Root Cause Analysis

Enterprise

Identify where duplicates come from to prevent them at the source, not just clean them up.

Overview

Root Cause Analysis examines your duplicate records to determine how they were created. By understanding the sources of duplicates, you can implement preventive measures upstream.

Analyze Sources

Automatically categorize duplicates by their origin source

Identify Patterns

See which sources, users, and time periods produce the most duplicates

Get Recommendations

Receive actionable suggestions to reduce duplicates at the source

Source Types

True Record classifies duplicate sources into six categories based on signals in your Salesforce data:

Web Forms

Records created via website forms, landing pages, demo requests, contact forms, webinar registrations, and other web-based submissions.

Bulk Imports

Records from purchased lists, partner data, trade show lists, Data Loader imports, and other bulk data uploads.

API/Automation

Records created by integration users, service accounts, or automation tools that aren't categorized as specific integrations.

Manual Entry

Records created manually by sales or marketing users, including phone inquiries, cold calls, referrals, and prospecting.

Integrations

Records from known marketing automation and CRM tools like HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, Salesforce Campaigns, LinkedIn, and Zapier.

Unknown

Records where the source could not be determined due to missing LeadSource values or unrecognized patterns.

How Source Inference Works

True Record infers the source of each duplicate record using multiple signals, processed in priority order. The first method to produce a result is used.

Priority	Method	What It Checks	Confidence
1	LeadSource Field	Checks the LeadSource field value against known patterns for web forms, imports, integrations, and manual entry.	80-95%
2	Owner/CreatedBy Patterns	Checks if the record owner or creator matches integration user patterns like 'api_user', 'automation', or tool-specific names.	90%
3	Name Patterns	Checks if the record name suggests an import (starts with 'Imported', 'Test', 'Sample', or is purely numeric).	70%
4	CreatedDate Clustering	Groups records created within 60 seconds. If 10+ records share a timestamp, they're classified as bulk import.	80%
5	Default	If no signals are detected and the record has a CreatedDate, defaults to Manual Entry. Otherwise, Unknown.	50-60%

LeadSource Field Mapping

The LeadSource field provides the strongest signal for source classification. Here are example values that map to each category:

Web Forms

Web, Website, Contact Us, Demo Request, Trial Request, Landing Page, Organic, SEO, Form Submission, Webinar Registration

Bulk Imports

Purchased List, Partner, Data Import, Trade Show List, External List, Third Party, Data Vendor, List Broker

Integrations

Marketo, HubSpot, Pardot, Eloqua, Mailchimp, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Ads, Zapier, Outreach, SalesLoft, Apollo, ZoomInfo

Manual Entry

Phone Inquiry, Cold Call, Referral, Employee Referral, Word of Mouth, Prospecting, Outbound, Other

Tip: Standardizing your LeadSource picklist values improves source detection accuracy. Use consistent naming across your organization.

Bulk Import Detection

Even without explicit LeadSource values, True Record can detect bulk imports through additional signals:

CreatedDate Clustering

When 10 or more records are created within a 60-second window, they're classified as a bulk import. This catches Data Loader uploads and API batch inserts.

Name Patterns

Records with names starting with 'Imported', 'Test', 'Sample', 'Demo', or purely numeric names are flagged as likely imports.

Dashboard Features

The Root Cause Analysis dashboard in Analytics provides several views to understand your duplicate sources:

Source Distribution

Visual breakdown showing what percentage of duplicates come from each source type. Includes average confidence scores and top matching fields per source.

Top Users

Shows which Salesforce users create the most duplicates, along with their primary source type. Helpful for targeted training.

Source Trends Over Time

Monthly stacked bar chart showing how duplicate sources change over time. Identify if a new integration is causing issues or if import quality is declining.

Actionable Recommendations

Based on your data, True Record suggests specific actions: add duplicate checking to web forms, review bulk import processes, or configure integration settings.

Improving Source Detection

To get more accurate source classification, consider these best practices:

Populate LeadSource Consistently

Ensure all lead/contact creation points set the LeadSource field. Use automation to set it based on the record's origin.

Use Descriptive Integration User Names

Name your API/integration users clearly (e.g., 'HubSpot_Integration', 'Marketo_Sync'). This helps identify which tool created records.

Configure Marketing Automation Sources

Set up your marketing tools (HubSpot, Marketo, etc.) to populate LeadSource with their name when creating records in Salesforce.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do all my duplicates show as 'Manual Entry'?

When no source signals are detected (empty LeadSource, no integration user patterns), records default to Manual Entry. Populate the LeadSource field on your records to improve classification accuracy.

What does 'Inference Completeness' mean?

This percentage shows how many of your analyzed duplicates have identifiable source data. A low percentage means many records lack LeadSource values or other source signals.

Can I customize the source categories?

The six source categories are fixed, but the patterns that map to each category cover a wide range of values. If you have custom LeadSource values, they may map based on partial matches (e.g., any value containing 'form' maps to Web Forms).

How far back does the analysis go?

You can analyze duplicates from the last 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, 180 days, or 365 days. The dashboard analyzes up to 10,000 duplicate matches per query for performance.

Why is this feature Enterprise-only?

Root Cause Analysis requires processing and storing additional metadata about each duplicate match, including source inference results and user attribution. This advanced analytics capability is part of the Enterprise tier.

Enterprise Feature

Root Cause Analysis is available on the Enterprise plan. Upgrade to identify where duplicates come from and prevent them at the source.

View Enterprise pricing

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