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How to Merge Duplicate Items

How to combine items if you have duplicates in your venue's list of items

Nick Neale avatar
Written by Nick Neale
Updated over 7 months ago

Article Contents

Introduction

Sometimes you'll have duplicate items in your venue's item list. This can affect your consumption and variance because they exist as two separate items in the system.

When you have duplicates, you'll want to merge them into one item. By merging them, it combines the current stock count, and all historical information (previous inventories, invoices etc).

You can only merge items that have the same measurement. For example, both items would need to be 750ml to merge.

Note: If you have two or more separate items that you use interchangeably in the same recipes, you would want to group them instead of merging them. To learn more, see:

Selecting Items to Merge

To merge items on the WISK Web Portal you can either:

  1. Select all items to merge in the table by clicking the checkboxes beside them

  2. Go into the details for an item and search for items to merge it with

Select from Table

  1. Go to the Items or Variance Page

  2. Search for the duplicate items

  3. Click the checkboxes beside the items you want to merge

    A red box highlights the checkboxes beside two items that are the same

  4. Click "Merge Items" on the side menu that appears

    The checkboxes are selected, and an arrow points to the "Merge Items" button.

    Note: You can only merge items with the same measurement. For example if you try to merge an item that is 355ml and another that is "1 unit" the option is greyed out. When you mouse over the button it displays a message why they can't be merged. It would be best to change the "1 unit" to 355ml and then you can merge them.

    The buttons are greyed out and mousing over gives an explanation why.

Search from Item

  1. Place your cursor over an item and click the "Edit" button

    An arrow points to the "Edit" button beside the item

  2. Click the "Actions" menu and select "Merge or group"

    The "Actions" drop-down menu is highlighted and an arrow points to "Merge or group"

  3. Type the name of the item you want to merge and click the matching search result

    The name of the item to be merged is in the search field and an arrow points to the matching result

  4. Click the checkmark to add the item

    An arrow points to the checkmark button.

  5. After adding all of the items to be merged, click "Merge Items"

    The "Merge items" button is highlighted.

Item Details

A screen displays showing the output item on the left, and the two items to be merged on the right-hand side.

The output items appears on the left and displays are the details. On the right it shows the items to be merged and their details

WISK automatically populate the fields for the output item, but always scroll through and review the information to make sure it's correct.
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​Note: When you merge items, you'll see each item has a "WISK ID". This is a unique identifier for that item. The WISK ID you select for the resulted item means that version of the item is kept, and the information from the other items is copied to it. The other items are then archived in your account.
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You can toggle between the items (showing the name and WISK ID), and click the paste button beside a field to have it transfer over to the output item.

The toggle between items and the paste button.

When merging items, pay close attention that the correct item cost (the cost from your most recent invoice) and barcodes get copied over to the resulting item.

The cost and barcodes are highlighted for emphasis to make sure the right ones are selected.

Merging the Items

To complete the merge:

  1. Click “Save” at the bottom of the window

  2. A confirmation screen appears, click “OK”

    An arrow points at the "OK" button on the confirmation pop-up

Note: Merging items is permanent, always confirm you have selected the correct items before completing the merge.

Merge Complete

After you have confirmed the merge, you'll see one item with the updated information and stock count.

Important: While the items have been combined, there are still processes running in the background to update the item in inventories and all other movements (invoices, depletions, etc). This can take several minutes to complete. During this time, some properties of the item are locked from any additional changes. This includes the case size, item measurement, and being able to change the default item variation.

The message that displays when the item is locked to changes.

When the changes apply, the message disappears and you can edit the item again.


Before Merge Example

Prior to merging, we had two items, each with a separate stock count of 29 and 48.

After Merge Example

After merging we have one item, with the combined stock of 77.

Duplicate Item Archived

When merging items, you select which version of the item to keep (based on the WISK ID), and the data from the other item(s) is copied to it. The version that isn't kept is archived.
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Items archived via a merge don't appear in the mobile app. You can still view these items on the WISK Web Portal using the "Archived" filter, but they cannot be edited.

The item version not kept in the merge still appears as archived but cannot be modified

If you merge items, and the duplicate comes back during or after taking an inventory, please notify [email protected] or reach out in the chat.

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