How to Add New Customers in QuickBooks Online

How to Add New Customers in QuickBooks Online: Video

          This video lesson, titled “How to Add New Customers in QuickBooks Online,” shows you how to manually add new customers in QuickBooks Online. This video lesson is from our complete QuickBooks Online tutorial, titled “Mastering QuickBooks Online Made Easy.”

Overview:

            To open the “Customers” page in QuickBooks Online, click the “Customers” link under the “Customer Hub” app in the “My apps” bar. If needed, to manually add your first new customer, click the “Add customer manually” button in the page to open a “Customer” pane at the right side of the window. To manually add a new customer after initially adding customers, instead click the “New customer” button in the upper-right corner of the “Customers” page to open the same pane.

            The “Customer” pane is divided into “Name and contact,” “Addresses,” “Notes and attachments,” “Payments,” “Additional info” and “Custom Fields” sections. A toolbar appears in the upper-right corner of the pane with buttons you can click to jump to the corresponding section. You can click the title of each section to expand or collapse its fields.

The Name and Contact Section:

            In the “Name and contact” section of the “Customer” pane, type the customer’s name and contact information into the “Title,” “First name,” “Middle name,” “Last name” and “Suffix” fields. You can type the customer’s company name into the “Company name” field. To choose how to display the customer’s name after entering this information, use the “Customer display name” drop-down.

            Then type the customer’s email address into the “Email” field. You can enter the customer’s phone into the “Phone number” field. To add a Cc or Bcc email, type it into the “Cc” or “Bcc” fields. To add a mobile or fax number, type it into the “Mobile number” or “Fax” fields. You can enter any other customer contact number into the “Other” field. Then enter the customer’s website into the “Website” field. If needed, to choose how to print the customer’s name on checks, enter the desired name into the “Name to print on checks” field.

            If this customer is a sub-customer of a larger “parent” customer, you can check the “Is a sub-customer” checkbox. Then choose the customer’s parent customer from the “Parent customer” drop-down. To bill the parent customer, check the “Bill parent customer” checkbox. To bill this customer separately from the parent customer, uncheck this checkbox. If “Multicurrency” is enabled, you can also select the customer’s currency.

The Addresses Section:

            In the “Addresses” section, enter the customer’s “Billing address” and “Shipping address” into the fields provided. If the “Shipping address” is the same as the “Billing address,” enter the “Billing address” and ensure the “Same as billing address” checkbox next to the “Shipping address” label is checked. If not, uncheck this checkbox and enter the “Shipping address” into the fields provided. To show a mapped address in a web browser after entering an address, if needed, click the “Preview address” link below it.

The Notes and Attachments Section:

            In the “Notes and attachments” section, to add notes about a customer, type them into the “Notes” field. To add an attachment, click the “Add attachment” link in the “Attachments” field, use the “Open” dialog box that launches to find the file to attach, click it to select it, and then click the “Open” button in the dialog box to upload and attach it to the customer record.

The Payments Section:

            In the “Payments” section, to set the customer’s primary payment method, select a choice from the “Primary payment method” drop-down. Use the “Terms” drop-down to set the customer’s default payment terms. To choose the default way to send the customer’s forms, use the “Sales form delivery options” drop-down.

            To select the language used to send customer invoices, select a choice from the “Language to use when you send invoices” drop-down. To enter a customer’s credit limit, enter it into the “Credit Limit” field.

The Additional Info Section:

            In the “Additional info” section, to set the customer’s type, select the customer’s type from the “Customer type” drop-down. We’ll discuss customer types in more detail in a later lesson, as you can also edit customer records to add them later, if needed.

            To mark a customer as not taxable or tax-exempt, check the “This customer is tax exempt” checkbox. Customers are considered taxable unless this checkbox is checked. Then select why they are tax exempt from the “Reason for exemption” drop-down. You can enter the details for their tax exemption into the “Exemption details” field. Alternatively, if the customer pays sales tax, select their default tax rate from the “Select tax rate” drop-down. For automatic sales tax calculations, this is often the “Automated based on location” choice.

            If creating a customer who owed you money for past invoices as of the start date of your company file, enter the amount they owed into the “Opening balance” field. Then use the “as of” date field to select the start date of the company file. If entering a new customer, acquired after starting your QuickBooks company file, leave these fields blank, as the amounts they owe are recorded later by the invoices and other sales forms you create.

The Custom Fields Section:

            In the “Custom Fields” section, enter any customer custom field values for the customer custom fields you have created. To create a new custom field for your customers, if needed, click the “+Add custom field” link in this section, create the new custom field in the pane that appears, and then click the “Save” button to close the pane and return to the “Customer” pane.

            To save the new customer record into the “Customers” list when finished, click the “Save” button in the “Customer” pane. Alternatively, to cancel creating the customer, click the “X” button in the upper-right corner of the “Customer” pane and then click “Yes” in the “Do you want to leave without saving?” prompt.