Skip to main content

​
Overview

Duplicate detection looks through your CRM for records that seem to be the same contact or account, then either queues them for you to check or merges them for you. It can also check each new contact or account as it’s created, and warn about or block a likely duplicate before it’s saved. You control four things:
  • Which records Reevo checks: all of them, or only the ones that match your filters.
  • How Reevo decides two records match: which fields to compare, and how strictly.
  • What Reevo does about it: for each rule, hold matches for your approval or merge them automatically, with restrictions on what can ever be merged automatically.
  • What happens when someone creates a record: for each rule, don’t check, warn, or block.
When a duplicate is confirmed, Reevo merges it the same way you would by hand: one record survives and the others are archived into it. See Merging Records for what a merge does to your data.

​
At a glance

​
Duplicate detection vs. unique fields

These are two separate features on the same settings page, and they solve opposite problems: Most teams use both: unique fields to stop exact repeats of one value at the door, duplicate detection to catch the messier ones that differ in spelling or spread across several fields.

​
Before you start

Only admins can set this up. If you aren’t an admin, you won’t see the Data integrity page. Contacts and Accounts are configured separately. Switch between them at the top of the panel. Each keeps its own on/off setting, its own detection filters, its own rules, and its own auto-merge restrictions, so turning detection on for Contacts does nothing for Accounts.

​
How detection runs

Detection runs three ways:
Scans use your saved rules, so save your changes before clicking Scan now. A duplicate that gets past the check on create, or that was created while it was off, is picked up by the next hourly scan.

​
Status and counts

The Automatic duplicate detection card at the top of each object’s settings shows whether detection is On or Paused, when the last scan ran and how it went, and two shortcuts:
  • View auto-merge history: records Reevo merged for you, with a count. Click to see what was merged.
  • Review duplicates: matches waiting on you, with a count. Click to open the review queue.
Turning detection off pauses future scans and stops new records being flagged. Anything already in your review queue stays there.

​
Choose which records to check

The Detection filters card limits duplicate detection to the contacts or accounts that match your filters. Leave it empty to check every record. Records outside your filters are never flagged or merged by a scan, and are never offered as a match when someone creates a record. Filters use the standard fields on the object. Custom fields and fields that link to other records aren’t available here. Contacts and Accounts each have their own filters.

​
Matching rules

Matching rules decide when two records count as duplicates. Reevo treats them as match any rule:
  • Two records are duplicates if they satisfy any one of your rules.
  • A rule is only satisfied when every field in it matches.
So more rules means more records get flagged, and more fields inside a single rule means fewer. There are 4 things to set up on each rule:

​
1. Build your rules

Click Add rule to add one or more rules describing which combinations of fields mean “this is the same record”. For example, a Contacts rule of Display name and Primary email only flags two contacts when both their name and their email match. Add a second rule, say Display name and LinkedIn URL, to widen the net without loosening either rule.
You need at least one rule, and at least one field in each rule, before you can save.

​
2. Choose what Reevo does with a match

Each rule has its own Scan with setting, which decides what happens when a scan finds a duplicate through that rule: New rules start on Manual review, so nothing gets merged without you until you decide otherwise. This lets you trust a strict rule, such as an exact email match, to merge on its own while a looser rule still waits for you. When a group of records matches more than one rule, Reevo uses the review mode that merges the most. Rule order doesn’t matter.

​
3. Pick exact or fuzzy for each field

Some fields let you choose how strictly to compare. Others are always exact. Before comparing anything, Reevo tidies values up:
  • Text is lowercased and trimmed, so Acme, Inc. can match acme inc.
  • Emails ignore anything after a plus sign, so jane+sales@acme.com matches jane@acme.com. On Gmail addresses only, dots in the name are ignored too.
  • Phone numbers compare on digits, ignoring a leading US or Canadian country code.
  • Web addresses drop http://, www., anything after a question mark, and any trailing slash.
For Domain and Official website, fuzzy matching compares the company name part and ignores the ending, so acme.com and acme.net count as a match. Set those fields to exact if you work with companies that use several unrelated domains.
After Reevo gathers likely matches, it checks each pair more carefully before deciding, whichever match type you pick. Fuzzy only widens which pairs get looked at in the first place.

​
4. Choose your fields

Contacts Accounts
Pair a name field with something identifying, such as email, domain, or LinkedIn URL. A rule that matches on a name alone shows a warning, because it flags unrelated people who happen to share one. Records matched on a name alone are never merged automatically; they always wait for review.

​
Preview before you commit

Click See matching examples on a rule to see how sample pairs would be treated under that rule’s settings. The examples use sample values, not your records. Check them before saving, especially if you’re moving a rule to a review mode that merges on its own.

