Overview
When the same customer ends up in MotionOps twice, merging combines them into one account. Everything from the duplicate - jobs, invoices, contacts, addresses, payment history - moves onto the account you keep.
The duplicate is deleted once the merge finishes.
Available in the Web App.
Merging can't be undone. The duplicate account is deleted at the end of the process. Read the section on what moves before you start.
When to Use This Feature
A customer called back and your office created a second record instead of finding the first.
The same person is in twice under slightly different names - "Bob Miller" and "Robert Miller".
A lead was entered, then re-entered as a customer when they booked.
A customer database import created duplicates of accounts you already had.
One record has the job history and the other has the recent invoices, and you need them in one place.
How It Works
A merge has a direction. You choose which account data moves from and which account it moves to.
The To account is the one you keep. The From account is the duplicate, and it's deleted once its data has been copied across.
The whole merge runs as a single operation. If any part of it fails, nothing is changed - you'll see an error and can try again rather than ending up with half-merged records.
What Moves to the Account You Keep
All of this transfers from the duplicate:
Contacts
Service locations
Work orders
Proposals
Invoices
Transactions and payment history
Notes
Tags
Agreements
Timesheets
Materials
Stored payment methods are handled separately - see below.
Stored Cards and Bank Accounts
Saved payment methods aren't moved automatically. You're asked to confirm.
If you confirm, the cards and bank accounts on file move to the account you're keeping. If you don't, they're removed with the duplicate.
Confirm the transfer if it's genuinely the same customer and you want to keep charging their card. Decline it if the duplicate belonged to a different person and the payment method shouldn't follow.
How to Merge Two Accounts
Open the duplicate account - the one you want to get rid of.
Open the More Actions menu and choose the merge option.
Read the notice in the window. It explains what the merge will do.
Check the From account. It's pre-filled with the account you opened, so starting from the duplicate means this is already correct.
Choose the To account - the record you're keeping.
Decide whether stored payment methods should transfer.
Confirm the merge.
When it completes you're taken to the account you kept, with all the merged data on it. If something goes wrong, you stay where you are with the window open and an error explaining why.
Before You Merge
Two minutes of checking saves a lot of cleanup:
Open both accounts and confirm they really are the same customer. Similar names aren't proof.
Decide which record to keep. Keeping the one with more history, or the one your team already uses, means less to fix afterwards.
Check the contacts on both. After merging you may have two records for the same person, and you'll want to tidy that up.
Check the service locations. The same address may exist on both accounts and will appear twice.
Note which account has the correct display name, since that's what your team will search for.
After the Merge
Review the account you kept:
Check the primary contact is still the right person. See Contacts on an Account.
Remove duplicate contacts.
Remove duplicate service locations, and check which contacts are assigned to the ones you keep. See Service Locations.
Confirm the display name is what you want.
Check the account balance reflects both sets of invoices.
Tips & Best Practices
Start from the duplicate, not the keeper. The From field pre-fills with whichever account you opened, so opening the duplicate gets the direction right by default.
Keep the account with the longer history. Less data has to move, and less can surprise you.
Merge as soon as you spot it. A duplicate that sits around collects more jobs and invoices, and the cleanup grows with it.
Say no to payment methods if you're unsure. Declining is the safer default - a card can always be re-added.
Search before creating a new account. The cheapest merge is the one you never have to do. See Using Search, Quick Filters, and Presets.
Things to Know
Merging can't be undone. The From account is deleted at the end.
The merge is all or nothing. A failure leaves both accounts exactly as they were.
Stored payment methods only transfer if you confirm it. Otherwise they're removed with the duplicate.
You can't select the same account as both From and To.
Duplicate contacts and service locations aren't automatically combined - you'll have both and can tidy up afterwards.
Merging is a Web App feature.
If your account is connected to QuickBooks Online and both accounts have synced, check the results in QBO after merging.
Troubleshooting
I merged in the wrong direction.
The merge can't be reversed and the source account is gone. All the data is on the surviving account, so nothing is lost - but if the wrong record survived, you'll need to correct its details by hand. Contact support if the account that survived is unusable.
The merge failed with an error.
Nothing was changed - both accounts are intact. Try again. If it keeps failing, contact support with both account names.
The customer's saved card is gone.
Payment methods only transfer when you confirm it during the merge. Ask the customer to re-enter their details, or add a new payment method to the account.
I have two of the same contact now.
Expected - contacts move across rather than being combined. Delete the duplicate and confirm the primary contact is right.
The same address appears twice in service locations.
Same reason. Delete the duplicate location, checking first which one the job history is attached to.
I can't select the account I want to merge into.
You can't merge an account into itself. Check you haven't picked the same record in both fields.
Have questions? Reach out via the support chat or email support@motionops.com.