Customer
A Customer (also known as client/buyer/purchaser) is an individual or a company, which receives goods, services, a product or an idea, and makes a payment of some kind to a seller. The customer is central to the CRM and Selling modules in ERPNext, so you can manage sales, billing, customer history, and interaction in an organized and structured way.
Each customer will have to be given a unique identifier within the system. This may either be the Customer Name itself or automatically generated Customer ID based on an agreed-upon naming series specified in Selling Settings. A regular naming scheme allows for proper tracking and avoiding duplication across the database.
To get to the Customer list, go to:
Or
1. Creating a Customer
- Go to the Customer list and press New.
- Type the Full Name of the customer.
- In the Type field, choose:
- Individual → if the customer is an individual.
- Company → where the customer is an organization.
- Choose a Customer Group. (ERPNext defaults with Individual, Commercial, Non-Profit, and Government. You can also define custom groups based on your company requirements.)
- Choose the Territory that the customer belongs to.
- If the customer is being created from an existing lead, choose it in the From Lead field to keep the relationship and history intact.
- Save the record.
You can also deactivate a customer account so that sales orders or invoices cannot be placed against it. It is useful when a customer is inactive, blacklisted or he/she has some compliance outstanding.
Advanced Tip: If the customer is one of your own companies within a multi-company structure, check the "Is Internal Customer" checkbox. This enables you to handle inter-company transactions like internal sales and billing in a smooth manner. (See Inter Company Invoices for setup information.)
Bulk Customer Creation
If there is a need to onboard many customers in a single go, their information can be uploaded through ERPNext's Data Import Tool. The template accommodates name, type, group, territory, contact information, and tax details, allowing bulk onboarding to be done swiftly and easily.
2. Features
The overall order of transactions for a customer would usually begin from Lead Creation → Quotation → Sales Order → Delivery Note → Sales Invoice → Payment Entry, with each step being connected in ERPNext for complete traceability. This makes each customer touchpoint recorded and all associated documents interlinked for seamless order completion and reporting.
Note: ERPNext customers are distinct from Contacts and Addresses. A customer record can be assigned more than one contact and address, and thus there is more flexibility in handling relationships—particularly for big organizations or customers with presence at different locations.
2.1 Multiple Contacts and Addresses
Contacts and Addresses in ERPNext are maintained independently of the customer master. That is:
- You can associate multiple contacts to one customer with their respective phone numbers, emails, and designations.
- You can also associate multiple addresses—i.e., billing, shipping, and branch office addresses—under the same customer.
- Segmentation makes data more consistent and reduces the effort of updating common contact information without altering numerous records.
2.2 Provide option to create Sales Invoice without Sales Order and Delivery Note
If your company policy in Selling Settings needs a Sales Order or Delivery Note to be created prior to a Sales Invoice, ERPNext lets you override this setting at the Customer level:
- Turn on "Allow Sales Invoice Creation Without Sales Order" to invoice customers directly without creating a sales order.
- Turn on "Allow Sales Invoice Creation Without Delivery Note" to bypass delivery paperwork in situations such as digital products or instant billing. This option is helpful for particular customers with special orders or repeat transactions.
2.3 Set Tax Withholding Category
You can add a Tax Withholding Category to the customer master to apply, programmatically, applicable TCS (Tax Collected at Source) or any other equivalent withholding regulations to transactions. This is helpful for tax compliance and avoids manual entry mistakes.
2.4 Default Currency and Price List
The multi-currency transactions and using multiple price lists applicable to different customer segments or geographic locations are supported in ERPNext. Under customer master:
- Billing Currency: Default currency is to be selected, in which quotations, sales orders and bills against this customer will be done.
- Default Price List: Choose a price list that is configured in advance so that when goods are sold to this customer, the price involved will automatically appear, and there is no selection of choice.
2.5 Accounts Integration
Having no separate ledger names to an individual customer I like creating a single combined ledger to all the customers which is the default practice of ERPNext, and you do not need to create a separate ledger name to the individual customer. yet on condition:
- Under Chart of Accounts you can open a separate ledger of a customer under **Accounts Receivable as a separate new account.
- And then attach this ledger within the Accounting tab of the customer record.
Advanced Tip: ERPNext has multi-company accounting, and you can use the same customer for many companies. As ledgers are company-specific, you have to choose the appropriate company and corresponding ledger in the Accounting section when creating an independent ledger.
2.6 Credit Limit and Payment Terms
You can specify a Credit Limit for every customer in the Credit Limit field, where the maximum amount outstanding will be controlled before additional transactions are prevented.
- It is possible to program ERPNext to automatically cancel order creation or invoice when a limit on the credit is reached.
- You may also define Default Payment Terms in the customer master to have pre-agreed payment cycles applied uniformly in all sales documents.
2.7 Sales Team and Sales Partner
If you have one or more Sales Persons who take care of sales to a customer, you can put them under the SALES TEAM section of the customer record.
- When there are multiple sales persons, you can divide the contribution percentage among them such that the overall contribution adds up to 100%.
- Contribution percentages are utilized in ERPNext to determine sales commissions and performance reports for individual sales person.
Sales Partners are third parties like distributors, dealers, commission agents, affiliates, or resellers who assist in selling your products or services for a commission.
- If sales to the customer are arranged through a Sales Partner, you can choose the partner in the Sales Partner field and set the Commission Rate.
- ERPNext will then automatically compute the commission in transactions such as Sales Orders and Sales Invoices based on this rate.
2.8 Loyalty Program
ERPNext includes Loyalty Programs to reward repeat business customers and foster long-term relationships.
- You can associate a Loyalty Program directly in the customer account by choosing it in the Loyalty Program field.
- Once configured, the system will automatically utilize loyalty point calculations during sales transactions for the customer.
- Loyalty points are redeemable against future sales invoices as discounts or credit, subject to program settings.
2.9 View Accounting Ledger and Accounts Receivable
ERPNext provides simple access to a customer's financial history:
- Accounting Ledger: To view all accounting records for the customer, including invoices, payments, credit notes, and journal entries, click Accounting Ledger.
- Accounts Receivable: To view the list of outstanding invoices, amounts overdue, and aging analysis of the customer, click Accounts Receivable. This real-time visibility helps in proactive follow-ups and enhanced credit control.
2.10 Set Customer ID, Default Customer Group, Territory, and Price List
Under Selling Settings, you can specify how customer IDs are created:
- Naming Series: Choose this option under Customer Naming By to allow ERPNext to create unique customer IDs according to a preset naming series (e.g., CUST-.YYYY.-).
- Customer Name: Use this to directly use the customer's name as their ID. Should they enter a duplicate name, ERPNext will automatically add "-1" (or subsequent higher number) to make it unique.
You can also set the Default Customer Group, Territory, and Price List in Selling Settings. These defaults will apply automatically in case of insertion of new customers, a cost savings of data entry and uniformity of transactions.
To further customize you can use the Customize Form option to add new custom fields, re-name the field names or drop off unwanted fields in the Customer Doctype.