Dealing with duplicate contacts
The same person can appear more than once in your contacts, including when they submit another inquiry or contact form with the same email. CoreHue doesn't merge contacts. You can update the record you want to use and archive the duplicate.
Contacts can't be merged
CoreHue doesn't have a merge, so two contacts can't be combined and their history can't be moved from one to the other. There's no delete either. Archiving is the tool you have.
Tidying up a duplicate
- Pick the contact to keep. Usually the one with the bookings, invoices and signed contracts. History is the hard part to recreate. A phone number is easy to retype.
- Copy anything useful across. A phone number, company, address or note worth keeping. Do this first, because archived contacts can't be edited.
- Update the email if needed. If the one you're keeping has an old address, change it so future documents reach them. See Editing a contact's details.
- Archive the spare. Choose Archive contact from its More actions menu, and change the reason to something like "Duplicate of the other record". See Archiving and restoring contacts.
You can still add notes to an archived contact, which is a handy place to point to the contact you kept.
Whatever was attached to the archived contact stays there. If real work sits on both, your history lives in two places, which is why avoiding duplicates is worth more than fixing them.
Spotting duplicates
Shared emails are flagged. When the same email address is on more than one contact, your contacts list shows "Also used by another contact" under each of them.
Same name, different email isn't flagged. Two "Sarah Clarke" contacts with different addresses might be two different people, so CoreHue leaves them alone. A quick search by name now and then catches these.
Where duplicates come from
| How it happens | What to do |
|---|---|
| A client uses a different email for each step | Ask which email they'd like you to use, and update their contact |
| You add someone by hand who's already there | Take the Possible matches warning when it appears |
| A returning client fills in your contact form, inquires or books on your booking page again | Each of these creates a new contact, even with the same email. Follow the steps above to keep one and archive the other |
| You create a document from scratch instead of from the contact | Start from the contact's page instead |
Habits that prevent them
- Take the warning. When you type an email into Add contact that an active contact already uses, a Possible matches panel appears with Use contact. It's the only warning you'll get, and it's easy to click past. It checks email only, and only against active contacts.
- Start from the contact. Creating a booking, invoice, proposal or gallery from someone's page means you never create them twice by accident.
- One address per person. When a client emails from somewhere new, update their contact rather than adding another.
- Search before adding. Most duplicates come from typing a name that's already there.
Frequently asked questions
Will CoreHue add a merge feature?
CoreHue doesn't have a contact merge today. If duplicates are a real headache for you, contact us and tell us how it happens. It helps us decide what to build next.
I archived the wrong contact. Can I undo it?
Yes. Set the status filter to Archived, open the contact, and click Restore contact.
Why did my contact form create a second contact for an existing client?
Contact forms create a new contact for every submission (your booking page does the same), so a returning client appears again. If the new contact only holds the form conversation, answer them with Send message on their original contact, then archive the new one. Its conversation stays readable.
Does the duplicate check look at archived contacts?
No. The duplicate check in Add contact only compares the email against active contacts, so restore an archived client rather than adding them again.