Why You Link Duplicate Records

You use linking to associate two or more duplicate records while resolving duplicate records. This association only creates a link between the records and doesn't affect the records. You use this association, which has a unique ID, to refer to the member records of a link.

You can also create links for normal records even if they aren't duplicate records. In a link, you designate one of the records as the master and the others as duplicates. This helps users identify the master records for use in transactions.

During merge, duplicate records are combined into a single master record. However, some parties can't be merged because of functional or legal reasons. For example, for certain bank operations, you can't merge duplicate records from different business units or geographical regions. In these scenarios, we create a link between duplicate records instead of merging them.

A link doesn't change the party and the associated child entities such as addresses, contact points, and relationships. A link doesn't affect the transactional processing of the record. The link is a separate record in the data model, and has its own registry ID.