# Managing customers and duplicate records Create reliable customer records, search and sort customers, distinguish their contact details and merge duplicates without losing their linked records. Language : en Updated : 2026-09-07 Source : https://app.bookelio.app/docs/en/customers ## What is a customer record for? A customer record brings together the identity, contact details and billing information of a person or business. It can be linked to bookings, registrations, payment requests, invoices, gift cards and credits. It belongs to the currently selected organisation: finding a customer in one organisation does not mean that they exist in another. The billing customer is not necessarily the participant. For example, a business may pay for a training course for three employees. It is better to keep one record for that business and enter the participants' names separately when registering them. Do not create three copies of the business to represent those people. Access: **Dashboard → Customers**. What you can view and which actions are available depend on your [permissions within the organisation](/docs/en/team-and-permissions). ## Creating a customer Before creating a record, search for the name, email address or tax identifier. This reduces duplicates and avoids spreading future payments across several records. 1. Open **Customers**, then choose the create action. 2. Enter the **name** used to find the customer in Bookelio. 3. Add the **legal name** if the customer is a business and it differs from the usual name. 4. Complete the email address and telephone number where known. 5. Select the type of tax identifier, then enter the corresponding identifier if needed. 6. Complete the billing address, checking the country in particular. 7. Optionally enter the home address and preferred language. 8. Save. Wait for confirmation before using the record in another operation. Do not invent an email address to work around a missing field. Some messages require a real address. An error in the customer's email address can also prevent their history from being found for training discounts. ### Billing address and home address The billing address represents the identity to which documents are addressed. The home address is separate information, useful in participant exports in particular. A home address therefore does not automatically replace the billing address. In a training export, you can choose which of the two addresses takes priority. If you are preparing a postal mailing, check that priority and the exported columns rather than assuming that everyone has a complete home address. ### Preferred language The record offers French, Dutch and English. When a payment request is created with a customer, that customer's language is used. An invoice subsequently created from the request uses the payment request's language. Changing a customer's language today should not be treated as reissuing requests and invoices that already exist. Check the document concerned if you need to handle an existing case. ## Searching, filtering and sorting Directory filters are applied on the server. The displayed rows therefore match the criteria sent to Bookelio, rather than just filtering a locally loaded portion of the list. The compact toolbar lets you combine: - a text search; - the country; - whether an email address is present or missing; - whether a tax identifier is present or missing. The search covers the name, legal name, email address, telephone number, tax identifier, billing city, postcode and street, and the home city and postcode, among other fields. It ignores case, accents and punctuation to make searching easier. Several words can match different fields in the same record: for example, search for `atelier namur` to combine part of a name with a city. On a large screen, click the **Name**, **Email**, **VAT / company ID** or **City** column heading to sort the list. A second click reverses the order. On a narrower screen, use the sort selector. The initial order is alphabetical by name; missing values stay at the end for the relevant columns. The counter shows the number of results compared with the directory total. Reset restores the default criteria and sorting. Use it when a customer seems impossible to find: a filter for missing email addresses can hide a record whose address has just been completed. ## Editing a record Open the edit action on the customer's row, correct the relevant fields and save. Then check the displayed record. New operations will use this information, but financial documents that already exist may retain the contact details recorded when they were created. Correcting a record and correcting an invoice are two different operations. Read [Invoices and credit notes](/docs/en/invoices-and-credit-notes) before making changes to an issued document. ## Merging two duplicate customers Merging brings together two records that genuinely represent the same customer. It is not suitable for replacing a business with one of its employees or combining two people who simply share an email address. 1. Identify the record you want to **keep**. 2. Open its **Merge** action. 3. Choose the **duplicate customer to delete**. This selection uses the available directory, even if the main list was filtered. 4. Compare the information displayed side by side. 5. For each field, choose the value from the retained record or the duplicate. The retained record's values are selected initially. 6. Review the retained record's name, the duplicate and the chosen contact details before confirming. The duplicate's linked records are transferred to the retained customer, then the duplicate customer record is deleted. This includes bookings, registrations, documents, payments, gift cards and credits. The duplicate is not simply hidden; do not rely on an undo button to restore both records. A merge may be refused if both customers have registrations for the same group session with a settlement history. This safeguard prevents registrations from being automatically consolidated when their financial consequences need to be checked. Have those registrations put in order before attempting the merge again. ## Deleting is not merging A customer's row also offers a delete action when your permissions allow it. This action does not transfer the customer's history to another record. If the problem is a duplicate with bookings or payments, consider merging first. Before deleting a record, check that it is no longer needed for your operations. Deleting a customer must not be interpreted as cancelling services or issuing a refund. Handle those situations through the relevant functions, and do not delete a customer simply to remove them from a search. ## Resolving common situations ### The customer does not appear Check the active organisation, reset the filters and search in turn for the name, email address and tax identifier. Wait for loading to finish after a search. If the record exists under a different spelling, correct it rather than immediately creating a new one. ### The email address is correct, but a participant receives nothing For training, the participant's address may take priority over the billing customer's address. Check both in the registration list. A correct billing email address does not automatically correct an incorrect participant address. ### A discount does not recognise the history Training loyalty calculations rely on the billing customer's email address and recorded payments. Compare the records used for previous registrations, then consult the [discount simulator](/docs/en/pricing-and-discounts). Merging records does not replace checking the pricing conditions.