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How Possible Duplicate Contacts Are Detected

LeadCenter automatically identifies contacts that may be duplicates by comparing their primary email and primary phone number against other contacts in your account. This helps you keep your contact database clean and avoid working with duplicate records.

Overview

A contact is marked as a possible duplicate when at least one other contact shares the same primary email address or the same primary phone number.

Important: Duplicate detection uses primary email and primary phone only. Secondary emails and secondary phone numbers are not used.

Matching Rules

LeadCenter checks two values on each contact:

• Primary email
• Primary phone number

A contact is flagged as a possible duplicate if either value matches another contact:

• Email match — Same primary email on two or more contacts.
• Phone match — Same primary phone on two or more contacts (LeadCenter checks both raw and formatted versions).
• Either match — Only one needs to match. Email and phone do not both need to match.

Examples

• Email match: Contact A and Contact B both have primary email alex@firm.com. Both contacts are flagged as possible duplicates.
• Phone match (formatting): Contact A has (239) 555-0100 and Contact B has 239-555-0100. LeadCenter treats these as the same number and flags both contacts.
• Either match: Two contacts have different emails, but share the same primary phone number. They are still flagged as possible duplicates.

Family Members Are Excluded

Contacts that belong to the same family/household are excluded from duplicate detection. Family members often share an email address or phone number, and flagging them as duplicates would create false positives.

Example

A husband and wife are linked in the same household and both use family@domain.com. They will not be marked as duplicates of each other even if they share the same email or phone.

Primary Contacts and Professional Contacts Are Also Excluded

Some contacts are expected to share contact information on purpose. To reduce false duplicate warnings, LeadCenter also excludes certain linked relationships from duplicate detection.

Primary Contacts

If one contact is assigned as the primary contact of another contact, and they share the same primary email or primary phone:

• they will not appear as duplicates of each other
• they will not show a possible duplicate warning because of that relationship
• they will not appear in each other’s Duplicates tab because of that shared value

Professional Contacts

If one contact is assigned as a professional contact of another contact, such as a CPA, attorney, or financial advisor, and they share the same primary email or primary phone:

• they will not appear as duplicates of each other
• they will not show a possible duplicate warning because of that relationship
• they will not appear in each other’s Duplicates tab because of that shared value

Important: These exclusions apply across the duplicate detection system, including the Duplicates tab, duplicate warning indicators, duplicate hover cards, and merge suggestions.

Example

If a client and their CPA intentionally share the same main office phone number, and the CPA is linked as a professional contact, LeadCenter does not treat them as possible duplicates of each other.

If that relationship is later removed and the two contacts still share the same primary email or primary phone, they can appear as possible duplicates again the next time duplicate detection is recalculated.

When the Duplicate Flag Updates

The possible duplicate flag is recalculated automatically when:

• A new contact is created
• A primary email is added, changed, deleted, or marked as primary
• A primary phone is added, changed, deleted, or marked as primary
• Contacts are merged

Example

If you change a contact’s primary email from sam@old.com to sam@new.com, LeadCenter re-checks:

• The updated contact, and
• Any other contacts that used sam@old.com or sam@new.com

This keeps duplicate flags accurate for everyone involved.

What Does Not Trigger Duplicate Detection

• Changing a contact’s name (names are not used for matching)
• Adding or updating secondary (non-primary) emails or phone numbers

Example

If you add a second email address but do not mark it as primary, it will not affect duplicate detection.

Note: Event registrations use a separate duplicate handling setting and do not follow the exact same matching logic described in this article. To learn more, see Event Duplicate Handling .

Where to See Duplicate Indicators

• Contact list (Pipeline table) — A red users icon appears next to contacts flagged as possible duplicates. Hover to see the reason.
• Contact details page — A warning banner appears stating the contact may have duplicates, with a link to view them.
• Duplicates tab — A section lists related contacts that share the same primary email or phone.

How to Resolve Duplicates

Possible duplicates are informational until you review them. If the records represent the same person, you can merge them.

1. Open the contact that is flagged as a possible duplicate.
2. Go to the Duplicates tab.
3. Review the related contacts and confirm they represent the same person.
4. Click Merge to combine the records into one.
5. After merging, the duplicate flag is removed automatically if no other duplicates remain.

Tip: If two different people share a main office line or shared inbox, they may be flagged. In those cases, update which phone/email is marked as primary instead of merging.

Key Points to Remember

• Duplicate detection is based on primary email OR primary phone only.
• Family/household contacts are excluded to prevent false positives.
• The duplicate flag is dynamic and updates automatically when primary contact details change.
• Use the Duplicates tab to review related records and merge when appropriate.

Need help? Contact support@leadcenter.ai.