Merge duplicate customers

Merge two customers

1. Open Customers under Sales.
2. Select the name of the customer you want to merge away.
3. Open the menu beside Edit, then select Merge into another customer. Possible duplicates in the same menu opens the list of pairs.
4. Under Keep, search for the customer that stays. Select Compare and merge.
5. Check which customer is kept. Where the two customers differ, choose the detail that wins. If only the customer you merge away is on hold, choose whether its hold comes over.
6. Read what moves and what changes, then select Merge customers.

Nothing changes until you select Merge customers. That page is the only confirmation. You land on the kept customer's page.

Owners can merge. Other people need Edit customers and Edit invoices. Without both, the merge pages are refused, and the banner and the menu rows are not shown. This works in General and Nonprofit.

Start from the suggestions

When two customers look like the same customer, a banner on the customer list says how many pairs there are. Select Review to open Possible duplicates. The page lists pairs that share a name, email, phone number or street address, strongest first. Customers are compared only with other customers, never with vendors, and never by tax ID. 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 customer removes the pair. It is not suggested again. You can still merge the two on purpose.
• Merge two customers I choose opens the page with the two search fields. Inactive customers can be chosen there. A customer that was already merged is not offered.

The merge page suggests keeping the customer with more invoices and payments behind it.

What a merge changes

Every invoice, payment, quote, credit note, credit note request, project, document, exemption certificate, certificate request and recurring schedule of the merged customer moves to the kept customer. So do checks paid to it, billable bill and check lines, Stripe transactions, journal lines that name it, and bank rules, batch invoice rows, statement runs and saved report views that pointed at it.

No amount, tax, account, date or status changes. Account balances, the trial balance and the AR aging total stay as they are. Statements and aging by customer change, because the kept customer now shows both sets of records. The merge page shows what the kept customer will owe afterwards, against its credit limit when it has one.

The kept customer takes the details you chose. A field it had empty is filled from the other customer, and both internal notes are kept, one after the other. Its credit limit and sales tax setting stay as they are. If only the merged customer has a Stripe customer, it comes along with its saved payment method.

If the kept customer is on hold, its hold stays. If only the merged customer is on hold, the merge page shows the hold and its reason under Credit hold. The hold, with its reason, moves to the kept customer unless you choose Not on hold. Undo takes a hold the merge carried over off again, unless someone changed it after the merge. See credit limits and holds.

Exemption certificates move with the customer. A certificate that adds no state to what the kept customer's current certificates cover, and doesn't expire later than they do, goes to History, and so does every moved certificate when the kept customer is not exempt. A certificate that adds a state, or lasts longer, stays on file. When it lasts longer than the kept customer's certificate for the same state, both stay current, so that state is not taxed when the shorter one expires. The merge page says when this happens. New invoices follow the kept customer's tax setting. Invoices the merged customer was already taxed on are not changed; if that tax should not have been charged, correct those invoices with credit notes.

The merged customer becomes inactive and cannot be edited or deleted. It is listed only under Inactive on the customer list, where it says which customer it was merged into, and it is left out of the customer totals. Nothing new can be recorded for it: a form that names it is refused and names the customer to choose instead. Old links to it open the kept customer, with a line saying it was merged. Its names become other names of the kept customer, so customer search and the duplicate check on the new customer form find the kept customer by them. Qix and an open invoices import that name the merged customer use the kept customer.

This guide explains how QixCount works. It isn't tax, legal or accounting advice.

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 customer's page says when the merge happened and has Undo. Select Undo, read what goes back, then select Undo merge. Keep them merged closes the dialog without changing anything.

Undo moves every record back, removes the names the merge added, puts back the certificates it sent to History and gives the merged customer back its active or inactive state. A detail of the kept customer that someone edited after the merge keeps the edit. A billable line, bank rule, saved report view or recurring schedule changed after the merge is left as it is, and the undo message says how many were left.

Undo is refused, with the reason, when:

• The 30th day has ended.
• A record the merge moved was deleted or moved to another customer since. A record that was already deleted before the merge goes back as it is.
• A record the merge moved was built on since: a moved invoice was paid or credited, a moved payment or credit note was applied to another invoice of the kept customer, a credit note was issued against a moved invoice, an invoice was made from a moved quote or recurring schedule, journal lines were posted for a moved record, or a journal the merge moved was reversed, for example when a moved payment was voided. Undo would leave the two halves on different customers. Reverse that first, or leave the customers merged.
• An invoice or quote saved after the merge was left untaxed because of a certificate that would go back to the other customer.
• A document or certificate the merge moved was replaced since.
• A certificate request the merge moved was answered since.
• A Stripe refund or fee was recorded since for a payment the merge moved.
• In Nonprofit books, a bill line, check line or return the merge moved was recorded since, or an invoice the merge moved was tied to a grant since. The kept customer's page then offers no Undo.
• The kept customer was merged into a third customer, or either customer was deleted.

When two customers cannot be merged

The merge page says why and has no Merge customers button when:

• The customers use different currencies.
• The customer being merged away is a donor, or the grantor on a grant award. Keep that customer and merge the other into it instead.
• Either customer has an invoice tied to a grant.
• Both have a Stripe customer, and the two are different.
• Statements are still being sent to either customer. Wait for the statement run to finish.
• Both customers have an open certificate request. Cancel one first.
• The customer being merged away is also used on vendor records, such as a bill or a vendor payment.
• In Nonprofit books, the customer being merged away is on a recorded bill line, check line or return.
• Either was already merged into another customer.

Next, review the kept customer's history, or download or email a customer statement.