Forgotten Features of Dynamics 365 – Part 4 -Keep Your Data Clean with Duplicate Detection in Dynamics 365

by | Jul 28, 2022 | Microsoft Dynamics 365

Duplicate records in Dynamics 365 can be an annoyance. Not only do duplicates lead to wasted time (wasted phone calls, wasted emails, and wasted messages) but ultimately Sales and Marketing teams could potentially end up pursuing the same deals. But with Duplicate Detection in Dynamics 365, you can proactively avoid this problem. This blog is part 4 of our series on forgotten features in Dynamics 365.

What is duplicate detection in Dynamics 365?

To keep your data clean in Dynamics 365, it is a good idea to have rules in place to reduce duplicate records in your system. Duplicate rules let organizations create rules to detect duplicate data.

For example, an organization may define a rule that if a new lead has the same email address as an existing contact, the user will be notified when they try to save the new lead.

About setting duplicate detection rules

Setting up detection rules is such a useful feature and so easy to set up! Setting up rules needs to be done by a system administrator. Once the admin sets up the rules, a Duplicate Detection Job can be run, which scans existing records. The duplicate detection job creates a report with a list of duplicates. The admin can then choose to either clean the records or just delete them as unnecessary data.

Multiple detection rules can be created and published for a single table.

Microsoft has created a tutorial with all of the steps required to configure duplicate detection. Click here to read it.

Schedule a detection job

To maintain the quality of your data, a detection job can be scheduled to check for duplicates of all records that match the defined criteria. Data can be cleaned by deleting, deactivating, or merging the duplicates as reported by the detection job. Visit Microsoft Docs for directions on Running duplicate detection.

There are several ways to perform duplicate detection after you enable and publish the detection rules:

  • Before Creating a table
  • For an Existing table
  • For other tables that correspond to duplicate rules across tables. (For example, any Lead table that matched a Contact table).

In conclusion

Duplicate detection is a very useful yet easy feature to use – definitely one of the many under-utilized features that people tend to forget is available. Many organizations could benefit from taking advantage of this feature.

How can we help?

If you’ve got an upcoming Dynamics 365 deployment and are looking to get the most out of your CRM, turn to enCloud9 for assistance.

From platform selection to licensing to implementation and go live, we guide you every step of the way. Once you are live, enCloud9’s Dynamics 365 Management Services support your users and keep your system up-to-date and running smoothly. To learn more, contact us today.

We’d love to hear about your business and discuss how our custom Microsoft Dynamics 365 solutions can work with your business and its specific needs.

Another blog article that we’ve recently wrote about another “forgotten feature” in Dynamics 365 is Kanban Boards – a Forgotten Feature? Watch for other monthly blogs on this topic.

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