How to Set Up Duplicate and Matching Rules in Salesforce

To avoid creating duplicate records, you must configure matching and duplicate rules in your Salesforce organisation.

Cognism uses the rules you have set up in Salesforce. This ensures exports respect your existing CRM logic and data standards.

How Cognism uses Salesforce duplicate rules

When Cognism exports records to Salesforce, Salesforce evaluates them using your active:

• Matching rules
• Duplicate rules

Cognism does not override these rules. If Salesforce blocks record creation or updates, Cognism follows that behaviour.

Check that standard Salesforce rules are active

Salesforce provides standard matching and duplicate rules for most use cases. These are usually sufficient with minor adjustments.

Check matching rules

1. In Salesforce, go to Setup. 
2. Search for Matching Rules. 
3. Check that standard matching rules are active for:
   • Leads
   • Contacts
   • Accounts

If a rule is inactive, click Activate.

Check duplicate rules

1. In Setup, search for Duplicate Rules. 
2. Open each rule for:
   • Leads
   • Contacts
   • Accounts
3. Confirm the rule is active.

If not, open the rule and click Activate.

Strengthen duplicate detection (recommended)

To improve duplicate detection, we recommend matching Leads and Contacts against each other.

This helps Salesforce identify duplicates even when records exist in different objects.

Configure Contact duplicate rules

1. In Setup, open the Contact Duplicate Rule. 
2. Review the matching rules currently applied.
3. Ensure Contacts are matched against:
   • Contacts
   • Leads

Add missing matching rules

1. Click Edit on the duplicate rule. 
2. Scroll to the Matching Rules section. 
3. Click Add Rule. 
4. Choose one of the following:
   • Compare Contacts With: Contacts → select the Contact Matching Rule 
   • Compare Contacts With: Leads → select the Lead Matching Rule   
5. Save your changes.

Configure Lead duplicate rules

1. In Setup, open the Lead Duplicate Rule. 
2. Review the matching rules currently applied.
3. Ensure Leads are matched against:
   • Leads
   • Contacts

Add missing matching rules

1. Click Edit on the duplicate rule. 
2. Scroll to the Matching Rules section. 
3. Click Add Rule. 
4. Choose one of the following:
   • Compare Leads With: Leads → select the Lead Matching Rule 
   • Compare Leads With: Contacts → select the Contact Matching Rule   
5. Save your changes.

Configure Account duplicate rules

For Accounts, the standard Salesforce Account Matching Rule is usually sufficient.

If you use custom account matching rules, ensure at least one is active and applied to your Account Duplicate Rule.

Set Action on Create to Block (recommended)

To prevent duplicates from being created during exports, we recommend setting Action on Create to Block for all objects.

Update the action setting

1. Open each duplicate rule (Lead, Contact, Account).
2. Click Edit. 
3. Under Actions, set Action on Create to Block. 
4. Save your changes.

Repeat this for all relevant objects.

Alternative matching rules (if not using Salesforce standard rules)

If you do not use Salesforce’s standard matching rules, you can create custom rules using the following logic.

Leads and Contacts

Recommended fields:

• Email Address – Exact
• First Name – Exact
• Last Name – Exact
• Job Title – Fuzzy
• Company Name – Fuzzy

Filter logic:

(1) OR (2 AND 3 AND 4 AND 5)

Accounts

Recommended fields:

• Account Name – Fuzzy
• Website – Exact

Filter logic:

1 OR 2

Expected results

After configuring duplicate and matching rules:

• Salesforce correctly identifies duplicate Leads, Contacts, and Accounts
• Cognism exports respect your Salesforce duplicate prevention rules
• Duplicate records are blocked according to your configuration

Next steps

• Test exports with a small number of records
• Review duplicate rule behaviour in Salesforce reports
• Adjust matching logic if legitimate records are being blocked