Managing duplicates and merging records
How Vetta avoids duplicates at import, finds them with a nightly scan, and lets you merge, dismiss or restore duplicate groups safely.
Updated October 25, 2026 · 6 min read
Duplicate records fragment your CRM: two versions of the same person split the conversation history, confuse Vetta Brain's insights, and can get a prospect double-messaged by a sequence. Vetta stops most duplicates at import, detects the rest automatically, and gives you a dedicated review workspace to merge or dismiss them.
You'll find it as Duplicates in the sidebar (with a badge showing pending groups), which opens the Manage Duplicates page.
Duplicates at import
When you import a spreadsheet, Vetta matches each row against the people you already have by a unique value: email, phone or LinkedIn URL. That is why the import will not continue until at least one of those columns is mapped. What happens to a match depends on the import mode you pick:
- Create Only: rows that match an existing person are skipped, so nothing you already have is touched
- Update Only: matching rows update the existing person, and rows with no match are skipped
- Create & Update: matching rows update the existing person, and the rest become new records
An import can only match what the file and the CRM share. If a row has a different email from the existing record, for example, it becomes a new record, and the nightly scan picks it up as a likely duplicate.
How detection works
Vetta scans your People database every night at midnight UTC, and you can trigger an immediate Re-scan now from the Duplicates page after big imports or syncs.
Duplicates · Manage DuplicatesFinding and merging duplicate records. Open Duplicates: Vetta scans every night and Re-scan now runs it after a big import. Each group shows why it matched (same email, LinkedIn or phone, or name and company) and a confidence level. Click High confidence, open a group with Review, choose the primary record that keeps its ID, pick values field by field, and click Merge Records. Notes, tasks and deals move over. Recently merged keeps merges for thirty days with Restore, and Bulk merge clears many.
Transcript
Imports and syncs can leave the same person in your CRM twice. Open Duplicates. Vetta scans every night, and Re-scan now runs it right after a big import. Each group shows why it matched, the same email, LinkedIn or phone, or a name and company, and how confident the match is. Click High confidence to start with the sure ones, then open a group with Review. Choose the primary record, the one that keeps its ID, link and creation date. Then pick which value to keep, field by field, and keep the second email too. Click Merge Records, and the group leaves the queue. Its notes, tasks and deals move to the record that stays. Merged the wrong pair? Recently merged keeps every merge for thirty days, with a Restore button. And to clear many at once, tick the groups and use Bulk merge.
Matching runs a series of rules, from strongest to weakest, and every duplicate group shows its match reason and a confidence level:
| Confidence | Match reasons |
|---|---|
| High | Exact same email address · exact same phone number · exact same LinkedIn profile |
| Medium | Same name at the same company · near-identical emails on the same domain (typo-distance matching; different domains are never matched) · same name and phone |
| Low | Matching name only, when no stronger rule fires |
Records that match are clustered into duplicate groups; one group can contain more than two records.
Reviewing duplicate groups
The Manage Duplicates page lists pending groups with their contacts, confidence, match reason, and when each record was last seen. For each group you can:
- Review the records side by side in Merge Records: choose the primary record (the one that survives the merge and keeps its ID, link and creation date), then pick which value to keep for each field where the records differ. For multi-value fields such as emails, you can keep the second value too
- Merge: click Merge Records to combine the group into the primary record; the group leaves the queue
- Dismiss: mark the group as not-a-duplicate; it stops appearing
To move fast on a clean backlog:
- Filter by Confidence (High, Medium, Low) and by Match reason, or turn on Show only no-conflict entries to see groups where merging loses nothing. Starting with High confidence clears the sure matches first
- Select multiple groups and use Bulk merge or Dismiss to process them together: the bulk merge preview lists each group's primary record and the rules Vetta applies automatically (the older record is kept as primary, the primary's value wins for single-value fields and empty ones are filled from the other records, multi-value fields such as emails and phones are combined, and activity moves over)
What merging does
Merging combines the duplicate records into the primary record: messages, notes, tasks, deals and calendar events move to the record that stays, so history is preserved in one place. The other records in the group are archived.
Merges are permanent, but restorable for 30 days. Audit log on the Duplicates page opens Recently merged, where you can Restore an individual merge within 30 days.
When records are merged, a Contact merge notification is sent so the team knows the data changed.
Why this matters
Clean, deduplicated data isn't cosmetic; it keeps the rest of the system honest:
- Vetta Brain and AI summaries read one complete history instead of two partial ones
- Sequences don't enroll the same human twice under different records
- Analytics count each contact once (see Analytics & dashboards)
Pick the import mode that fits each file, review the Duplicates page after every significant import, and let the nightly scan handle day-to-day hygiene.
Common questions
Can I undo a merge?
Yes, within 30 days. Click Audit log on the Duplicates page to open Recently merged, then click Restore on the merge. See What merging does.
Why won't my import continue?
You have to map at least one unique value: email, phone or LinkedIn URL. That's how Vetta matches each row against the people you already have. See Duplicates at import.
Why did my import create a duplicate instead of updating the record?
An import can only match what the file and the CRM share. If the row has a different email from the existing record, it becomes a new record, and the nightly scan then picks it up as a likely duplicate. See Duplicates at import.
How often does Vetta look for duplicates?
Every night at midnight UTC. After a big import or sync, click Re-scan now on the Duplicates page for an immediate scan. See How detection works.
What do High, Medium and Low confidence mean?
High is an exact match on email, phone or LinkedIn profile. Medium is the same name at the same company, near-identical emails on the same domain, or the same name and phone. Low is a matching name only. See How detection works.
Which record survives a merge?
The primary record: it keeps its ID, link and creation date, and you pick which value to keep for each field that differs. In a bulk merge, the older record is kept as primary. See Reviewing duplicate groups.
What happens to the other records' emails, notes and deals?
They move to the primary record: messages, notes, tasks, deals and calendar events all end up in one place, and the other records are archived. See What merging does.
What if two records aren't really the same person?
Click Dismiss on the group to mark it as not-a-duplicate. It stops appearing. See Reviewing duplicate groups.
Key outcome
You now have two layers of protection against duplicate people: imports that match on email, phone and LinkedIn URL, and a nightly scan that groups the rest by confidence for you to merge or dismiss. With a 30-day restore behind every merge, you can clean up quickly without risking the history you have built.
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