83 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
83 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
# Customer
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A customer, who is sometimes known as a client, buyer, or purchaser is the one
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who receives goods, services, products, or ideas, from a seller for a monetary
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consideration. A customer can also receive goods or services from a vendor or
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a supplier for other valuable considerations.
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A customer is uniquely identified by the Customer ID. Normally this ID is identical to the customer Full Name, but in case of duplicate Full Name, a Name-1 is created as ID.
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You can either directly create your Customers via
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> Selling > Customer
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<img class="screenshot" alt="Create Customer" src="{{docs_base_url}}/assets/img/crm/create-customer.gif">
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or upload it via the [Data Import Tool](/docs/user/manual/en/setting-up/data/data-import-tool.html).
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A Customer can avail the features (operations) in the selling process. The general flow can be summarised as:
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<img class="screenshot" alt="Customer" src="{{docs_base_url}}/assets/img/crm/customer-to selling-flowchart.jpeg">
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> Note: Customers are separate from Contacts and Addresses. A Customer can
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have multiple Contacts and Addresses.
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### Contacts and Addresses
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[Contacts and Addresses](/docs/user/manual/en/CRM/contact.html) in ERPNext are stored separately so that you can
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attach multiple Contacts or Addresses to Customers and Suppliers
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Thus we may have identical Customer Names that are uniquely identified by the ID. Since the email address is not part of the
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customer information, the linking of Customer and User is through Contacts.
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### Integration with Accounts
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In ERPNext, there is a separate Account record for each Customer, for each
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Company.
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When you create a new Customer, ERPNext will automatically create an Account
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Ledger for the Customer under “Accounts Receivable” in the Company set in the
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Customer record.
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> Advanced Tip: If you want to change the Account Group under which the
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Customer Account is created, you can set it in the Company master. If you want
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to create an Account in another Company, just change the Company value and
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“Save” the Customer again.
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By default, the system does not generate an account for every customer. All
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Customers can be booked in one account called Debtors. In order to manage a
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separate account for each customer, you have to first create the account under
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Accounts Receivable in the [Chart of Accounts](/docs/user/manual/en/accounts/chart-of-accounts.html) and then add it on the customer's
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form accounts table.
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### Customer Settings
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You can link a Price List to a Customer (select “Default Price List”), so that
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when you select that Customer, the Price List will be automatically selected.
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You can set “Credit Days”, so that it is automatically set due date in the Sales
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Invoices made against this Customer. Credit Days can be defined as fixed days or last day of the next month based on invoice date.
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You can set how much credit you want to allow for a Customer by adding the
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“Credit Limit”. You can also set a global “Credit Limit” in the Company
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master. Classifying Customers
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ERPNext allows you to group your Customers using [Customer Group](/docs/user/manual/en/CRM/setup/customer-group.html)
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and also divide them into [Territories](/docs/user/manual/en/setting-up/territory.html)
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Grouping will help you get better analysis of your data and
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identify which Customers are profitable and which are not. Territories will
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help you set sales targets for the respective territories.
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You can also mention [Sales Person](/docs/user/manual/en/CRM/setup/sales-person.html) against a customer.
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### Sales Partner
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A Sales Partner is a third party distributor / dealer / commission agent /
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affiliate / reseller who sells the companies products, for a commission. This
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is useful if you make the end sale to the Customer, involving your Sales
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Partner.
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If you sell to your Sales Partner who in-turn sells it to the Customer, then
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you must make a Customer instead.
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{next}
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