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Hello Xero developers. Do you have any updates in 2025? Please email me directly if you have.

This is an incredible limitation of Xero. The unique identifier on a contact should be the AccountNumber field - not the name field!
The documentation does not make this limitation very clear. Worse, when adding a contact with the same name as an existing contact via API, there is no warning message. Xero effectively merges contacts leaving a horrible mess of invoices, payments etc amalgamated to the same contact. I see this issue has been unresolved for at least 10 years, which is quite stunning really for such a large company with an army of developers.

I strongly echo Sonia Mitchell's comment that duplicate names and same EINs would create a 1099 nightmare at year-end. Is there no emphasis on keeping your books organized and kept up-to-date, so much so that ALLOWING duplicate contacts seems a reasonable solution? NOT ALLOWING duplicate contacts would be the ultimate goal.

This is an embarrassing limitation.

Thoughts?

I'd really like to upvote this as essential please due to the fact there are many Jane Smith's who would be customers.
Building any database record set on Name seems incredibly short sighted or simplistic. Databases need unique ID's for EVERY person for many, many reason and this being a very big one.

That is why we have unique payroll numbers, medicare numbers etc etc. Is Xero's primary key Name? Surely it can't be can it?

Is the fix really to have Mrs Jane Smith? Jane Smith? Jane Smith@? Jane Smith6? Jane Smith7?

Any database software uses primary and foreign keys right? If we could use them and import them to our systems that would be better to match and import on.

Or simply allowing us to create and External ID field in Xero that we could then populate our proper primary key from our systems into to match would be a pretty quick fix.

I'm a bit shocked to be reading that this has been an issue for so long and Xero bases everything on name...

Any relational database model dating back decades uses the premise of a unique number identifier surely.

Display names are already a functionality in Xero Practice Manager - it needs to be added here as well.

We might have multiple projects going for the same global client - we need to be able to send invoices to different email addresses but same overall client name.

duplicate names and same EIN numbers create a 1099 nightmare!

Yes, "display name" is a good idea.

I'll have retired and stopped using Xero before anything regarding this is implemented.

Hi All,

Seems like it's been a while. I don't think a systematic change is required on the backend.

We just need to add an additional field for name (e.g. Official Name) that has no unique criteria, and it can be used as an option on the invoice.

The invoice (or bill, purchase order, etc) is where where we find it problematic because its what the client sees and our clients require their "official" name on invoices to process, but we keep track of clients by departments or business units, so we cannot just put them all into one contact.

I think this would be an easier fix.

Hi

Can we get this fixed please, we have many customers with the same name and it’s becoming impossible to get them enter in zero, there’s only so many commas and full stops you can add

Hi team,

Just facing a problem with xero as I'm wasting time inserting clients into the system. The reason is, as we have clinets that are working for the same company, but as we need to bill them separately, each time that I have a new client, even though is working for the same company, we still need to create a new account.

For this reason, I was asking if there would be an option to duplicate the contact and then modify the primary contact and email address. So in this way we would save a lot of time.

Thanks
Bruno

When creating a new invoice and adding a new customer at the same time, It wont let me add a customer if they have the same name as an already existing customer. For example Mr Smith is already a customer on the system, but today a new Mr Smith becomes a customer. They are a different person, different address, When I add an invoice for them and try to create them as a new customer, It always defaults to the first one that was on already on the system, even when you click 'add as new contact' I always end up having to add a full stop after their name or add something to the second contact to make it somehow different to the first one.

This is also very important to our organisation. This issue has been in place for over 10 YEARS NOW! Surely this can be prioritised?

My problem is the similarity of names in Xero if we have bill imports and we have a Mrs Jane Smith and a Jane Smith the upload ends up in the wrong account. If the account code was used (this being a unique reference) then this would work.
All names are fictious and do not refer to a real person

This is the same as MohammedTahir down below and I think other posts. Please fix urgently

Please can this be fixed asap?! I've had to add a unique reference at the end of the name which is affecting invoicing and making the process inefficient

JUst voteD Critic3l fOr tHis!

This is CRITICAL and the current suggestion of changing/bastardising clients names by randomly adding capitals and special characters is incredibly rude don't you think x#r0? Seems to me that some idiot made the client name the unique identifier for a contact instead of using a truly unique identifier such as email and that person should be fired. We have multiple clients with the same common names and also multiple clients/contacts for the same company (where the invoices need to be addressed to the company but sent to different people) and this bug/flaw/oversight is an absolute nightmare!

When adding a new contact, you should be allowed to enter a contact with the same name, if you want to add a contact with the same name then the account number should be different - if the account number is the same then it should not be allowed to be duplicated. I have many clients who have customers with the same name and I cannot add them as a contact!

@Jack Brown in Australia, sole traders can have a business name that's their full legal name - I've attached a screenshot of what comes up if you search the business register for "John Smith". All these sole traders must be referred to on invoices by their business name, which means that the contact name MUST match the name that their ABN is registered to... which is a duplicate, because it's their personal name, and the only differentiator is the ABN.

(Adding the ABN or account number to the contact name is legal and a workaround, but... why should I have to use a workaround?)