XBert Type: Standard
Accounting Software: Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks
Country Restriction: All regions
Risk Type: Duplicate Risk
Business Function: Contacts
Overview
The "Duplicate contact" XBert identifies when two or more contact records in your accounting system appear to represent the same business, based on a smart name similarity algorithm. This alert helps reduce errors, streamline bookkeeping, and improve the accuracy of your reports.
What it does
This XBert uses a string similarity match (Optimal String Alignment or restricted Damerau-Levenshtein distance) to compare contact names in your system and detect potential duplicates. If two active contacts have similar names and meet activity thresholds, XBert flags them for review.
How it works
To minimise false positives and noise, XBert applies the following filters when checking for duplicates:
Only includes active contacts
Excludes contacts that resemble bank records (e.g. names like “withdraw” or “deposit”)
Excludes names that contain 14-digit numbers, start with 10 digits, or contain AU postcodes
Only checks contacts that have income or expense journals in the last year
Further limits the search to the top 500 most active contacts by gross amount
If a close match is found, XBert raises an alert showing the potentially duplicated names.
Example/Use Case
You have two contacts:
"Coffs Jetty Designs"
"Coffs Jety Designs"
Both have recent transactions and are active. XBert’s similarity matching recognises that the second contact may be a misspelling or duplicate of the first and triggers an alert. You review the records and confirm that they refer to the same supplier, merging them to keep your contact list tidy and prevent double entries.
Accounting software
All major Australian-compatible accounting software (e.g., Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks Online).
Which countries it supports
All regions.
Processes
This alert falls under the ‘Bookkeeping Services’ and ‘Cleanup’ categories, and supports maintaining a clean and accurate contact list. To resolve this issue:
Review both contacts flagged by XBert.
If they refer to the same business, consolidate them by:
Merging the records (where supported), or
Deactivating one, and moving transactions to the correct contact.
Ensure all future invoices or bills are allocated to the correct contact.
If the contacts are legitimately different, you may file the alert to clear it.