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Automation Action: Merge Records

Learn how to configure an automation that will identify and merge duplicate records in SmartSuite.

Brian Dollen avatar
Written by Brian Dollen
Updated over a week ago


What is an Action?


An automation action is a step that performs a task, activity, event, or change. Think of a action as:

When Something happens (the Trigger) and These Conditions are true, then This Event (the Action) occurs.

SmartSuite's Merge Records action allows you to automatically identify and merge duplicate records within a Table in SmartSuite. If you haven't already, we also recommend that you check out our articles on creating an automation and managing automations for more information about setting up new workflows.


Setup

Simply click the Automations option in the Solution drop-down menu (see image below).

Note: This action requires Solution Manager permissions or the Administrator role. To learn more, please see our article on roles and permissions.

Accessing the Automations configuration interface:

Access the Automations Interface

Create a New Automation

Once the Solution Automations dialog is displayed, click Add Automation to begin creating an automation that will interact with SmartSuite's Merge Records action.

Add a new Automation

Choose a Trigger

You will need to set up a trigger to tell the Automation when to run and which record to use as the source of data for your Merge Record action. For this action, the trigger has to be a SmartSuite record that contains data, so both "At a scheduled time" and "Gmail: When an email is received" will not allow you to use this action.

Select the Merge Records Action

After creating your automation and selecting your Trigger, you can select Merge Records from the SmartSuite section of the Add Actions list.


How to Configure the Merge Records Action

Verify the Table

This is the table you want to de-duplicate. The table selection is inherited from your trigger, but it is displayed read-only for you in this interface so you can verify you have the correct one selected.

Determine Field Matching Criteria

This is where you select the fields you are looking to compare for every record in the table to find a match. This matching process is case insensitive and performs an exact match.
See the table below for two examples using the email field to show how the case in-sensitive exact match works.

Field Matching Criteria

Record 1

Record 2

Match?

Email

Red x mark icon - Free red x mark icons

Email

Green checkmark icon - Free green check mark icons

Choose Matching Operator

If you're only selecting one field for your matching criteria, this section can be ignored. If you're selecting multiple fields to match on, this is where you will determine how these should be checked.

Expanding on the example above if you wanted to determine a record match by requiring equal values in both Full Name and Email fields, leave the default of AND. If a match should be determined by either Full Name OR Email matching, select the OR operator.

Field Matching Criteria

Record 1

Record 2

Match?

Email
AND
Full Name

Brian Dollen

Brian D

Red x mark icon - Free red x mark icons

Email
AND
Full Name

Brian Dollen

BRIAN Dollen

Green checkmark icon - Free green check mark icons

Email
OR
Full Name

Brian Dollen

BRIAN Dollen

Green checkmark icon - Free green check mark icons

Email
OR
Full Name

Brian Dollen

Brian D

Red x mark icon - Free red x mark icons

Email
OR
Full Name

Brian Dollen

Brian Dollen

Green checkmark icon - Free green check mark icons

Field Merge Actions

In this section you provide the Merge automation with instructions on how to combine values in a merged version of the record. There are three types of action available:

  • Replace. This option will overwrite the original record's value for the field with the one in the record being merged.

  • Append. The append option combines the two records' values by appending the value from the record being merged to the original value. Note that only certain fields have this option, including text-type fields and fields where values can be combined such as multiple select.

  • Ignore. This option instructs the merge operation to ignore the value from the record being merged, preserving the original record's value.

Important: Merge Action Behavior

Duplicate records are merged into the oldest record based on creation date, preserving the record's activity history. Merged records are automatically deleted and moved to the recycle bin.


Related Articles 📖

For more information on related topics, see these articles:

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