Duplicate accounts occur when there are two or more accounts in Neon CRM for the same individual or company. Duplicate accounts can make managing and reporting difficult in Neon CRM.
The primary tool for catching incoming duplicate accounts is the Account Match & Partial Match Queue. Additionally, for a more thorough data clean-up, you may use the Duplicate Scan feature to locate duplicate accounts based on various criteria of your choosing. You may also schedule duplicate scans to occur regularly on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to ensure all duplicate accounts are located and reconciled to keep your data clean.
Contents
Navigate to the Duplicate Scan Feature
To navigate to the Duplicate Scan feature:
1. Select Tools in the navigation menu and then select Duplicate Management on the drop-down menu.
On the Duplicate Scan page:
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page to locate the Duplicate Scan section, as seen in the image below. Per the image below, you can run a duplicate scan to search for duplicate accounts based one of seven criteria, as follows:
- Email Match
- Name & Email Match
- Address Match
- Name & Address Match
- Name Match
- Name & Phone Match
- Phone Match
As seen in the image below, the Duplicate Scan section also displays the results of the last scan for each criteria, as well as the next scheduled scan date for each criteria, if applicable. (See the Schedule a Duplicate Scan section below for more information about scheduling duplicate scans.)
| Please note: In the Last Scan column, as seen in the image below, you may select the blue number to view the results of the last duplicate scan. You may then take action to reconcile these duplicate accounts per the instructions below. |
Run a Duplicate Scan
To run a duplicate scan:
1. Select the three-dot Action menu in the row of the criteria by which you wish to run the scan.
2. Select Run Scan on the drop-down menu.
The results of the scan will appear on the Duplicate Scans page.
Work with Duplicate Scan Results
The Duplicate Scans results page displays (per the image below):
- The Actions column - Displays the steps you may take to reconcile the found duplicate accounts.
- The Scan Type column - Displays the one of the seven criteria by which the duplicate accounts were found.
- The Matched Data column - Displays the specific piece(s) of information that the duplicate accounts have in common.
- The Most Recent Account Create Time column - Displays the date that the most recent duplicate account found in the scan was created.
- The Matched Accounts column - Displays the duplicate accounts that have been found.
The Actions column lists the possible actions you can take with each set of matches, whether to Compare Accounts (if they may be duplicates or otherwise related in some way) or mark them as Not Duplicates (if you are certain they are not duplicates). Marking two accounts as "Not duplicates" will remove them from the Duplicate Scans page and exclude them from appearing in any future duplicate scan.
For the remainder of this section, let's examine what occurs when you select Compare Accounts.
The duplicate merge process has several steps:
Step 1 of 3 - Choose which account to keep
After you select Compare Account, you will see the page below. You first must decide which account among the duplicate accounts will be kept. The Duplicate Match Details section of the page displays data fields for the matches, which can help you decide which account should be considered the "main" account.
On this page:
1. Select the radio button of the account you wish to make the "main" account (i.e. the account that will be kept and into which all information from the duplicate accounts will be merged).
2. Select Next.
Step 2 of 3 - What should we do with these matches?
After you decide which account is to be considered the "main" ("kept") account, you must decide what to do with the rest of the duplicates. Your options, as outlined in red in the image below, are explained below.
Merge
Merge will combine the information in the duplicate account into the main "kept" account. After the merge is complete, the duplicate account will be deleted, with all transaction and communication history added to the main "kept" account. This option is selected by default for all possible duplicates, as it is the most common scenario.
| Note: When merging duplicate accounts, Neon CRM keeps all transaction data regardless of which account is kept or purged. |
Keep this Account (do not merge this time)
This option exempts the duplicate account from the current merge operation. The duplicate account will continue to show up as a possible duplicate in later duplicate scans if you wish to merge them later.
Keep this account (mark as not duplicate)
This option marks the potential duplicate account as not duplicate. The accounts will remain as separate accounts, and they will no longer be pulled as potential duplicates in future scans.
Link to [Account Owner] as an Account Relation
This option will keep the duplicate account as a unique account instead of merging it and will allow you to define a relationship between the accounts. When you select this option, you will be prompted to assign a role to the duplicate account. Read about Neon relationships here.
Add to [Account Owner's] Household
This option will add the duplicate account to the main "kept" account's household. This option is only available when merging Individual Accounts, as Company Accounts cannot be in a household. Read about Neon households here.
