Customers

Customers is your list of the people and businesses you sell to. Each record holds contact details, addresses, payment terms and a credit limit. It also shows what the customer owes. Saving or changing a customer posts nothing to your accounts.

Where

Sales › Customers

Number

A customer code you type, such as CUS-001 (up to 30 characters). A customer added from an invoice or the till gets the next automatic code, such as POS-000001

Posts to

Nothing. A customer record is not an accounting entry

Who

Managers and admins. Cashiers add a customer at the till

What it’s for

• One record for each customer, so invoices, payments and statements all point to the same person.
• A quick view of who owes you money, and how much of it is overdue.
• Starting an invoice or a payment for a customer, and opening their statement.
• Keeping a customer’s payment terms and credit limit in one place.
• Stopping a second record for the same mobile number or tax registration number. See What the app blocks.

Many customers at once can be added from a file in Data Exchange. Starting balances are entered in Settings › Opening data. See Opening balances.

Fields

These are the fields on the customer form. A star (*) means the field is required.

Field	What it means	What it changes
Customer code *	Your short name for the customer. Letters, numbers and hyphens only, up to 30 characters. The app turns letters into capitals. It must not be used by another customer	Search and lists. It is shown beside the name on the customer page and on payment screens
Customer type *	Business or Individual. New customers start as Business	Only the hint under the tax registration number, and a label on the customer page
Display name *	The name you see in lists and search. At least 2 characters	Shown on invoices, payments and statements
Legal name	The registered name, if different. Leave empty when it is the same	Shown on the statement and the customer page
Currency	Always your company currency. You cannot change it	Nothing
Tax registration number	The customer’s TRN. A UAE number has 15 digits	Shown on the invoice screen and the statement. Used to find a second record with the same number
Contact name, Email, Phone, Alternate phone	How to reach the customer. None of them is required on this form	Search. A phone number is also used to find a second record with the same mobile
Billing address	Address line 1 to Country code (two letters, such as AE). If you fill in any part, line 1 is required	Shown on invoices. A posted invoice keeps the name, TRN, phone and billing address as they were when you posted it
Shipping address is the same as billing	Ticked by default. Untick it to give a different shipping address	The delivery address shown on the invoice screen
Payment terms (days) *	Whole days from 0 to 365. New customers start at 30. Use 0 for due on receipt	Fills the due date when you pick this customer on an invoice
Credit limit	The most you are happy for the customer to owe. Leave empty for no limit	A warning on invoices and till sales. It never stops a sale
Place customer on credit hold	Tick it for a customer you want to be careful with	A warning on invoices and till sales. It never stops a sale. It never stops you taking a payment
Credit hold reason *	Why the customer is on hold. 3 to 500 characters. Shown only when the hold is ticked	Shown in the warning
Internal notes	Up to 2,000 characters. Only your staff see them	Nothing
Active for new sales	Shown when you edit a customer. Untick it to archive the customer	An archived customer cannot get new invoices or advances. See Fixing a mistake

Note

A new customer starts with the company’s default credit limit. The standard setting is AED 10,000. An administrator can change or clear it in Settings › Accounting rules. Customers you already have keep their own limit.

What the customer page shows

Under the details, the customer page has these sections, from the top:

• Financial position: Customer owes and Customer advance, kept apart.
• Customer advance: how much can be used or paid back, with the two buttons, and a Paid back list.
• Unpaid invoices: the oldest 20, each with its due date and an Overdue badge. A Cheque badge shows when a cheque is planned for it.
• Delivered, not yet invoiced, Cheques received and Recent payments (the latest 10).
• Activity: who created or changed the customer, and when.

Adding a customer from an invoice or Payments received

When you pick a customer on an invoice, type a name or number in the search box and choose New customer. A smaller form opens. It is only offered to people who may add customers.

Field	What it means	What it changes
Mobile *	The customer’s mobile number. It must contain digits	Search. Used to find a second record with the same mobile
Customer name	Optional. Left empty, the name is “Mobile customer” with the last four digits of the mobile	The display name
Address, City, Country	Optional. A street or city starts an address	The billing and shipping address
Email	Optional	Contact details
Tax registration number (TRN)	Optional	Used to find a second record with the same number
Customer type *	Business or Individual	Only the hint under the TRN
Payment terms (days) *	New customers start at 30	The due date on invoices

The new customer gets the next automatic code and the company’s default credit limit. Finish the record later on the customer page. The till has its own quick form. It makes an Individual customer with payment terms of 0 days.

Buttons

Nothing here touches your accounts, except the two customer advance buttons.

