Overview
Bolt Deduplication pairs every flagged duplicate with an AI analysis so you can decide faster and merge with confidence. This article walks through reviewing a pair, choosing which data survives the merge, ignoring false positives, and merging in bulk with Bolt's guidance.
New to the AI analysis itself? Start with Understanding Bolt Analysis for Duplicates.
Reviewing a Duplicate Pair
Navigate to Contacts > Deduplication. The review queue lists potential duplicate pairs, with unresolved pairs shown by default.
Use the confidence level on each row to decide where to start. High-confidence pairs are usually quick confirmations, while medium-confidence pairs deserve a closer read.
Open a pair to see the two records side by side, along with the Bolt Analysis panel. The analysis explains why the pair was flagged, which signals drove the conclusion, any concerns that argue against the match, and which record Bolt recommends keeping.
Merging a Pair
Choosing which record is the Master
The Master is the record that survives the merge. If the wrong record is set as the Master, switch it to the other contact from the comparison header before you merge. Bolt's recommendations and your field selections follow the record you choose, so switching the Master updates the comparison itself and not just the labels.
Set the Master before you make your field selections. Where one record already exists in your SIS, keeping that record as the Master preserves the School ID and other identifiers your connected systems rely on.
Choosing which values to keep
Review the field-by-field comparison. Where the two records conflict, choose which value to keep on the surviving record.
Data that exists on only one record carries over automatically, and multi-value data such as applications, notes, and labels is combined onto the surviving record.
When your selections are complete, confirm the merge.
⚠️ Merging is permanent. Once you confirm, any values you chose to overwrite are gone. If you are unsure about a field, resolve it before merging.
Dismissing a Pair
If the two records belong to different people, choose Dismiss. The pair moves out of your unresolved queue and both records stay untouched. Dismissed pairs remain available through the history, so you can revisit a decision at any time and can restore an accidentally dismissed pair back to the review queue.
Merging in Bulk with Bolt
When you have many vetted pairs, you may not have time or want to open each one to review.
Bulk Merge with Bolt applies the same survivor and field selections that individual review would show, across every pair you select.
❗If you use Bulk Merge, and decide to to "Confirm and Merge" without reviewing the selection first, you will not have the ability to make the final call and are relying on the AI analysis to do the merge for you. Please be aware that AI can make mistakes, and therefore it is highly recommended that you review the selections manually to prevent false merges. Confidence level can help you make that decision, but you take responsibility for any issues that may occur.
Running a bulk merge
In the review queue, select the duplicate pair rows you want to merge. Selection applies to the rows loaded on the current page. If you select "all", you will have the option to select all on the current page, or select all in the review queue, which may be thousands of pairs.
Choose Bulk Merge from the action bar.
Bolt AI Analysis checks every selected pair, and the confirmation shows how many pairs will merge and the average confidence score across your selection, so you can gauge the batch at a glance before committing.
Confirm to merge all eligible pairs, or choose Review Selection first if you want to inspect any of them individually.
Review Selection (optional)
Review Selection lets you open any pair in the batch and see the full Bolt analysis with the field choices already preselected, exactly what you would see in individual review. From there you can merge the pair, dismiss it, or save it for later. Reviewing individual pairs is always optional. Bolt's recommendation and confidence are there to support your decision, not to force a pair-by-pair sign-off.
Results you can trust
Safety checks run again on each pair immediately before it merges, so nothing changes silently between confirmation and execution
Long-running batches show progress, and partial success is supported. If some pairs fail, the rest still complete
The completion summary lists every selected pair with its outcome, merged, skipped, needs review, or failed, and what to do next
Every bulk merge is recorded as a user-confirmed bulk action in your history. Element451 never merges records on its own
Best Practices
Work from high confidence down. Clear the quick confirmations first, then give medium-confidence pairs the attention they need.
Read the concerns before merging medium-confidence pairs. They exist to keep you from merging two different people.
Confirm the Master is the record you want to keep before you start choosing field values, especially when only one of the two records carries a School ID or another external identifier.
Before confirming a large batch, spot-check a few pairs with Review Selection. The batch applies the same selections individual review would, so a quick sample tells you what the whole batch will do.
Avoid merging records that are actively being processed, such as records in the middle of a workflow or updated within the last 10 minutes. Wait at least 10 minutes after significant actions like an application submission.