Once you have made your selection:
1. Select Next to continue with the duplicate merge. (For this example, and the remaining steps below, the option to merge accounts has been selected.)
Step 2a of 3 - Merge Addresses
This page will be displayed if the accounts being merged have existing addresses. In this step, you decide how to handle the addresses associated with possible duplicates.
1. Select the radio button for the address you wish to keep as the primary address.
Once you have made your selection of which address to keep, you have two options with the remaining address(es):
- Keep Address (as a secondary address on the main account)
- Remove Address
Step 3 of 3 - Merge Account Data
In this step, you determine which data, from all possible duplicates, will be kept on the "main" account. The far-left gray column, the Final Account Details column, contains the values for each field that will be kept on the main account. For each data field (row), you can click radio buttons to choose a different value for each data field. By default, the Final Account Details column will show the existing values from the main account.
When you are satisfied with the data shown in Final Account Details:
1. Select Next.
Duplicate Merge Summary
This page shows a summary of all actions that are about to be taken. It shows specifically which accounts will be merged, ignored, linked as relationships, and/or linked as household contacts. It is important to note, if merging accounts, it is a permanent action that cannot be undone. To complete the action:
1. Select Merge and continue to next duplicate match OR
2. Select Merge accounts and return to scan results on the drop-down menu OR
3. Select Merge accounts and go to merged account on the drop-down menu
Schedule a Duplicate Scan
Regularly running duplicate scans is important in order to stay on top of the duplicate accounts in your database. On the Duplicate Scan section of the Duplicate Management tool, you may schedule scans on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
To schedule a duplicate scan:
1. Select Tools in the navigation menu and then select Duplicate Management on the drop-down menu.
2. Scroll down to the Duplicate Scan section of the Duplicate Management page.
As stated in an earlier section in this article, there are seven criteria by which you may run a duplicate scan.
In the criteria row on which you would like to schedule a duplicate scan:
3. Select the three dot Action menu at the end of the criterion's row.
4. Select Schedule Scan on the drop-down menu.
On the Schedule Scan pop-up:
5. Select Day, Week, or Month for the frequency. Note: If you select Week, you must specify the day of the week on which you wish to run the scan. If you select Month, you must specify the day of the month on which you wish to run the scan.
When you have made your selections:
6. Select Schedule Scan.
Once you have a scheduled scan, in the Duplicate Scan section of the Duplicate Management page will display upcoming scans in the Next Scan Scheduled For column. Also, the drop-down menu in the three dot Action menu gives you options to Edit Schedule and Unschedule Scan.
Check for a Duplicate Account on an Individual Account Page
On an individual or company account page, you may search for duplicate accounts for that specific account holder.
To do so:
1. Navigate to the applicable account and select the three dot Action menu at the top of the page.
2. Select Find Duplicate on the drop-down menu.
3. If a duplicate is found, you will be taken to the Duplicate Management tool to take action on this account. Please see the Work with Duplicate Scan Results section above for information on the steps to take to reconcile the duplicate accounts.
FAQs
A. All transaction history on a merged accounts will be moved to the "kept" account.
A. Custom fields on the merged account will be transferred to the kept account. For conflicting options where only one answer is allowed (different radio buttons, free-entry, or drop-down options) the kept account will override the merged account. Multiple entries in a single checkbox field will be combined. Note that the Account Match & Partial Match Queue setting for how to handle checkbox custom fields does not apply to accounts merged with a Duplicate Scan.
A. No. The kept account will automatically be given the most recently used login information.
A. The phone numbers will appear listed on step 3, data compare page, so you can choose which to keep.
A. Accounts that you choose to keep will not be merged into the kept account, however, they will reappear as possible duplicates the next time a scan is run. Until a new scan is run, they will not display as duplicates. Most can be avoided by using the Name + Email match or the Name + Address match.
If you must use that scan again, you can prevent the false match from showing up again by clicking "Not Duplicates" next to the name(s) in question.
Q. Will the email addresses on both accounts be kept?
A. If your duplicate accounts have different emails and you want to retain both, you will get a chance to do this in step 3 of the duplicate merge process.
Q. Is there a way to tell the Duplicate Manager that certain items are not duplicates of each other?
A. The "Not Duplicates" action can be used to mark false positives. They will not show up as duplicates of each other in future scans.
Q. A certain match was marked as "Not Duplicates". Where can I find it?
A. At the top of the Duplicate Management page, there should be a link called "Accounts Marked As Not Duplicates". The "not duplicates" matches can be found there.