Duplicate Contacts

Overview

The Duplicate Contacts bookkeeping data check feature identifies contacts (customers and suppliers) in Xero that have a high probability of being added to the system more than once, in error.

There can be various reasons why duplicate contacts can occur in Xero, including the following:

• App integrations creating contacts based upon slightly different spelling of contact name
• Importing contacts or transactions from CSV file that include a different spelling of the contact name
• Lack of care in checking to see whether the contact has already been added to Xero

As a result, the process of matching payments to bills and invoices, finding clients, addressing supplier and customer queries can become a lot more difficult and time-consuming when there are multiple contacts set up in Xero that all represent the same actual contact.

Xenon Connect’s algorithm automatically analyses all of the contacts in your Xero account and, where there are contacts that have a similar name, the system gives them a similarity % score. This provides you with an indicator of how likely the contact is to be a duplicate, with the highest similarity-rated matches being shown at the top of the list.

Contact Data

As well as the contact’s name showing for each contact in the potential match listing, Xenon Connect also provides the following data for each contact to make it easier for you to determine which is the primary Xero contact which should be retained:

• Invoices – Displays whether the contact has any customer invoices allocated to it
• Bills – Displays whether the contact has any supplier bills allocated to it
• Person – Displays whether a person’s name has been added to the contact in Xero
• Email – Displays whether an email address has been added to the contact in Xero
• Address – Displays whether a postal address has been added to the contact in Xero
• Telephone – Displays whether a telephone number has been added to the contact in Xero

Each of the above data types can be used to help to identify whether a contact is actively being used – and should be retained.

View Contacts in Xero

For each potential duplicated contact match identified, you are able to click the View / Merge & Archive button after which you will be taken directly to the applicable contact within your Xero account. This will allow you to investigate the likelihood of a match further.

Archive Contacts

If you determine, after review, that a particular contact should be archived (hidden) in Xero, the process can be started by clicking the “View / Merge & Archive” button within Xenon Connect.

Instructions on how to archive a contact can be found on Xero’s website here.

Merge Contacts

If you determine that 2 contacts should be merged together, so that the activity of one contact (such as invoice, bill and payment history) is moved to the main contact name, before the secondary contact is removed, then you can start the process by clicking the “View / Merge & Archive” button of the secondary contact within Xenon Connect.

Full instructions on how to merge a contact with another can be found here.

Dismiss Match

If you decide that a particular duplicate contact match is not, in fact, duplicated, then you can click the “Dismiss Match” button to hide the item and prevent that specific combination of contacts appearing as a match again.

Show Dismissed Matches

You can recheck potential duplicate contact matches that you have previously dismissed in Xenon Connect by enabling the “Show Dismissed Matches” toggle.

Bulk Process Options

The following bulk actions can be taken by using the check boxes and Bulk Process Options drop down menu:

• Multiple duplicate contact matches can be dismissed in bulk

Settings

Within the Duplicate Contacts section of the Settings page in Xenon Connect, the following preferences can be adjusted:

• Contact name similarity score is at least x% – Use this setting to choose the minimum similarity rating required for a potential duplicate contact match to show up (default value is 70%)