Handle duplicate customers

Duplicates happen when the same person gets saved twice — usually under two different phone numbers, or once with a landline and once with a cell. Dispatch Bros doesn't have a one-click merge yet, so the fix is a short manual routine: find both records, keep the one that holds the history, correct its details, and delete the empty extra. Built-in protections stop the most common duplicate sources automatically.

Before you start

• You need permission to edit and delete customers (owner, admin, or dispatcher).
• Deleting is permanent. Only delete a record you're certain is a duplicate — and note that a record with jobs can't be deleted at all.

Step 1 — Find the duplicates

1. Open Customers and search for the person. The search box matches name, phone, email, and city, so search by last name first — both records will show side by side.
2. Compare the rows. The Jobs count column and the Job # and Invoice/Est. columns tell you instantly which record holds the real history.
3. Open each record to double-check the phone number and address — two different people can legitimately share a name, and the phone number is what tells them apart.

Step 2 — Pick the record to keep

Keep the record with the jobs, invoices, and message history — that's the one all the money and activity is attached to. If both records have history, keep the one with more, and let the other's remaining documents run their course before cleaning up.

Step 3 — Fix the keeper's details

1. Open the keeper and click Edit.
2. Copy anything useful from the duplicate — the better phone number, the email, the correct address — into the keeper, and click Save Changes.
3. Add a line in Notes if the person has a second phone number, so the next dispatcher doesn't create a third record.

Step 4 — Delete the extra record

1. Back on the Customers list, find the duplicate row.
2. Click the trash icon and confirm.
3. If the duplicate has jobs attached, deletion is blocked with "Cannot delete — customer has existing jobs." In that case either leave the record in place (harmless — just stop using it), or move its open work to a close and re-create it on the keeper before deleting.

How Dispatch Bros prevents duplicates

• Spreadsheet imports never duplicate a phone number. The Preview import step reports rows skipped because the phone already exists in your customers, and repeated phone numbers inside the same file are rejected row by row.
• Phone numbers are normalized. "(555) 123-4567", "555-123-4567", and "+15551234567" are all stored the same way, so formatting differences can't split one person into two records.
• Booking, texting, and job creation reuse existing customers by phone wherever a match exists, instead of creating a new record.

Troubleshooting

• A renamed customer keeps showing the old name in Messages — you probably edited one of two records sharing the same phone number. Search the phone number on the Customers page; if two rows come back, fix the name on both (or clean up the duplicate as above).
• The duplicate has invoices but no jobs — deletion is only blocked by jobs. Before deleting, open its Invoices tab and make sure nothing there is still owed or needed for records.
• You can't tell which record is real — check the Calls and Messages tabs on each. The record with the conversation history is the one your customer actually reaches you on.