📝 QuickBooks Customer Center Tutorial: How to Manage Your Customers and Jobs List
If you're a business owner, you know how important it is to keep track of your customers and their information. QuickBooks' Customer Center is a powerful tool that allows you to do just that. In this tutorial, we'll show you how to manage your customers and jobs list in QuickBooks.
📋 Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Accessing the Customer Center
- Adding a New Customer
- Editing Customer Information
- Inactivating and Deleting Customers
- Conclusion
- Pros and Cons of Using QuickBooks' Customer Center
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Resources
Introduction
QuickBooks' Customer Center is a centralized location where you can manage all of your customer information. This includes their contact information, billing and shipping addresses, payment terms, sales tax settings, and more. By keeping all of this information in one place, you can easily access it whenever you need it.
Accessing the Customer Center
To access the Customer Center in QuickBooks, you have a few options. You can click the "Customers" button within the icon bar, click the "Customers" button within the home page, or select "Customers > Customer Center" from the menu bar. You can also use the keyboard shortcut of Control + J to open the Customer Center.
Once you're in the Customer Center, you'll see a tab called "Customers and Jobs" on the left side of the window. Clicking this tab will display a list of all of your customers and jobs that have been entered into QuickBooks.
Adding a New Customer
To add a new customer to the Customers and Jobs list, click the "New Customer & Job" button that appears above the Customers and Jobs tab. From the small drop-down menu that appears, click "New Customer."
This will open the New Customer window, where you can enter the new customer's information. Start by typing the name of the customer as you want it to appear in the Customers and Jobs tab into the "Customer Name" field. Each customer must have a unique customer name value.
If you're adding a customer who owed you money as of the start date of your company file, enter the amount owed by the customer as of the start date into the "Opening Balance" field. Then, select the start date of your company file from the "As of" calendar drop-down. These fields are only used when adding customers who owed money as of your company file's start date.
Next, click the "Address Info" tab at the left side of the window. In this tab, you can enter the customer's address information as you want it to appear on invoices and other customer-related documentation. Start by typing the name of the company, which can be different from the customer name value, into the "Company Name" field. For individual customers, enter their name into the "Mr./Ms./First/Middle Initial/Last Name" fields.
Enter the customer's job title into the "Job Title" field, then enter the customer contact information you want to record into the next eight fields available. There are eight data field choices shown by default. However, for each field, you can select what data to record by choosing the name of a data field from the drop-down field label shown. Then, record the associated customer information within the adjacent data field to the right of each drop-down field label.
In the "Address Details" section at the bottom of the tab, you can enter billing and shipping address information for the customer. Type the customer's billing address directly into the "Invoice Bill To" text box, or click the "Edit" button to the right of the "Invoice Bill To" field and then enter the billing address into the fields within the "Edit Address" window.
If the shipping address is the same as the billing address you entered, click the "Copy" button to copy the billing address into the "Ship To" text box to the right. If they are not the same, then simply enter the shipping address into the "Ship To" text box.
Editing Customer Information
If you need to edit a customer's information in the future, you can do so within the Customers and Jobs tab. Select the name of the customer in the list whose information you want to edit. Then, either double-click the name of the customer in the Customers and Jobs tab, click the "Edit" button at the right end of the customer information section, or right-click the customer name in the Customers and Jobs tab and then select the "Edit Customer/Job" command from the pop-up menu that appears.
Performing any one of these three actions will then open the Edit Customer window. You can then edit any of the information shown in the tabs of this window. Click the "OK" button to save your changes and close the window when you are finished.
Inactivating and Deleting Customers
Like accounts, after you have used a customer in a transaction, you cannot delete them from the Customers and Jobs tab. Instead, you can inactivate customers you will no longer need to view to hide them within the list. Please review Lesson 3.8 to learn how to activate and inactivate customers.
If you did, however, create a customer record you did not use and no longer need, then you can delete it. To do this, select the entry to delete from the Customers and Jobs list, and then choose "Edit > Delete Customer/Job" from the menu bar. You then need to click the "OK" button in the confirmation message box that appears to permanently delete the selected customer entry.
Conclusion
QuickBooks' Customer Center is a powerful tool that allows you to manage all of your customer information in one place. By following the steps outlined in this tutorial, you can add, edit, and delete customers as needed. This will help you stay organized and keep track of your customers' information more efficiently.
Pros and Cons of Using QuickBooks' Customer Center
Pros:
- Centralized location for managing all customer information
- Easy to access and use
- Allows you to add, edit, and delete customers as needed
- Helps you stay organized and efficient
Cons:
- Can be overwhelming for new users
- May require some training to use effectively
- Limited customization options
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: Can I add multiple shipping addresses for a customer?
A: Yes, you can create and save multiple shipping addresses for each customer. You can add a shipping address by clicking the "Add" button to the right of the "Ship To" text box. In the "Add Shipping Address Information" dialog box that appears, enter a name for the shipping address into the "Address Name" field, then type the address into the "Address," "City," "State/Province," "Zip/Postal Code," and "Country/Region" fields.
Q: Can I assign a credit limit to a customer?
A: Yes, you can assign a credit limit to a customer by entering their credit limit amount into the "Credit Limit" field on the "Payment Settings" tab of the New Customer window.
Q: Can I delete a customer from the Customers and Jobs tab?
A: After you have used a customer in a transaction, you cannot delete them from the Customers and Jobs tab. Instead, you can inactivate customers you will no longer need to view to hide them within the list. If you did, however, create a customer record you did not use and no longer need, then you can delete it. To do this, select the entry to delete from the Customers and Jobs list, and then choose "Edit > Delete Customer/Job" from the menu bar.
Resources
- QuickBooks Customer Center Tutorial: How to Manage Your Customers and Jobs List
- QuickBooks Support: Customer Center Overview
- QuickBooks Community: Customer Center
