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 look for matches in certain fields.

You can only merge records if they have the same tax registration number or if neither record has a tax registration numbers entered. This restriction prevents you from merging records that aren't duplicates. If you use NetSuite OneWorld, you can't merge records with different subsidiaries.

To set up Duplicate Detection:

1. Go to Setup > Company > Company Management > Duplicate Detection.

   Note:

   You may have to scroll the Company menu to see the Company Management section.

2. Check Near Match Detection to help identify duplicates based on similar but not exact match criteria. This preference may improve duplicate detection by catching duplicates created from misspellings, typos and other minor variations in data.

   Note:

   This feature is only available to customers whose accounts use Latin or Cyrillic characters.

   When potential duplicates are detected, you'll see a notification banner highlighting records that could be merged into one entity record.

   This can be disabled at any time to revert to exact match detection.

3. Check the Detect Duplicates Across Subsidiaries (Customers and Vendors Only) box to search for duplicate customers and vendors, even if they are within different subsidiaries.

4. Check the box next to each type of record you want to use duplicate detection with.

   For example, check the Detect Customer Duplicates box to get alerts for possible duplicate customer records.

   There are four types of records you can detect duplicates for:

   • Customer

   • Vendor

   • Partner

   • Contact

5. For each type of record, in the Fields to Match On box, select the fields from the record type you want to use when searching for similar information.

   Depending on your settings in Home > Set Preferences, you may see all fields listed in the form, or you may have to click the Select Multiple icon , and select your fields from there.

   Note:

   Duplicate detection doesn't support the following entity custom field types: Time Of Day, Rich Text, Password, and Date/Time. These fields won't appear in the Fields to Match On box.

   For a Customer record type, selecting the Company Name field makes the system look for duplicate matches in the Company Name field in the Customer Form.

   Records have to match in all the fields you select to be returned as possible duplicates.

   For example, you check the Detect Customer Duplicated box and then select phone and email in the Fields to Match On field. Customers need to have both a matching phone number and email address to be considered duplicates.

   You can base duplicate detection criteria on custom fields. On the Set Up Duplicate Detection page, the list of fields for each entity type includes any custom fields you've created for those record types. Check the Store Value box when creating a custom entity field to make it available as criteria in duplicate detection.

6. If you want to exclude certain email domains from Email (domain only) duplicate detection, click the Excluded Domains subtab and enter the domains you want to exclude. Press Enter after each entry. Enter these excluded domains without the top-level domain (.com, .net, etc.). For example, to exclude Gmail email addresses, enter gmail.

   Click anywhere on the list, press Enter, and type the domain without the .com or .net ending.

7. On the Other Preferences tab, check the Show Duplicate Warning Popup on Records box if you want to show a popup warning when a user clicks Save when the cursor is in a duplicate criteria field.

   Normally, users get a warning of possible duplicates when they move from a duplicate criteria field to another field. But if the cursor is still in a duplicate criteria field when they click Save, the usual warning isn't shown. Enabling this preference to ensure users are still notified.

8. Choose how you want to resolve duplicate records with conflicting login access.

   If two duplicate records both have login access but different email addresses, they're considered to have conflicting login access. The following options are available:

   • Manually: Duplicate records with conflicting login access aren't merged. You must manually remove login access from one record before you can merge them.

   • By deleting the duplicates' access: When you merge records, the login access of duplicate records is deleted when it's merged into the primary record.

9. Click Save.

When you click Save, NetSuite starts searching for duplicate records based on your criteria.

Note:

The initial search can take a while, depending on how many customer and contact records you have in your account. You won't see duplicate alerts or be able to merge records until this first search is done.

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 handle them. For more information, see Merging or Deleting Duplicate Records.

You can also go to Lists > Mass Update > Entity Duplicate Resolution to search for all possible duplicate contact and customer records based on the criteria you've set.

Duplicate Entity Management Permission

Access to the Manage Duplicates page is controlled by the Duplicate Entity Management permission.

To limit a role's ability to merge records:

1. Go to Setup > Users/Roles > Manage Roles.

2. Click Customize or Edit for the role.

3. On the Permissions subtab, click Lists.

4. Add the Duplicate Entity Management permission to the role.

5. Select View to hide the Merge button from users with this role.

Related Topics

• Setting Up Duplicate Detection
• Duplicate Record Notification
• Near Match Detection

General Notices