Merging duplicate clients and pets

Sometimes one person ends up with two client records — for example, they signed up online and your team had already added them. Merge the two so their pets, visits and invoices sit in one place.

Merging cannot be undone, so check you have the right two records first.

Who can merge

• Clients: owners, and anyone whose role allows deleting clients.
• Pets: owners and managers, and anyone whose role allows deleting pets.

If you do not see Merge Duplicate, ask your owner.

Merging two clients

1. Go to Sidebar → Clients and open the record you want to keep.
2. In the left-hand menu, press Merge Duplicate.
3. Search for the duplicate record and pick it.
4. Read the warning. It shows how many pets and appointments will move.
5. Press Merge profiles.

The duplicate's pets, appointments, invoices and portal login all move to the record you kept. The duplicate is retired.

If both records have a portal login

If the duplicate has its own portal login, you will see a box called Family member: keep their login. Leave it unticked when it is the same person signing up twice — their login moves to the record you kept.

If both records have their own login, Alaga stops and shows Both records have portal logins. You can:

• Press Move the phone login and merge when Alaga can move the login over safely. It tells you exactly what will happen first.
• Press Back or Cancel to stop without changing anything.

If Alaga says This cannot be fixed automatically, do not delete either record. Contact support.

Merging two pets

Pets can only be merged when they belong to the same client. If the duplicate pet is under a different client, merge the clients first — their pets move together.

1. Open the pet record you want to keep.
2. Press Merge Duplicate.
3. Pick the duplicate pet from the list.
4. Check the side-by-side view to make sure it is really the same animal.
5. Press Merge pets.

The duplicate's appointments, reservations, documents and tags move to the pet you kept. Any blank fields on the kept pet are filled in from the duplicate.

The household duplicates card

At the top of Sidebar → Clients you may see a card called Possible household duplicates. It lists online sign-ups that look like someone already on an existing account — for example, their phone is the secondary number on another client, or they share a last name and a pet's name.

Press Review to see each pair and the reason it was flagged. Each row tells you what to do:

• Likely the same person — open the newer record and merge it into the older one.
• Likely a family member — check with the client before merging. They may want to stay as two separate accounts.

Merge, don't archive

Do not archive a duplicate to get rid of it. Archiving hides the record but leaves its history and portal login split across two places. Merging puts everything in one record.