Question

Difficulty: HardDuplicate Management and Matching Rules

An administrator at Apex Financial needs to establish duplicate prevention for a custom object named Loan Application. The requirement mandates that any new Loan Application containing a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) identical to an existing record must be blocked upon saving and logged for audit reporting. What is the correct sequence of configuration steps the administrator must perform to satisfy this requirement?

  1. 1Create a custom Matching Rule on the Loan Application object specifying exact matching on the Taxpayer Identification Number field.
  2. 2Activate the custom Matching Rule on the Loan Application object.
  3. 3Create a custom Duplicate Rule on the Loan Application object, setting the Action on Create to Block and selecting the Report option.
  4. 4Associate the activated custom Matching Rule within the Duplicate Rule's Matching Criteria section.
  5. 5Activate the custom Duplicate Rule.

Answer

The correct sequence is: (1) Create the custom Matching Rule with exact matching on Taxpayer Identification Number, (2) Activate the custom Matching Rule, (3) Create the custom Duplicate Rule with Block and Report actions, (4) Associate the active Matching Rule inside the Duplicate Rule, and (5) Activate the custom Duplicate Rule.
In Salesforce Duplicate Management, configuration must follow a strict dependencies lifecycle: matching criteria (Matching Rule) must be created and activated first so that Salesforce builds the required match keys. Then, the enforcement policy (Duplicate Rule) is created with desired actions (Block/Report), linked to the activated Matching Rule, and finally activated to enforce real-time duplicate blocking.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Define matching logic
A custom Matching Rule is created for the Loan Application object using the Taxpayer Identification Number field with exact matching.
Matching rules define how duplicates are identified by specifying the object, target fields, and matching algorithm.
2
Activate matching rule
The Matching Rule status updates to Active and match keys are generated.
A matching rule must be activated before it can be effectively assigned to and evaluated by duplicate rules.
3
Define enforcement actions
A custom Duplicate Rule is created with Action on Create set to Block and the Report checkbox enabled.
Duplicate rules govern the response behavior (Block, Allow, Alert, Report) when matching records are flagged.
4
Link matching criteria to duplicate rule
The activated custom Matching Rule is selected in the Duplicate Rule configuration.
The duplicate rule requires a designated active matching rule to execute comparisons.
5
Enable enforcement
The custom Duplicate Rule is activated.
Duplicate detection and blocking only occur once the duplicate rule itself is activated.

Key Concept

Order of Configuration for Salesforce Duplicate Management (Matching Rules vs. Duplicate Rules)
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