Related Entity Deduplication in Dynamics 365 CRM

Related Entity Data Deduplication allows you to identify duplicate records not only based on fields within the same entity but also using data from linked (related) entities.

In Dynamics 365 CRM, many important data points, such as Company Name (Account), Parent Account, or Lookup fields, are stored in related entities. Traditional duplicate detection rules only compare fields within a single record, which means duplicates connected through relationships often go unnoticed.

With Related Entity Duplicate Identifiation in Dynamics 365 CRM, you can:

• Use fields from related entities (via lookup relationships) in matching rules

• Apply duplicate matching technique (for example, fuzzy matching) to handle variations in related data

• Detect hidden duplicates across relationships, not just within records

Example: Consider the following two Contact records:

Contact Name	Email	Company (Account Name)
John Smith	john.smith@email.com	ABC Pvt Ltd
J. Smith	[email protected]	ABC Private Limited

At first glance:

• Names are slightly different

• Emails are different

Traditional duplicate rules may not flag these as duplicates

However:

• Both contacts are linked to the same company (with a slight variation in name)

Using Related Entity Deduplication:

• The system compares Account Name (from the related entity)

• Applies fuzzy matching

• Identifies that:

· “ABC Pvt Ltd” ≈ “ABC Private Limited”

Result: These records are correctly identified as potential duplicates

Detect Duplicates from CRM UI

1. Go to Contacts

2. Select a record

3. Click Show Duplicates

The system will now detect duplicates based on:

• Related Account Name

• Fuzzy logic

Review & Merge Records

Inside the duplicate dialog:

• View:

• Full Name

• Account Name

• Created/Modified Date

Options:

• Merge

• Exclude

• Cancel

Best Practice:

• Choose the most complete record as Master

• Merge duplicates into it

Bulk Deduplication via DeDupeD Tool

For large datasets:

1. Open DeDupeD Tool

2. Select:

Entity → Contact

View → Active Contacts

1. Click Find Duplicates

You can:

• View duplicate groups

• Assign Master Record

• Perform Bulk Merge

• Export duplicates

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