Learn how to keep your accounts, customers, and suppliers organised.
If you have duplicate accounts, employees, customers, or suppliers, you can merge them. This moves all the data into the one you want to keep and removes the duplicate. Keeping your lists clean speeds up your bookkeeping and makes bookkeeping easier.
Important: Be careful merging. Only merge duplicates that were created in error. This is good bookkeeping practice. If you're an accountant, follow these steps to consolidate multiple client lists at your firm.
Merge duplicate accounts
Keep in mind merging accounts is permanent. You can't undo this later on. QuickBooks uses some accounts as the default for certain features. These, like accounts connected to online banking, can't be merged or deleted.
- If you're merging accounts that have reconciliation reports, save those reports first. The account being merged may not keep the reconciliation history. The transactions remain on the merged account and stay reconciled.
- Go to Settings ⚙ and then select the Chart of Accounts.
- Find the account you want to keep. Then, select the dropdown ▼ in the Action column and then Edit.
- Note the Account Type, Name, and Detail Type of the account.
- Check if the Is sub-account option is marked. If it is, note the parent account it's tied to.
You have all the info you need for the account you want to keep. Now let's handle the duplicate:
- Go back to the Chart of Accounts.
- Find the duplicate account (the one you won't keep). Then, select the dropdown ▼ in the Action column and then Edit.
- Change the Name and Detail Type so the duplicate account's info matches the account you want to keep exactly. If you need to mark Is sub-account, keep in mind:
- If you're merging two parent accounts, make sure they don’t have any sub-accounts.
- If you're merging two sub-accounts, make sure they both have the same parent account.
- If only one is a sub-account, uncheck the Is sub-account option so it becomes a parent account.
- When you're ready, select Save and then Yes to confirm.
This merges the two accounts so you end up with one. QuickBooks moves past transactions from the duplicate to the account you want to keep.
Merge duplicate customers
Merging customer profiles requires you to delete one manually. This ensures you can move data to the customer profile you want to keep. Learn more about how to merge your duplicate customers.
Merge duplicate suppliers
Keep in mind, merging supplier profiles is permanent. You can't undo this later on.
- Go to Get paid & pay and select Suppliers (Take me there).
- Find and open the supplier profile you want to keep. Then select Edit.
- Note the Company and Display name.
- Go back to the Suppliers tab.
- Find and open the supplier you don't want to keep. Then select Edit.
- Change the display name to make it identical to the supplier you're merging it with.
- Select Save, then Yes to confirm.
This merges the two supplier profiles so you end up with one. QuickBooks moves past transactions from the duplicate to the supplier you want to keep.
Merge duplicate employees
To merge one employee record into another, you simply have to edit the Display name as field of the employee you want to remove to exactly match the employee you wish to keep.
| Warning: Merging can't be undone. You cannot merge employee records if they have payroll active. When you merge a list element into another one, you are deleting it from the database completely. Since the list element is not deleted until the nightly rebuild, the merged employee only appears after it is done. |
- Go to Employees.
- Select the employee name you want to remove, then select Edit from the Action column.
- Change the First name and Last name fields to exactly match the employee you wish to keep.
- Change the Display Name to match the original name.
- Select Save.
- Select Yes to confirm that you want to merge the two employees.
Now you're able to successfully merge employees.