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How-to — task-oriented recipe.
Having duplicates in your CRM can lead to confusion - we’re here to help. Learn about the two ways to merge duplicate people and organizations, followed by an FAQ section below:
  • Important Callout: Merging duplicates cannot be undone and should be merged with caution. The only merges that can be undone are merges done via the Duplicate management tool, and only for Person contacts.

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Duplicate Management center (Admins only)

If you are an admin (or an Enterprise Admin on the Enterprise tier), you can manage duplicates in one place through the Duplicate Management center.
  1. Click on Settings on the left side of your screen.
  1. Scroll down and click the Duplicate Management tab. You can click on either the Organizations tab or the People tab based on which entity type you’d want to focus on. You’ll also notice a Merge section - this section provides a log of records that were merged, are in the process of being merged, or where the merge action errored. It is also within this tab, that Admins can undo People merges that they deem to have occurred in error. (NOTE: The undo feature is only available for people merges done through the Duplicate Management tool - any merges done via the profile will still be permanent.)
  2. You can also filter by additional criteria, based on what you are looking at.
    • For Organization duplicates, you can filter on Identical Domain, Domain Redirect, or Identical name.
    • You can now merge all duplicate records for a given match type at once. Merge all is only available for the “Identical domain” duplicate Organization suggestions and not “domain redirect” or “Identical name” based suggestions.
    • For People duplicates, you can filter on Intelligent Matches or Name Matches. Additionally, Admins can bulk merge any records that are identified through our Intelligent Matching filter, as well as bulk “remove from list” for selected or all suggestions.
    • Merge all of People records is only available for duplicates identified by the “Intelligent Matches” filter, they are not available for the “Name Matches” duplicate suggestions.
  3. For each duplicate suggestion, choose one of the three options:
    • Merge - This will combine notes, interactions, reminders, files, and global field values from the Duplicate contact and merge them onto the Primary contact.
    • Manage - View a side-by-side comparison that highlights key differences between the Primary and Duplicate records.
    • Remove from List - This option is found by clicking on the ellipse (3-dots). This action will remove the suggestion from appearing in the Duplicate Manager.
  4. To check on a merge in progress, navigate to the Merge tab. Here, this section provides a log of records that were merged, are in the process of being merged, or where the merge action errored.

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Merge all

  • You can now merge all duplicate records for a given match type at once.
  • Merge all of People records is only available for duplicates identified the “Intelligent Matches” filter, they are not available for the “Name Matches” duplicate suggestions.
  • Merge all is only available for the “domain match” duplicate Organization suggestions and not “domain redirect” or “name match” based suggestions.
    • This is to ensure that you can safely merge records in bulk.
    • NOTE: After a “Merge all”, there might still be a small number of duplicates that appear.
  • This happens when there are multiple duplicates for the same record.
    • The “Merge All” will merge the first matching pair

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Merging duplicates one by one (All user types)

If you are not an admin, you can still merge duplicates by following the steps below.
  1. Click on Settings on the left side of your screen.
  2. Scroll down and click the Duplicate Management tab. You can click on either the Organizations tab or the People tab based on which entity type you’d want to focus on. You’ll also notice a Merge section - this section provides a log of records that were merged, are in the process of being merged, or where the merge action errored. It is also within this tab, that Admins can undo People merges that they deem to have occurred in error. (NOTE: The undo feature is only available for people merges done through the Duplicate Management tool - any merges done via the profile will still be permanent.)
  3. You can also filter by additional criteria, based on what you are looking at.
    • For Organization duplicates, you can filter on Identical Domain, Domain Redirect, or Identical name.
    • You can now merge all duplicate records for a given match type at once. Merge all is only available for the “Identical domain” duplicate Organization suggestions and not “domain redirect” or “Identical name” based suggestions.
    • For People duplicates, you can filter on Intelligent Matches or Name Matches. Additionally, Admins can bulk merge any records that are identified through our Intelligent Matching filter, as well as bulk “remove from list” for selected or all suggestions.
    • Merge all of People records is only available for duplicates identified by the “Intelligent Matches” filter, they are not available for the “Name Matches” duplicate suggestions.
  4. Go to the profile page of the person/organization that will be the main contact you’d like to keep as the primary.
  5. Click the dropdown button, then click Merge duplicate.
  6. To check on a merge in progress, navigate to the Merge tab. Here, this section provides a log of records that were merged, are in the process of being merged, or where the merge action errored.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can you undo a merge?
  • Yes, but only for people merged via the Duplicate Management tool. Organizations, or merges that occurred via the profile, will still remain permanent. How does Affinity determine which people and organizations are potential duplicates?
  • Affinity will surface potential duplicates of people based on exact name matches and potential duplicates of organizations based on exact name, exact domain/website matches or domain redirects. What happens when separate entities on the same list end up getting merged?
  • You will end up with duplicate list entries on that list (shown as the Primary entity), but with the following impact:
    • The list-specific field values will remain the same for each list entry.
    • The global field values (single value) from the Duplicate list entry will be overwritten by the Primary list entry.
    • The global field values (multiple values) from the Duplicate list entry will be added and combined into those from the Primary list entry.
    • The Activity Timeline on the Primary entity’s profile page will surface the historical list activities of both Primary and Duplicate list entries. Can you merge opportunities as well?
  • You will not be able to merge opportunities given their unique nature. You can only merge duplicate people and duplicate organizations.
  1. Go to the profile page of the person/organization that will be the main contact you’d like to keep as the primary.
  2. Click the dropdown button, then click Merge duplicate.
  3. Type in the name of the duplicate you’d like to merge into the main contact, then click Merge. This will combine notes, interactions, reminders, files, and global field values from the Duplicate contact and merge them onto the Current contact.