​
Check for duplicates when records are created

Each rule also has an On create setting, which decides what happens when someone creates a contact or account that matches an existing one through that rule: New rules start on Don’t check. When a new record matches more than one rule, the strictest setting wins. The check only runs while duplicate detection is on for that object; turning detection off also turns off the check on create. The check runs wherever contacts and accounts are created in Reevo, including the create forms in the app, Ask Reevo, the Chrome extension, workflows, CSV imports, prospecting, the public API, and records synced in from a connected CRM. Warn and block stops the record being created on every one of them. Warn and allow only shows a warning in the create forms, Ask Reevo, and the Chrome extension; everywhere else the record is created as normal and the hourly scan picks up the match. What people see depends on where they create the record:
  • In a create form, Reevo checks for matches as they fill in the details and shows This contact may already exist or This account may already exist with links to the matching records. They only see records they have access to.
  • When a save is blocked, the form shows Contact creation blocked or Account creation blocked. They can open the matching record or change the values and try again. Admins also get a Create anyway button.
  • In imports and workflows, a blocked record isn’t created: the import row is reported as not imported, and the workflow step fails with a message saying the record is a duplicate.
If the check can’t finish in time, Reevo saves the record rather than holding it up. The next hourly scan picks up any duplicate it creates.

​
Review and merge duplicates

What happens next depends on the review mode of the rule that found the match. Waiting for you. Every match found by a Manual review rule, the fuzzy ones from a Mixed review rule, and anything stopped by your auto-merge restrictions. Open the queue from Review duplicates, then approve or dismiss each one. Approving runs a normal merge. Merged for you. Exact matches from a Mixed review rule, and most matches from a Minimal review rule.

​
Restrict auto-merges

The Auto-merge restrictions card sets limits on what Reevo will ever merge by itself. They apply to all rules. When one applies, Reevo sends the records to review instead of merging them.

​
Which record survives

When Reevo merges by itself, it keeps whichever record it judges more established, working down this list until one wins:
  1. The one with more activity on it.
  2. Then the one linked to more other records.
  3. Then the one updated most recently.
Every other record in the group is archived into it, exactly as in a manual merge.

​
Save your settings

Your changes are held until you save. An Unsaved changes marker appears at the top of the page next to two buttons:
  • Save changes applies everything.
  • Discard changes throws away your changes.
You can’t save without at least one rule, while a rule has no fields in it, or while a rule uses phone number on its own. When you save, Reevo asks what to do with matches already in your review queue:
  • New duplicates only leaves suggestions in review as they are. New duplicates use the new settings.
  • Re-check now re-checks suggestions in review against your new settings.
Re-check now can merge many records at once. If you’ve moved a rule to a review mode that merges more on its own, or loosened your auto-merge restrictions, matches that now qualify are merged straight away instead of waiting for you. Merges archive the losing record and can’t be reversed, so pick New duplicates only unless you’ve checked what’s in your queue.

​
Troubleshooting / FAQs

Only admins. The Data integrity page is hidden from everyone else. Ask an admin in your organization to change the rules or review modes.
Duplicate detection finds records that are probably the same, using flexible rules across several fields, then reviews or merges them. It cleans up duplicates you already have, and with On create set to warn or block it also checks new records as they’re created. Unique fields block a duplicate value on one specific field the moment someone saves, with no rules or review. Most teams use both.
Records are only checked as they’re created when duplicate detection is on for that object and a matching rule has On create set to Warn and allow or Warn and block. Everything else is found by the hourly scan. Click Scan now to check straight away. Also check that the existing record falls inside your detection filters.
Your admin has set a matching rule to Warn and block, and the record you’re creating matches one that already exists. Open the matching record and update it instead, or change the values if it’s really a different person or company. Admins can click Create anyway to save it regardless.
Yes. Add filters in the Detection filters card. Reevo then only flags and merges the contacts or accounts that match them, and only offers those as matches when someone creates a record. Leave the filters empty to check everything.
Exact only matches values that are identical once Reevo tidies up formatting like capitals and spacing. Fuzzy also matches close ones, so “Acme, Inc.” and “acme inc”, or a nickname and a full name, still count. Either way Reevo checks each likely pair more carefully before deciding, so fuzzy widens what gets considered rather than lowering the final bar.
Phone numbers get shared, most obviously a company main line, so matching on phone alone flags people who aren’t duplicates at all. Pair it with something else, such as display name or email.
Only for rules set to Mixed review or Minimal review. Manual review never merges by itself. Even then, your auto-merge restrictions apply: by default any group where more than one record has activity comes to your review queue, and you can also cap group size or hold back records from particular sources. Records that share only a name always wait for review.
The one with more activity on it. If that’s tied, the one linked to more other records. If that’s tied too, the one updated most recently. Every other record in the group is archived into it, just like a manual merge.
Yes. They have separate on/off settings, detection filters, rules, and auto-merge restrictions. Switch between them at the top of the panel.
Future scans stop and new records won’t be flagged, but anything already in the queue stays. Turn detection back on to resume.
Only if you choose Re-check now when you save. Reevo then re-checks them against your new settings, and matches that now qualify for automatic merging can be merged right away. Choose New duplicates only to leave the queue as it is.
Still have questions? Sign in and use Ask Reevo for instant answers or to raise a support ticket.