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Matching Proposals

Matching proposals are potential duplicates in your data that the automated matching found but didn’t merge. This page explains where to find them in the MDM Web App and how to resolve them.

What matching proposals are

Matching proposals are captured as part of automated matching in the Matching step. They are generated based on predefined rules but require manual resolution to confirm, reject, or adjust the suggested matches.

Typically, manual intervention is needed when:

  • There are specific proposal rules defined.

  • There are some constraints applied.

  • A record matches several groups but can’t be automatically merged to more than one record.

  • A configured column changes on a record, and the change is set to generate a proposal rather than a rematch.

To better understand how different approaches to matching complement each other, see Matching approaches. For an in-depth look into how matching proposals are generated, see Proposal rules.

In the MDM Web App, you can see all matching proposals available for your data and resolve them yourself.

You can also use the MDM MCP Server to review matching proposals, prepare them for approval, and, where enabled, have an AI agent reject or resolve them. See What agents can do.

Get started with matching proposals

Matching proposals reach you in one of two ways: you browse the listing yourself, or a task assigned to you points you to specific proposals. Either way, you resolve them in the matching proposal detail:

  1. Open the proposal.

  2. Add related proposals so that all records that belong together are in the compare view.

  3. Take out what doesn’t belong: remove a proposal you want to come back to later, or reject one that is wrong.

  4. Compare the records and merge the ones that are duplicates.

  5. Publish the task or move it to the next workflow step. See Resolve Tasks.

Find matching proposals

To view matching proposals, select Matching proposals on the All tab of the navigation panel, and then the entity you want to work with.

Matching proposals listing

To open the proposal detail, double-click the proposal in any of the listings, or select the proposal ID. If you’re assigned a Matching proposal task, open the task and then select the proposal ID or Resolve in its Matching proposals section.

To open several proposals at once, select the proposals you want to compare and select Open selected.

If configured, matching proposals are also shown for the entity in the Business View. To learn how to add a link to matching proposals, see Customizing the Left Navigation Panel.

Read the matching proposals listing

By default, each matching proposal is listed with:

  • Proposal: The matching proposal identifier.

  • Summary: A short description of the proposal, typically the labels of the master records involved. What you see here depends on how record labels are configured. See Constructing the record label.

  • Confidence: The match likelihood, expressed as a percentage. This is configured for each matching rule.

  • Match rule: The rules the proposal is based on.

  • Origin: How the proposal was generated: a proposal rule, a matching rule, a constraint issue, or the Create Proposal If Changed configuration (Proposal only).

    To learn more about rule types in the Matching step, see How the Matching Step Works.

  • Type: Merge or Split. Proposals generated from the Create Proposal If Changed configuration are always Merge.

  • Master ID 1, Master ID 2: The two master records the proposal concerns.

  • Instance ID 1, Instance ID 2: The instance records of the first and the second master record that triggered the proposal.

  • Created and Last updated: When the proposal was generated and last changed.

To narrow the listing down, select Filter and define the conditions the same way as for records. See Search for Data.

Read the matching proposal detail

The matching proposal detail is a compare view of the records involved. To decide whether the records should be merged, inspect the differing attributes and the related records as described in Compare Records.

Matching proposal detail

Each record has a color and a number, and the attributes whose values differ are marked with a not equal sign (≠). To see only those attributes, select Show only differences. To change which attributes are shown, select Columns. See Change the column layout.

From here, you can add related proposals, remove proposals from the view, merge the records, and reject proposals.

The Related entities section shows the records from related entities, such as addresses or contacts, that belong to the compared records. Use it to verify whether the records match. Related records carry the color and number of the record they belong to.

Expand the Related entities section and select an entity to see its records, including the instance records of the compared master records.

Related entities section

When you open a proposal, you’re prompted to add any other proposals that include the same records.

You can also find and add them yourself:

  1. Open the matching proposal and select Add related proposals.

  2. Confirm that you want to add the related proposals.

The related proposals and their records are added to the compare view.

To make sure all related proposals are added, repeat this until a message tells you there are no more related proposals.

Remove proposals from the compare view

To hide proposals you don’t want to work with at the moment, remove them from the compare view. This also removes their records unless they are part of other proposals in the view.

Removed proposals stay in the Matching proposals listing and can be resolved later. Don’t confuse this with rejecting proposals.

  1. Open the matching proposal detail and select one or more proposals.

    Remove matching proposals from the view

  2. Select Remove selected.

To add removed proposals back, use Add related proposals. If the proposal is definitely wrong, reject it instead to remove it from the listing too.

Reject matching proposals

Reject the proposals that are definitely wrong. This removes them from the Matching proposals listing.

Rejecting a matching proposal can’t be undone. To hide proposals from the compare view instead, use Remove selected.

  1. Open the matching proposal and select one or more proposals.

  2. Select Reject proposals and confirm your choice.

Resolve matching proposals

To resolve a matching proposal, merge the records it concerns. The merge works the same as a manual merge from the compare view. See Merge master records.

All records in the compare view take part in the merge. If there are any you don’t want to merge, remove the proposals first.

  1. Open the matching proposal.

  2. In the Merge preview, check which values the merged record would have and select the survivor.

    Select survivor in the merge preview

  3. Select Merge. A task is created for the merge, and the merge preview stays open for editing.

  4. If needed, change the values of the merged record.

  5. Publish the task or move it to the next workflow step. See Resolve Tasks.

The resolved proposals are removed from the matching proposals listing.

If any values need editing before the task is published, edit the records individually, then return to the proposal. See Edit Values.

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