Candidates can end up in Kula more than once — reapplying to a job, being sourced twice, or coming in through different channels with slightly different details. This article covers how Kula currently detects likely duplicates, what happens when you merge two profiles, and where detection still has gaps.

How Kula detects a likely duplicate today

• Email address match — if you try to create a candidate using an email address that's already linked to an existing contact, Kula shows you that existing contact's information so you can choose to merge rather than create a new, separate record.

• LinkedIn URL match — the same check applies to LinkedIn URLs. A matching LinkedIn profile is one of the two primary signals Kula currently uses to catch duplicates.

• When creating or editing a candidate, a first name and at least one of email or LinkedIn is required — these are the fields duplicate detection relies on.

What's not yet possible

• Kula doesn't currently match duplicates by name alone. If the same candidate has two different email addresses on file and no matching LinkedIn URL, they won't automatically be flagged as a duplicate today — this has been raised as a priority gap and a broader revamp (adding LinkedIn, email, and first/last name as combined matching signals) is in progress, but not yet live.

• LinkedIn-URL matching can still miss real duplicates in some cases. A recent case showed two contact records with the exact same LinkedIn URL that weren't matched, apparently due to a mismatch in how the candidate's name was recorded between the two records. If you spot two profiles for the same person that Kula didn't flag, it's worth merging manually rather than assuming detection will always catch it.

• Merge fixes duplicate profiles, not duplicate applications on the same job. If the same candidate profile somehow ends up with two active applications on one job, Merge won't help — there's no second profile to select. A safeguard was added in mid-July 2026 to block this from happening through the internal "Add to job" path; if you're troubleshooting an older case, rejecting one of the two applications with a "Duplicate" rejection reason is the practical workaround.

Merging duplicate profiles

When two records exist for the same candidate, merging combines them into one so your pipeline, activity history, and outreach records stay accurate. This article covers how to merge duplicate profiles and a few current limits of the merge tool.

How to merge duplicate profiles

• Go to the account-wide Candidates page.

• Select the candidate records you believe are duplicates — up to 3 at a time.

• Open More Options and choose Merge.

• Kula shows the selected records so you can confirm which is the same person before completing the merge.

The current picker also supports searching for a specific record to merge against, and excludes the record you're already viewing from its own merge search results, so you can't accidentally try to merge a candidate with themselves.

What's not yet possible

• You can merge at most 3 records at a time. If more than 3 duplicate profiles exist for the same person, you'll need to merge them in more than one pass.

• The merge picker's matching signals are still basic. A revamp is in progress to show stronger signals on recommended matches (matching LinkedIn profile, email, and first/last name together) plus a way to preview a candidate's profile from within the picker — but as of this writing that improved experience hasn't shipped yet.

• Merging two candidates who both already have a candidate consent record currently fails. This is a known, current gap tied to the newer candidate consent feature — if you hit an error merging two profiles and both have consent status set, this is the likely cause. Flag it to support rather than retrying repeatedly.

A few things intentionally don't carry over in a merge:

• Activity feed and timeline events — both profiles logged their own events (like "Applied" or "Moved to Screening"). Bringing both over would show every event twice, so Kula keeps a single clean timeline on the kept profile instead.

• Background checks, assessments, and auto-rejection rule results — these are tied to a specific evaluation run. Carrying them over would incorrectly imply the check or assessment happened on the profile that was kept.

Good to know

• Candidates involved in a data migration may not always auto-merge as expected. A migrated candidate who later reapplied wasn't automatically merged with their existing (migrated) profile in one real case — if a customer reports an unexpected duplicate involving a migrated account, that's a reasonable thing to double-check rather than assume is standard behavior.

• If you're not sure whether two profiles are the same person, it's worth checking both the email and LinkedIn URL directly rather than relying only on name similarity, since name alone isn't currently used to catch duplicates.

FAQ

• What does Kula check to flag a candidate as a possible duplicate? Primarily a matching email address or LinkedIn URL. Name alone isn't currently used as a duplicate signal.

• A candidate has two different email addresses and wasn't flagged as a duplicate — why? Today's duplicate check relies on email or LinkedIn matches. If neither matches across the two records, Kula won't automatically catch it — this is a known gap, and merging manually is the current workaround.

• I found two profiles for the same person with the identical LinkedIn URL that weren't merged automatically — is that expected? It shouldn't happen in most cases, but it has occurred, apparently linked to how the candidate's name was recorded differently between the two profiles. Merge them manually if you spot this.

• If I merge two duplicate profiles, do I lose the interview scorecards? No — scorecards, files, conversations, interviews, and offers all transfer to the kept profile. Activity timeline events and assessment/background-check results don't transfer, by design.

• The same candidate somehow has two applications on the same job — can I merge them? Not with the Merge tool, since that's for duplicate profiles, not duplicate applications. Reject one of the two applications using the "Duplicate" rejection reason. A safeguard added in mid-July 2026 now blocks most new cases of this from happening via the internal "Add to job" flow.

Need help?

If you have questions or need assistance, reach out to us at support@kula.ai or use the in-app chat.