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Best answer

Duplicate customer error in Quickbooks

C

WHen creating customer in quickbooks, it fails with error message that customer name exisits. But it is a new order by same customer. how do I handle the case when exisitng customer places new order and we fulfil it, and invoice creation fails as my zap workflow also has create customer step.

Best answer by small-bus

@jesse thanks for asking.  The solutions above wouldn’t work for me, so I had to do another workaround and simply put the Stripe Transaction ID as the customer name.  This works for me because I really only need to use quickbooks to track revenue/expenses for these purchases.  But, it’s unfortunate that quickbooks is so limited in terms of its ability to handle customer look-ups in the zapier integration.  I can imagine that for other businesses this wouldn’t be a great solution.

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10 replies

BowTieBots
Forum|alt.badge.img+4
  • BowTieBotsZapier Expert
  • Zapier Expert
  • 82 replies
  • May 22, 2020

Hi @chaitra,

 

Use “Find Customer” instead of “Create Customer”.  This action has an option to create a customer if none is found and won’t break your zap if the customer exists.

 

Rich Schnitzel | Helping 6 figure entrepreneurs scale
S
  • small-bus
  • New
  • 4 replies
  • May 27, 2020

Thanks for the info, @BowTieBots   I’m having the same problem, despite having the settings as you’ve have them here.  Here’s how I’ve got it set and how the error is coming back.

 

Any ideas on what might be going on?

Thanks.

BowTieBots
Forum|alt.badge.img+4
  • BowTieBotsZapier Expert
  • Zapier Expert
  • 82 replies
  • May 28, 2020

Hi @small-bus,

 

What search field value are you using when finding a Customer?

Are you putting the search value in the same search field when creating a Customer?

 

I think what’s happening is you are searching a different field than where you are saving the value:

  If you are using an email “Search Field” should be changed to email.  That was my error in the earlier screen shot.

 

Rich Schnitzel | Helping 6 figure entrepreneurs scale
S
  • small-bus
  • New
  • 4 replies
  • May 28, 2020

Hi @BowTieBots, thanks for your reply.  I think I’m doing it the same way.  Here’s how I have it set up.  It’s only causing problems when there’s a repeat customer:

 

BowTieBots
Forum|alt.badge.img+4
  • BowTieBotsZapier Expert
  • Zapier Expert
  • 82 replies
  • May 28, 2020

@small-bus When you get an error for a repeat customer is the action trying to create a new Customer?

 

The only field that your create Customer should fail for duplicate info is Display Name.  All other fields can be duplicated.

 

Could a customer be using a different email address but the fields you are using match an existing Display Name?

Rich Schnitzel | Helping 6 figure entrepreneurs scale
Danvers
1 person likes this
  • Danvers
    Danvers
S
  • small-bus
  • New
  • 4 replies
  • June 1, 2020

@BowTieBots yes, I’ll bet that’s what’s going on.  I’m using Zapier for online transactions that process through Stripe.  I was previously using the person’s actual name for “Display Name,” but then switched to using email address for “Display Name” because of some duplication issues.  (I’m not using Quickbooks for any type of invoicing with these folks, so it didn’t really matter how they appeared in my customer list.) 

 

Maybe I need to go back and clean up the old transactions to put email address as Display Name.  

AndrewJDavison_Luhhu
Forum|alt.badge.img+10

@small-bus Sorry we missed your message! Did you get this sorted in the end? Or do you still need help?

We're Zapier Certified Experts - we help businesses do cool stuff with automation | www.luhhu.com
jesse
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  • jesseArchitect
  • Architect
  • 1348 replies
  • August 3, 2020

Hey @small-bus we just wanted to check in once more here! Were you able to get things sorted with your Zap so you were able to find a customer properly in Quickbooks? Let us know!

S
  • small-bus
  • New
  • 4 replies
  • Answer
  • August 3, 2020

@jesse thanks for asking.  The solutions above wouldn’t work for me, so I had to do another workaround and simply put the Stripe Transaction ID as the customer name.  This works for me because I really only need to use quickbooks to track revenue/expenses for these purchases.  But, it’s unfortunate that quickbooks is so limited in terms of its ability to handle customer look-ups in the zapier integration.  I can imagine that for other businesses this wouldn’t be a great solution.

nicksimard
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  • nicksimardZapier Staff
  • Zapier Staff
  • 2115 replies
  • August 7, 2020

Hi @small-bus! 

Sorry to hear that the solutions above didn’t end up working for you, but it sounds like you managed to get creative and solve things — bravo :) 

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