Question
I'm trying to add a user or edit their profile in Toast Web, and I'm receiving an error that reads "A user with this email already exists," as if there's a duplicate profile, but I don't think another user with this email address exists. What should I do?
Answer
A specific email address can only be applied to a single account across all of Toast. However, a single account can have profiles at multiple businesses. See Log in to Toast: Create an Account to revisit the difference between a profile and an account.
You will receive this error with two different actions in Toast Web:
Adding an email address which is already present on a profile at a location not part of your restaurant group.
Editing an email address for a profile in your location that has previously had this email address associated with it.
Follow the steps below to see if you have an archived employee with the same email. If you don't find one, you'll need to contact Care.
In Toast Web, navigate to Employees > Employee management > Employees.
Select the Archived tab.
Search for the email on this page. You can select the Email column header to sort emails alphabetically for easier searching.
If the email exists on an archived profile, consider unarchiving them. If you'd rather not unarchive them for any particular reason, you’ll need to change the email address on the archived account by following these steps:
Select the boxed up arrow icon to unarchive the profile.
This will move the profile back to under the Active tab. Locate the profile and select the pencil (Edit) icon.
Select the Profile tab.
Update the email to a different one.
Select Save.
Navigate back to the Active tab on the Employees page, and re-archive the profile by selecting the boxed down arrow icon.
If there is information on the old profile, you'll need to consolidate this with the new profile:
Any time entries for the current pay period should be moved over to the new profile. See Edit Employee Time Clock Entries.
Make sure that the new profile has the same job permissions; take note of any overrides. See Permissions Reference Guide.
POS access code — see How can I locate my POS access code in the Toast platform?.
If the email doesn't exist on an archived profile (it's not listed under the Archived tab), then the user either has a profile at a different location containing the email address in question or the email address was previously used on the employee's current profile.
If the user has a profile at a different location with this email:
You should be able to send this user an invite to the desired location without error, where they will need to select Accept in order to join the location.
Proceed with email invitation steps: See Log in to Toast: Create an Account.
If the user has previously used this email on their profile, you are unable to revert the email address back to the original one you used.
In this case, you'll need to invite the employee to your restaurant as if they were a new hire, so follow the steps in Add and Manage Employees in Toast Web. Make sure to set the Invite to create account toggle to Yes. Then add the desired email (the one you were trying to change to when you got the error) to this invitation.
Once the employee has accepted the email invite, you'll need to consolidate time entries from the old profile into the new profile.
Navigate to Reports > Labor > Time entry management.
Locate all of this employee's shifts that aren't already paid out on a payroll. To do this, use the date drop-down menu to select the current pay period and filter to this employee only.
Take a screenshot of this data or jot down all the information that is part of this report, including job, time in/out, break time in/out (if applicable), declared tips, etc.
Delete each time entry here by selecting it and selecting Delete at the bottom.
Now return to Employees > Employee management > Employees and archive the old profile so only the new profile with the desired email address is present. You can recognize which profile is which by hovering over a profile and noting the email address attached.
Next, return to Reports > Labor > Time entry management and select + Add entry.
Re-enter in all the data from a shift you deleted. Repeat this step for all shifts you deleted previously.
All time entry data should now be consolidated from the old profile with the unintended email address to the new profile with the desired email address.