welcome to the fit small business
QuickBooks Online training course in
this lesson we're going to cover how to
set up customers and quickbooks online
to follow along with me log into your
quickbooks online account now or click
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can also click this link to access our
full quickbooks online course and other
helpful resources let's get started
if you invoice customers then you
definitely want to set up profiles for
the customers in QuickBooks setting up
your customers will allow you to do a
couple things one quickly create
invoices for your customers since all of
your customer data like billing address
shipping address and due date will
automatically populate from the customer
profile second it will allow you to
easily track sales by customer which
could be a great way to get to know what
your customers like so you can market to
them strategically first we'll explain
how to manually setup customers in
QuickBooks
however if you have more than 10
customers to setup in QuickBooks I
recommend that you proceed to the next
section of this lesson how to set up
customers using an Excel or CSV file for
the purposes of this video we will use a
fictitious company called Paul's
plumbing as you view this video think
about how the information might differ
for your business once you've signed in
to your quickbooks online account go
ahead and navigate to the customer
center on the left hand menu bar and
then we want to go ahead and click the
new customer button to the far right
this is our new customer setup window
first you want to enter the customers
first and last name this would be for
individual customers if you have a
business that you are setting up your
commercial customers then you want to go
ahead and enter the company name right
below this field here the display name
field will automatically populate based
on the information that was entered
above either in the first or last name
or the company name field the address
tab is where you enter the billing
address for your customer this should be
the mailing address where you send your
customers their invoices we also have a
field if you ship products to your
customers there is a separate field to
enter a shipping address
all you have to do is actually remove
the check mark here and complete these
fields with the shipping address
information however if the bill - when
the ship two edges are exactly the same
you want to go ahead and put that check
mark back there alright so that is it
for address tab let's go over to the
payment and billing tab and this first
field preferred payment method you can
indicate here what method your customer
prefers to pay with if it is a credit
card then you can enter the credit card
information here so you have it on file
while it is convenient to keep your
customer's credit card information on
file so that you don't have to ask for
it every time it is also imperative that
you safeguard this information for
example if you have multiple users who
access QuickBooks data be sure that you
limit access to only those who actually
need this information preferred delivery
method you can indicate here what method
your customer prefers to receive their
invoices during the lesson on how to set
up invoices sales receipts and estimates
we walk through how to set up default
delivery methods for all customers the
options here are to print late print
later or send later print later will
allow you to print your customers
invoice and mailed it later sin later
will allow you to email your customers
their invoices if you want to change the
default delivery method for a customer
this is where you want to do that
payment terms in the setting up invoices
sales receipt and estimates lesson we
set up default payment terms for all
customers if you want to change the
default payment terms for any customer
you're able to do so in the customer
profile here as well so for this
customer we will go ahead and set terms
of net 30 the opening balance field can
be used to enter an outstanding balance
for a customer for example if you are
converting from another bookkeeping
system to QuickBooks and your customer
has some outstanding invoices then you
can enter the total outstanding balance
here when you set them up in QuickBooks
when that customer sends you a check you
can apply it to the opening balance in
books if you'd like to learn more about
offering payment terms and invoicing
terms click this link some additional
information that you may want to keep
track of in QuickBooks are notes tax
information and attachments let's start
with the notes tab you can enter any
additional information here that you
would like to keep track of for your
customer
for example additional contact names and
telephone numbers this information is
for internal purposes and will not be
visible to your customers tax info you
could enter your customers resale number
in this field this will be for customers
who are not subject to sales tax and the
attachment tab you are able to attach
any documents that you would like to
keep on file for this customer so for
example if you ask the customer to
provide you with a copy of their resell
permit then you could attach it to their
customer profile here also any Sun
contracts or copies of email
correspondence would be great to keep on
file as well once we've completed this
information we can go ahead and save it
and we can go back to the customer
center and take a look at our customer
that we just set up so this is John
Smith if we go back to the initial
customer center page and scroll down to
John Smith you can easily edit the
information by clicking the name of the
customer here and then over to the right
we've got an edit button that we can go
ahead and select and that will take us
back to the screen where we can edit any
of the information that we just entered
once you've made any changes that are
necessary you can save that information
so that wraps up the lesson on how to
manually set up customers in QuickBooks
Online if you have more than 10
customers to set up in QuickBooks I
recommend that you put the information
in an Excel document and import the data
