How to Rename and Merge Items in QuickBooks Online

How to Rename and Merge Items in QuickBooks Online: Video

            This video lesson, titled “How to Rename and Merge List Items in QuickBooks Online,” shows how to rename and merge items in QuickBooks Online. This video lesson is from our complete QuickBooks Online tutorial, titled “Mastering QuickBooks Online Made Easy.”

Overview:

            You can rename items in a list in QuickBooks Online. You can also merge two list items in QuickBooks Online into one list item. Merging list items lets you fix mistakes that can happen when multiple people perform data entry in lists.

            For example, assume you own a landscaping company and created a service in your “Products and services” list for “Mowing.” Later, another employee creates a new service for “Lawn Mowing,” not realizing you already created that service. You can then merge the “Lawn Mowing” service into the “Mowing” service to consolidate the services. Merging employees with existing payroll data is not allowed. Also, products with quantity on hand tracking cannot be merged.

How to Rename Items in QuickBooks Online:

            To rename list items in QuickBooks Online, open the editing pane of the list item to rename. Then change the name of item. Then save your changes in the editing pane to instantly change the item’s name.

How To Merge Items in QuickBooks Online:

            Alternatively, to merge an item with another item in the same list, you must know the exact name of the item you want to keep. Also, if merging customers or vendors, you must change the “display name” field to the exact same thing as the existing item to keep, as QuickBooks Online uses the display name as the matching field. However, the process is essentially the same as renaming items.

How to Merge Items by Renaming Them:

            To merge list items in QuickBooks Online, open the editing pane of the list item to rename and merge. Then change the name, and possibly the “display name” value, of the item so it is exactly the same as the name of the item with which to merge this item. Then save the changes in the editing window to open a new window opens that says “That name is already being used. Would you like to merge the two?” To merge the items, click “Yes” to merge the two items into one. To cancel the merge, click “No.”

How to Merge Items Using the Merge Contacts Command:

            Alternatively, to easily merge contacts in your customers list or vendors list in QuickBooks Online, click the name of the contact entry to merge into another entry to view its detail page. Then click the drop-down arrow on the “Edit” button in the upper-right corner of the page and select the “Merge contacts” command to open the “Merge contacts” window.

            The name of the current record appears in the “Merge transactions from” drop-down. You can change this, if needed, by selecting a different choice from this drop-down. Note that you should save any details from the selected contact, if desired, as those details will be deleted when the selected contact is merged.

            Next, use the “Into” drop-down to select the list item into which to merge the first list item. Then click the “Merge contacts” button in the lower-right corner of the window to finish the merge. Alternatively, to cancel the merge, click the “Cancel” button.