Accurately assigning customer types is essential for maintaining an organized customer database. Establishing customer types tailored to your business needs ensures that your administrative staff can create new customer accounts using terminology that aligns with your specific operations. For instance, you can rename 'Work Addresses' to 'Tenants' for an Estate Agent customer type.
What customer type affects
Customer type is used in more places than the customer record itself.
Merging. Two customer records can only be merged if they share the same customer type. A duplicate created under a different type has to be changed to match before it can be merged.
Reporting. Customer type segments your reporting, so the types you create decide how you can break your customers down later.
After sales care. After sales care defaults can be applied to chosen customer types, so the type decides which customers receive them.
Creditor days. Creditor days sit on the customer record rather than on the customer type, but the bulk update screen filters by type. That lets you apply the same payment terms across every customer of one type in a single pass.
Debt chasing. Debt chasing workflows target chosen customer types, with a separate workflow for private customers and one for companies. A customer whose type is not selected in a workflow is not chased by it, so a type you create later is not chased until you add it to one.
View setting
âĄď¸ Profile icon > Settings > Customers > Customer Types > View
Or, if you have permission, click Edit customer types on the Customers screen.
Your customer types are listed in a table showing each customer type name and its work address name. The first 50 are shown. If you have more, click Load all customer types.
Adding a customer type
Click Add new customer type. A panel opens on the right.
Enter the New customer type name.
Enter the Customer description.
Under Company name, tick Required for all customers of this type if every customer of this type must have a company name.
Switch on Branches if customers of this type have branches.
Enter the Name of work address, for example Tenants or Sites.
Click Add new customer type.
Each customer type name must be unique. To close the panel without saving, click Cancel, the X, or anywhere outside the panel.
Important: Decide on Company name and Branches when you create the customer type. A company name can't be made required later, and once a customer type has branches, they can't be switched off. To change either, delete the customer type and create it again.
Managing a customer type
Edit a customer type
Find the customer type in the table and click Edit.
Change the fields as needed in the panel.
Click Save changes.
Save changes is only available when all required fields are filled in. The Company name setting isn't shown when editing, and Branches only shows when the customer type was created without branches.
Change the order of customer types
The order of the table sets the order of the buttons for adding a new customer on the Customers screen.
Drag a row up or down to move it.
Hover over a row and click Move to top to move it straight to the top.
Click Arrange alphabetically A-Z above the table to sort every row by name.
Delete a customer type
Find the customer type in the table and click Delete.
Click Delete to confirm.
Once a customer type is deleted, you can use its name again.
You can't delete a customer type that is in use. The Delete button is greyed out. Change the type on each customer that uses it first, then delete it.
Private customer and Company are default customer types. They can't be edited or deleted, but you can change their position in the table.
Common questions
Why can't I delete a customer type?
Why can't I delete a customer type?
You can't delete a customer type that is assigned to customers, or one of the default types, Private customer and Company. Change the type on each customer that uses it, then try again.
Why isn't Branches showing when I edit a customer type?
Why isn't Branches showing when I edit a customer type?
Branches is hidden when the customer type already has branches switched on, because branches can't be switched off once set up. It only shows for customer types created without branches.
Why can't I see all my customer types?
Why can't I see all my customer types?
The table shows the first 50 customer types. Click Load all customer types at the bottom of the table to see the rest.