Thank you for your suggestion regarding the ability to merge duplicate customers and their histories within UMS. We appreciate your engagement and commitment to improving our systems. After careful consideration, we have decided to decline this request due to the significant risks it poses to the financial integrity and auditability of the UMS platform.

UMS is architected to maintain strict data integrity and traceability. Each customer record is tied to specific financial transactions, GL Code Groups, and account histories. Merging these records retroactively could compromise the accuracy of financial reports and violate audit requirements. Financial events such as duplicate payments are handled through import and reversal processes that rely on clear, unaltered transaction histories. A merge tool could obscure these processes, making reconciliation unreliable and potentially non-compliant with internal controls. Best practices in utility billing systems emphasize preventative data governance over retroactive merging. This includes robust onboarding validation, master data management (MDM), and stewardship protocols to prevent duplication at the source.

We understand the inconvenience that duplicate records may cause and are actively exploring enhancements to prevent such occurrences during customer onboarding and data entry. However, enabling post-creation merging of customer histories would introduce unacceptable risks to our financial systems and regulatory posture.

Thank you again for your feedback and understanding.