You tracked Marco as a placeholder for six months. Now Marco has joined HiBill.
You do not have to choose between the history and the real connection. Merging folds one into the other.
What merging does
The placeholder disappears and everything it held moves onto the real person:
Every expense and transfer
The balance, exactly as it stood
Attachments and comments
Afterwards there is one Marco, with the full history — and because he now has an account, he can see the shared ledger from his side too.
It requires their approval
A merge is a request, not something you can do to someone's account.
You send it; the other person receives it and approves or rejects. Only they can respond — you cannot merge your records into a stranger's account, and nobody can pull your records into theirs without you agreeing.
This matters because a merge changes what another person sees and owes. Requiring consent is the only safe design.
Sending a request
On the placeholder's page, press Merge and pick the real account the request should go to.
Responding to one
Incoming requests show up behind Merge people on the People page — the button appears, with a count, as soon as there is one — and you get a notification.
Before approving, check the balance being carried over. Approving accepts that history as shared and it becomes visible to both of you.
Approve — the merge happens and history transfers.
Decline — nothing changes. The other person keeps their private placeholder record.
The sender is notified either way.
Cancelling
You can cancel a request you sent while it is still pending. Once it has been approved or rejected it is settled and cannot be responded to again.
If they reject it
Nothing is lost. Your placeholder and its history stay exactly as they were — the record is still yours; it just is not shared.
You can still split with the placeholder afterwards. That does mean two entries for the same human if you also connect to their real account, so pick one to keep using.
Avoiding duplicates in the first place
Duplicates are easy to create — the same person added twice under slightly different names. Check People before adding someone new. Merge is the fix when one of them is real, but it does not help with two placeholders of the same person.
Continue reading
Understanding balances — how the shared balance you just carried over is worked out.
Why a balance looks wrong — what to check if the merged balance is not what you expected.
Inviting someone to HiBill — connect from the start, so there is nothing to merge later.