How to deduplicate in Salesforce like a pro - a step by step guide

Before we move forward, let’s establish some prerequisites:

• Salesforce admin permission
• Access to Leads, Contacts, and Accounts (and any custom objects you care about)
• It’s highly recommended to have a sandbox for testing
• Optional: a small set of known duplicate records for trial runs

4 steps to find and remove duplicates with native Salesforce tools

Step 1: Switch on Duplicate Rules

Enable Salesforce's built-in duplicate detection.

• Setup > search "Duplicate Rules".
• Activate the standard rules for Leads, Contacts, and Accounts.
• For more control, create or tune Matching Rules (e.g., match on Email + Phone for Contacts).

Pro tip: Combine multiple fields (Email + Name + Company) for more precise matches.

Step 2: Decide whether to block or alert

Control how Salesforce reacts when a user tries to create a duplicate via the User Interface (UI).

• In each Duplicate Rule, choose:
  - Block: prevent saving if a potential duplicate is found.
  - Alert: warn the user, but allow saving (user can override).
• These options apply only to records created in the Salesforce UI.

For records from Web-to-Lead, Data Import Wizard, Data Loader, or API, keep the following in mind.

• If a duplicate is detected, Salesforce will hard-block the records; no alert, no override, and the records simply won't be created or imported.
• There is no separate configuration for these channels. Blocking is always enforced, even if your rule would allow Alerts in the UI.
• Results: You may miss out on important data or interactions. For example, if someone fills out your web form twice, then only the first one will be captured.

Step 3: Hunt down existing duplicates

Find the duplicates that are already in your org.

• Go to the Leads, Contacts, or Accounts tab.
• Use list views and add the "Potentials Duplicates" column. This appears when rules are active.
• Open a record with a warning to see suspected matches side-by-side.

Step 4: Merge duplicates

Consolidate duplicate records into a single source of truth.

• From a record with potential duplicates, choose Merge or use the Merge tool in list views.
• Select up to three records to merge at once.
• Pick the master records and choose which field values to keep.
• Confirm the merge.

Pro tip: Double-check before merging. You can often restore deleted records, but prevention beats cleanup.

Where native Salesforce deduplication comes up short

• Fuzzy matching is limited: “Jon” vs “John”, “ABC Corp” vs “A.B.C. Corporation”, or international variants can slip through.
• Bulk merges are manual: built-in tools only merge up to three records at a time.
• Custom objects and cross-object matching require heavy configuration or aren't supported natively.
• No global dashboards: tracking duplicate trends or data hygiene requires custom reporting.
• Ongoing prevention takes up administrator's time: keeping rules up to date and reviewing alerts is a lot of work.
• There are no advanced merge rules: you need to manually select the field values you want to save.

Want to deduplicate like a pro? Meet Plauti Deduplicate

Plauti Deduplicate brings powerful, scalable deduplication to Salesforce, without exports or risky scripts.

What it does for deduplication

• Advanced detection: exact, fuzzy, and phonetic matching across fields, objects, and locales.
• Bulk merge at scale: handle hundreds or thousands of duplicates in minutes, not days.
• Any object support: standard and custom objects across your org.
• Full audit: review and approve confidence.
• Dashboards and insights: monitor duplicate trends and data health in real-time.
• 100% native Salesforce app: keep everything inside your org.

The 20-minute setup to end duplicate chaos

Step 0: Test in a sandbox

• Install Plauti Deduplicate in a sandbox.
• Run a scan on a small sample (e.g., a Lead segment).
• Review matches, test merge scenarios, and confirm audit.

Step 1: Install and prep (5 minutes)

• Install Plauti Deduplicate from AppExchange.
• Assign permission sets to admins and power users.
• Open the Plauti Deduplication app.

Step 2: Find and merge existing duplicates (5-10 minutes)

• Run a duplicate search on your target object (e.g., Leads).
• Review match groups (exact and fuzzy).
• Bulk Merge with thoroughly tested merge rules.
• Use the audit trail to validate results and share outcomes.

Step 3: Set up ongoing prevention (5 minutes)

• Use Plauti's own prevention rules for user-facing warnings or blocks.
• Schedule recurring scans in Plauti Deduplicate to surface new dupes automatically.
• Add dashboards to track duplicate rates by object or source (imports, web forms, integrations).
• Use Direct Processing to automatically deduplicate records that enter through a form/import/API. This is a very important prevention step to keep your org clean.
• New! AI Merge: let AI help you with deciding which fields to keep while manual merging.

Before vs. after and what this actually looks like

Before

• Reps waste time calling the same lead twice.
• Pipeline and campaign attribution are inflated and unreliable.
• Merging duplicates one by one takes days.

After

• One clean record per customer, with the complete activity history.
• Accurate reports and forecasts that leadership can trust.
• Bulk deduplication in minutes, with safety nets.
• Automatic prevention of incoming records without losing data.