# Duplicate Contacts: Find & Merge Partners

> Find duplicate contacts by fuzzy match on email, phone, VAT and name, review them in groups, and merge with Odoo's own merge engine.

- **What it is:** Find duplicate contacts by fuzzy match on email, phone, VAT and name, review them in groups, and merge with Odoo's own merge engine.
- **For:** Extra Tools
- **Odoo versions:** 16.0, 17.0, 18.0, 19.0, 20.0 - Community and Enterprise
- **Runs on:** Odoo.sh or Odoo you host yourself - not Odoo Online, which accepts no third-party apps
- **Price:** 79 EUR, one-time, on the Odoo Apps Store
- **Technical name:** bambooforge_partner_dedupe
- **Not for:** Said before you buy, because it is the half that decides whether the app fits:; Group a company with its own child contacts as duplicates.; Auto-exclude contacts of different companies - only contacts of the same commercial entity are.
- **Manual:** https://docs.bambooforge.dev/bambooforge_partner_dedupe/
- **Live demo:** https://demo20.bambooforge.dev/odoo/action-bambooforge_partner_dedupe.dedupe_run_action
- **Store page:** https://apps.odoo.com/apps/modules/20.0/bambooforge_partner_dedupe
- **Manual last updated:** 2026-10-15

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# Duplicate Contacts: Find & Merge Partners

Keep your contact database clean. This app scans your contacts for duplicates by
**email, phone, tax ID and fuzzy name matching**, groups the matches for review,
suggests which record to keep, and merges them **safely using Odoo's own merge
engine** — so every link, document and transaction is preserved. No Enterprise
needed.

This page is the complete manual. Follow it top to bottom and you can install,
run your first scan, review and merge duplicates, schedule scans and fix the
common issues **without contacting support**.

## Overview

Duplicate contacts creep into every database: imports, web leads, typos, the same
company entered twice. This app finds them and helps you clean up:

- **Scan** your contacts on any combination of email, phone/mobile, tax ID and
  name, with configurable fuzzy name matching.
- **Review** the results as duplicate groups, each with a suggested master, a
  confidence score and the matched value.
- **Merge** safely — the actual merge is performed by Odoo's built-in merge
  engine, which re-points every related record (orders, invoices, messages…) to
  the surviving contact before deleting the duplicates.
- **Ignore** false positives, **re-scan** any time, and keep a history of runs.
- **Schedule** scans to catch duplicates as they appear.

It deliberately reuses the platform's merge logic, so merging is exactly as safe
as Odoo's own "Merge Contacts" tool — with far better detection and a review
workflow on top.

## Requirements

- Odoo 20.0.
- The **Contacts** app (`contacts`). Installing this app pulls it in
  automatically.

No Enterprise modules and no external Python libraries are required.

## Installation

1. Copy `bambooforge_partner_dedupe` into your addons path.
2. Update the apps list (Apps > Update Apps List).
3. Search for **Dedupe** and click *Install*.

A new top-level **Dedupe** app appears, and a **Find Duplicates** entry is added
under the **Contacts** app.

## Quick start

1. Open **Dedupe > Scans** and click *New*.
2. Choose what to **Match On** — any combination of Email, Phone/Mobile, Tax ID
   and Name. For names, set the **Name Similarity** (0–1): 1.0 means identical
   after normalization, lower values catch typos and word-order differences.
3. Pick a **Scope** (all contacts, companies only, or individuals) and whether to
   include archived contacts.
4. Click **Scan**.

The run switches to *Scanned* and the **Groups** and **Duplicates** stat buttons
fill in. Open the **Duplicate Groups** tab to review.

## How matching works

Each criterion normalizes the value before comparing, so cosmetic differences do
not hide a duplicate:

- **Email** — trimmed and lower-cased.
- **Phone/Mobile** — reduced to digits and compared on the last nine, so
  `+1 (415) 555-0100` and `415.555.0100` match.
- **Tax ID** — stripped of punctuation and upper-cased.
- **Name** — lower-cased, punctuation removed, legal-form suffixes (Ltd, Inc,
  GmbH, Corp…) dropped, words sorted — then compared with a similarity ratio
  against the **Name Similarity** threshold, so `Acme Corp` and
  `ACME Corporation Ltd` match, as do `John Smith` and `Smith, John`.

Contacts that belong to the **same commercial entity** (a company and its own
child contacts) are never grouped as duplicates, avoiding the most common false
positive.

## Reviewing and merging

In the **Duplicate Groups** list each row shows what was matched, the matched
value, the contacts involved, the suggested **master** to keep, a confidence
score and a status. From there you can:

- **Merge** a group — the master is kept and the other contacts are merged into
  it. Open a group first if you want to change which contact is the master.
- **Ignore** a group you have judged to be distinct.
- **Reset** an ignored or errored group back to pending.
- **Merge All Pending** from the run to process every group at once (with a
  confirmation).

Merging uses Odoo's engine, which re-points foreign keys and reference fields,
merges values into the master, logs the operation and deletes the source
contacts. For safety the engine merges up to three contacts at a time; larger
groups are merged in several automatic passes.

