Merge two Accounts Receivable Customers

There are many different accounts receivable customer IDs (CIDs) for a single property or customer. The different accounts receivable customer IDs need to be consolidated by joining or merging the duplicate customer numbers together. 

• Accounts Receivable 

• Property Tax Billing 

• General Billing 

• Civic Services 

• Utility Billing 

• Customers (arcstmnt)

• Customer Merge (arcidmer)

Duplicate customer records were created either manually or through a billing import process. A duplicate customer record can be created if the spelling, punctuation, and/or address information for a customer is different in the database than in the file imported for billing. To prevent duplicate customers, make sure the spelling, punctuation, and/or address information remains consistent in import files and always search for existing customers before manually adding a new customer. 

1. Navigate to the Customer Merge program either by searching or using the following path: General Revenues or Property Revenues > Accounts Receivable > Setup > Customer Merge

2. A warning appears stating: Before executing this program, completing a backup of the database is strongly recommended. If a large 'Revenue and Billing' batch or import process is currently being run, MUNIS recommends waiting for that process to complete prior to running this program.

   1. Please heed this message and take the following into consideration: 

      1. This process will merge all records (bills, receipts, parcels, personal property, motor vehicles, utility accounts, etc.) from one customer record to another customer record. If a mistake is made, there is no way to correct or reverse this process other than restoring using the most recent back up, which means any data entered after the restored back up will be lost and require manual re-entry. 

      2. If currently running a revenue bill process, bills created by that process may not be appropriately merged or the revenue bill process could be halted because the customer merge program has removed a customer record that was being utilized by the revenue bill process. 

   2. For the above reasons, it is recommended to merge customers only after immediately backing up (saving a copy of) the environment, when no other mass revenue processes are being completed, and with other users out of the system. 

3. Select Yes to continue and No to cancel. 

4. Click Define. 

5. Enter the MERGE customer number. (Note: This is the From customer. The customer number from which all information and records will be merged. This customer will not be associated with any records after the merge.) 

6. Enter the INTO customer number. (Note: This is the Into customer. The customer into which all information and records will be merged. This customer will retain its original records and now be linked to all the records previously associated with the MERGE/From customer.) 

7. Select Retain original customer record if the MERGE customer should be retained, after its associated records have been merged to the INTO customer. If this box is not selected, the MERGE customer record will be deleted from the database entirely. 

8. Click Accept. 

9. A message appears, Process this merge?

10. Confirm that the MERGE and INTO customer numbers are correct and select Yes to confirm and No to cancel. 

11. A message appears, Merge complete. 

12. Click OK. 

13. The name, address, and contact information as well as the associated records (bills, receipts, parcels, personal property, motor vehicles, utility accounts, etc.) have now been removed from the MERGE customer and merged into the INTO customer. 

• To mass merge customers instead of processing merges 1 by 1, please see: Mass merge multiple Accounts Receivable Customers

• If additional assistance is required, please contact the appropriate accounts receivable support team based on the customer.