We recently discovered that even if you have duplicate detection completely off for contacts, the system won't let you add someone with the same name, but different email, associated with the same company. So two different Bill Smiths can be contacts if one is on ABC, Inc and one on DEF, Inc, but it doesn't allow two Bill Smiths associated with GHI, Inc. Anyone find a way around this? I see we can get around it by putting in a bogus middle initial, but that's not ideal.

NetSuite accepts duplicate firstname and lastname for Contact records but the Contact name field must be unique. I dont think there is a way to bypass this

Basically, the way we work around this is by setting the Contact name field to add a number, the person’s job title, or some other distinguishing info. Then, multiplke contacts under a single entity can still have the same first name and last name, but won’t conflict with each other. I believe the Contact name field is limited to 40 characters, though, so be aware that it can’t be very large.

Thats a good point @scottvonduhn You can do first name: Bill Last Name: Smith for both contacts But change contact name to something like Bill Smith (Accountant) and Bill Smith (Account Manager)

Thank you both @scottvonduhn & @Livio! This is really helpful.

I wish NetSuite enforced uniqueness on the email address under an entity, instead of first & last name, as that is a problem we often have (duplicate contacts with the same email, but slightly different names/nicknames).

Doesn't the Email(full) option do that @scottvonduhn? Obviously I'm not an expert on Contacts or I wouldn't have asked this question, but when I was initially researching, I did see that's how we had things set. I didn't test it to see if it worked as expected though. If it doesn't work that way, I don't know what the Email(full) option is even supposed to be accomplishing....

We may not have turned that option on, and now that the system is full of contacts, it’s probably too late. But good to know, thanks!