The short answer
Preserve both vendor identities, prove same, related, different, or unresolved status from authoritative evidence, choose a surviving identity only after review, map every dependent object, prevent duplicate payment or credential carryover, retain aliases and merge lineage, and reconcile totals and effective access after the merge.
Operational checklist
Mark your progress, then save a working copy. Selections reset when you leave this page. A checked box is not an approval or evidence of completion.
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Key takeaways
Resolve identity before records move
Compare approved legal/business identity evidence, contact channels, bank-change verification records, contract references, tax-document location, insurance records, and vendor confirmation through an established channel. Restrict sensitive documents.
Related branches or technicians may share branding without being the same payable or contracting entity.
Disposition every dependency family
| Dependency | Risk | Merge decision | Post-merge proof |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invoices/payments | Duplicate or misdirected payment | Map open/paid items separately | Totals and provider outcomes reconcile |
| Work history | Lost asset/service lineage | Retain old IDs as aliases | Jobs searchable through survivor |
| Credentials | Excess or orphaned access | Reissue/revoke by person and scope | Allowed/denied tests |
| Integrations/forms | Events continue to retired ID | Update mapping with boundary | Late events dispositioned |
Verify the survivor did not inherit unsupported facts
Sample addresses, payment instructions, contacts, property scope, ratings, work categories, and attachments. Keep conflicting facts unresolved rather than selecting the newest automatically.
Notify operational owners of the effective boundary and how to find preserved historical records.
Close with identity, dependency, and effective-access reconciliation
Name the population, cutoff, evidence version, owner, decision, unresolved exceptions, next checkpoint, and downstream records updated. Preserve the earlier state rather than replacing it with a clean current screen.
Reopen the record when a late event, changed source, new affected item, or downstream consequence invalidates the signed conclusion.
Edge cases
Sources and references
Follow each source to check the underlying claim. Access checks and professional review are different steps.