Duplicate Prevention in Modules

This article will help you prevent the creation of duplicate records.

Rashmi Kashyap

16 Mar, 2021 - Updated 1 year ago

Introduction

Duplicate records in a module have the same name and information as one or more records in the same module. To maintain your data integrity, Vtiger helps you prevent the creation of duplicate records in the CRM from any source.

By removing duplicate records, you can eliminate identical information as well as save storage space in the CRM.

Watch this video for more information.

Note: If you already have duplicate records in the CRM, there is a way you can find them and eliminate them. To know more about finding duplicates, click here.

Sources of Duplicate Records

There are plenty of ways through which duplicate records can accumulate in the CRM. Duplicate records are created:

When you create, import, or perform a mass edit on records
When you create records using Quick Create
From Mailroom, Workflows, Webforms, and Chrome Plugin features

If you set up duplicate prevention, then duplicate records are not created from the above processes.

Setting up Duplicate Prevention

By setting up a ‘duplicate prevention check’, you can prevent users and external applications from creating duplicate records in a module.

Follow these steps to set up duplicate prevention for a module:

Log in to your CRM account.
Click the User Menu on the top-right corner of the screen.
Click Settings.
Go to Module Management.
Select Module Layouts & Fields.
Select the module for which you want to set up duplicate prevention from the Select Module drop-down.
Click the Duplicate Prevention tab.
Turn on the Enable duplicate check toggle button.
Select the fields (maximum three) based on which you want to run the duplicate check. For example, in the Deals module, if you select Deal Name, users will not be able to create a new deal with the same name as an existing deal.
Enable either of the following settings:
- Consider as duplicate only if all of the unique fields match - A record is considered duplicate if all the fields defined in the previous step matches
- Consider as duplicate if at least one of the unique fields match - A record is considered duplicate if at least one field defined in the previous step matches
Enable Check closed records also for duplicates to run the duplicate check on closed records. Disable it to ignore closed records while checking for duplicates.
Enable Ignore blank values to avoid searching for duplicates on empty field names. Disable it otherwise.
Choose an action to take if a duplicate record is found while syncing with an external application.
- Prefer latest record - The most recently modified record (CRM or external) will be retained.
- Prefer internal record - The record existing in the CRM will be retained.
- Prefer external record - The record in the external application will be copied and retained.
Click Save.

Note:

You can set up duplicate prevention only if you are an Admin user.
Step 11 does not apply to the following modules: Deals, Tasks, FAQs, Price Books, Internal Tickets, Quotes, Purchase Orders, Campaigns, Service Contracts, Assets, Project Milestones, Projects, Cases, Work Orders, Credit Notes, and Documents.

Exceptions

Listed below are some features that don’t handle duplicate records:

Import Data
- The unique field selected in Module Layouts & Fields > Duplicate Prevention does not affect the import process.
- A user must choose the fields manually in the Import Duplicate Handling step while importing data to the CRM.
Workflows
- Update Field actions in Workflows do not check for fields enabled in Module Layouts & Fields > Duplicate Prevention.
Schedulers
- The working of Schedulers does not check for duplicate records.

Other features like Recurring Invoices, Subscriptions - Invoice Generator, MailScanner, etc. that update or create records will prevent the creation of duplicate records but do not notify the user.

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