Before You Begin

Applies to: Toast Web

Permissions needed:

Employees > Employee Management access to add, edit, and archive employee profiles

What you'll accomplish: Identify why the email address is reported as already in use and resolve the conflict so you can add or update the employee.

Quick Fix

A specific email address can only be applied to a single account across all of Toast. A single account can still have profiles at multiple businesses. Use the table below to match what you are seeing to the most likely cause and the first step to take.

Symptom	Most Common Cause	Quick Fix
Error when adding or editing an email, and you suspect a duplicate at your own restaurant	The email is on an archived profile at your location	Check the Archived tab on the Employees page and unarchive or update that profile
Error says the email is "already associated with a team member in your restaurant or another restaurant"	The email is on a profile at a location outside your restaurant group	Send the employee an invite instead of adding the email directly
You changed an employee's email and now cannot change it back	The email was previously used on this profile and cannot be reverted	Re-invite the employee as a new hire with the desired email, then consolidate their time entries
You cannot find any profile with this email and cannot edit the conflicting account	The email belongs to an account you do not administer	Contact Toast Customer Care

What This Error Means

This error appears when you try to add or edit an email address in Toast Web and that email is already tied to another Toast account. A specific email address can only be applied to a single account across all of Toast. To revisit the difference between a profile and an account, see Log in to Toast: Create an Account.

You will see this error with two different actions in Toast Web:

Adding an email address that 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.

Start with the Archived tab at your own location. If the email is not there, the conflict is either at a different location or from an email the profile used before.

If the Email Is on an Archived Profile

Check whether an archived employee at your location is holding the email before doing anything else.

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 that employee. If you would rather not unarchive them, change the email address on the archived account instead:

Select the boxed up arrow icon to unarchive the profile. The profile moves back under the Active tab.
Locate the profile on the Active tab and select the pencil (Edit) icon.
Select the Profile tab.
Update the email to a different one.
Select Save.
Return to the Active tab on the Employees page and re-archive the profile by selecting the boxed down arrow icon.

Note: If editing the archived profile returns the error "Oops, we have some cleaning up to do," or the unarchive icon does not appear, the account exists at another restaurant and these steps cannot resolve it from your location. Contact Toast Customer Care.

If the old profile has information you need to keep, consolidate it with the new profile:

Move any time entries for the current pay period to the new profile. See Edit Employee Time Clock Entries.
Make sure the new profile has the same job permissions, and take note of any overrides. See Permissions Reference Guide.
Confirm the POS access code. See How can I locate my POS access code in the Toast platform?.

You should now be able to add or edit the email without the error.

If the Email Is at a Different Location

If the email is not listed under the Archived tab, the employee already has a profile at a different location that uses this email address.

In this case, you do not add the email directly. Send the employee an invite to your location instead. The invite should send without error, and the employee selects Accept to join your location. For the email invitation steps, see Log in to Toast: Create an Account.

The employee appears at your location once they accept the invite.

If the Email Was Previously Used on This Profile

If the email is not on an archived profile and the employee does not have a profile at another location, the email was previously used on this employee's current profile. You cannot revert the email address back to the original one you used.

In this case, invite the employee to your restaurant as if they were a new hire, then move their time entries to the new profile.

Follow the steps in Add and Manage Employees in Toast Web. Set the Invite to create account toggle to Yes, and add the desired email (the one you were trying to change to when you got the error) to the invitation.
Wait for the employee to accept the email invite.
Navigate to Reports > Labor > Time entry management.
Locate all of this employee's shifts that are not already paid out on a payroll. 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 write down all the information in the report, including job, time in and out, break time in and out (if applicable), and declared tips.
Select each time entry and select Delete at the bottom.
Navigate to Employees > Employee management > Employees and archive the old profile so only the new profile with the desired email remains. Hover over a profile to confirm which email is attached.
Return to Reports > Labor > Time entry management and select + Add entry.
Re-enter all the data from a shift you deleted. Repeat for every shift you deleted.

All time entry data is now consolidated from the old profile onto the new profile with the desired email address.

Before You Contact Customer Care

Contact Toast Customer Care if you cannot resolve the conflict yourself. This usually happens when:

You cannot find any profile with the email and cannot identify which account is holding it.
The conflicting profile is at an account you do not administer, so you cannot edit or archive it.
Editing the archived profile returns "Oops, we have some cleaning up to do," or the unarchive icon does not appear.

Before you reach out, have ready: the employee's name, the email address you are trying to add or change, and a note of which steps above you already tried. This helps Customer Care locate the conflict faster.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do I get "a user with this email already exists" when the employee is new to me?

You get this error even for a new employee because the email is already tied to another Toast account somewhere else. A specific email address can only be applied to a single account across all of Toast, so the employee may already have a profile at a different restaurant. Send them an invite to your location rather than adding the email directly, and they select Accept to join.

Also asked as:

Why does it say the email already exists when I've never added this person?
The email is already in use but this is a new hire — what do I do?

How do I find out who already has this email address?

To find out who already has this email address, first check the Archived tab under Employees > Employee management > Employees at your own location and sort by the Email column. If the email is not on an archived profile at your location, the account is at a different restaurant or was previously used on the employee's profile, and you will not be able to see it directly. If you still cannot locate it, contact Toast Customer Care.

Also asked as:

How do I find which profile is using this email?
The error says duplicate but I can't find who has the email?

Can I change an employee's email back to one they used before?

No, you cannot change an employee's email back to one they previously used on the same profile. Once an email has been used on a profile, it cannot be reverted to that address. Invite the employee as a new hire with the desired email, then consolidate their time entries onto the new profile.

Also asked as:

Why can't I revert an employee's old email?
How do I reuse an old email address for an employee?

What does "already associated with a team member in your restaurant or another restaurant" mean?

"Already associated with a team member in your restaurant or another restaurant" means the email is on a profile either at your location or at a location outside your restaurant group. Check the Archived tab at your location first. If the email is not there, the profile is at a different location, and you should send an invite instead of adding the email directly.

Also asked as: