The duplicate contacts check in Data Health & Insights analyses your client's general ledger contacts and surfaces any that may be duplicates. You can't merge or edit contacts in Dext - any changes need to be made directly in Xero or QuickBooks Online.
To access the check, go to a client's account and select Data Health in the left navigation, then select Duplicate contacts under Cleanup.
Who can use this check
The duplicate contacts check is available to practices on Practice Essentials and Practice Advanced plans with the Data Health & Insights add-on. It works with both Xero and QuickBooks Online clients.
Reviewing duplicate contacts
The duplicate contacts check shows suggested pairs of contacts that may be duplicates. Each row shows a Candidate contact and a Match contact, along with the transaction count for each. The transaction count is a useful indicator of which contact has had more activity and is likely the one to keep.
Select the name of a contact to open it directly in Xero or QuickBooks Online.
QuickBooks Online: the list includes an additional Contact Type column. Dext only flags contacts as duplicates when their contact types match - this prevents false positives where the same name appears as both a supplier and a customer.
Adjusting the precision level
The precision level controls how closely two contact names need to match before Dext flags them as a potential duplicate. Use the Precision dropdown at the top of the page to adjust it. The default when you load the page is Close match.
The four levels are:
Strict match — near-exact matches, such as minor spelling differences or an extra character (e.g. Sainsbury & Sainsburys)
Close match — close matches with a small number of differences (e.g. Fine Food Ltd vs Fine Foods Limited)
Similar match — contacts with similar but not closely matching names (e.g. Twins 6 & Twins 5)
Rough match — contacts with only one word in common, which may not be genuine duplicates (e.g. Smart Agency & City Agency)
Filtering by date
Use the Active since date filter at the top of the page to limit the results to contacts that have been active from a specific date. This is useful for focusing on recent activity rather than reviewing your client's full contact history.
Dismissing duplicates
To dismiss a single suggestion, select Dismiss in the Actions column for that row. To dismiss multiple suggestions at once, select the checkboxes for the relevant rows - or select Select All - then select Dismiss Suggestions.
Dismissed contacts don't contribute to the Health Score. To review dismissed contacts, select the Dismissed tab at the top of the page. To reinstate a dismissed contact, select Undo in the Actions column.
Correcting duplicates
You can't merge contacts in Dext - this needs to be done directly in your client's accounting software. See the guidance below for how to merge contacts in each platform:
Syncing and recalculating data
To update the duplicate contacts check, use the buttons at the top of the page:
Sync — pulls the latest contact data from Xero or QuickBooks Online into Dext
Recalculate — reruns the check against the data already pulled into Dext
If you've made changes in Xero or QuickBooks Online, select Sync first, then Recalculate to see updated results.