After you enable the "Duplicate Detection" feature at Setup > Company > Enable Features (Administrator), you need to set criteria to use when searching for duplicates before records can be flagged. By default, NetSuite searches for duplicates by email address.
Note
Merging records also merges the records’ transaction history. The original data, such as entity name, is retained to preserve a transaction's history. You should restrict the ability to perform merges to specific roles or to the NetSuite administrator. This is particularly important where audit requirements discourage merging transaction records.
Duplicate Detection Preferences
You can change how NetSuite searches for duplicates on the Duplicate Detection page. You can have NetSuite search for duplicates among customer, contact, partner, or vendor records and search for matching information in certain fields.
To prevent you from merging records that are not duplicates, you can only merge records if they have the same tax registration number or if both records do not have tax registration numbers entered. If you use NetSuite OneWorld, records with different subsidiaries cannot be merged.
To set up Duplicate Detection:
-
Go to Setup > Company > Duplicate Detection (Administrator).
-
Check the box next to each type of record you would like use duplicate detection with.
For example, check the Detect Customer Duplicates box to be alerted of possible duplicate customer records.
There are four types of records you can detect duplicates for:
-
Customer
-
Vendor (Supplier)
-
Partner
-
Contact
-
-
For each type of record, in the Fields to Match On box, select the fields from respective record type you want to use when searching for similar information. Information must be similar or matching in all the fields you select in order to be flagged as duplicates.
Note: As a sample, if you select both Company and E-mail (full), customer records must have the same Company name and E-mail address to be considered duplicates. While selecting one field only, like Company Name, makes the system consider customer records as duplicates if they have the same company name.
Records must have matching information in all of the fields you select to be returned as possible duplicates.
-
If you want to exclude specific email domains from Email (domain only) duplicate detection, click the Exclude Domains subtab, and enter the domains you want to exclude.
Press Enter after each domain. Enter these excluded domains without the top-level domain (.com, .net, etc.). For example, to exclude Gmail email addresses, you would enter gmail.
Click anywhere on the list, press Enter and type the domain to be included without the dot com or dot net ending.
-
On the Other Preferences tab, check the Show Duplicate Warning Popup on Records if you want to present a popup warning when a user clicks Save when the cursor is in a duplicate criteria field.
Normally, users are warned of possible duplicates when they click from a duplicate criteria field on a record to another field. Sometimes the cursor is still in a duplicate criteria field when the user clicks Save, and this standard warning is not presented. Enabling this preference allows users to still be notified.
-
Choose how you would like to resolve duplicate records that have conflicting login access.
If two duplicate records each have login access, but the records have different email addresses, they are considered to have conflicting login access. The following options are available:
-
Manually - Duplicate records with conflicting login access are not merged. You must manually remove the login access of one of the records before they can be merged.
-
By deleting the duplicates' access - When merging records, the login access of duplicate records is deleted when it is merged into the master record.
-
-
Click Save.
When you click Save, NetSuite begins searching for duplicate records based on your criteria.
Note
The initial search can take a significant amount of time based on the number of customer and contact records you have in your account. You will not see duplicate alerts or be able to merge records until this initial search is complete.
After the search is complete, possible duplicate records are flagged with a notice and a link to a page where you can decide how to manage the duplicates.
You can also go to Lists > Mass Update > Mass Duplicate Record Merge to search for all possible duplicate contact and customer records based on the criteria you have set. You may view this article for more information regarding Mass Duplicate Record Merge.
Duplicate Record Notification
Users are notified of potential duplicates in three ways:
-
When you open a record that has potential duplicates, a notice is shown at the top of the page with a link to potential duplicates.
-
When you are creating a new record and enter matching data in fields that are set up as duplicate criteria, a warning is shown at the top of the page with a link to the potential duplicates. If you have permission to view those records, you can click a link to open those matching records.
-
When you add a record from a list by using Quick Add or you use the Inline Editing feature to make changes to a record that would make it a duplicate, you also receive a popup warning.
These notifications can help reduce the number of duplicate records created in your NetSuite account.