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Because a duplicate does not just clutter a list. It splits a relationship in half, so the renewal team sees one history, support sees the other, and neither knows the account is at risk.
Duplicate detection matches new contacts and companies against existing ones as they are created or imported, and merging combines them into one record without losing either one's history.
Matching runs on entry, on import and on demand, using rules you can tune. A merge asks which value wins per conflicting field, then moves every deal, ticket, invoice and note onto the surviving record.
Two Harlow Logistics rows, created eight months apart, held four tickets and one open deal respectively. Merged, the deal was suddenly a renewal with an unresolved escalation attached — which changed how it was handled.
It will not merge automatically on a partial match. Two similar companies at one address are sometimes one customer and sometimes two, and that judgement stays with a person.
Import and bulk edit runs the same checks before committing, web forms match against existing contacts instead of creating new ones, and Books avoids issuing a second customer number.
The merge is recorded in full in the audit trail. Reversing it is a support operation, not a button, because it is rarely what is actually wanted.
Yes, before the import commits, as part of the diff you approve.
Yes — which fields count and how closely they must match, per object.
Fourteen days, every module, no card. Or half an hour with someone who will run it on your own records and tell you where it does not help.