The Merge Contacts and Entities screen allows you to merge contacts in your account, however, it is dependent on the type of QuickBooks account you have.
Below, we will cover the following topics, pointing out differences between QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online.
If you do not know the difference between a contact and a customer, please see our article, "What is a Contact?"
Merge Restrictions
If you are on QuickBooks Online, you can only:
Merge two contacts of the same lead, customer, or vendor.
Merge two customer leads (but not merge customers).
Merge two vendor leads (but not merge vendors).
Merge a customer lead to a customer.
Merge a vendor lead to a vendor.
If you are on QuickBooks Desktop, you can only:
Merge two contacts of the same lead, customer, or vendor.
Merge two customers (as well as customer leads).
Merge two vendors (as well as vendor leads).
Merge a customer lead to a customer.
Merge a vendor lead to a vendor
Change the Main Contact for a customer or a vendor if they have more than one contact.
NOTE: You must be in single-user mode in order to merge entities in QuickBooks Desktop. Otherwise, you will get a sync-conflict until single-user mode is enabled.
Quickly Accessing the Merge Screen
There are a number of ways to access the screen to merge your contacts, and the instructions after this section detail how to navigate to it if you are viewing a contact.
However, to find this screen quickly, select the vertical ellipsis [⋮] on the Contacts app, and then select "Merge Contacts & ...":
How to Merge a Contact
Please note the following before you merge a contact:
A merge cannot be undone.
Contacts must belong to the same customer, or vendor.
All records and details across all apps related with 'From Contact' will be moved to 'To Contact'.
'From Contact' will be deleted from Method.
A contact that is the Main Contact cannot be the 'From Contact'.
Normally, contacts are not synced with QuickBooks, however, the Main Contact is synced when using QuickBooks Desktop. Any merge done to the Main Contact will automatically sync it to QuickBooks Desktop.
To merge a contact:
Select the Contacts App, find the contact you wish to merge, and click it.
Expand the Edit [
∨] button beside Contact Details, and select Merge Contact. Remember, you cannot merge a Main contact.
This will take you to the screen Merge Contacts and Entities. The Merge Contacts option will already be selected for you, as will the From (Merge) contact. Select the contact you wish to merge into within the dropdown To (Keep).
Click Merge to merge the From (Merge) contact into the To (Keep) contact. Remember, the From (Merge) contact will be deleted.
Click OK to confirm the Merge.
Click OK, and you're done! The contact will be successfully merged.
How to Merge an Entity (Customer or Vendor)
An Entity refers to leads, customers, or vendors. Merging two leads together, or two customers together, or two vendors together are all very similar. The below example will merge two customer leads, but it is the same process for customers and vendors.
Please note the following when merging an entity:
A merge cannot be undone.
All records and details across all apps related with 'From Entity' will be moved to 'To Entity'.
You cannot merge two entities of different types. So only a customer can be merged to another customer. You cannot merge a customer into a vendor.
For QuickBooks Desktop, you can merge an entity with their lead type. So you can merge a customer lead with a customer.
'From Entity' will be deleted from Method. If you are using QuickBooks Desktop, then the From Entity will also be deleted from QuickBooks Desktop.
For those using QuickBooks Desktop, accounting data will be synced to QuickBooks automatically.
For those using QuickBooks Desktop, you must be in single-user mode in order to merge entities. Otherwise, you will get a sync-conflict until single-user mode is enabled.
To merge an entity:
Select the Contacts App, find the contact you wish to merge, and click it.
Expand the Edit [
∨] button beside Customer Lead Details, and select Merge Customer Lead.
This will take you to the screen Merge Contacts and Entities. The Merge Customer Leads option will already be selected for you, as will the From (Merge) customer lead. Select the customer lead you wish to merge into within the dropdown To (Keep).
Click Merge to merge the From (Merge) contact into the To (Keep) customer. Remember, From Customer Lead (Merge) will be deleted.
Click OK to confirm the merge.
The customer lead will be successfully merged.
How to Change the Main Contact
This section is only for QuickBooks Desktop users. When a customer is created in QuickBooks Desktop, a contact is automatically created in QuickBooks and Method. This contact is the Main Contact and is the only contact that syncs with QuickBooks Desktop. All other contacts created in Method will not sync to QuickBooks.
In the case the main contact leaves, you may want to assign the Main Contact type to another contact. When using this tool, remember:
This will only swap the contact type, so no associated records will be affected.
The new Main Contact will automatically sync to QuickBooks.
To make a contact the main contact:
Select the Contacts App, find the contact you wish to merge, and click it. You need to choose the contact that is not currently the main contact.
Expand the Edit [
∨] button beside Contact Details, and select Make Main Contact.
The following prompt will show. Validate you have chosen the correct contacts. When ready, click the OK button to continue.
And you're done! The contact will be updated as the main contact.