## The suggested master

For each group the app suggests keeping the **most complete** contact — the one
with the most filled-in fields (email, phone, address, tax ID…), breaking ties in
favour of the oldest record. You can override this on the group before merging.

## Scheduling scans

A scheduled action **Dedupe: Scheduled Duplicate Scan** ships **disabled**.
Enable it under *Settings > Technical > Scheduled Actions* to create a fresh scan
on a schedule (weekly by default) so duplicates are surfaced as they appear. The
scan only detects; merging always stays a manual, reviewed action.

## Frequently asked questions

****Will merging lose any data?****

No. The merge re-points every related record (orders, invoices, activities,
messages, etc.) to the surviving contact before the duplicates are removed —
this is Odoo's own merge behaviour.

****A merge shows an Error status.****

The engine refuses some merges for safety — for example contacts in a
parent/child relationship, or contacts linked to more than one user. The
reason is stored on the group; fix the underlying issue and Reset to retry.

****Two different companies share a tax ID and were grouped — is that wrong?****

That is a genuine match worth reviewing. If they are truly distinct, Ignore
the group. Only contacts of the *same* company are auto-excluded.

****Can I tune how aggressive name matching is?****

Yes. Lower the **Name Similarity** to catch more typos (at the risk of more
false positives), or raise it toward 1.0 to require near-identical names.

****Does it work with multiple companies?****

Yes. Runs and groups are company-scoped via record rules.

## How we make sure it works

Before every release, **17 automated checks** run against this app on Odoo 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20.
Among them:

- A plain employee sees no dedupe data at all.
- Ignore and reset stay available to the role.
- Overlapping groups no arbitrary merge.
- The sold group makes a user who can clean contacts.
- The email less manager scans reviews and merges.

The complete list is in the source you receive.

## Support

Questions or ideas: **support@bambooforge.dev**.

## Upgrading & version compatibility

This build targets **Odoo 20.0**. Each Odoo major series (16.0, 17.0, 18.0, 19.0, 20.0) has its
own dedicated build of this module — always install the build that matches your Odoo
version. Mixing a build with a different Odoo series is not supported.

### Patch upgrades (same series, e.g. 20.0.1.0.0 → later)

1. **Back up** your database and filestore first.
2. Replace the module folder with the newer build.
3. Restart Odoo with the module updated:
   
   ```
   ./odoo-bin -c your.conf -u bambooforge_partner_dedupe -d your_db
   ```
4. Odoo applies any schema/data changes automatically. Your existing records and
   configuration are preserved.

### Cross-version migration (moving to a newer Odoo)

Upgrading Odoo itself is a database migration handled by Odoo's standard upgrade
tooling. When you migrate the database to the next Odoo series, install the matching
build of this module for that series. Data created by this module carries over with
the database migration.

After any upgrade the module's scheduled actions resume on their normal cadence —
no manual re-activation is required.

## Uninstallation

You can remove this module at any time from **Apps → (this module) → Uninstall**,
or from the command line. Uninstalling is clean and reversible by reinstalling —
but note what is and is not deleted.

### What is removed

- The module's own tables and every record in them (2 models, prefixed `partner.*`) — this is the data this module created.
- The menus, actions, views and reports this module installed.
- Its scheduled actions (cron jobs) — they stop immediately on uninstall.
- The security groups this module defined (user assignments to them are dropped).

### What is preserved

- Your standard Odoo data (partners, products, sales, invoices, inventory moves) is
  **not** deleted — this module only reads and annotates it; the underlying records stay.
- Attachments and chatter messages on standard records are kept.

As always, take a database backup before uninstalling in production.

## What it does not do

Said before you buy, because it is the half that decides whether the app fits:

- Group a company with its own child contacts as duplicates.
- Auto-exclude contacts of different companies - only contacts of the same commercial entity are.

## Questions people ask

****Which Odoo versions does it run on?****

Odoo 16.0, 17.0, 18.0, 19.0, 20.0, on the series you buy it for; each series is its own listing.

****Community or Enterprise?****

Both. It needs no Enterprise app.

****What does it need?****

The standard Contacts app. No extra Python package.

****Where does it show up?****

Under the **Dedupe** menu (Scans, Duplicate Groups).

****Does anything leave my server?****

No. It makes no call outside your Odoo server: no telemetry, no licence check, no third-party service.

****What happens if I uninstall it?****

Odoo drops the app's own tables and fields; the standard records it worked on (contacts, orders, products) stay as they are.

## Changelog

### 20.0.1.2.1

- Built for Odoo 20: record rules and access rights rewritten onto Odoo 20's single ir.access model, the screens rebuilt on Owl 3, and every icon moved to the icon set Odoo 20 ships.

### 20.0.1.0.0

Current release for Odoo 20.0. This build includes:

- Find duplicate contacts with fuzzy matching on email, phone, VAT and name, review them in groups, and merge safely using Odoo's own merge engine.
- The Community answer to data cleaning.

Feature additions and fixes ship as new builds on the Odoo Apps store; this page and
the module's `version` reflect the current published release. Always keep the build
matched to your Odoo series (see *Upgrading & version compatibility*).