Payee Management & Merge

Guide 47: Payee Management & Merge

Keep your payee list clean and consistent with duplicate detection and bulk merge tools

Time estimate: 10-15 minutes to scan and merge duplicates; 5 minutes for individual edits

Overview

Over time, your payee list grows as you import transactions from different banks and sources. The same merchant often appears under multiple names -- "AMAZON.COM1A2B3C", "AMZN MKTP USAB1234", and "Amazon" are all the same payee. OtterLedger's Payee Management tools help you find these duplicates and merge them into a single, clean entry.

This guide covers:

• Browsing and searching your payee list
• Scanning for duplicate payees with the 3-algorithm detection pipeline
• Merging duplicates individually or in bulk
• Editing and renaming payees
• Hiding payees you no longer need
• Deleting unused payees

Prerequisites

Before using payee management tools, you should have:

• At least one account with imported transactions (see Guide 08: Importing Bank Files)
• Some familiarity with categories (see Guide 06: Categories and Organization)

The more transactions you have imported, the more useful the duplicate scanner becomes.

Viewing Your Payees

Opening the Payee List

Navigate to Payees in the left sidebar. You will see a list of all recognized payees with key details.

[Screenshot: Payee list view showing payee names, categories, usage counts, and last used dates]

What You See

Each payee row displays:

Summary Statistics

At the top of the view, you will see two counters:

• Active Payees -- the number of visible (non-hidden) payees
• Categorized Payees -- how many payees have a default category assigned

Searching and Filtering

Use the search box at the top to filter payees by name or category. The filter applies instantly as you type.

To see hidden payees, toggle the Show Hidden checkbox. Hidden payees are ones that were merged into another payee or manually hidden.

Finding Duplicates

Why Duplicates Happen

Banks format payee names inconsistently across transactions:

• Different capitalization: "Shell Oil" vs "SHELL OIL"
• Extra punctuation or spacing: "Wal-Mart" vs "Walmart" vs "WAL MART"
• Reference numbers appended: "KROGER #1234" vs "KROGER #5678"
• Truncation: "STARBUCKS COFFEE" vs "STARBUCKS COFF"

These variations create separate payee entries for what is really the same merchant.

Opening the Duplicate Scanner

1. In the Payee list view, click Payee Tools in the toolbar
2. The Payee Tools dialog opens and automatically scans for duplicates
3. Wait for the scan to complete -- this typically takes a few seconds

[Screenshot: Payee Tools dialog showing duplicate scan results with confidence scores and match types]

The 3-Algorithm Pipeline

OtterLedger uses three detection algorithms in sequence. Each payee can only appear in one group -- once matched, it is not re-evaluated by later algorithms.

The algorithms run in order of confidence. High-confidence normalized name matches are found first, then fuzzy matches among remaining payees, and finally prefix matches for anything still ungrouped.

Understanding Confidence Scores

Each duplicate group shows a confidence percentage indicating how likely the match is correct.

Tip: The minimum confidence slider defaults to 50%. If you want to see lower-confidence matches, drag it down. If you only want high-confidence matches, drag it up.

Reading the Results

Each row in the results represents a duplicate group containing two or more payees. For each group you will see:

• The match type label (Exact, Fuzzy, or Prefix)
• The confidence percentage
• All payee names in the group, each with its transaction count
• The currently selected winner (the payee that will survive the merge)
• An editable canonical name field

The summary line at the top shows totals, for example: "Found 12 duplicate groups (28 payees, 340 transactions)."

Sorting and Filtering Results

Use the controls at the top of the results to focus on what matters:

Merging Payees

How Merge Works

When you merge a group of duplicate payees, OtterLedger:

1. Picks a winner -- one payee survives as the canonical entry
2. Reassigns transactions -- all transactions from the "loser" payees are moved to the winner
3. Transfers patterns -- learned categorization patterns from losers are absorbed by the winner
4. Hides losers -- the duplicate payees are soft-deleted (hidden, not permanently removed)
5. Renames (optional) -- the winner can be renamed to a clean canonical name

Important: Voided transactions are skipped during merge and are not reassigned.

Choosing the Winner

By default, the payee with the highest usage count is pre-selected as the winner. To change the winner:

1. In the duplicate group row, click on a different payee name
2. That payee becomes the new winner
3. The canonical name field updates to match

You can also edit the canonical name directly. For example, if the group contains "AMZN MKTP US" and "Amazon.com", you might type "Amazon" as the clean canonical name.

