Once you have begun the process of creating a new contact, you can check to be sure that contact doesn't already exist in the system.  

Notice that when entering a first, last or middle name, your system will suggest possible matches. If you think one of the the suggested matches is the person you want to create, hover over their name and it will give you extra details to help confirm if it is them or not. If it is them, simply select their name and it will take you to their page, otherwise continue creating the new person.

The second way you can check for a duplicate without going as far as creating a new contact,  is to type a person's name into the "jump to contact" bar at the top of the application.  All similar names will show up under the name.  Similarly to the functionality described above, if you hover over a name, a box with more information will pop out for that person.  

If you accidentally created duplicate contacts, not to worry! You can submit a duplicate merge request form with our VerticalChange team!