# Merging a duplicate initiative

> Fold a duplicate initiative into the one it duplicates: what moves, what's left behind, and when Roiva won't merge.
>
> Source: https://roiva.ai/docs/merging-duplicate-initiatives
> Checked against the product on October 23, 2026

When one initiative was set up twice, for instance from two documents about the same project, merge the duplicate into the other rather than deleting it. Deleting is refused once an initiative holds costs or approved value. A merge keeps them counted, on the initiative they belong to.

#### Merging

Owners and Admins can merge. Open the duplicate, and from the **…** menu choose **Merge into another initiative…**. Pick the initiative it duplicates (those with a similar title are listed first) and click **See what moves**. Roiva runs the merge as a trial and shows what it would move, what it would leave behind, and anything that stops it, before anything changes. Confirm to merge: the duplicate is deleted, you land on the initiative it went into, and the audit log records what moved.

#### What moves

Costs and recurring costs, value entries (an approved one keeps its approval), documents, notes, implementations, metric readings and baselines, formulas and the figures set for them, time studies, linked connections, allocation rules, and approval history. Synced rows go on syncing to the initiative they went into.

#### What's left behind

Where the initiative you merge into already has its own: the same formula, where nothing was calculated with the duplicate's copy, figures it sets identically, and a baseline for the same metric. The page lists each one. The duplicate's activity feed, approver chain and links to automation workflows are deleted with it, so link those workflows to the other initiative again if you need them. Its portfolio decisions stay in history with no initiative.

#### When Roiva won't merge

The page lists every reason, and there's no button to confirm until they're resolved. Among them:

- The duplicate is in review, or has its own charter, budget, ERP budget link or required sign-offs.
- A journal for its costs was sent to your books in a month that's still open.
- It has freed capacity realized as cash, or a warehouse query of its own.
- Both are booked the same synced bill or reading, or set different figures for one formula input.
- Both have readings of one metric for the same month, and at least one of those readings was typed, imported, recorded by the Assistant, or is a time study's or a formula's result. A connection's reading counts under the metric it's read as, so a typed reading beside a connected tool's figure for the same month counts too. Once merged, that month would be read from either, and value not yet approved would be worked out again from a mix of the two. The message names the metric, the months, and the initiative whose readings you can delete to clear them. A reading a connection still syncs and a time study's result can't be deleted, and a dismissed initiative's readings can't be changed. A formula's result comes back when its entry is worked out again, and deleting a reading approved value was worked out from would take that value's evidence away, so the message never suggests either. If neither initiative's readings for a month can be cleared, keep both initiatives. A month the merge can't change doesn't stop it: one where every formula reading the metric already has an approved entry for it. The page warns that the month's readings will sit side by side, and that an entry calculated there later, such as by a formula added afterwards, would read either.

#### A metric both have readings of

If both have readings of a metric for different months, the merge goes ahead, and the page warns you first. On the initiative you merge into, a month with no reading of its own takes the latest reading from either. If the two measured different things under one metric, such as two uses of one assistant, a month like that would read the other's figure. Keep both initiatives, or record a reading for each month that needs one.

To drop an initiative that isn't a duplicate, dismiss it instead: see [The initiative lifecycle](https://roiva.ai/docs/initiative-lifecycle).