Customers and Customer Relationships
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This is the starting point for the Customers guides. Each guide covers an actual Customers menu section so an accountant can find the relevant workflow.
Guides in this section
| Guide | Topic |
|---|---|
| Customer Relationship Dashboard | Sales, receipts, receivables, aging analysis, and differences between filters |
| Customers | Customer details and types, account codes, moving groups, balances, invoices, and cheques |
| Customer groups | Base-account configuration; differences between groups and accounts; creating and deleting groups |
| Customer comments | Adding, rating, editing, and deleting comments |
| Customer import, export, and transfer | CSV files, account matching, and transfer between fiscal years |
Application paths and access
The Customers menu has three items:
- Customer Relationship Dashboard;
- Customers;
- Customer Groups.
The Invoices menu also includes Add Customer. Comments can be added from the customer list or a customer’s detail page, while all comments have a separate page.
| Task | Required permission |
|---|---|
| View the Customer Relationship Dashboard | crm.dashboard |
| List, create, store, view, edit, update, and delete customers | Respectively customers.index, customers.create, customers.store, customers.show, customers.edit, customers.update, and customers.destroy |
| Export customers | customers.export |
| View the import form and submit a file | customers.import and customers.import.store |
| List, create, store, view, edit, update, and delete customer groups | Corresponding customer-groups.* permissions |
| List, create, store, edit, update, and delete comments | Corresponding comments.* permissions |
| Open account transactions from a customer or group page | transactions.index; the group-balance link in group detail also depends on reports.ledger |
| View cheque details from a customer detail page | cheques.show |
A visible button does not grant permission to access its route. For example, viewing a customer does not authorize adding a comment without comments.create.
Common errors
| Symptom | Likely cause | Accountant action |
|---|---|---|
| Customer base account is not configured | The base customers account is unset in the active fiscal year | Correct System → Configurations, then review the group |
| Invalid group | The group does not exist or the submitted ID is invalid | Create and reselect it in the active year |
| Duplicate name | The same name exists in the same group | Edit the existing record or use a distinct, accurate name |
| Duplicate phone | Another customer has this phone number | Search for the existing customer; uniqueness does not apply to mobile numbers |
| Nonnumeric account code | Characters other than digits remain after spaces and / are removed |
Enter digits only |
| Code outside the group | Full code length or prefix does not match the group’s account | Check the group code or leave the code blank |
| Code belongs to another record | The account is already linked to a customer | Choose another account; do not change the previous link without review |
| Customer cannot be deleted | Its account has transactions | Keep the customer and correct details if necessary |
| File cannot be imported | File type/size, headers, group, account code, or a row is invalid | Read the error and line number; start from an application export and retry |
| Balance differs from credit limit | These have different sources and meanings | Check balance in the account ledger and credit limit in customer details |
| Statistics differ between pages | Period, invoice type, or status differs between calculations | Use the filter-difference table in the dashboard guide |
Accountant’s check scenario
- Select the active fiscal year and set the customers configuration.
- Create a “Wholesale Customers” group and open its group account code from the group list.
- Register a customer with the correct type and identity details, leaving account code blank.
- Open the customer detail page and check name, group, code, and initial zero balance.
- Issue a sales invoice and approve it after review. To appear in the dashboard’s sales-invoice section, it must have an accepted status.
- Check the invoice document and its effect on the customer’s account in the ledger.
- Record a receipt and reconcile the positive customer-account transaction against the cash or bank account on the other side of the document.
- Check the new balance on the customer page and in the ledger. Do not confuse the credit limit with the balance.
- Review cheques originally belonging to and cheques transferred to the customer on their detail page.
- Record the result of a call or collection follow-up as a customer comment and rating.
- Open the Customer Relationship Dashboard and inspect monthly sales, monthly payments, receivables, aging, and top customers.
- If a figure differs from expectations, reconcile fiscal year, invoice status, sales returns, and positive or negative account transactions before making manual corrections.