Merge duplicate contacts

When to merge

Merge when two contacts are the same person, for example:

• A manager who handles several stores was added once under each store.
• Someone was added again with a different spelling of their name or a new phone number.
• A contact was imported and then added by hand.

Find possible duplicates

Open Contacts and select Review duplicates. On a phone, it’s in the More contact actions menu. Stride groups active contacts that share an email address or a mobile phone, or have the same name under one customer, and shows why each group matched.

This review checks a bounded sample, so it may not find every possible duplicate. If it reaches a sample or match-signal limit, Stride warns that more groups or matching contacts may exist. Large groups can also show only a bounded contact preview, so the group count may not be exact.

The review only points out possible duplicates. It never merges or changes anything. Open a contact from a group to look closer, and merge from that contact if they really are the same person.

Merge two contacts

Owners, administrators, and schedulers can merge contacts. Start from the contact you want to keep. You’ll choose the duplicate in the next step.

1. Open the contact you want to keep.
2. Select the More actions menu (⋮) next to their name, then Merge contact.
3. Stride starts by searching for contacts with the same name and shows up to 25 results. If the duplicate isn’t listed, search by their email, phone, or customer name to narrow the results; change the search if they use a different name. Choose them under Duplicate contact. Each match shows its email, phone, and customers to help you tell contacts apart.
4. Select Review merge. Stride checks both contacts and lists what the merge will do.
5. Under Details that differ, choose which name, job title, phones, and email to keep. If you choose Other contact for a different email, prepared follow-ups for the kept contact move to Needs attention, and queued customer notifications for the kept contact are canceled. Review affected messages and resend any that should still go out. The merge also cancels queued arrival notifications for the duplicate, regardless of which email you keep. Send a replacement if one should still go out.
6. Check Customers and What moves to this contact, then select Merge contacts.

A contact whose own status is Archived, or one that has already been merged, can’t be selected as a duplicate. Reactivate an archived contact itself first. A contact can also appear in the Archived directory when all its linked customers are archived, even if the contact’s own status is active. An owner or administrator must reactivate at least one linked customer; then open the contact from the active directory to merge it.

Choose which details to keep

Details that differ lists only the fields where the two contacts don’t match: Name, Job title, Mobile phone, Office phone, and Email. Each field starts on the kept contact’s value, marked This contact. Choose Other contact for any field where the duplicate has the better value.

For example, keep this contact’s mobile phone but take the other contact’s job title if it’s more recent. A blank value shows as None. If every field already matches, nothing needs to be chosen.

Sometimes a field can’t be changed, and a note under it explains why:

• If the other contact’s customer portal access moves over and only the other contact has an email, that email is kept so they can still sign in.
• If the kept contact belongs to an archived person customer, its name, phones, and email stay as they are. Reactivate the customer to change them.

What moves to the contact you keep

Customers lists every customer the other contact works with. Each one is marked New link or Already linked, and any roles it adds are listed too, such as Adds Billing contact. After the merge, the kept contact is linked to all of them with the other contact’s roles.

What moves to this contact counts the records that named the other contact. The preview’s counts depend on your permissions: without billing access, invoice and invoice email counts are omitted; schedulers see counts only for note types they can view. Those records still move even when their counts aren’t shown. The review lists what will move:

• Jobs, estimates, invoices, and invoice emails
• Opportunities, service plans, job drafts, and scheduled follow-ups
• Notes, tags, and custom property values the kept contact doesn’t have yet, if the property is active and the value still meets its rules. Archived properties and values that no longer pass validation stay on the archived contact.
• Customer portal access and estimates viewed in the portal
• Company domains and import references

Sent communications and follow-up emails stay associated with the archived contact. The kept contact’s history can show selected sent emails and follow-ups, but it doesn’t include portal sign-ins or every event counted in the merge preview.

Also changes lists any opt-outs the kept contact picks up. If the other contact had customer notifications turned off or follow-up emails stopped, the same applies to the kept contact, so nobody starts getting emails they asked to stop. When this newly turns off notifications, queued arrival notifications for the kept contact are canceled; a newly applied follow-up suppression skips its pending follow-up emails. Review affected messages and send replacements if they should still go out.

After the merge

The other contact is archived and marked as merged. It no longer appears in searches, the contact pickers, or the duplicate review, and new jobs, estimates, and invoices can’t use it.

Old links to the merged contact still work. They open a page that says Merged into and the kept contact’s name, with a button to open the kept contact.

If a merge is blocked

If something would be lost, the review shows Resolve these first and Merge contacts is unavailable. Fix the problem, then open the merge again.

How Stride checks for an existing contact when you add one

Most duplicates come from adding the same person again. To catch that, the Add contact form checks the email address when you select Save contact. This happens wherever you add a contact: on a customer, on the new-job form, or when editing a job.

• The check looks for the same email on your active contacts and on your customers. Capital letters and extra spaces don’t matter.
• It runs only when you enter an email. Names and phone numbers aren’t checked here; use Review duplicates to find those.
• Archived and merged contacts aren’t matched.

If the email is already in use, Check this contact shows up to ten matches, with the customers they’re linked to and Matched email. A match already linked to this customer says Already a contact for the customer. If you don’t see the person you expected, use Search contacts on the Contacts page before choosing Create anyway; the list may not include every match.

Use one contact for several customers

You can also link someone to another customer directly. On the customer, select Add in the Contacts card, then Existing contact. On the contact, select Add in the Customers card, then Existing customer. See Customer, location, or contact for when someone should be a contact.

Not sure whether two contacts are the same person? Email us and we’ll help.