Bufferzone - Lightspeed Contact Sync

If you create a new site in Bufferzone, it will automatically create that contact in Lightspeed immediately.

Lightspeed + Bufferzone: Avoiding Duplicate Sites and Addresses

This section explains how to prevent duplicate sites and “double‑up” addresses when Bufferzone is integrated with Lightspeed.

It is based on patterns observed across multiple shops and environments, but all examples below use generic, anonymised data only.

1. How duplicates happen (high level)

When Lightspeed and Bufferzone exchange contacts:

Any change in Lightspeed (even just email or phone) sends a full contact back to Bufferzone.
Bufferzone looks at the physical address in that payload and decides:
- Does this address match an existing Site?
  - Yes → Update the contact on that Site.
  - No → Create a new Site for this address (assumed “new property / moved house”).

Duplicates and “double suburbs” appear when:

The address is incomplete (for example, only a suburb or only a region), or
The same address is formatted differently between the two systems (for example, the suburb is entered into multiple fields, or commas and abbreviations differ).

Result: the same physical location can end up as two or more Sites in Bufferzone, and in some cases suburb text appears twice in the address string.

2. Golden rules for entering addresses

2.1. Always capture a full street address

When creating or editing a Site in Bufferzone, always enter:

Street & number: e.g. 18 McPherson Street
Suburb / Town / City: e.g. Riverdale
State / Region: e.g. VIC
Postcode: e.g. 3121
Country (if applicable)

Avoid:

Suburb‑only addresses, e.g. Riverdale
Region‑only addresses, e.g. WA AU
Putting everything in a single free‑text Address field and leaving Suburb/State/Postcode blank.

These patterns can cause:

Multiple customers to be merged together in Lightspeed and then pushed back into Bufferzone as one contact.
A single contact to appear on many Sites that only have a vague or incomplete address.

2.2. Use the correct fields (don’t repeat suburb)

Make sure you put each part of the address in the right field:

Address: street + number only
Suburb/Town/City: suburb/town name only
State and Postcode: as separate fields

Do not:

Put the suburb into both Address and Suburb fields (this can produce addresses like 10 Example Road, Riverdale Riverdale).
Add state/postcode into the street line if you also populate the dedicated State/Postcode fields.

3. Recommended workflow: who should create/update what?

3.1. New customers / properties → “Bufferzone‑first”

Create the Site in Bufferzone with a complete address (see above).
Let Bufferzone automatically create or update the matching contact in Lightspeed via the contact sync.

Benefits:

A single source of truth for addresses.
Lightspeed starts with a clean, complete address that exactly matches the Bufferzone version.

3.2. Editing contact details

There are two distinct scenarios.

A. Contact details only (email, phone, name spelling)

You can update these in either system, but:

If you update in Lightspeed, keep the physical address fields exactly the same as they are in Bufferzone.
Any accidental change in the address (extra suburb, missing postcode, different formatting) can cause Bufferzone to treat this as a new property and create a new Site when the sync runs.

Recommended:
For safety, prefer editing email/phone/name in Bufferzone, and let the change flow through to Lightspeed where possible.

B. Real address changes (customer moved house or new property)

If the physical address truly changes, then a new Site is expected and correct.

In this case:

Update the address in Bufferzone (new Site for the new property).
Allow the new or updated address to sync to Lightspeed.
Optionally use Site merge in Bufferzone if you need to consolidate history or correct mistakes.

4. How to spot and clean up duplicates

4.1. Identifying problem patterns

Run periodic checks in Bufferzone for Sites that:

Have only a suburb or only a region in the address, e.g.:
- Riverdale
- WA AU
Show repeated suburb names in the display address, e.g.:
- G01/22 Pollen Grove, Riverdale Riverdale
Are clearly the same property but have slightly different address strings, e.g.:
- 179 Anzac Rd, Riverdale
- 179 Anzac Road, Riverdale

These patterns are strong indicators of potential duplicate or incorrectly merged Sites.

4.2. Cleanup steps

For each cluster of duplicates:

Pick a “master” Site:
- Correct, complete address.
- Correct contact details and history.
Use Bufferzone’s merge tools to:
- Merge duplicate Sites into the master.
- Ensure job history and invoices remain attached to the master Site.
In Lightspeed:
- Check for multiple customers with the same or similar address.
- Where appropriate, merge or deactivate duplicates so that only one active Lightspeed contact remains for that property.
After cleanup:
- Confirm that the master Site address in Bufferzone exactly matches the address stored on the Lightspeed contact.

5. Known gotchas (generic examples)

Use these as red‑flag examples when training staff. All names and addresses below are fictitious and for illustration only.

“We just changed the email in Lightspeed and got a duplicate Site.”
- Example: Staff update the email for Alex Smith at 10 Example Road, Riverdale. In Lightspeed, the suburb is accidentally duplicated in the address fields. Lightspeed sends a full contact payload back. Bufferzone now sees a slightly different address string and creates a new Site.
A single contact appears on dozens of Sites they don’t belong to.
- Example: Many Sites are saved with only WA AU as the address. Lightspeed treats these as the same location and merges contacts. That merged contact is then synced back into Bufferzone and appears against many different Sites.
Double‑up of suburb in the address display (e.g. “Riverdale Riverdale”).
- Example: The suburb Riverdale is entered both in the Address field and the Suburb field. When the full address is built for display, the suburb appears twice.

6. Quick checklist for staff

Before saving a new or edited address, confirm:

[ ] Have I entered street, suburb, state, and postcode?
[ ] Is the suburb only in the Suburb/Town/City field (and not duplicated in the Address field)?
[ ] For a simple contact‑detail change, have I left the address exactly as is?
[ ] Am I creating this customer or site in Bufferzone first, and letting it sync to Lightspeed?

If any of these answers are “no”, fix the data before saving to avoid duplicate sites or addresses.