If you are like a typical Act software user you have duplicate contacts in your database. At some point, you will need to deal with these contacts. Act allows you to search for and combine duplicates.  My best advice for you, don’t do it with Act.

When Act searches for duplicates it will find things that have empty fields and assume that it is a duplicate. For example, if I search for duplicate contacts based on the email address field Act will find all of the contacts that have empty email address fields and assume all of those empty email addresses are duplicates.
Obviously, that is not the case; they simply don’t have an email address in the contact.  After Act finds duplicates it will ask you if you want to start combining them. Please never do that because it can create a real problem for you. When you work with your Act data and make major changes, constantly be making backups. You can never have too many backups.

So how do you combine duplicate contacts and Act?

I would highly recommend that you use an Act add on called Duplicate Remover Wizard Expert from Patricia Egen Consulting. Patricia is a fellow Act Certified Consultant and her Act add on can help you match contacts based on up to six fields. It even uses fuzzy logic. For example, it will assume that a contact by the name of Bob Smith and Bobby Smith are the same. It is a great tool that I’ve used with a number of Act clients.

Like any new software it takes a little bit of time to learn how to use it. The good news is that she has a great training video on how to use it and I highly recommend her software if you’re trying to de-dupe your Act database. If you have questions, never hesitate to contact me for my advice on how to proceed.

Here is a great video on how to use Duplicate Remover Wizard Expert: