Before importing data into Salesforce, which practice reduces duplicates?

• A. Import first and deduplicate later
• B. Deduplicate the data before importing
• C. Use Duplicate Management after import
• D. Install Data Quality Dashboards

Answer: (B)

Deduplicating the data before importing is the most effective way to prevent duplicates from entering Salesforce. By cleaning and merging or removing duplicate records in the source data first, you ensure that what you load already conforms to your unique constraints. This reduces the chance of creating multiple records that represent the same entity and avoids the extra steps of finding, merging, or deleting duplicates after the fact.

If you import first and try to deduplicate later, duplicates already exist in the system, which can complicate data integrity, impact relationships, and require additional cleanup. Using duplicate management after import only helps catch or block duplicates that are created, but it doesn’t prevent the initial duplication. Data Quality Dashboards provide visibility into data issues but don’t stop duplicates from being created during loading.