{"id":1001184,"date":"2018-06-15T11:15:09","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T15:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.bmcgiverncpa.com\/?p=1001184"},"modified":"2020-01-22T04:05:43","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T04:05:43","slug":"using-quickbooks-onlines-customer-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/index.php\/2018\/06\/15\/using-quickbooks-onlines-customer-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Using QuickBooks Online&#8217;s Customer Records"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Your customers are your company\u2019s lifeblood. Are you managing those relationships carefully? Here\u2019s how QuickBooks Online can help.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve been in business long enough to remember tracking your customers manually, you probably remember what a nightmare it was. Maybe you had a card file and paper folders \u2013 and lots of sticky notes and calendar notations.<\/p>\n<p>Unless you had an unusually effective organization system, it was probably difficult to find historical transactions when customers called with questions, for example, and you may have experienced cash flow problems because it was hard to keep up with invoices and statements and payments.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re already using QuickBooks Online, you know those days are over. But have you explored all the customer relationship management tools <!--more-->available to you on the site?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thorough Records<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The core of any good customer-tracking system is a comprehensive set of individual profiles. QuickBooks Online offers thorough, flexible record templates for just that purpose. Click <strong>Sales <\/strong>in the main toolbar, then the <strong>Customers <\/strong>tab at the top of the screen. To create a new customer record, click <strong>New Customer <\/strong>off to the right to open the <strong>Customer Information <\/strong>window.<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: If you have your customer database in an existing Excel or .CSV file, you should be able to import it. QuickBooks Online provides instructions for this.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1001185\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/QBO-0118-image-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"812\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/QBO-0118-image-1.jpg 812w, https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/QBO-0118-image-1-300x135.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/QBO-0118-image-1-768x346.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 812px) 100vw, 812px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>You can create a profile for each customer in the <strong>Customer Information <\/strong>window.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em>You\u2019ll need to enter a lot of the information yourself here, mostly contact details. A down arrow next to a field indicates that there\u2019s a drop-down list of options available.<\/p>\n<p>The lower left quadrant of the screen contains a series of tabbed information windows. Click on each to enter what you can about each customer\u2019s:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Address <\/strong>\u2013 both billing and shipping<\/li>\n<li><strong>Notes <\/strong>\u2013 any that you\u2019d like to enter<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tax info <\/strong>\u2013 exemption details and default tax code (if taxable)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Payment and billing <\/strong>\u2013 preferred payment and delivery method, payment terms, and opening balance<\/li>\n<li><strong>Attachments <\/strong>\u2013 any files pertaining to this customer that you want to include<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When you\u2019re done, click <strong>Save<\/strong>. Your new record will appear in your list of customers. You\u2019ll be able to toggle back and forth between the details you just entered and a list of their transactions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Working with Customers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You can always add new customers as you go along, but it\u2019s a good idea to enter records for all of them before you start creating transactions. It will save time down the road, and their accessibility will help with other accounting tasks.<\/p>\n<p>When you click on <strong>Sales | Customers <\/strong>now, you\u2019ll see something like this:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1001186\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/QBO-0118-image-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1135\" height=\"499\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/QBO-0118-image-2.jpg 1135w, https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/QBO-0118-image-2-300x132.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/QBO-0118-image-2-768x338.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/QBO-0118-image-2-1024x450.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1135px) 100vw, 1135px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Your <strong>Customers <\/strong>page contains a list of customers with links to related activities. It also provides a color-coded row of bars that represent the status of invoices and estimates.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Customers <\/strong>page consists of many elements. The main section displays a table of your customers. Click on one to open the page containing the <strong>Transaction List <\/strong>and <strong>Customer Details<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>On this screen, though, you\u2019ll only see columns for <strong>Customer\/Company<\/strong>, <strong>Phone<\/strong>, <strong>Open Balance<\/strong>, and <strong>Action<\/strong> by default; click the gear icon in the upper right if you want to include more columns here. When you click on the down arrow next to a field in the <strong>Action <\/strong>column, a drop-down list will display the options available for that customer, like <strong>Receive payment<\/strong>, <strong>Send reminder<\/strong>, and <strong>Create Statement<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>A series of colored bars runs across the top of the screen. Each represents the current status of a specific transaction type: <strong>Estimates<\/strong>, <strong>Unbilled Activity<\/strong>, <strong>Overdue<\/strong>, <strong>Open Invoices<\/strong>, and <strong>Paid Last 30 Days<\/strong>. Click on any of these to open a list of pertinent transactions.<\/p>\n<p>You can do all of these activities elsewhere in QuickBooks Online, but it\u2019s convenient to be able to work directly from the <strong>Customers <\/strong>screen, too. The fewer clicks, the better.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Call on Us<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Did you make a resolution to start using QuickBooks Online this year? The site was built for use by business managers, not accountants, but it can still be a little daunting at first. We\u2019re always available to take your questions and help you with setup and\/or daily implementation. Connect with us if you need assistance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your customers are your company\u2019s lifeblood. Are you managing those relationships carefully? Here\u2019s how QuickBooks Online can help. If you\u2019ve been in business long enough to remember tracking your customers manually, you probably remember what a nightmare it was. Maybe you had a card file and paper folders \u2013 and lots of sticky notes and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[47],"tags":[84,53,85],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1001214,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001184\/revisions\/1001214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001184"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmcgiverncpa.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1001184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}