Button	When you see it	What happens	Accounts
New customer / Create first customer	The list	Opens the customer form	No change
Search	The list	Finds customers by code, name, legal name, email, phone, alternate phone or contact name	No change
Active customers / Archived customers / All customers	The list	Chooses which customers are listed. It starts on Active	No change
Everyone / Owes money	The list	Owes money shows only customers with something unpaid	No change
Sorted by name / Sorted by amount owed	The list	Sorted by amount owed puts the biggest balance first	No change
Clear filters	The list, when no customer matches	Goes back to the full list. No record is removed	No change
View	Each row	Opens the customer page	No change
Create customer / Save customer	The form	Saves the customer. A new customer is saved only if no one else has the same mobile or TRN	No change
Save and archive customer / Save and reactivate customer	The form, after Archive or Reactivate	Saves the form and changes the customer’s status in one step	No change
Use ‹name›	The yellow “This customer may already exist” box	Opens the customer who already has the number, so you do not make a second record	No change
Edit customer	The customer page	Opens the form with the customer’s details	No change
Archive / Reactivate	The customer page	Opens the form with the status already changed. Press Save and archive customer or Save and reactivate customer to finish	No change
New invoice	The customer page. Greyed out for an archived customer	Starts an invoice for this customer	No change
Record payment	The customer page, and beside each unpaid invoice	Opens Payments received for this customer or invoice. Greyed out for an archived customer who owes nothing	No change until you post the payment
View statement	The customer page	Opens the customer statement for this month so far	No change
Invoice this delivery	“Delivered, not yet invoiced”	Starts an invoice from that delivery. See Deliveries	No change until you post the invoice
Use customer advance	“Customer advance”, when the customer holds an advance and has an unpaid invoice	Takes money from the advance and applies it to an unpaid invoice	Posts
Pay back customer advance	“Customer advance”, when the customer holds an advance	Gives money from the advance back to the customer in cash or by bank	Posts
Run statement	The statement	Shows the dates you chose. The range can be up to 366 days	No change
Export CSV / Print…	The statement	Downloads or prints the statement	No change

Statuses you will see: Active and Archived on the list and the customer page, plus a Credit hold badge. The form calls an archived customer “Inactive”.

What gets posted

Customers posts nothing. Adding, changing, archiving or reactivating a customer does not create a journal entry, and it does not move stock or VAT. The app keeps a short Activity list on the customer page. It shows who created, changed, archived or reactivated the customer, and when.

The money figures on the screen are read from the documents you post elsewhere. Nothing is typed in here.

Figure	What it counts
Owes / Customer owes	What is still unpaid on posted invoices, plus deliveries not yet invoiced, after payments and credit notes. If the customer has paid more than they were invoiced, the statement shows the extra as “customer advance”
Overdue	The unpaid part of invoices that are past their due date. If a post-dated cheque is planned for part of an invoice, that part counts as overdue only after the cheque date
Customer advance	Money the customer paid ahead that is not yet used on an invoice. It is held in Customer Deposits (2300) until it is used or paid back, and is kept apart from what the customer owes
Of which delivered, not yet invoiced	Deliveries with no invoice yet. They count in what the customer owes but appear in no invoice list. Invoice them to ask for payment

Opening balances

You do not enter a customer’s starting balance on this screen. An administrator enters it in Settings › Opening data.

• An amount the customer owed at the start becomes an opening invoice. It adds to what they owe (Accounts Receivable, 1100). The other side goes to Opening Balance Equity (3150).
• An advance the customer held at the start is balanced against Customer Deposits (2300) in the same way.
• Both show on the customer statement as opening balances.

Using or paying back a customer advance

• Use customer advance applies part of the advance to one unpaid invoice. What the customer owes goes down, and so does the advance.
• Pay back customer advance gives money back. It asks for a date, an amount, a reason, and the cash or bank account the money leaves. A bank payback also needs a reference. The advance goes down, and the paid-back amount shows on a numbered voucher.

Where it shows up

Place	What changes
Invoices and the till	The customer can be picked and searched. Their payment terms fill the due date. Their credit limit and hold give a warning
Customer statement	Name, legal name, billing address and TRN appear in the heading. Invoices, credit notes, payments and advances appear in two separate ledgers: Accounts Receivable and Customer Advances
Payments received	The customer’s unpaid invoices and advance are shown when you take a payment
Reports and the Overview	“Owed to you” adds up what customers owe on invoices. Amounts delivered but not yet invoiced are shown beside it, not in the total. “Overdue customer payments” lists invoices past their due date. In Detailed Reports, Customers who owe you takes a customer’s unused advance off what they owe; the Overview card does not
Posted invoices and payments	They keep the customer’s name, and for an invoice the TRN, phone and billing address, as they were when you posted. A later change on the customer page does not alter them

What the app blocks

The app checks the form before it saves. Each message appears beside its field.

