Duplicates happen. Someone rings, gets added, then rings again a year later and gets added a second time with a different number. Or you imported from your old system and it brought two versions of the same person across. Sarah Walker and S Walker. Mike Chen and Michael Chen.
The fix is to merge them: one record, all the history, nothing lost.
Ask Mucka to find them
Just ask:
- "Have I got any duplicates?"
- "Is the same customer in my list twice?"
- "Tidy up my client list"
Mucka goes through your whole client book and tells you which pairs look like the same person, and why. Then it gives you a button through to the review screen.
There is no button on the Clients page for this, and that is on purpose. Mucka cannot tell whether you have any duplicates until it has actually looked, so rather than leaving a button sat there that most people would press once, find nothing, and never press again, it does the looking when you ask.
What it matches on
A pair gets flagged when the two records share one of these and the names agree:
- The same phone number (either of their numbers, so a mobile on one and the same number as a landline on the other still counts)
- The same email address
- The same surname and postcode
The "names agree" part is doing a lot of work. Two clients on the same phone number with completely different names are usually a landlord and their tenant, or a husband and wife on separate records, so Mucka leaves those alone.
It understands initials, so Sarah Walker and S Walker are flagged. It is more cautious with nicknames: Mike and Michael may not come up. If you know two records are the same person and Mucka has not spotted them, open a support ticket and we will sort it out on our side.
Merging a pair
From the review screen, tap Review on a pair and Mucka shows you exactly what is about to happen before anything moves:
- Which record it is keeping and which it is merging in
- How many jobs, quotes, invoices, certificates and properties will move across
- Any details that will be filled in on the record you are keeping
Nothing happens until you tap Merge them.
Got them the wrong way round? There is a Wrong way round? line on that screen that swaps which one you keep.
You do them one pair at a time. There is no "merge everything" button, for the same reason as above: Mucka is going on names and contact details, and a wrong merge would put one customer's work onto somebody else.
What happens when you merge
Everything on the duplicate moves onto the record you kept. Jobs, quotes, invoices, projects, work orders, certificates, properties, service plans, reminders and message history. Nothing is deleted.
- Blank details get filled in. No email on the one you kept but the duplicate had one? It comes across. Anything already filled in is left alone.
- Notes are joined together rather than overwritten, so you keep what was written on both.
- Do-not-call and Breathing Space always carry across. If either record was marked not to be rung, the merged customer keeps that. Merging can never quietly switch it back on.
- Accounts software. If both records are linked to a different contact in Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent, Mucka keeps the one on the record you are keeping and tells you the other is still sitting in there, so you can tidy it up on that side.
Changed your mind?
You can undo a merge for 30 days. The Undo button appears as soon as the merge finishes, and both records go back exactly as they were with the work back on the right one.
Anything you did after the merge stays put. If you merged two records and then booked a new job on the one you kept, undoing does not drag that new job off onto the old record.
When you cannot merge
Clients that came from JobLogic. Mucka mirrors those rather than owning them, so a merge here would only last until the next sync. Merge them in JobLogic and it comes across.
Stopping duplicates in the first place
Mucka warns you when you add a client who looks like one you already have (same name, same phone, same email). If it is genuinely a different person, tap Add anyway.
Who can do this
Merging is limited to owners and managers, because it takes a record out of your client list. Engineers and subcontractors will not see it.