How to Delete a Contact in Salesforce

In this tutorial, we will look at how to merge accounts in Salesforce. This is an important thing to have the ability to do in any record keeping, book keeping or databasing software. Often, multiple duplicate accounts can begin to be an issue in any set of records or data, as a result of use. This can be due to multiple users adding objects they think have yet to be added, or even the occasional glitch in the database resulting in two entries being created when you submit for a single creation. This can be due to internet lag, or even something as absurd as mouse issues. Either way, it’s important to be able to merge these entries, especially when multiple entries have data that does not entirely match with the others, but all of which is vital. In these situations, deletion would be calamitous, but the continued existence of multiple accounts would also be a problem that would increase over time. So, in six steps, we will look at how to solve this in an elegantly simple way. Do note that you must have either a business account, or Enterprise/Developer/Unlimited editions for personal accounts. You must also have the following permissions: “Read” and “Delete” for contacts and accounts. Otherwise, this won’t be possible. If permissions are missing, contact your administrator to resolve the issue.

How to Delete a Contact in Salesforce:

Step 1 – From the “Accounts” tab, click “Merge Accounts” in the tools section. You must be in the “Accounts” tab first. Step 2 – You will be asked for a search string, in order to find the duplicate accounts. A string is a line of text consisting of one or more characters. Wildcard * is permitted, so searching for “Conglom*” will find “Conglomo” and “Conglomco” simultaneously, and so on. Step 3 – Select up to three of the results you wish to merge (you may only merge three at a time), and click “Next”. Step 4 – Select the account you wish to be the “master Record”. This will be the one that essentially absorbs the others, and persists after the others are gone. All data taken from the other accounts will exist in it after the merge. Step 5 – Thankfully, Salesforce will allow you to select which fields you wish to be taken from the other account records, so that no overwrites or redundancies will exist in the “Master Record”. Select these now. Step 6 – Click “Merge” to complete the merging.

Conclusion

If more duplicates exist, repeat the process until they are all consolidated into one solid account record. Be careful when selecting the “Master Account” and fields you wish to copy over. It can be easy, if this task gets repetitive for a serious quantity of duplicates, to begin to hurry through those steps, but it’s important to not let this happen. But, it is rather simple. In six easy steps, we have seen how to merge accounts in Salesforce.
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Amanda is the Lead Author & Editor of Rainforce Blog. Amanda established the Rainforce blog to create a source for news and discussion about some of the issues, challenges, news, and ideas relating to Salesforce usage.