Managing contacts

Over time a contact list gathers records you no longer need — the same person entered more than once, or stakeholders left behind when their matters were deleted. Two tools at the top of the Contacts area let you review and tidy these in bulk:

• Find duplicate contacts — groups records that look like the same person or organisation, so you can merge them
• Find contacts without matters — lists records not associated with any matter, so you can delete them

Each opens a window listing what it has found, so you can review everything before anything changes.

Caution

Deleting a contact permanently removes the entire contact record and cannot be undone. The Can delete contacts permission is required.

Reporting on duplicate contacts

1. Navigate to the Contacts area located in the left-hand sidebar
2. Select Find duplicate contacts
3. Choose how records are grouped using the matching dropdown:
   • Same email address
   • Same name
   • Same organisation (company records)
   • Same Xero contact
4. Optional: use Filter by name… to narrow the results

Each row is a group of records that look like the same contact:

Column	What it shows
Name	The name shared by the group
Contacts	How many records are in the group
Names	Each record in the group, with its email address and organisation
Matters	How many matters the group’s records are associated with in total
Status	Whether the group can be merged as-is, or needs checking first — for example “4 contacts, needs review” or “Both records have matters or financial records”

The line above the table gives the total number of duplicate groups, and how many on the current page are ready to merge without review.

Merging a group of duplicates

Open a group to compare its records in the Resolve duplicate contacts window. Each record is listed with its name, email address, phone number, organisation, how many live matters, invoices and documents it holds, any other data it carries (such as custom fields or a Xero link), and the date it was created.

1. Choose the record to Keep — InTouch pre-selects the record with the most history, so check it is the one you want
2. Tick every record to Merge into it
3. Read the This will be lost panel, which lists each piece of data that only exists on a record being merged
4. Select Merge, which names the number of contacts being merged

Merging moves matters, invoices and documents onto the record you keep and permanently deletes the others. Nothing is copied back, so any detail held only on a merged record — a phone number, a middle name, custom field values, a link to Xero — is lost. Where a detail on a merged record is worth keeping, add it to the record you are keeping before you merge.

To merge several groups in one action, tick each group in the report and select Merge selected groups. Groups flagged in the Status column hold matters or financial records on more than one record, so open and resolve those individually instead.

To combine two contacts you have found yourself rather than through this report, see merging contacts.

Deleting contacts without matters

1. Navigate to the Contacts area located in the left-hand sidebar
2. Select Find contacts without matters
3. Optional: Type to search… to find a particular contact
4. Select Delete on a row to remove a single contact, or tick the contacts you want to remove and select Delete selected contacts

The list covers every contact not associated with any matter, including contacts whose only matters have since been deleted. The line above the table gives the total found, and flags any contacts on the page that cannot be deleted — the Status column gives the reason for each.