Adding and Editing Customers

A customer is a business or person who purchases products or services from you.  You must first add a customer before you can create invoices or record any payments from that customer.

A customer is different than a vendor. A vendor is a business or person who you pay for products or services, such as a supplier or a subcontractor. See Adding and Editing Vendors for more information.

If you’re setting up a new Patriot account and have used a former accounting system, you can import your customer information into Patriot Software instead of manually entering each one.  For details, see Importing Customers into Patriot Software.  You can add unlimited vendors and customers in the accounting software, but you’ll need a USA-based address if adding 

To Add a Customer

If you have not yet added any customers:  Accounting > Receivables  > Add a Customer

If you have already added a customer: Accounting > Receivables  > Customers > Add New.

• Your customer may be a business or an individual.  You can fill in some or all of the fields depending on the situation.
• Enter the customer’s business name, if applicable.
• Enter the first and last name of the person to contact, if applicable.  You must enter either the business name or the first and last name.
• Enter the remaining customer contact information. Only USA-based addresses are accepted.
• Payment Reminder Emails:  You can set up automatic payment reminder emails to be sent when invoices are past due.  For more details, see Setting Your Invoice Payment Reminder Emails.
• Default Payment Terms:  This is an optional field you can use if you want to set custom payment terms for this customer that is different from your standard payment terms.  For more details, see Setting Your Invoice Payment Terms.
• Click Save or Save and Add Another.

You can now view the customer record. You will see the following links across the top of each customer record.
“Info” shows the customer’s contact information. 
“Invoices” shows a summary list of all invoices just for this customer.
“Unpaid Invoices” shows the Unpaid Invoices Report, just for this customer.
“Invoice Detail” shows the Invoice Detail Report, just for this customer.
“Payments” shows the Customer Payment History Report, just for this customer.
“Attachments” are files you can attach to this customer’s record, for reference and an Accounting Premium feature. For more details, see Adding Attachments to Vendors and Customers.
“Credits” shows a list of any credits you have issued to this customer.  For more details, see Issuing a Credit to Your Customer.

To edit customer information:

• From your list of Customers, click the customer name.
• Click Edit.
• Make your changes and click Save.

To inactivate a customer:

• From your list of Customers, click the customer name.
• In the customer’s “Info” page, click Edit.
• Uncheck the Active? box.
• Click Save.

To delete a new customer:

• Find the customer in your list of Customers.
• Click the Delete (trashcan) icon beside the customer name at the end of the row. The Delete icon will only be visible if you have not yet invoiced a customer or issued a credit.
• Click either Yes or No to confirm.

To export your customer list:

You can export all customers that are added in the software by going to Accounting > Receivables > Customers. Click the Download Spreadsheet link to get a CSV of the customers displayed on your screen.