# Finding and merging duplicates

> Find people and companies that are likely to be the same record, and merge them into one.

Source: https://help.clockworkcrm.com/contacts/duplicates
Last updated: 2026-09-28

Clockwork CRM scans your contacts for records that are likely to be duplicates of each other.
The results are at **Contacts → Find Duplicates**.

## How contacts are matched

A scan compares every person with every other person, and every company with every other company.
People are never matched with companies.

| Match | People | Companies | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Shared phone number** | The same number in **Telephone** or **Mobile**, on either record | The same number in **Telephone** | 90% |
| **Shared email address** | The same address in an Email custom property | Not checked | 95% |
| **Similar name** | First name and last name together are spelled alike, such as "Jon Smith" and "John Smith" | The company names are spelled alike, such as "Acme Ltd" and "Acme Limited" | The similarity of the two names, from 70% |

Phone numbers are compared by their digits only, so spaces, brackets and dashes are ignored. A number
must have at least 7 digits to be compared. Email addresses are compared ignoring case and spaces
at either end. A person without a first name, or a company without a name, is not name-matched.

When the same records match in more than one way, such as a shared phone number and a similar name,
they are shown as one entry. The confidence is raised to reflect both matches, up to a maximum of
99%.

## When scans run

Clockwork CRM scans people and companies every night. A scan also runs after an import finishes,
for the contact type that was imported. A people import with **Import missing companies** turned on
scans companies as well.

**Re-scan** starts a scan straight away for the type you are viewing. The scan runs in the
background, and you get a notification when it finishes. **Re-scan** does not start a new scan when:

- a scan is already running for that type ("A scan is already running")
- the last scan for that type finished less than an hour ago ("These were scanned in the last
  hour")

After a nightly scan, users with access to **List People** and **List Companies** get a notification
when the scan finds more duplicate groups than the one before. After an import, the person who ran the
import gets a notification if there are duplicates to review. See
[Notifications](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/general/notifications).

## The duplicates list

**People** and **Companies** switch between the two contact types. The time of the last scan is
shown at the top as **Last scanned**. When a scan is running, a message says the results will update
when it finishes, and the list refreshes by itself.

![The duplicates list: a likely duplicate pair, its reason and confidence, and the actions for it](https://clockworkcrm.blob.core.windows.net/public-internal/docs/contacts/duplicates-list.png?v=a3fd45ec)

Each entry is a group of records that look alike. The entries are ordered by confidence, highest
first, five to a page.

| Part of the entry | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Badge | Why the records matched and how confident the match is, such as "Similar name · 85% confidence". The badge is green from 90%, blue from 75% and yellow below that |
| **matching records** | How many records are in the group |
| **Matched on** | The field the match was found in, such as **Telephone**, **Mobile** or the name of an Email property, followed by the shared number or address. Where records matched in more than one way, each way is listed |
| The records | Each record in the group. Hover over one to see its email address or phone number |

The search box above the list finds entries by name, email address, phone number or the matched
value. It searches the entries already loaded, and does not start a scan.

When a scan finds more than 5,000 groups, only the first 5,000 are shown. Resolve some and re-scan
to see the rest.

## Marking records as not duplicates

**Not duplicates** marks the records in an entry as separate.

1. Select **Not duplicates** on the entry.
2. Confirm. The entry is removed from the list.

Records marked as not duplicates are not suggested as duplicates of each other again, in any later
scan.

## Merging two records

**Review & merge** opens the **Merge People** or **Merge Companies** dialog. A merge always combines
two records. When a group holds more than two, the dialog says so, and after each merge it opens
again for the next record in the group.

![The Merge Companies dialog: the record to keep, conflicting fields, related records, and the confirmation](https://clockworkcrm.blob.core.windows.net/public-internal/docs/contacts/merge-dialog.png?v=6ca21dc1)

1. **Choose the record to keep.** The two records are shown as **Record A** and **Record B**. Click a
   record to keep it. It is marked **To be kept** and the other is marked **To be deleted**.
   Changing the kept record clears any values you picked in the next step.
2. **Pick a value for each conflicting field.** **Conflicting fields** lists every field where the
   two records hold different values, with built-in fields under **System** and your own fields
   under **Custom properties**. Click the value you want to keep. Where one record has a value and
   the other is empty, the value is selected for you. Otherwise the kept record's value is selected.
   Selecting an empty value clears that field on the kept record.
3. **Check the related records.** **Related records** lists everything that moves from the deleted
   record to the kept one, with a count for each type.
4. **Confirm.** Tick **I understand this permanently deletes** the other record, then select
   **Merge & delete other**.

When no fields conflict, the dialog says "No conflicting field values. The kept record keeps all of
its details."

### Fields that can conflict

| People | Companies |
|---|---|
| Title, First name, Last name, Job role, Email, Telephone, Mobile, Officer ID, and every custom property | Name, Address line 1, 2 and 3, City, County, Postcode, Country, Website, Reg number, Telephone, Email, Business type, and every custom property |

A field counts as conflicting only when the record being deleted has a value and it differs from the
kept record's value. Differences in case and surrounding spaces are ignored.

A custom property that has a value only on the record being deleted is moved to the kept record.

### What moves to the kept record

Everything linked to the deleted record is moved to the kept record, including:

- notes, tags, files and custom property values
- emails, SMS messages and phone calls
- calendar activities, cases, projects and sales
- invoices and quotations
- form submissions, landing page views and link clicks
- mailing list memberships and subscriptions, and marketing emails
- the people linked to a company, or the companies linked to a person
- for people: bookings, payments and LinkedIn messages
- for companies: products where the company is the manufacturer

Where both records hold the same link, such as the same tag or the same mailing list, the kept record
keeps one copy.

### After the merge

- The record that is not kept is permanently deleted. A merge cannot be undone.
- A note titled **Contacts merged** is added to the kept record. It records the name, email address
  and ID of the deleted record, and when the merge happened.
- Changes to the kept record's fields are recorded in its history.
- A merge does not run any automations for the changed or deleted record.
- A confirmation shows how many related records were moved.

## Related

- [Importing contacts](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/contacts/importing), the most common source of duplicates
- [People](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/contacts/people) and [Companies](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/contacts/companies)
- [Custom properties](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/general/custom-properties), including Email properties