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How to detect and merge duplicate leads in HelloGrowthCRM

Find duplicate leads using fuzzy matching on email, phone, and company. Merge with rules to preserve activity history and notes.

8 min readUpdated 12 Jun 2026
intermediate
Rushabh ShahRushabh Shah

What this guide helps you do

Follow this article when you want a focused, step-by-step path to complete the task without digging through menus.

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HelloGrowthCRM detects duplicates with fuzzy matching across email, phone, name, and company — and merges them while preserving every note, email, call, and timeline event.

How to use this guide

Read the intro to confirm this is the right workflow, complete the steps in order, then review the common issues and related articles if your setup behaves differently from the standard path.

What you'll need

  • Workspace owner or Admin role
  • Pro tier or above
  • Few minutes to review and approve merges
  1. 1

    Open Tools → Duplicate Detection

    Page lists detected duplicate clusters — groups of 2+ leads that look like the same entity.

  2. 2

    Configure detection rules

    Click Settings: exact email match, phone match, email domain + name fuzzy, company + name fuzzy.

  3. 3

    Run a scan

    Click Scan all leads. ~60 seconds for 10K leads.

  4. 4

    Review a cluster

    Click cluster — 2-5 leads side by side with field-level differences highlighted.

  5. 5

    Pick the master record

    Click radio on lead to keep — usually most recent or most active.

  6. 6

    Resolve field conflicts

    For each conflict pick: master, duplicate-1, duplicate-2, or custom.

  7. 7

    Click Merge

    Confirm. Merged record keeps all activities, audit entry created.

  8. 8

    Set up auto-merge

    Auto-merge when email matches exactly AND phone matches exactly. No-brainers automated.

  9. 9

    Set ongoing prevention

    Prevent duplicates on create — checks against existing on form/API/import/manual.

Frequently asked questions

How does fuzzy matching work?

Levenshtein distance for name and company; normalized comparison for emails and phones.

Can I auto-merge without review?

Yes for high-confidence rules. Fuzzy matches always require human review.

Will merging delete the duplicate forever?

No — duplicates move to Trash. Recoverable for 30 days.

Does merging affect deals?

All deals from all duplicates attach to the merged master. None are lost.

How often should I run dedup scans?

Weekly is typical. Pro+ continuous mode checks new leads against entire database.

Are merges audited?

Yes — every merge creates an audit log entry with field-level conflict choices.

Related articles

See it in product

Try it yourself

Start a 14-day free trial of HelloGrowthCRM — no credit card required. You'll have everything you need to follow this guide.

Still need help?

If this article does not match your account setup, rollout stage, or edge case, review more guides in Leads & Contacts or contact our team for direct help.

Rushabh Shah
Rushabh Shah· Co-Founder, HelloGrowthCRM

Rushabh leads product strategy at HelloGrowthCRM with a focus on CRM workflows, revenue operations, and practical product design for growing businesses.

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