into quickbooks online this will save
you a lot of time over manually setting
up customers in QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks allows you to catch
a lot of data about customers but the
key feels that you should include in
your Excel or CSV file are the first and
last name for individual customers the
company name for a business or your
commercial customers email address
telephone number and billing address
don't worry about the format of the
spreadsheet just make sure that you
include these key fields in the
spreadsheet once you have your
spreadsheet ready you are ready to
import the data into QuickBooks to
import into QuickBooks
we want to go ahead and go to the
customer center and we want to click the
drop-down to the right of new customer
and select import customers on this next
screen you want to navigate to the
location where you have your import file
saved so go ahead and click browse
locate the file and once you've located
the file click on it and then click open
make sure that the file name is
populated in the field there and if so
we can go ahead and move to the next
screen if you want to see a sample excel
file just click the download a sample
file here keep in mind that there is no
need to reformat your spreadsheet in the
next step we are going to map the data
so that QuickBooks will pull the right
data from your spreadsheet in this
screen we are going to tell QuickBooks
which field in the spreadsheet to pull
the customer information from by doing
this we will ensure that the information
is imported into the right fields in
QuickBooks so the first field is name in
QuickBooks on the right hand side where
it says your field these are the fields
that are pulling from our import file if
you click the drop down you will see the
column headings there and so notice that
customer name is what we want to match
to this name field so we've got the
green check mark there if we look at the
drop-down and we look at the columns we
do not have any company information in
this field so we want to go ahead and
select no match next field is email
and so for the email we do have an email
address in this field and so we're gonna
match that to customer email phone
number once again if you click the
drop-down you'll notice we do not have a
phone number field for in our
spreadsheet but we do have a cell number
so we'll go ahead and say no match for
phone number drop down to the mobile
field and we want the cell number column
to be pulled for that perfect we don't
have a fax number in this spreadsheet so
this will be a no match again and same
for website no website information so no
match the next field is the address we
do have that street address match
we've got city state and zip so
everything with a green checkmark will
import into QuickBooks so you should
have noticed a couple things the fields
in your spreadsheet do not have to match
the field names exactly in QuickBooks so
notice in QuickBooks it says name we've
got customer name and that's perfectly
fine QuickBooks is more concerned about
pulling the data than the actual column
name that we have the other thing that
you might notice is we are able to have
additional information in our
spreadsheet that may not be imported
into QuickBooks and so that's fine as
well just indicate the no match weather
we have the information in the file or
whether we don't you can put the no
match there and that will work for that
once we have completely mapped the data
we are ready to go to the next screen to
confirm before we import so in this
screen this is our final opportunity to
review the data and how it will import
into QuickBooks we want to be sure to
double check that the number of Records
agree with our spreadsheet so on this
screen as you can see it says ten
records are ready to be imported so we
want to make sure that that's how many
customers we have in our spreadsheet and
make sure that matches the other thing
that we want to do is we want to vary
five that the information is in the
correct fields does the name fuel have
the customer name does the email address
field have email address info in it
mobile Street so on and so forth so we
want to make sure that the information
is going to import properly into
QuickBooks if for some reason something
is incorrect and we need to change it
you can click that back button now we're
ready to import so click the import
button and so at the top it says nine
out of nine customers have successfully
imported you may need to change some
information for a customer and so you
can do that at any time in QuickBooks
you want to go ahead and make sure
you're in the customer center and then
you simply can just click on the
customers name and it will take us to
that customers profile if you go up to
the edit button and click that we are
back at this screen where we can change
any of this information that we need to
and then we can save our changes
similar to products and services you
cannot delete a customer once you have
used them in a transaction so for
example once you've created an invoice
for a customer that is considered a
transaction this invoice or transaction
is linked to financial statement and
those financial statements will be used
when you file your taxes however if you
decide you no longer will do business
with the customer you can inactivate a
customer just like you can for products
and services in activate will simply
hide the customer from the customer
Center but they will still appear in all
financial workers if there's been a
transaction to inactivate a customer
from the customer center select the
customer and then click on the drop down
arrow to the right and you go ahead and
select make inactive QuickBooks wants to
confirm that this is the action that we
want to take and so we'll say yes and so
now our customer is no longer appearing
on the list here that wraps up the
section on how to set up customers and
QuickBooks Online
to access this course or any of the
others in the series just click this
link for a free 30-day trial of
QuickBooks Online click the links below
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