Searching Customer/Prospect Duplicate

Here are 5 steps in order by priority when searching for customer or prospect duplicates.

1.	Phone - If a phone number is entered (ignore all the other fields during this step), check to see if there is a duplicate phone number (without extensions) and if so, stop the search and display the record found. If no phone number was entered or found, move on to the next rule.

2.	Email - If an email is entered (ignore all the other fields during this step), check to see if there is a duplicate email and if so, stop the search and display the records found. If no email was entered or found, move on to the next rule.

3.	Company & Zip Code – If a Company & Zip Code is entered (ignore all the other fields during this step), check to see if there is an exact duplicate Company & Zip Code and if so, stop the search and display the records found. If no Company & Zip Code was entered or found, move on to the next rule.

4.	Company Only (No Zip Code) – If only a Company is entered (ignore all the other fields during this step), check to see if there is an exact duplicate Company and if so, stop the search and display the records found. If no matching Company was entered or found, move on to the next rule.

First & Last Name (Zip Code Optional) – If only a First & Last Name is entered (if a zip code is entered then also include that in the search), check to see if there is an exact duplicate for both the First and Last Name together and if so, stop the search and display the records found. If no matching First & Last Name was entered or found, then add the new customer.

In the end if each rule fails then it means the data is unique and there are no duplicates.