Situation	What you see
No customer code	Enter a customer code.
A code with spaces or symbols	Use only letters, numbers, and hyphens.
A code longer than 30 characters	Use 30 characters or fewer.
A code another customer already has	This customer code already exists.
A name shorter than 2 characters	Enter at least 2 characters.
An email that is not valid	Enter a valid email address.
An address with no first line	Enter the first address line.
A country code that is not two letters	Use a two-letter country code.
Payment terms below 0	Payment terms cannot be negative.
Payment terms above 365	Payment terms cannot exceed 365 days.
Payment terms with a fraction, such as 7.5	Enter a whole number of days.
A credit limit that is negative or has more than 4 decimals	Enter a non-negative amount with no more than 4 decimal places.
Credit hold ticked with no reason	Enter at least 3 characters explaining the credit hold.
A mobile number another active customer already has	‹name› (‹code›) already has this mobile number. Use that customer instead.
A TRN another active customer already has	‹name› (‹code›) already has this tax registration number. Use that customer instead.
Quick form with no mobile	Enter the customer’s mobile number.
Quick form with a mobile that has no digits	Enter a mobile number with digits.
Someone else saved the customer after you opened it	This customer changed after you opened it. and Reload the latest customer details and try again. Your typing is kept so you can compare
Statement start date after the end date	Start date cannot be after end date.
Statement longer than 366 days	Statement range cannot exceed 366 days.
Using more customer advance than the customer holds	Only 40.00 of this customer’s advance can be used. Enter that or less. The amount in the message is what the customer holds
An invoice for an archived customer	This customer is inactive or unavailable. Reactivate or select another customer.

How a “second customer” is found

• Mobile numbers. The app compares the last nine digits. “050 123 4567” and “+971 50 123 4567” are the same number. It checks both Phone and Alternate phone. A number with fewer than seven digits is not compared.
• Tax registration numbers. Spaces and dashes are ignored. A number with fewer than five letters and digits is not compared.
• Archived customers do not count. Their mobile and TRN are free to use again.
• While you type, a yellow box “This customer may already exist” names the customer and what they owe.
• Only a changed number is checked. If two customers already share a number, you can still rename one of them. You cannot set or change a number to one that another active customer has.
• Customers added from a Data Exchange file are not checked for a shared number.

Warnings that do not stop you

• Credit limit. When an invoice or till sale leaves the customer over their limit, the app posts it and says so. The message reads like “Over the credit limit by AED 141.50: limit AED 100.00, owes AED 241.50.”
• Credit hold. The sale is posted and the message reads “On credit hold:” followed by your reason. A customer on hold who pays in full is not warned. You can always take a payment from a customer on hold.
• Tax registration number. If the number does not have 15 digits, a note says “A UAE tax registration number has 15 digits. Check it before you print a tax invoice.” You can still save.
• Business with no TRN. A note says that a business with a TRN can reclaim the VAT on its invoices. You can still save.

Who can do it

Action	Admin	Manager	Cashier
See the list, open a customer, search	Yes	Yes	No
Add a customer, edit one, archive or reactivate	Yes	Yes	No, but a cashier can add a customer at the till
Add a customer from an invoice (New customer)	Yes	Yes	No
Set the credit limit and credit hold	Yes	Yes	No
Open, print or export the customer statement	Yes	Yes	No
Use a customer advance or pay it back	Yes	Yes	No
Cancel a payback of a customer advance	Yes	No	No
Change the default credit limit for new customers	Yes	No	No

These are the standard roles. Your administrator can give a custom role each action separately in Settings › Users & access.

Fixing a mistake

1. A wrong detail on the customer (name, phone, address, terms, limit). Use Edit customer. Posted invoices and payments keep what they had when you posted them. Only new documents use the new details.
2. A customer you added twice. The app blocks a second record with the same mobile or TRN, but not one with a different number. Keep the record that has the history. Archive the other with Archive. Archived customers stay in the history and free their mobile and TRN.
3. A customer you no longer sell to. Use Archive, then Save and archive customer. History and payments stay available. The customer cannot get new invoices or advances. You can still take payment for what they owe. To undo it, open the customer from Archived customers, press Reactivate and save.
4. Someone else changed the customer while you were editing. The app shows “This customer changed after you opened it” and reloads the latest details. Your typing stays on the form. Check it against the latest record and save again.
5. A wrong credit limit or hold. Edit the customer. A change affects only the warnings on new sales.
6. A wrong starting balance. An administrator corrects it from Settings › Opening data. It cannot be fixed on this screen.