Related records and merging duplicates

Related records: one company, several records

A related group links two or more records that belong to the same company, for example a customer for one product and a prospect for another, or two business units billed separately. The records stay separate for everything that differs between them and share what should be the same.

Shared when you choose to	Never shared
Profile: company, name, email, phone, website and time zone	Categories
Billing: address and payment methods	Pipeline stage and owner
Contacts: the group's people appear on every record	Boards, tickets and deals

One record in the group is the Primary; the others are Linked. Shared fields stay in sync both ways after linking, so editing the company name on either record updates both.

Link two records

1. Open either record and choose Link related customer… from the Actions menu (or from the Related row above the tabs, or the Info popover).
2. Under Customer or prospect, search for the other record. A record that is already in another group has to be unlinked there first.
3. Once a record is chosen, a Primary record choice appears. The primary's values are copied first; anything blank on it is filled from the other record.
4. Tick what to Share: Profile, Billing and Contacts. All three are on by default.
5. Check the preview. It reads No field values will change, or These fields will be updated: with each field, its old value and its new value.
6. Click Link customer.

You can also link while creating a record: see Link the new record to an existing one. New related prospect in the Actions menu creates a prospect already linked to the current record, with its profile filled in.

See and manage a group

• The header of every record in a group carries a Primary or Linked pill.
• The Related row above the tabs lists every member with its type, stage and categories. Click a member to open it.
• Contacts from other members of the group appear on each record's Contacts tab marked via name.
• Choose Manage on the Related row (or in the Info popover) to open Related records. Here each member has Profile, Billing and Contacts switches, and a ⋯ menu with Open, Set as primary and Unlink. Unlinking shows a toast with Undo for 10 seconds.

When you edit a shared field, the form shows a note such as Company, name, email, phone, website and time zone are shared with 1 related record: Northwind Traders. Saving here updates it too.

Related records on the Customers page

• The Related column shows +1 related on a primary record and the primary's name on a linked record. On a standalone record, point at the row and a dashed Related button appears; its menu offers New related prospect, New related customer… and Link related customer….
• Condensed in the toolbar shows one row per group, hiding linked records behind their primary. The toggle shows how many rows are hidden.
• Parent categories makes a prospect also show (and match in the Categories filter) the categories of its parent customer, as dashed chips.
• The Related filter finds Primary of a group, Linked record or Standalone records.

Merge duplicate records

Merging is for genuine duplicates: the same company entered twice. One record is kept and the others are folded into it. Everything linked to the merged records (contacts, tickets, boards, deals, notes, files and payments) moves to the kept record, and any blank field on the kept record is filled from the merged ones. The kept record's own values are never overwritten.

Merging cannot be undone. Merged records disappear from the list, and any link to them opens the kept record instead.

Merge from a customer's page

1. Open the record you want to get rid of and choose Merge into another customer… from the Actions menu. The Merge customer dialog opens.
2. Under Merge into, search for the record to keep.
3. Once a record is chosen, check Record to keep. The dialog marks one record Keep and the other Merged away; switch them if BlueHill guessed wrong. By default it keeps an active record over an archived one, a customer over a prospect, and then the older record.
4. Read the preview: Moves to name lists what will move (for example 3 tickets, 2 boards, notes & activity), and Fields filled on name lists the blank fields that will be filled.
5. Click Merge 1 record into name.

If the record you were looking at is the one merged away, BlueHill takes you to the kept record.

Merge from the Customers page

Tick two or more records and choose Merge from the selection bar. The dialog is the same, headed Merge N records, with a Record to keep list to pick the survivor. You can also Merge into a record outside the selection….

Possible duplicate hints

When BlueHill spots another record with the same email, the same email domain or the same (or a very similar) company name, the customer page shows a Possible duplicate banner naming it. Merge… opens the merge dialog with both records in it; the × dismisses the hint for you only.

A prospect merged with a customer is kept as a customer.

Next: FAQ and troubleshooting.