Overview

Over time a firm's Global Rules and Global Categories can pick up duplicates: the same rule added twice, or the same category entered twice with slightly different spelling. Find Duplicates scans for these and lets you merge each set into the one you want to keep.

There are two separate Find Duplicates buttons: one on the Global Rules page and one on the Global Categories page. Finding and merging duplicate Global Rules is available for QuickBooks. For Zoho Books and Manual, the rules scan shows a message that duplicate scanning is not available yet.

Find duplicate Global Rules

1. Go to Rules Engine in the top navigation and choose QuickBooks.
2. Open Rules, then Global Rules.
3. Click Find Duplicates, next to Add Global Rule.

The Find Duplicate Rules window opens and scans your Global Rules straight away. The top of the window shows Rules scanned, Duplicate groups, Rules in groups and Rules retirable. If you have many groups, the window lists some of them and tells you how many it is showing. The counts at the top are always exact.

How duplicate rules are detected

Two Global Rules are grouped only when they do exactly the same thing: the same conditions, the same category, the same payee, the same money in or money out direction and the same transaction type. Rule names are ignored. Capitalization inside a condition does not count as a difference, because the rules engine already treats "Exxon" and "EXXON" the same when it matches transactions.

• Two rules that send the same vendor to the same category with the same conditions are grouped as duplicates.
• Rules that only look alike are not grouped. For example, two rules for the same vendor where one applies above an amount and the other below it, or where one covers money out and the other covers refunds coming in, stay separate. Rules that simply share a category are not grouped either.

Reviewing a duplicate rule group

Each group appears in its own card, labeled with the category the rules assign. Inside the card:

• Every rule in the group is listed with its priority number.
• A radio button next to each rule lets you choose which one to keep. The rule with the lowest priority number is selected to start with, because rules run in priority order and that rule already wins every match.
• The other rules in the group are retired when you merge.

How to merge duplicate rules

1. In the card, select the rule you want to keep.
2. Click Merge. Nothing changes yet: the card shows a preview with how many transactions will move to the rule you keep, and whether each retired rule will be deleted or disabled.
3. Click Confirm Merge to go ahead, or Cancel to go back.
4. Repeat for each group you want to resolve.

When a merge finishes, the card shows Merged and the Global Rules list refreshes. Merges are applied one card at a time, so you can work through the groups at your own pace and come back later for the rest. Only users who can manage Global Rules see the Merge button.

What merging rules does

• The rule you keep is not changed.
• Transactions that a retired rule had already categorized keep their category. They are now credited to the rule you keep, so nothing goes back to For review.
• Each retired rule is deleted, unless LedgerSync holds past run history for it. In that case it is disabled instead: it stops matching transactions and stays in your Global Rules list as an inactive rule.

Find duplicate Global Categories

1. Go to Rules Engine in the top navigation and choose your accounting platform.
2. Open Settings, then Global Settings, then Global Categories.
3. Click Find Duplicates, next to Add Global Category.

The Find Duplicate Categories window shows Categories scanned, Duplicate groups, Categories in groups and Categories mergeable.

Two categories are grouped when their names are the same once differences in capitalization, extra spaces, curly or straight quotes, dash style and "&" versus "and" are ignored. For example, "Dues & Subscriptions" and "Dues and subscriptions" are grouped. Categories that only overlap in meaning, such as separate Office Expenses, Office Supplies and Supplies categories, are not grouped. If you want to combine categories like these, do it yourself in Global Categories.

Each card lists the categories in the group, with each one's description and how many clients are mapped to it. Choose the category to keep, click Merge to see a preview, then click Confirm Merge or Cancel.

When you confirm, the other categories in the group are deleted. Their client mappings, rules and category aliases move to the category you keep. A client that was already mapped to the category you keep simply keeps that mapping.

Frequently asked questions

Will this merge categories that mean the same thing but are named differently, like Office Supplies and Supplies?

No. Find Duplicates only groups categories whose names are the same apart from capitalization, spacing and punctuation style. Overlaps in meaning are left for you to review and combine yourself.

Can I undo a merge?

No, there is no undo for a merge. A retired rule that was disabled rather than deleted still appears in Global Rules when you set the Rule State filter to Inactive, and you can turn it back on, but transactions already moved to the rule you kept stay with that rule. A deleted rule, or a category merged into another, cannot be brought back from the app.

Does this scan Client Rules too, or only Global Rules?

Only Global Rules. Client Rules are not scanned for duplicates. Global Categories have their own Find Duplicates button on the Global Categories page.