If two payee records in Relay share the same email address, you can merge them automatically from the Payments tab in about two minutes.
What you need before you start
Both payee records must have an identical email address. If they do not, follow the manual merge process instead.
Desktop or mobile app access to your Relay account.
Know which record you want to keep. Relay merges into the payee with saved account details, so identify the empty record first.
When do duplicate payees happen in Relay?
Duplicate payees typically appear after you connect an accounting integration to Bill Pay. If you manually created a payee in Relay and then Xero or QuickBooks Online syncs a matching contact, Relay creates a second payee record for the same vendor.
Any two payees that share an identical email address can be merged automatically. If the emails do not match, use the manual merge process linked above.
How do I merge duplicate payees in Relay on the web?
Follow these eight steps from a desktop browser.
Sign in to your Relay account on desktop.
Open the Payments tab, then select Payees from the top-row navigation.
Search for the duplicate records. Confirm both payees have the same email address.
Click the payee that does not have account details saved. This is the record you will merge from.
Click Edit payee to open the edit modal.
Check the Link this payee with another payee box.
From the Linked Payee dropdown, select the payee you want to keep.
Confirm the pairing is correct, then click Save. Linked payees cannot be unlinked once saved, so verify before saving.
How do I merge duplicate payees in Relay on the mobile app?
Follow these below steps from your mobile app.
Sign in to the Relay mobile app.
Tap the Payments tab and select Payees.
Select the payee you would like to merge and press Link Payee.
Select the payee to link and choose whether to use the linked payee's payment information.
Select Link Payees followed by Confirm & Link.
Which payee record does Relay keep as the default?
After you connect Bill Pay to Xero or QuickBooks Online, the newer synced payee becomes the default recipient for bill payments. Payment details saved on the older, manually created record do not carry over automatically.
To keep the older record's payment information on the merged payee, use the checkbox described in the next section before you save.
How do I preserve saved payment details when merging?
Select the Use linked payee's payment information checkbox in the merge modal before clicking Save. This tells Relay to keep the ACH or wire details from the linked payee on the merged record, rather than starting from the empty synced record.
If you skip this checkbox, the merged payee will use the details from the synced record, which may be empty.
Common issues
The merge option is not showing. Confirm both payees have the exact same email address. A trailing space or a different domain will block the auto-merge; use the manual merge process if the emails do not match.
Saved ACH or wire details disappeared after merging. The Use linked payee's payment information checkbox was likely unchecked. Payment details on the linked payee are only preserved when that box is selected before you save.
You linked the wrong payees. Linked payees cannot be unlinked once saved. Contact our Customer Experience team to resolve this.
The duplicate came from Xero or QuickBooks Online. Review the contact record in your accounting software so future syncs do not recreate the duplicate.
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If this article did not fully answer your question, our Customer Experience team is here to help.