Merge accounts

When the same customer has two accounts, merge the duplicate into the one you keep, so that its contacts, documents, activities and balance sit in one place.

Before you start

• You need Account Edit and Delete on both accounts. With Own records only, both must be within your reach.
• Decide which account to keep. It keeps its Customer code and its owner; the other one is deleted.
• Both accounts must be the same type: Business with Business, Personal with Personal.

Steps

1. Select Accounts in the sidebar and open the account you want to keep.
2. In the ··· menu, select Merge duplicate account….
3. Under Choose the duplicate, type in Search accounts by name and select the duplicate’s row, then select Next.
4. Under Choose the values, select the value to keep in each row, in the Kept: … column or the Duplicate: … column. Each row starts on the kept account’s value.
5. Turn off Only fields that differ if you want to see every field, then select Next.
6. Under Review, read Moves to the kept account and Stays as issued.
7. Select Merge accounts.

What happens next

You stay on the kept account, and the duplicate leaves every list and picker. The kept account’s History records the merge and the values taken from the duplicate.

These move to the kept account: the duplicate’s contacts, opportunities, contracts, purchase orders and delivery orders, its activities, any leads converted into it, and team members not already on the kept Account Team. On a Business account each contact moves with its quotations, invoices and credit notes.

On a Personal account the duplicate’s person is deleted with it. Its draft invoices, open or draft quotations and other drafts move to the kept person; a draft credit note on an issued invoice stays with that invoice, and issued documents stay as issued.

Caution

A merge cannot be undone. Read the Review step before you select Merge accounts.

Rules to know

• Only accounts of the same type that you may edit and delete are listed, at most 20 at a time, in name order. Type more of the name to narrow the list.
• Customer code, Owner and Role are locked rows. The kept account keeps its code and its owner; to move the owner afterwards, use Change Owner.
• The Customer and Supplier roles of both accounts are combined. If that makes a supplier-only kept account a customer and it has no code, it is given the next Customer code.
• The Billing address is one choice: all its lines come from the same account.
• On a Business account, when the kept account’s Tax Registration No. is empty and the duplicate’s is not, the duplicate’s number is selected for you.
• An issued invoice or credit note is never changed. It keeps the customer name, address and tax number it was issued with, and counts towards the kept account’s Outstanding and statement.
• The Contacts and Invoices columns, and most counts under Review, are hidden for a module your role cannot see at All records.

Why it works this way

One customer, one balance. Your customer owes you one amount, not one per account. After a merge, Outstanding, the ageing and the statement add up every invoice, so a reminder or a statement you send is complete.

Issued documents stay exactly as issued. Your customer filed each invoice with the name and address printed on it, and may have claimed the GST on it. Rewriting it to the kept account’s details would make your copy differ from theirs, so the merge moves where the invoice counts, never what it says.

The kept account keeps its code and owner. The customer code may already be in your accounting software and on past statements; changing it as a side effect would break those links. Who owns a customer is a decision for Change Owner, which has its own checks.

A merge needs both Edit and Delete. It changes the kept account and deletes the other one, so easySales asks for both permissions, on both accounts. Someone who may not delete an account cannot remove it by merging it away.

Work faster

• Keep the account with the history. Start from the older account, the one with issued invoices, so it keeps its code and owner. The Contacts and Invoices columns under Choose the duplicate show how many each listed account holds.
• Look only at what differs. Only fields that differ is on when the step opens, so you check only the rows where the two accounts disagree.
• Take one payment for both. After the merge, Record payment on the Receipts tab lets one receipt settle invoices from both accounts. See Record a payment.
• Stop the next duplicate. The duplicate alert on a new account warns you while you type. See Duplicate alerts.
• Check what changed. The kept account’s History tab lists the merge and every value taken. See Audit trail.

Examples

Two accounts with an unpaid invoice each. Lim & Co has Harbour Café Pte Ltd, owned by Daniel Lim, and Harbour Cafe, which Mei Tan created for a second order. Each has one unpaid invoice:

• INV-10000301 on Harbour Café Pte Ltd: SGD 1,000.00 + GST 9% SGD 90.00 = SGD 1,090.00
• INV-10000312 on Harbour Cafe: SGD 2,000.00 + GST 9% SGD 180.00 = SGD 2,180.00

Daniel opens Harbour Café Pte Ltd and selects Merge duplicate account…. Under Choose the values his account has no Tax Registration No., so the duplicate’s number is already selected; he also selects the duplicate’s Phone. Review shows one contact moving and one issued invoice staying as issued.

After Merge accounts, Harbour Café Pte Ltd shows Outstanding SGD 1,090.00 + SGD 2,180.00 = SGD 3,270.00. When the café pays SGD 3,270.00, Daniel records one receipt that settles both invoices. INV-10000312 still prints “Harbour Cafe”, the name it was issued with.

Two Personal accounts. Rachel Koh, a homeowner, was entered twice. The duplicate holds an issued invoice, INV-10000305, for SGD 500.00 + GST 9% SGD 45.00 = SGD 545.00, and a draft invoice for her next room. Mei opens Rachel’s older account and merges the duplicate into it. The draft moves to the kept Rachel, so Mei issues it from there; INV-10000305 stays as issued, and its SGD 545.00 counts in the kept account’s Outstanding.

Common questions

• What happens to the duplicate account’s invoices when I merge? On a Business account they move with their contacts; on a Personal account the drafts move to the kept person. Either way the issued ones count in the kept account’s Outstanding and statement. Issued invoices keep the customer details they were issued with; nothing on them is changed.
• Will the customer’s balance change after a merge? No amount changes. The kept account’s Outstanding becomes the two accounts’ balances added together.
• Why is the account I want to merge not in the list? It is listed only when it is the same type as the kept account and your role may edit and delete it. The list shows 20 accounts at a time, so type more of the name.
• Which customer code does the merged account keep? The kept account’s. The duplicate’s code is retired with it.
• Does merging change the account owner? No. The kept account keeps its owner; use Change Owner to move it.
• Can I merge more than two accounts at once? No. A merge joins one pair; repeat it from the kept account for each further duplicate.
• Can I merge a Business account with a Personal one? No. Only accounts of the same type can be merged. See Edit or deactivate.

Related

• Accounts and contacts
• Edit or deactivate
• Duplicate alerts
• Outstanding balance and payments