue box is open. Fill in the “Report Name”, and the “Description”. If you want to save it particular folder, select “Folder” also and click on the “Save” button.
How to Find Duplicate Accounts in Salesforce
You can use any of the above-defined methods to find duplicate accounts in Salesforce Lightning. Let’s use the specific record method to find duplicate accounts in Salesforce.
The steps are as given below:
1. Click on the “Gear” icon and select “Setup” to go to the setup home in Lightning experience.
2. Click on the “App Launcher” search for “Accounts” to find its duplicate records, and click on it.
3. Search the account record whose you have a doubt the duplicate value of this exists and click on it. For example, I checked for “Burlington Textiles Corp of America”.
4. Click on “Related” and search for a section named “Potential Duplicates of this contact”. If there is any duplicate record present similar to this record, it will show; otherwise, you will get nothing.
Note: The account record is only found to be a duplicate if it has the below matching equation:
(Account Name AND Billing Street)
OR (Account Name AND City AND State)
OR (Account Name AND ZIP)
OR (Account Name AND Phone)
OR (Website AND Phone)
OR (Website AND Billing Street)Salesforce Find Duplicate Contacts
The following are the steps to find duplicate contacts in Salesforce using the report.
1. Go to the “Setup” and search “Report Types” in the “Quick Find” box.
2. Click on the “Continue” button and then click on the “New Custom Report Type”.
3. Choose the primary object as “Contacts” as you want to find the duplicate records from the contact object.
4. Enter the “Report Type Label” as “Duplicate Contact Records”, and the “Report Type Name” will be automatically filled.
After that, add the “Description” regarding the custom report type and choose the category in “Store in Category”.
5. Set the deployment status as “Deployed” and click on “Next” to proceed.
6. Select the related object as “Duplicate Record Items” and choose the type of relationship you want to show between both objects.
7. Click on the “Save” button.
8. Search and click on “Reports” in “App Launcher”. Then, click on the “New Report” button.
9. Click on the “Accounts & Contacts” category, search, and select the “Duplicate Contacts Record” report type. Finally, click on the “Start Report”.
10. You will get the report with duplicate records based on the columns selected. You can add more columns if you want in the report. Finally, click on “Save & Run” to save the report with duplicate contact records in Salesforce.
Conclusion
I hope you have learned different ways to find duplicate records in Salesforce. I have also explained how to find duplicate accounts in Salesforce.
Additionally, I have shown step-by-step implementation of Salesforce to find duplicate contacts.
You may like to read:
- How to Create a Task in Salesforce
- How to Import Data into Salesforce
- Create a related list in salesforce
- Check Duplicate Records Using Screen Flow in Salesforce
I am Bijay Kumar, the founder of SalesforceFAQs.com. Having over 10 years of experience working in salesforce technologies for clients across the world (Canada, Australia, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, etc.). I am a certified salesforce administrator and expert with experience in developing salesforce applications and projects. My goal is to make it easy for people to learn and use salesforce technologies by providing simple and easy-to-understand solutions. Check out the complete profile on About us.
