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One of the biggest challenges with any database, especially when they are easy to use for your whole team, is keeping the data accurate. The most common problem is duplicate data due to the variance in spellings, abbreviations, and other ways that information can be stored with a slight variance in syntax or specifically how it is written.

Salesforce.com definitely falls into the category of an easy to use database and the great potential of getting your entire team directly involved with the data can quickly change your data from a couple varieties of lettuce, each in their own bag to a large tossed salad with few or no ways to discern duplicates, the data of record for conflicts, or organize and separate the lettuce out again.

There are great solutions like RingLead that can proactively check for duplicates when entered and even help you sort them out quickly once saved. However, pricing is based on which features you use and the total number of records. I checked pricing on just the de-duping feature called Declone Data Cleansing for less than 3000 existing Accounts and Contacts and the price came back in excess of $1000 annually. (Their free trial enabled me to test their system on de-duping my Contacts with names ending in A – C which was a nice way to get a few records done.)

Due to the relational nature of Salesforce.com, various records like Tasks, Cases, Campaigns, and other information may be connected to a Contact or Account so keeping the Master Record, the one that is most accurate, and deleting the rest is not the best solution as any connected data either gets deleted or becomes orphaned.

The solution is Merging and Salesforce.com includes very simple wizards for merging up to three Contacts and Accounts at a time. Merge Contacts by clicking “Merge Contacts” button above the Contacts related list when viewing an Account. Merge Accounts by clicking the Accounts tab and then clicking the “Merge Accounts” link at the bottom under “Tools.”

The above method can be time consuming and is not in context to where you might see the problem. If you were to determine if you had duplicates, you would use Views or Reports. What I did was simply enable a custom link from separate Contact and Account Reports so that when I saw a duplicate, I could click the link and it would take me directly to the Merge Wizard for the set of Contacts or Accounts that I wanted to merge.

Here are some points to help you do the same.

1. Create a new Custom Formula Field in both the Contact and Account objects
   Setup | Customize | Contacts or Accounts | Fields | Custom Fields & Relationships > New
2. Name is what you like such as “Merge URL” and select Formula Field. Click Next.
3. Select Return Type of Text. Click Next.
4. Click the Advanced Formula tab and enter the corresponding Formula below:
   Account (i.e. /merge/accmergewizard.jsp?srch=Joe’s Crab Shack):
   HYPERLINK('/merge/accmergewizard.jsp?srch=' & Name, 'Merge Accounts', '_blank')Contact (i.e. /merge/conmergewizard.jsp?id=0018000000RrGuG):
   HYPERLINK('/merge/conmergewizard.jsp?id=' &  AccountId, 'Merge Contacts', '_blank')
   Click Next.
5. Make them visible to Profiles and add them to Page Layouts as you need.
6. Customize the Contact and/or Account Report you would like to add the field to.
7. Select “Choose Columns” in the top right pull down menu and check the box next to the Merge URL field from #2.
8. Select “Order Columns” in the top right pull down menu and move the Merge URL columns to the top of the list or where you desire.
9. Click “Run Report” and see how it looks. You should see your Merge URL formula fields within the Report and can click one for a test. If you are using grouping, your Account field may be next to the Account name and the Contact field may be down near the Contact
10. If you like it, click Save and you have a quick way to Merge Contacts and Accounts with just a few clicks.

Formula field in Report with hyperlink to Merge Contacts

For more detail, I provide Digital Coaching, Training, and Implementation services for Salesforce.com and Basecamp.

Glad to help.