I have a duplicate Organization. What should I do?
Updated
Moderan lets you enter as many Organizations in the list as you want. The only mandatory field for Organization is Name*. In order to be flexible for your business needs it is possible to enter Organizations with similar/same names, because entities might have the same name but different towns, countries, branches, etc.
However, in certain cases Moderan can warn you when entering a duplicate. For that you need to ensure you enter a unique thing for each Organization — a Registry Code.
How do I know I am entering a duplicate?
To be able to understand that this is one and the same Organization — and not same-name but different legal entities — you need a unique key.
Names can be the same. Every Organization entered in Moderan has an id, but this is assigned automatically as you enter them, so it also cannot be a key.
The way to distinguish if the organization has been entered already is to always use Registry Codes — you enter them yourself, and they point out the exact Organization:
If when entering a new Organization you add an existing Registry Code, you will get a warning from Moderan:
It helps you understand that this Organization will be a duplicate if entered. This is why it is important to have Organizations entered with Registry Codes, even though they are not mandatory.
NB! Registry Code is mandatory if you have an integration with accounting software. Having two Organizations with the same Registry Code will break the correct work of your accounting integration!
How do I check if I already have some duplicates?
To check for duplicates:
Go to Moderan > Contacts > Organizations.
Click Show All Organizations to see both Active and inactive Organizations. This is important so you don't miss an Organization with an archived contract that has a duplicate.
Go to the Registry Code column and sort it. Go through it to see if there are Organizations with the same Registry Code.
After that, check whether the Organizations are actually duplicates or whether the code was added by accident. To do this, check name similarities, addresses — and most importantly, Contracts attached.
I want to merge Organizations / get rid of a duplicate. What are my actions?
There are certain business cases when you might actually need a duplicate Organization, but this is not common. If you are not sure, ask Moderan support for help.
Let's say you found you have two Organizations in Moderan but you actually need them to be one and the same. The simple plan is:
Check the duplicates
Switch Contracts / change the Organization
Remove the Registry Code / Delete Organization if needed
1. Check the duplicates
Check the duplicates as described above: by company name and Registry Code.
If you have an accounting integration which is not working correctly because of duplicates, the error message will contain the Registry Code of the duplicate.
Example: We found two Organizations, of which we actually need only Accounting Service Ltd (the second). We want to remove the first one, Accountants Ltd, which is a duplicate entered by accident.
In order to do this, we first need to remove the Active Contracts from the first one.
NB! If the Organization is not Active but had already some Contracts archived, you need to switch them as well! You cannot delete an Organization that has Contract history in Moderan, so that the data is kept safe.
2. Switch Contracts
Go to the Organization card of the one you want to get rid of (e.g. Accountants Ltd).
Click on the Contract Number — it will take you to this Contract's card.
Click Edit and switch the Organization to the correct one (e.g. Accounting Service Ltd), then click Save.
Now the Contract is assigned to the correct Organization. Go back to the Organizations list to check — the Active status should be gone from the one you want to delete:
3. Remove the Registry Code / Delete Organization if needed
Go to the Organizations grid.
Click Edit and remove the Registry Code if you want to keep the Organization for some reason.
Click Delete if you want to remove the Organization completely.