Customers
Your customers are the businesses (or individuals) you sell to. Every sale starts here.
Add a new customer
Customer → New:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Customer Name | The name you want shown on invoices |
| Customer Type | Company or Individual |
| Customer Group | For grouping in reports (Wholesale, Retail, Online, …) |
| Territory | Country or region — drives default tax |
| Default Currency | EUR for Dutch businesses; override per customer if they invoice in another currency |
Useful extras
- Tax ID — their BTW number (validated against EU VIES if EU)
- Electronic Address — KvK or BTW number, needed for PEPPOL e-invoicing
- Default Payment Terms — "30 days net" or whatever you grant them
- Default Sales Person — auto-assigns them to the right salesperson
Adding contacts and addresses
A customer can have several contacts and addresses (Billing, Shipping, Office). Scroll to Contacts or Addresses on the customer form, click +, fill in. Mark one of each as Primary — invoices go to the Primary Billing; deliveries to the Primary Shipping.
Credit limits
Set a Credit Limit to stop accepting new orders from customers whose outstanding balance is too high. ERPNext will block a new Sales Order if outstanding + new order exceeds the limit. Override per role on the Customer Group if a manager should be allowed to push through.
Importing many customers at once
For migration or bulk-add:
- Data Import → New
- Document Type: Customer
- Download the template, fill in the spreadsheet, upload
- ERPNext validates each row and imports; errors are shown per row
Viewing customer activity
Open any customer. The right panel shows recent transactions, outstanding amount and total business. Scroll down for a timeline of every contact, document and email.