Duplicate clients usually happen when someone gets added twice with slightly different details (Sarah Walker / S Walker, or one with an old phone number and one with the new). Mucka can spot them at add-time, but if a duplicate's already crept in, you'll want to clean it up.
A proper merge tool is coming
Right now Mucka doesn't have a one-tap "merge these two clients" button. It's on the list. For now, the manual workaround below gets you there.
If you have a lot of duplicates (e.g. you imported from another system and ended up with hundreds), open a support ticket and we can usually run a batch merge for you on the back end.
Spot the duplicates
Head to Clients and search by name. If two clients show with the same or very similar name, you've probably got a duplicate. Common giveaways:
- Same phone number on both
- Same email address on both
- Same address (or one with the address, one without)
- One has all the recent jobs, the other has all the old ones
If you're not sure, open both profiles and compare. Often one will be fuller than the other.
Manual merge workaround
- Pick the "keeper". The client record with more complete info (address, phone, email) is the one to keep.
- Open the duplicate. Note any info on it that's NOT on the keeper (a different phone, a few jobs, a note).
- Copy across. Update the keeper with any missing info from the duplicate.
- Reassign the duplicate's jobs. Open each job on the duplicate and edit the client field to point to the keeper. Same for quotes and invoices, if any.
- Delete the duplicate. Once all its work is reassigned, the duplicate is empty. Tap Delete on the client profile.
A bit fiddly. Speeds up if the duplicate only has one or two jobs on it.
Prevention: let Mucka warn you
Mucka warns at add-time if a new client looks like an existing one (same name, same phone, same email). If you see the warning, double-check before adding. Most duplicates can be avoided this way.
If you do mean to add a separate client (e.g. two people genuinely called Sarah Walker), just tap "Add anyway" on the warning.
Common gotchas
- Jobs link to client by ID. When you reassign a job to the keeper, all the history (notes, photos, invoices linked from that job) comes with it. Nothing's lost.
- Old invoices on the duplicate. Reassign them to the keeper before deleting so the financial history stays intact.
- WhatsApp pairing. If the duplicate had a paired WhatsApp number (unlikely but possible), that needs unpairing before delete. Mucka warns you if so.
- Mucka's memory. Mucka remembers conversations against the client ID. After a merge, ask Mucka to "remember the history with [keeper name]" and it'll re-stitch the context.