How to merge duplicate accounts
Merging accounts is riskier than merging contacts because an account carries contacts, deals, and revenue history. A wrong account merge scrambles the pipeline.
The extra care goes into confirming identity - especially distinguishing true duplicates from parent-child relationships - and reparenting everything cleanly.
Short answer
Merge duplicate accounts by matching on web domain plus company name, confirming they are the same company (not a parent and subsidiary), choosing the master, resolving field conflicts, and reparenting all related contacts, deals, and activity to the survivor. Account merges are higher-stakes than contact merges because they carry deals and relationships.
Step by step
Match on domain and name
Use web domain as the strongest account key, supported by fuzzy company-name matching, to find likely duplicate accounts.
Confirm they are truly one company
Check that the accounts are the same entity, not a parent and subsidiary or two divisions that should stay separate under a hierarchy.
Choose the master and resolve conflicts
Pick the surviving account and decide which value wins for each conflicting field, favoring the most complete and recent.
Reparent related records
Move all contacts, deals, activities, and notes from the duplicates onto the master so nothing is orphaned.
Duplicate versus parent-child
The classic account-merge mistake is merging a subsidiary into its parent because the names are similar. They are not duplicates - they are a hierarchy. Confirm whether two similar accounts are the same legal entity or a related pair before merging; the wrong call loses a real business relationship.
How Ardovo helps
Ardovo matches accounts on domain and name, distinguishes true duplicates from hierarchy relationships, and reparents all contacts, deals, and activity onto the master automatically. Rook handles the reparenting busywork so no deal or contact is orphaned in a merge.
Frequently asked questions
How do you match duplicate accounts?
Use web domain as the strongest identifier, supported by fuzzy matching on company name to catch formatting differences. Domain matching is reliable because a company's domain is far more unique and stable than its variously-spelled name.
What is the risk of merging accounts?
An account carries contacts, deals, and revenue history, so a wrong merge scrambles the pipeline and can blend two real companies. The biggest specific risk is merging a subsidiary into its parent when they should be a hierarchy, not one record.
What happens to contacts and deals when accounts merge?
In a proper merge they are reparented onto the surviving master account, so every contact, deal, activity, and note moves over and nothing is orphaned. If a merge deletes related records instead of reparenting them, that is a data-losing merge to avoid.