In most cases, you'll want to merge member records inside of Novi. However, if both of the records you are trying to merge have associated deposits or sales receipts, the merge must be started in QuickBooks and finished in Novi.
Keeping Your Accounting Records Protected
QuickBooks requires this workflow in order to add an extra layer of protection. Once a payment has been deposited, they consider it bad practice to start making changes. Merging customers is considered making changes since it is essentially changing the customer name applied to that payment.
Merges can still occur for records that have associated deposits or sales receipts, but they must be done inside of QuickBooks by a staff member with the correct permissions.
AE Tip™: If you received the "two customer records that both have deposits associated with them cannot be merged" message, then this is the correct workflow to follow.
How To Merge Two Customer Records:
1. Find the Customers You Want to Merge in QuickBooks
On the left navigation panel, choose Sales, then customers
Make sure that the customers you want to merge share the same parent or no parent at all. You may need to edit the records so that they match.
2. Choose the "Losing" Record
Select the customer whose record you don't want to use anymore.
Please Note: The QuickBooks merge isn't as nuanced as Novi's. If you have customer information entered, it will be removed and replaced with the new information. Make sure you copy the information over to the customer's name that you're keeping.
3. Merge Records by Changing the Name of the Losing Record
Click Edit next to the customer's name, above the list of transactions.
Change the customer's Title, First name, Middle name, Last name, and Suffix to be the same as the customer you're merging it with.
If you're working with company records, you'll want to change the Company name.
The key: Ensure that the Display Name is also the same as the customer being merged with. Click Save.
QuickBooks will ask that you confirm that you really want to merge the two customers.
4. QuickBooks Merges: Finish the Merge in Novi AMS
Remember, Novi holds a lot more information about your members than QuickBooks Online does, so it's important that you finish the merge in Novi.
But don't worry! If you forget, you will get a daily digest reminder of the records that should be merged in Novi.
You'll also be notified with a "QuickBooks Merges" alert on the backend of Novi.
NOTE: Customers deleted in QuickBooks Online may not show in the "QuickBooks Merges" section of Novi until several days later. If records that are deleted in QuickBooks don’t show up in the Novi Deleted Customers section, contact Novi staff and we'll run a full sync for you.
