QBO guidance/best practice: Two customers with same name

grewagefvefwafgewa · ‎July 22, 2022

I'm a developer working on a private QBO integration for a client and came across this line in the API docs for the Customer object: "The DisplayName attribute must be unique across all other customer, employee, and vendor objects."

Does that mean it's not possible to have two customers with the same name e.g. "John Smith"?

This seems to be a long-standing issue with customer/vendors/employees sharing the same name, but I'm not finding much about identical customer names, which in my mind would be much more common. Does that mean it's a non-issue and the docs are inaccurate?

If not -- is there a best practice for dealing with this? I could use some unique value as the Display Name, but that doesn't seem great, since then that confusing random ID will be displayed to the customer and elsewhere. Huh?

RCV · ‎July 22, 2022

I know where you can find solutions to API-related questions, grewagefvefwafgewa.

We have a dedicated Intuit Developer forum where you can post your concern about QuickBooks integration for a client with the same name. Just go to our website to discuss this with our Developers Team. From there, other third-party app developers, QuickBooks users, and other third-party application users might be able to share their experiences regarding this one. Let me show you how:

Go to this link: https://help.developer.intuit.com/s/.
Select QuickBooks Online and click the Ask a Question button.
Enter the details of your concern just like how you did on the Community page.
Click Ask.

The API Docs and Tools are also available at the top of the page. Just make sure you provide the necessary information to access your app's production data. Feel free to browse this reference if you have any QuickBooks-related concerns. It contains all of the program’s topics and articles: View all help.

If you have any additional QuickBooks-related concerns, feel free to click the REPLY button below. I'm more than willing to assist you again to improve your experience here in QuickBooks. You have a good one.

grewagefvefwafgewa · ‎July 22, 2022

Thanks for the reply -- even though my question was framed as a developer one, it's really a general/generic question. What's the recommended approach regarding customer Display name when dealing with two customers that share a name.

Unless I'm missing something, quickbooks doesn't allow a company to have two customers with the same name. Which sounds crazy, but appears to be the case. Can you confirm? Is it true I can't have two separate customers that just happen to share a name e.g. "John Smith"?

Kevin_C · ‎July 22, 2022

Hi there, @grewagefvefwafgewa.

I appreciate your quick response and for clarifying your concern here in the Community. Let me share some information about handling the same customer's name in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

Yes, you're right that QBO doesn't allow customers with the same name. The reason behind this is to avoid confusion that may affect your entire accounting data. As a workaround, we can add a special character or any distinction to his/her display name, even if they have similar first and last names.

Here's how:

Go to the Sales menu and choose the Customers tab.
Select New customer.
Enter your customer's name.
Fill in the necessary customer information.
Add a special character in the Customer display name section. You may add a period (.) at the end of the name, e.g. John Smith(.).
Once done, click Save.

Additionally, I've added an article that helps you import, delete, merge, and add sub-customers in QBO: Add and manage customers in QuickBooks Online.

Please post an update on how these steps work out, as I want to make sure this is resolved. Just add a reply below. Have a good one.

grewagefvefwafgewa · ‎July 22, 2022

Yikes.

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QBO guidance/best practice: Two customers with same name