Any software application can only be as good as the data that go into it. That's why they say 'Garbage in, Garbage out'.

Among most common data issues that keeps businesses from getting the most out of their CRM  is the problem of duplicate or multiple records. So also is the case with Zoho CRM. However, the good news is developers of Zoho CRM had the wisdom to anticipate this duplicate data problem and build some basic data cleaning features into it. 

You can de-duplicate records in various modules of Zoho CRM, e.g. Leads/ Prospects/ Contacts/ People/ Accounts module within Zoho CRM with a few clicks yourself.

Below are the steps to eliminate duplicate records in Zoho CRM.

1- Click on the respective module name, e.g. Leads/ Prospects/ Contacts/ People/ Accounts, on top menu.

2- Click on 'Actions'  button

3- Clicks on 'Deduplicate...' button

4- Specify the relevant fields based on which duplicate records should be identified by Zoho CRM. Maximum of 3 fields can be selected from Email, Company, Phone and Mobile.

5- Click on 'Find And Merge Duplicates' button

6- Zoho CRM will prompt you to confirm the process with message-

"Deduplicate Leads

You are about to run the de-duplication check on the Leads module. Please go through these instructions below before you proceed."

Do confirm by clicking on 'Yes, proceed' button. Once you do, following is how it deals with the duplicates identified.

i. Auto-Merge:

System will automatically merge the duplicate records if all the values of the records are same.

ii. Resolve Conflicts:

You will be prompted to resolve the conflicts with the duplicate records if any value of the records are different.