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.
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.
Need a broader overview first?
Go back to the Leads & Contacts section to browse more guides, compare related tasks, and choose a better starting point.
View all Leads & Contacts guidesHelloGrowthCRM 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
Open Tools → Duplicate Detection
Page lists detected duplicate clusters — groups of 2+ leads that look like the same entity.
- 2
Configure detection rules
Click Settings: exact email match, phone match, email domain + name fuzzy, company + name fuzzy.
- 3
Run a scan
Click Scan all leads. ~60 seconds for 10K leads.
- 4
Review a cluster
Click cluster — 2-5 leads side by side with field-level differences highlighted.
- 5
Pick the master record
Click radio on lead to keep — usually most recent or most active.
- 6
Resolve field conflicts
For each conflict pick: master, duplicate-1, duplicate-2, or custom.
- 7
Click Merge
Confirm. Merged record keeps all activities, audit entry created.
- 8
Set up auto-merge
Auto-merge when email matches exactly AND phone matches exactly. No-brainers automated.
- 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
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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 leads product strategy at HelloGrowthCRM with a focus on CRM workflows, revenue operations, and practical product design for growing businesses.
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