Duplicate records are the silent compliance and customer-experience risk inside every active mortgage CRM. They happen from CSV imports, accidental separate entries, or two team members creating the same record on different days. BNTouch ships a merge tool that combines duplicates into one cleaned record. The critical mechanic: only the topmost selected record keeps the uploaded documents, marketing campaign progress, loan participants, and other connected CRM elements. The reordering controls in the merge screen let you choose which record wins before you commit. The merge button at the bottom is irreversible.
From the walkthrough: “As your client and partner databases grow, you may end up with duplicated or fragmented records for a single contact. This can happen when importing files with client data in them, accidentally entering separate records for the same [borrower]” [B1kkfI-b6vY m0]. Three common causes: CSV imports overlapping with existing records, two team members entering the same lead on different days, web form submissions that did not match against existing records.
The walkthrough is explicit on the consequences: “[Marketing] could be sent to that person multiple times. This might lead to upset clients, spam reports to email carriers, compliance issues, and other problems if left uncorrected” [B1kkfI-b6vY m1].
So duplicates produce: borrower experience problems (getting two welcome emails on the same day), deliverability problems (multiple sends from the same address tag as spam), and compliance problems (TCPA and CAN-SPAM violations when a borrower marks one record as opted-out but the other keeps sending). “Avoiding duplicate records is a prudent measure to take” [B1kkfI-b6vY m1].
Finding duplicates
Two paths to find duplicates. Path one is reactive: an LO notices the same borrower appears twice in their pipeline list while working. Path two is proactive: “[You can take] a proactive role in checking for redundant data” [B1kkfI-b6vY m4] via Pik-a-Search filters. Search for records with the same first and last name, then sort by name to surface adjacent duplicates.
The walkthrough recommends both approaches. Reactive merges happen as you notice them; proactive audits happen on a quarterly cadence to clean up imports that brought in unflagged duplicates.
The merge tool flow
“If you find multiple records with the same name in your mortgages or partnerships tabs, you can combine them into a single file using the merge tool” [B1kkfI-b6vY m2]. The mechanic:
Check the boxes to the left of the name field on the redundant records you want to merge.
Click the merge action.
The merge editor opens showing both records side by side.
“Make sure to mark the check boxes to the left of the name field of the redundant records” [B1kkfI-b6vY m2]. The order matters in the next step.
The topmost-record-wins rule
This is the most important detail in the entire walkthrough. “Only the topmost records selected will keep the uploaded documents, marketing campaign progress connected, loan participants, and other crm elements” [B1kkfI-b6vY m3].
So merge does not combine these connected elements; it keeps them only on whichever record is at the top of the merge selection. Documents, campaign progress, loan participants stay with the topmost record. The other record’s documents, campaign progress, and loan participants are lost (unless you explicitly copy them before merging, which is rare in practice).
This matters because if you pick the wrong record as the topmost, you lose data on the record you wanted to keep. The reordering controls in the merge screen exist exactly for this case: “You can easily change which record appears above another” [B1kkfI-b6vY m3]. Reorder before you merge.
What gets combined vs what gets kept
The merge action combines basic contact data (when not in conflict) into one record. For fields that are in conflict (e.g., two different phone numbers, two different emails), you can choose which value to keep. From the demo: “[Or simply import the selected information into either of the records and leave the other untouched]” [B1kkfI-b6vY m4]. So per-field, you have control.
For connected elements (documents, campaign progress, loan participants), there is no per-element selection. The topmost record wins for all of them.
The merge button commits
“Whichever option you choose will be carried out when you click the merge records button at the bottom of the page” [B1kkfI-b6vY m4]. The merge button is the commit action. Once clicked, the merge is done. There is no undo button. The non-topmost record is removed and its data is consolidated into the topmost record according to the rules above.
Standard discipline: review the merge editor twice before clicking. Check that the topmost record has the connected elements you want to keep (documents, campaign progress). Confirm conflicting field values match your expectation. Then click merge.
A specific scenario: post-import cleanup
A loan officer just imported a CSV of 200 leads from a marketing event. The next morning, they notice that 18 of those imports matched borrowers already in BNTouch but the import created new records anyway (because the matching algorithm did not catch slight email variations).
The cleanup workflow:
Open the mortgages tab. Use Pik-a-Search to filter to leads added in the last 24 hours.
Sort by borrower last name to surface adjacent records with the same name.
For each duplicate pair: click into both records, identify which one has documents and campaign progress (typically the older one). That is the topmost record.
Check both records, click merge. Reorder so the older record is on top. Review the conflict resolution (typically keep the original record’s email, take the new record’s phone if different). Click merge.
Repeat for the 17 remaining duplicate pairs.
Total time: 45 minutes. Long-term benefit: 18 borrowers no longer receiving duplicate communications and the data integrity audit cleans up cleanly.
Pre-import discipline that prevents most duplicates
Better than post-import cleanup is preventing duplicates at import time. Two practices:
Run a dedupe pass on the CSV before import. Pull existing emails from BNTouch, compare against the CSV emails, flag overlaps. Decide upfront whether overlapping records should be merged into existing or imported as new.
Use unique file names on Fannie Mae 3.2 imports. “When importing records, make sure each file has a unique file name” [WYbOtNg89GI m6]. Standard import hygiene that prevents accidental overwrites and helps later trace which import created which records.
Honest limits
Merge is irreversible. No undo button. Review carefully before clicking.
Only topmost record keeps connected elements. Documents, campaign progress, loan participants do not combine; they go with the topmost record only. If you need elements from both records, manually copy them before merging.
Merge tool works only on records in the same database. You cannot merge a mortgage record with a partner record using this tool. (Which is correct; they are different record types.)
Duplicates from different sources may have subtly different data. Same borrower might have a personal email on one record and a work email on the other. Pick conflict values carefully; merging accidentally can lose the email the borrower actually checks.
Audit your account for duplicates
To run a duplicate audit on your account and walk through the merge tool with real records, request a demo. The mortgage CRM page covers the underlying database engine.
