Why is Unify creating duplicate accounts in Salesforce?

Unify creates duplicate accounts in Salesforce when it cannot properly match incoming company data with existing records in your CRM. This happens because Unify relies on domain/website fields as the primary method for account deduplication and matching.

How Unify matches accounts

When enriching accounts, Unify uses the domain/website field to identify whether a company already exists in your Salesforce. If an existing account lacks a populated domain/website value, Unify cannot recognize it as a match for incoming data, resulting in the creation of a new duplicate account record.

Common scenario causing duplicates

For example, if you have an account for "ABC Company" in Salesforce without a domain field populated, and someone from ABC Company visits your website or triggers enrichment, Unify will create a new "ABC Company" account record with the domain populated (like "abccompany.com") rather than updating the existing record that lacks domain information.

How to prevent duplicate account creation

To prevent duplicate accounts during enrichment:

1. Audit existing accounts: Review your current Salesforce accounts and identify records missing domain/website information

2. Populate domain fields: Add the appropriate website/domain values to existing company records before running any enrichment processes

3. Establish data hygiene practices: Make domain/website fields required or implement validation rules to ensure new accounts always include this information

Troubleshooting existing domain mismatches

If you discover that a Unify account and Salesforce account have different domains (with the Salesforce domain being correct), follow these steps to resolve the mismatch:

1. Verify the Salesforce domain field: In Salesforce, confirm that the Account's website/domain field contains the accurate value. Ensure the correct domain is stored in the standard field (e.g., Website) and not only in a custom field that Unify isn’t reading.

2. Check field mapping configuration: In Unify, navigate to Integrations > Salesforce and verify that the field mapping for the account domain points to the correct Salesforce field (e.g., Website or your custom domain field). Update the mapping if necessary.

3. Trigger a resync: After correcting the domain in Salesforce and verifying field mappings, wait for the next automatic sync (Salesforce records sync to Unify approximately every 15 minutes). The Unify account should then link to the Salesforce account via the corrected domain.

4. Check for sync errors: If the account still doesn’t link after the next sync, check Integrations > Salesforce > Errors (READ) in Unify to see if the account failed to sync due to missing or invalid domain data.

5. Consolidate duplicate records: If prior mismatches created duplicate Unify companies, consolidate them by keeping the record aligned to the Salesforce domain and removing or merging the extras.

By maintaining clean domain/website data in your existing Salesforce accounts, Unify can accurately match incoming company information and update existing records instead of creating duplicates.