Merging a Single Group

1. Review the duplicate group
2. Confirm the correct winner is selected
3. Optionally edit the canonical name
4. Click the Merge button on that row
5. A success message confirms how many payees were merged and transactions reassigned

[Screenshot: A single duplicate group with the Merge button highlighted]

Merging Multiple Groups at Once

For bulk cleanup:

1. Use the Select All button to check all groups, or manually check/uncheck individual groups
2. Review the selection summary (e.g., "8 group(s) selected (195 transactions)")
3. Click Merge All
4. If the merge affects more than 100 transactions, a confirmation dialog appears
5. Confirm to proceed

[Screenshot: Merge All button with selection summary showing groups and transaction counts]

After bulk merge, the scanner automatically re-runs to show any remaining duplicates.

Warning: Bulk merges affecting many transactions cannot be undone with a single click. If you are unsure, merge groups one at a time so you can verify each result.

What Happens to Merged Payees

Merged (loser) payees are hidden, not permanently deleted. This means:

• They no longer appear in your active payee list
• Their transactions now belong to the winner payee
• Their learned patterns are transferred to the winner
• You can see them by enabling Show Hidden in the payee list

Editing a Payee

Opening the Editor

1. In the payee list, click the Edit button on any payee row
2. The payee editor dialog opens

[Screenshot: Payee editor dialog showing name, category, business type, and usage info]

What You Can Edit

The editor also shows read-only information:

• Usage Count -- how many transactions reference this payee
• Last Used -- when this payee last appeared in a transaction

Renaming a Payee

When you change a payee's name in the editor and save, the new name applies to the payee master record. This is the name that will be used for future categorization learning and display. Existing transaction payee names are updated when viewed through the payee link.

Tip: Renaming is useful for cleaning up cryptic bank names. Change "SQ *JOES COFFEE SHOP" to "Joe's Coffee Shop" for cleaner reports.

Hiding and Deleting Payees

Hiding a Payee

Click the Hide toggle on any payee row. Hidden payees:

• Do not appear in the default payee list
• Are not used for new categorization suggestions
• Can be revealed with the Show Hidden checkbox
• Can be unhidden at any time

Deleting a Payee

1. Click the Delete button on a payee row
2. A confirmation dialog appears
3. If the payee has been used in transactions, a warning tells you the usage count
4. Confirm to delete

Warning: Deleting a payee with transactions removes the payee-to-category learning link. Consider hiding instead of deleting if you want to preserve your categorization history.

Tips

• Start with high-confidence merges. Sort by "Highest Confidence" and merge the 90%+ groups first. These are almost always correct.
• Review prefix matches carefully. "KROGER" and "KROGER FUEL" might be different departments you want to keep separate.
• Clean up after large imports. Run the duplicate scanner after importing a new bank file -- that is when the most duplicates appear.
• Set default categories on winners. After merging, edit the surviving payee to set a default category. Future transactions will be auto-categorized (see Guide 44: Payee Learning).
• Use the search filter for targeted cleanup. If you know a merchant has variants (e.g., "Starbucks"), search for it directly rather than scrolling through all results.
• Merge before reconciliation. Cleaning up payees first makes your transaction register easier to read and reconcile (see Guide 23: Reconciliation).

Troubleshooting

"No duplicate payees found"

This means the scanner did not detect any matches above the minimum confidence threshold. This can happen when:

• You have very few payees (the scanner needs at least 2 to compare)
• Your payees are already well-organized
• All duplicates have already been merged

Try lowering the Min Confidence slider to see if there are lower-confidence matches.

A merge group contains payees that are not actually duplicates

Not every match is correct, especially at lower confidence levels. Simply uncheck that group's selection checkbox before running bulk merge, or skip it when merging individually. Prefix matches (60% confidence) are the most likely to produce false positives.

Merged the wrong payees

If you merged payees by mistake:

1. The loser payees are hidden, not deleted -- find them by enabling Show Hidden
2. Unhide the incorrectly merged payee
3. You will need to manually reassign any transactions that should belong to the restored payee
4. Edit the transactions in the transaction register to change their payee

The scanner is slow

The duplicate scan compares every payee against every other payee, so performance depends on how many payees you have. For most users (under 1,000 payees), the scan completes in a few seconds. If you have a very large payee list, consider hiding unused payees first to reduce the comparison set.

Payee still shows up after merge

Make sure Show Hidden is unchecked. Merged payees are hidden, not deleted. If the checkbox is off and you still see the payee, it may not have been included in the merge -- try running the scan again.

What's Next

• Guide 44: Payee Learning -- Learn how OtterLedger uses payee history to auto-categorize transactions
• Guide 45: Duplicate Detection -- Detect and resolve duplicate transactions (not payees)
• Guide 06: Categories and Organization -- Set up your category structure for better payee defaults
• Guide 23: Reconciliation -- Reconcile your accounts after cleaning up payees

OtterLedger User Guide | Guide 47 | Payee Management & Merge