How to merge cards in MYOB

Decide which card survives. MYOB calls it the primary card, and the card being folded into it the secondary card. A typical reason to combine is two suppliers in your cards list who have merged their operations.

Check that the pair can be combined. Customer, supplier and personal cards qualify, as long as both cards are the same type. A customer card can't be combined with a supplier card, and MYOB won't combine cards when the primary one is inactive.

Back up your company file first. MYOB suggests this because the combine is permanent, and restoring a backup is its route back if the wrong cards are joined. You'll also need a user role that allows combining cards; if yours doesn't, your company file administrator can check it.

1. Go to the Card File command centre and click Cards List.
2. Select the card you want to keep, which becomes the primary card.
3. Click Combine Cards at the bottom of the window, and the Combine Cards window opens.
4. Check the card shown under Primary - Move all transactions to. If it's the wrong one, choose another from that list.
5. From the Secondary - Remove all transactions from list, select the card to be merged in.
6. Look over both selections one last time, then click Combine Cards.
7. When the confirmation window appears, click OK.

The primary card carries on with its own details. Its name, address and buying and selling details stay as the defaults for the combined card. Everything tied to transactions on the secondary card moves over to it, including transactions, jobs, history and any outstanding balance.

The secondary card's details that aren't part of a transaction, such as its own address, are deleted, and the secondary card is deleted with them. So any contact details held only on the secondary card don't carry across.

There's no undo. If you discover the wrong cards were joined, MYOB's answer is to restore the backup taken beforehand and then enter again any transactions posted to those cards after that backup was made.

When a pair won't combine, check the limits above: the cards are different types, the card type isn't one that can be combined, or the primary card is inactive. A greyed-out button with cards that qualify points to your user role, which your company file administrator controls.

MYOB uses the same primary and secondary approach for combining accounts, which is a separate task. After accounts are combined, historical reports for the previous financial year, such as last year's balance sheet, list the primary account with the combined balance.

MYOB's combining help is written for AccountRight on the desktop and gives no steps for MYOB Business in a browser.