More about Customers and the Customer Center
Last week we looked at the Customer Center, including creating new Customers. In this feature we’ll explore what to do if you don’t want to track every customer who walks in the door, along with what to do with duplicated records, and clients who you’ll never see again.
Generic Customer Names
Sometimes a business may not want to add every customer name to their QBO file. Maybe it’s high-volume retail, like a coffee shop. Maybe they have an e-commerce website, and you’re not importing every transaction into QBO. Or maybe they’re a medical practice who’s HIPAA compliant.
Instead of adding every single customer to the system, in these cases I recommend creating Customers by type instead of by name.
For example, call them “Walk In Customers” and “Online Sales.” This gathers all the individual sales from that revenue stream in one Customer Transaction screen.
Suggestion: If your company is going to use generic Customer names, but it would still be handy to be able to match a Sales Receipt to a particular Customer, create a Custom Field (created in Account and Settings > Sales). Add an extra field called “Customer Name” for their real name, giving you a place to search for it in case you ever need to look up this order in the future.
Merging Customers
You may occasionally discover you have the same Customer entered more than once. Maybe you have them listed as both a person, and with a company name. Or maybe you made a typo!
It’s easy to combine two accounts into one, just as we saw with the Chart of Accounts in a previous article. All you have to do is to make sure that Display name as: is the same in both cards. Copy the Display name from the card you DO like, and Paste it into the Display name in the card you DON’T like.
When you change the Display name so that it matches an existing Customer, QBO will ask if you want to merge them. Say yes, and all the transactions from the edited account will move into the target account, and the edited account is inactivated.
PEBCAK! If the address or contact information is different on the two cards, only the information on the card NOT being changed will be saved! Be sure to change the company with less information.
Deleting and Inactivating Customers
There is no true “Delete” of a Customer (a lot of things in QBO say “Delete” that are only Inactivated). To Delete a Customer, open it by selecting the Edit button and click Make Inactive. They will no longer appear on your lists, but historical transactions will still show up on reports.
To see your Inactive Customers on your list, click the Baby Gear at the top right of the list of Customers, and check Include Inactive. You will then see the deleted Customers on the list with (deleted) in parentheses.
Click the Baby Gear at the top right of the list of Customers and check Include Inactive to see your Inactive Customers.
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When running Reports, deleted Customers and their transactions still show up, so there’s no data loss.
In the rare instance that you don’t want to include Inactive/Deleted information on reports, exclude them by customizing the report and adding a filter for Active Customers.
Lesson Wrap-up
The great thing about the Customer Center is its flexibility. Whether you track every transaction for every client, or group them together by customer type, it’s easy to manage your list.
To see these techniques brought to life, check out my video training, ‘QuickBooks Online Fundamentals’. I keep it up-to-date by replacing the videos as the interface changes, so the content is always current!
Next weeks article will cover typical workflows used to manage customers, from Invoices to Estimates along with common mistakes to avoid.
In the meantime, feel free to check out my QBO Mentorship Membership Program and my Bookkeepers Mentorship Membership Program.