Merge duplicate clients in QuickBooks Online Accountant

Learn how to combine duplicate clients on your QuickBooks Online Accountant client list. This tool is only available for accountant users.

In QuickBooks Online Accountant, you have clients you do bookkeeping for. You also have customers you send invoices to when you do your firm’s accounting. Sometimes, these are the same people.

If you see a duplicate client or customer on either list, don't worry. You may have the same client in both places. We’ll show you how to use the merge duplicate client tool to combine the profiles.

Note: If you're not an accountant, you won't have a client list. Here's how to merge duplicate customers or suppliers in QuickBooks Online.

Merge duplicate clients

The merge duplicate clients tool lets you combine clients who have a QuickBooks Online subscription with duplicate clients that don't have one. The client with a subscription is called the target client. The client without a subscription is the matched client.

Important: You aren't able to merge two clients if they both have QuickBooks Online subscriptions.

To merge duplicate clients:

1. Sign in to QuickBooks Online Accountant as an admin.
2. Select the Gear icon and then Merge duplicate clients.
3. Select Get started.
4. Select the checkbox for each Target client you want to merge and keep.
5. On the same line, select the name of the duplicate client you want to remove from the Matched Client Name drop-down list.
6. Select the Select client contact info button.
7. For each client match, select the client info you want to keep in the drop-down list.
8. Confirm client contact info and select Verify changes.
9. Review the information to be merged. Then select Merge clients.
10. Select Done.

After you merge, check if your team still has the right access permissions for the client.

More about the merge duplicate clients tool

• You can choose which company details to keep.
• Transactions and client notes are kept for both clients.
• You keep shared documents for the target client, but QuickBooks deletes documents for the matched client. Download any documents you want to keep before you merge.
• Team access permissions stay the same for the target client, but QuickBooks removes team permissions for the matched client.