Before you begin Did you know you can import your customers in bulk from a spreadsheet? When you enter transactions such as sales invoices, we use the information that you've set on the customer record to determine the following: - Category - The default ledger account is 4900 Other Income
- Due date - This is 30 days by default
- VAT rate - The customer's location and whether they’re VAT registered determines the VAT rate
If you indicated that your business is registered for VAT in Accounting Start when you signed up, two contacts are automatically created. You'll use the HMRC Reclaimed customer contact when you reclaim VAT and the HMRC Payments supplier contact when you make VAT payments. You can change the reference for these contacts, but you can’t rename or delete them.
Create a customer For one-off customers, or if you don't want to import them, create new customer records from Contacts. - From Contacts, choose New Customer.
- Enter the business name of the customer. This is the name you'll see on all lists when selecting this customer.
- Enter the remaining details. If you don't know all the details yet, simply enter the business name and save. Always provide an address before saving an invoice for a customer.
NOTE: You need to enter an address before you can save an invoice for a customer.
Refer to the sections below for setting customer defaults and storing additional information: ▼ Main address details If you're sending invoices to your customers, you must enter an address. This is the address that appears on sales invoices. If you want to email your sales documents, make sure you add an email address as well. Add the main address from the Contact Details tab. If your customer is outside the UK or Ireland, make sure your change the region just above the address and then choose the correct Country. TIP: If you don't have any address for a customer, just use No address on the first line. ▼ VAT Details If your customer is VAT registered, enter their VAT Registration Number to make sure we use the correct VAT rate when entering invoices. Enter the VAT Registration Number from the Contact Details tab. We check the VAT number against the Country entered in the address. You can't save the VAT number if the format is incorrect. VAT reverse charge Select VAT Reverse Charge when: ▼ Set a default category We use categories to categorise or group your transactions. This is to make sure they report correctly on financial reports, such as the Profit and Loss or Balance sheet. It also helps you track your business performance and see where you're making money. Selecting the right category is critical to making sure you know where your money comes from and what you are selling. On sales invoices, you must select a category on each line to indicate what you have sold. You can use our default categories or set up your own. Set a default category on customer records. This feature helps when consistently selling the same type of goods to a specific customer. From the Contact Details tab, choose the default category for this customer from the Default Category dropdown. TIP: Set this in the Record and Transaction settings if you usually use the same category for all your sales. Read our Record and Transactions settings guide to find out more. Read more about categories in our chart of accounts guide. ▼ Enter payment details If you've agreed to credit terms with your customer, you can record them here. Set credit terms to specify the number of days an invoice can be outstanding. After setting them, the system calculates the invoice's due date based on these terms. We've set the credit terms to 30 days as this is usual for most businesses. If your credit terms are different, set them in the Record and transaction settings so they apply to all new customer records. Or, if this customer has unusual credit terms, enter them here. ▼ Store bank details If you have bank details for any of your customers, you can store them on the Payment Details tab. They're not used anywhere and are just for your information. ▼ Set a customer as a CIS contractor If you're in the CIS, make sure you set up new or existing customers as contractors, so we automatically deduct CIS from sales invoices. -
From the CIS tab, select the CIS Registered checkbox. This indicates that the contact is using the CIS scheme. -
From the Contact Details tab TIP: TIP: Make sure you’ve turned on the CIS features in the settings first. ▼ Notes Use this space to record any notes about your customer. These notes don't appear on printed documents like sales invoices. |