Rules Engine — Find Duplicates & Merge (Global Rules and Global Categories)

Rules Engine — Find Duplicates & Merge (Global Rules and Global Categories)

Overview

As firms build out hundreds or thousands of Global Rules and Global Categories over time, near-identical entries tend to creep in — the same vendor added twice with slightly different capitalization, a category created more than once by different team members, or a rule re-added after being forgotten. Find Duplicates scans your entire Global Rules library, groups genuine duplicates together, and lets you merge them into a single rule or category in a couple of clicks.

Where to Find It

  1. Go to RULES ENGINE in the top navigation
  2. Select the Global Rules tab
  3. Click FIND DUPLICATES (next to ADD GLOBAL RULE in the toolbar)

The Find Duplicate Rules window opens and immediately scans your rule library, showing a summary at the top: how many rules were scanned, how many duplicate groups were found, how many total rules fall into those groups, and how many rules could be retired through merging.

How Duplicates Are Detected

The scan groups rules by exact rule shape — matching on the same conditions, category, and payee assignment. This is intentionally strict:

  • Two rules that both categorize the same payee to the same category, with the same conditions, are flagged as duplicates — for example, two separate Sushi House rules both mapping to Meals & Entertainment
  • Rules that only look similar because they share a category or an industry are not flagged — the scan won't group your Chevron, Exxon, and Shell rules together just because they're all gas stations, and it won't group unrelated vendors like Array Digital and Waldorf Astoria just because they sit in the same category

This same exact-match logic applies to Global Categories as well as Global Rules — a category is only flagged as a duplicate of another if it's genuinely the same category entered twice, not merely similar in meaning.

Note: Categories that only overlap conceptually — for example, separate Office Expenses, Office Supplies, and Supplies categories — are left alone by design. These may represent a genuine choice in how a firm wants to break out its chart of accounts, so the scan won't merge them automatically. If you want to consolidate categories like this, do it manually through Global Categories.

Reviewing a Duplicate Group

Each duplicate group is shown in its own card, labeled with the shared category name. Inside the card:

  • Every duplicate 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 other rule(s) in the group will be retired once you merge


How to Merge a Duplicate Group

  1. Open Find Duplicates from the Global Rules toolbar
  2. Review each duplicate group shown
  3. Select the radio button next to the rule you want to keep (typically the one with the priority number you want to preserve)
  4. Click MERGE on that card
  5. Repeat for each duplicate group you want to resolve
  6. Close the window when finished — the Global Rules list reflects the merged, deduplicated rule set immediately
Tip: You don't have to merge every group in one sitting. Merges are applied one card at a time, so you can work through the list at your own pace and come back later for the rest.

What Merging Does

  • The rule you keep remains active with its existing priority and settings
  • The other rule(s) in that duplicate group are retired
  • No previously categorized transactions are changed — like any rule edit, this only affects how new transactions are matched going forward

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Will this merge categories that mean the same thing but are named differently, like Office Supplies and Supplies?
A: No. Find Duplicates only groups rules and categories that are exact matches. Conceptual overlaps like this are left for you to review and consolidate manually.

Q: Can I undo a merge?
A: Once a rule is retired through a merge, it's removed from the active rule list. If you need a rule restored, contact LedgerSync Support.

Q: Does this scan Client Rules too, or only Global Rules?
A: Find Duplicates scans your Global Rules and Global Categories library.

Related Articles

  • Working with Global Rules and Global Categories
  • Benefits Of The Ledgersync Rules Engine
  • Rules Engine — Bulk AI Categorization

Questions about Find Duplicates or a merge you'd like reviewed? Reach out to support@ledgersync.com.