# Merge duplicate vendors Combine two vendors that are the same business, see what moves before anything changes, and undo the merge within 30 days. Canonical: https://demo.qixcount.com/help/bills-and-vendors/merge-duplicate-vendors Who can do this: Owners, or people with *View vendors*, *Edit vendors* and *Edit bills* Where: Expenses & bills, then Vendors You'll need: Two vendors in the same currency that do not have two different tax IDs ## Merge two vendors 1. Open **Expenses & bills**, then **Vendors**. 2. Select the name of the vendor you want to merge away. 3. Open **More** beside **Edit**, then select **Merge into another vendor**. **Possible duplicates** in the same menu opens the list of pairs. 4. Under **Keep**, search for the vendor that stays. Select **Compare and merge**. 5. Check which vendor is kept. Where the two vendors differ, choose the detail that wins. 6. Read what moves, then select **Merge vendors**. Nothing changes until you select **Merge vendors**. That page is the only confirmation. You land on the kept vendor's page. ## Start from the suggestions On the page with **Keep** and **Merge into it**, select **Possible duplicates**. The page lists pairs of vendors that share a name, email, phone number, tax ID or street address, strongest first. Each pair is marked **Very likely the same** or **Worth a look** and shows why it was suggested. The page shows up to 50 pairs. - **Compare and merge** opens the merge page for that pair. - **Not the same vendor** removes the pair. It is not suggested again. You can still merge the two on purpose. - **Merge two vendors I choose** opens the page with the two search fields. Inactive vendors can be chosen there. ## What a merge changes Every bill, bill payment, expense, purchase order, vendor credit, check, 1099 form, document, document request and recurring schedule of the merged vendor moves to the kept vendor. So do journal lines that name the merged vendor, including lines in closed periods, and bank rules, saved AP aging views and product preferences that pointed at it. No amount, account, date or status changes. Account balances and the trial balance stay as they are. Reports by vendor change, because the kept vendor now shows both sets of records. The kept vendor takes the details you chose. A field it had empty is filled from the other vendor, both internal notes are kept, and 1099 tracking stays on if either vendor had it. The merge page shows the 1099 total before and after for every year the merge changes, not only this year. Bill payments, checks marked for 1099 and expenses marked for 1099 that were made to the merged vendor count for the kept vendor, less any refunds. An expense is marked only when its vendor was tracked for 1099 on the day it was recorded, so an expense recorded for a vendor that was not tracked then stays uncounted. A merge does not rewrite a 1099 form. If a form for a changed year was made and not filed, the merge page says so. After the merge, the form's page and the kept vendor's page say the form is out of date and show both totals. Update the form before you file it. The merged vendor becomes inactive and stays as it was. It cannot be edited or made active again, and nothing new can be recorded for it. A form that names it is refused and names the vendor to choose instead. Qix, the purchase inbox and an import that find it by name or by an old link use the kept vendor. Its page still opens and says which vendor it was merged into. If a bill of the merged vendor was open for editing in another tab during the merge, that form still names the merged vendor. Choose the kept vendor on it, or reload the page. A batch of bill payments that was prepared before the merge and includes one of its bills has to be prepared again. ## Other names The merged vendor's display name and legal name become other names of the kept vendor, shown under **Also known as**. Vendor search finds the kept vendor by them. A bill read with the old name in the purchase inbox, or opened on the bill form, is matched to the kept vendor. If two active vendors answer to the same name, no vendor is chosen for you and you pick one. People with *Edit vendors* can remove a name, or open **More** and select **Add another name**, enter it and select **Add name**. ## Undo a merge Until the end of the 30th day after the merge, by your business's time zone, a note at the top of the kept vendor's page, and of the merged vendor's page, has **Undo merge**. The note shows the last day. Undo moves every record back, removes the names the merge added and gives the merged vendor back its active or inactive state. A 1099 form that was made after the merge and not filed is marked **Out of date** once the merge is undone, as a form made before a merge is after it. An out-of-date form cannot be generated, marked as filed or downloaded until you edit it so its amounts match. Undo takes back only what the merge wrote. A detail of the kept vendor that someone edited after the merge keeps the edit, and so does anything typed on its 1099 details. Each vendor's 1099 details then follow its own tax ID again. Undo is refused, with the reason, when: - The 30th day has ended. - A record the merge moved was deleted or moved to another vendor since. - A record the merge moved was built on since: a moved bill was paid or had a vendor credit applied, a moved payment or credit was applied to another bill of the kept vendor, a bill was made from a moved purchase order or recurring schedule, goods were received on a moved purchase order, a moved vendor credit was refunded, or a moved draft was recorded, approved or voided. Undo would leave the two halves on different vendors. The message names what was added. Reverse that first, or leave the vendors merged. - A document the merge moved was replaced since. Undo would send the old file back and leave the merged vendor without a current one. The message names the document. - A 1099 form was filed for the kept vendor after the merge, and undoing would change the payments counted for its year. The message names the form. File a corrected form first, or leave the vendors merged. - The kept vendor was merged into a third vendor. Undo that merge first. - Either vendor was deleted. A bank rule, saved report view, recurring schedule or product preference that someone changed after the merge is left as it is, and the undo message says how many were left. ## When two vendors cannot be merged The merge page says why and has no **Merge vendors** button when: - The vendors use different currencies. - Both have a tax ID and the two are different. - Either vendor is waiting for approval, or has a bank change waiting for approval. - A 1099 for this year or last year was filed for the vendor being merged away. Keep that vendor instead. - A 1099 was filed for either vendor, for any year, and the merge would change the payments counted for that year. File a corrected form first. - Both have a 1099 form of the same type for the same year. Delete one first. - Both have an open request for the same document. Cancel one first. - Either was already merged into another vendor, or the vendor being merged away is used on customer records, such as an invoice, a statement run or a credit note request. Next, [review the kept vendor's history](https://demo.qixcount.com/help/bills-and-vendors/vendor-page-and-history), or [review AP aging](https://demo.qixcount.com/help/bills-and-vendors/review-ap-aging).