The customer form holds everything SeroBooks needs to invoice a customer correctly: the name that prints on their documents, how to reach them, the address that decides the sales tax on their orders, where goods are shipped, and the trade terms they buy on — price level, credit limit, payment terms, currency and PST exemption. The same form is used to add a new customer, to change an existing one and to start a new customer as a copy of another.
Opening the form
| To… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Add a customer | Customers ▸ Customer Centre ▸ New customer. |
| Add a customer while writing an invoice | In the invoice's customer search, choose the option to add a new customer. The customer you create is selected on the invoice. |
| Change a customer | In the Customer Centre, click the pencil (Edit details) on the row; or open the customer's ledger and click Edit. |
| Change the customer on the invoice you are writing | Double-click the customer on the invoice. The form opens over the invoice; when you save, the invoice re-applies the customer's price level and tax province. |
| Start from an existing customer | Click the copy icon (Duplicate) on the row, or Duplicate in the customer's ledger. |
The form's title tells you which you are doing: New Customer, Edit Customer or New Customer (copy of …).
Step by step: add a customer
- Choose Person's name or Company name at the top.
- Type the name. For a company, also the contact person if you like.
- Add a mobile number and email address (the email is where invoices and statements are sent).
- Start typing the billing address and pick the suggestion; the city, province and postal code fill in. Check the Province — it decides the tax.
- Leave Same as billing address ticked unless goods go somewhere else.
- Under Trade terms, set the price level, credit limit, payment terms and currency if they differ from your usual.
- Tick Buys to resell — no PST only for a customer who holds a valid exemption.
- Click Create & select.
If the name, phone number or email matches a customer already on file, SeroBooks warns you before creating a second account. See Duplicate warning.
Who they are
The first choice decides which name prints on invoices, estimates and statements.
| Choice | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Person's name | The customer is an individual. Invoices, quotes and statements show the person's name. |
| Company name | The customer is a business. Invoices, quotes and statements show the company name. |
On a new customer, typing a company name switches the form to Company name automatically until you pick one yourself.
| Field | What to enter / what it means |
|---|---|
| Company name \* | Shown when Company name is chosen. What the invoice is made out to. Required for a company (a contact person's first name also satisfies the requirement). |
| Contact person | Shown for a company: the first name of the person you deal with. |
| First name \* | Shown for a person. Required. |
| Last name | Optional, for either. |
| Mobile | The main phone number, for example (604) 452-6325. The Customer Centre's search and the duplicate check both look at it. |
| Where invoices, statements and reminders are emailed. Used as the default address when you email a document. |
People at this company
Add the other people you deal with — who to call about orders, who pays the invoices. For a company the section is People at this company; for a customer entered by Person's name it is Other contacts (a spouse, an assistant, a bookkeeper), as QuickBooks lets any customer have more than one contact.
- Click Add person.
- Fill in Name, Role (for example "Orders" or "Accounts"), Phone and Email.
- Remove a person with the × (Remove) at the end of their row.
A row with no name, phone or email is ignored when you save.
Billing address
The billing address is where invoices are addressed, and its province (or state in the United States) decides the sales tax on the customer's orders. The server taxes by this address, not by the ship-to address.
| Field | What to enter / what it means |
|---|---|
| Address | Start typing — suggestions appear below. Pick one and the street, City, Province and Postcode fill in. You can also type the street line yourself. If the lookup cannot be reached you see Address lookup unavailable — type the address and pick the province by hand. |
| City | The city or town. |
| Province \* (or State \*) | Required. A list of the provinces and territories (or states), shown as code and name, for example "BC — British Columbia". This is what decides whether an invoice charges GST, HST or GST and PST, and at what rate. |
| Postcode | Postal code or ZIP code. |
Ship to
Only needed if goods go somewhere other than the billing address. The ship-to address prints on the invoice; it does not change the tax.
| Field | What to enter / what it means |
|---|---|
| Same as billing address | Ticked by default. The billing address is saved as the ship-to address too, and follows it if you change the billing address. |
| Delivery address | Untick Same as billing address to type a different delivery address. Leave it empty to ship to the billing address. |
Trade terms
| Field | What to enter / what it means |
|---|---|
| GST number | The customer's GST/HST registration number, if they give you one. |
| PST number | The customer's provincial sales tax number — for a reseller, the number on their exemption. |
| Customer group | The customer's price level. Invoices for this customer are priced by the group's rule (a percentage of the shelf price, or a price list). Shows No customer groups set up when you have none yet; the customer still saves. See Price Levels (customer groups). |
| Credit limit | The most the customer may owe you. Leave empty for no limit. The Customer Centre shows Available credit against it, and the invoice shows the customer's credit position. |
| Tax number | Any other tax or business number you keep for the customer. |
| Payment terms | How many days (or months) the customer has to pay — for example 30 for Net 30. The ledger shows it as Terms ("Net 30 days"), and when an invoice carries no terms of its own, the aging and collections reports work out its due date from these. |
| Counted in | Days or Months, for the payment terms. The list icon beside it (Choose from the Terms list) picks from your Terms list instead of typing. See Terms List. |
| Currency | The currency the customer is billed in. Leave it as your own currency (shown by its code, for example CAD) for a customer you bill in your home currency. Once the customer has an invoice, the currency can no longer be changed: a customer billed in two currencies is two customers. See Currency List. |
| Customer type | The customer's type from your Customer Type List (for example Wholesale:Distributors), or (none). Shows No customer types set up (Lists ▸ Customer & Vendor Profile Lists) until the list has some. |
| Buys to resell — no PST | Tick for a customer who buys to resell and is exempt from provincial sales tax. Sales to them carry GST only. Keep their exemption certificate on file — it is what an audit asks for. A shop that resells pays no provincial tax; a business that uses what it buys does. |
Saving
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Create & select | Saves a new customer and, when you came from an invoice, puts them on it. |
| Save changes | Saves your changes to an existing customer. |
| Cancel or × | Closes without saving. Esc does the same. |
When you edit a customer, Customer is inactive sits at the bottom left, as in QuickBooks. Tick it (and Save changes) for a customer you no longer deal with: they stay on file with all their history, but drop out of the Customer Centre list (until you click Show inactive) and out of the customer search on invoices, estimates and sales orders. Untick it to make them active again. Their saved documents, ledger and balance are not affected, and a payment can still be received from them.
While something required is missing, the line beside the buttons says what, in amber, and the save button does nothing:
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| Enter a first name to save. | A person needs at least a first name. |
| Enter the company name to save. | A company needs a company name (or a contact person). |
| Pick a province — it decides the tax on their orders. | Choose the Province (or State). |
If the server refuses the save, its reason appears in red above the buttons (for example, a currency change on a customer who already has invoices). Fix it and save again.
Duplicate warning
When you create a customer, SeroBooks compares the new name, company name, phone number and email with every customer and vendor on file. If one matches, it shows This contact may already exist (or 2 contacts look like this one), lists up to four of them, and explains that saving creates a second account, with invoices, payments and statements split across both.
- Go back returns to the form so you can cancel and use the existing customer.
- Create anyway saves the new customer.
What changes when you edit a customer
Customer details are read when a document is written:
- A new invoice uses the customer's current address, province, price level and currency.
- Invoices already saved keep the address, tax and prices they were saved with. Changing a customer's province does not re-tax their old invoices.
- If you edit the customer from inside an invoice you are writing, the invoice re-prices its lines for the customer's price level and re-works its tax for the new province straight away.
Permissions
Adding or duplicating a customer needs Create on Customers; changing one needs Edit on Customers. When the role lacks the right, SeroBooks tells you when you click. See Roles and permissions explained.
Tips
- Type the email address carefully: every emailed invoice, statement and payment reminder goes to it unless you change the address when sending.
- For a trade account, set the Customer group, Credit limit and Payment terms when you create the customer so the first invoice is priced correctly and the customer's balance ages on the right terms.
- Use Duplicate for a customer's second branch — the address, terms and tax status come across, and you change only what differs.
Common problems
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| The save button does nothing. | Read the amber line beside it: a name or the province is missing. |
| Address lookup unavailable | Type the street, city and postal code yourself and pick the province from the list. |
| An invoice charges the wrong tax for this customer. | Check the Province on the billing address, and Buys to resell — no PST. Then re-select the customer on the invoice (or edit them from the invoice) so it re-works the tax. |
| The currency cannot be changed. | The customer already has invoices in their currency. Create a separate customer for the other currency. |
| No price levels appear under Customer group. | None are set up yet. Create them in Price Levels. |