Creating Customer Records

A complete Customer record gives sales, finance, and service teams one reliable place for the customer's identity, contacts, addresses, pricing, payment terms, tax settings, and credit controls. These details can flow into quotations, orders, invoices, statements, and payments.

Use this guide to create a Customer, confirm its defaults, test the result, and maintain the record without creating duplicates.

Before you start

• You need permission to create and edit Customer, Contact, and Address records.

• Confirm the customer's legal or trading name.

• Confirm whether the customer is a company, individual, or partnership.

• Confirm the correct Customer Group and Territory when your NexWave setup lets users select them. These values support reporting and customer selection.

• Collect the main contact's name, email address, and phone number.

• Collect each billing and shipping address. Confirm which address is the default for each purpose.

• Confirm the selling currency, price list, payment terms, tax details, and credit policy with the people who own these settings.

Do not create a second Customer only because a contact, address, or trading name changed. Search first, then update the existing record when it represents the same customer.

1. Check for an existing Customer

1. Use the search bar to open Customer.

2. Search for the customer's legal name, trading name, or a distinctive part of the name.

3. Open any possible match and check its Address & Contact tab.

4. Compare its contacts, email addresses, postal addresses, and tax details with the information you received.

If the record represents the same organisation or person, update it. If two records already represent the same customer, review the merge steps under Maintain a Customer record before you create any transactions.

2. Create the Customer

1. From the Customer list, click Add Customer.

2. Enter the legal or trading name in Customer Name.

3. Select Customer Type:

   • Company for a registered business or organisation.

   • Individual for a person who buys in their own name.

   • Partnership when this is the customer's legal structure.

4. Add the primary contact and address details when you have confirmed information and want NexWave to create these linked records with the Customer.

5. Click Save. If the quick-entry window does not show a field that you need, click Edit Full Form and complete it before you save.

New Customer quick-entry window with contact and address details

Customer Group and Territory can be applied automatically. If your NexWave setup shows these fields, check that they contain the correct values before staff use the Customer.

Use one consistent naming convention. Avoid informal abbreviations that make the record hard to find. Do not add a site, branch, or contact name to Customer Name unless it is part of the agreed customer identity.

3. Set the commercial defaults

Open the saved Customer and select Details.

1. Select Default Price List when the customer uses an agreed selling price list.

2. Select Billing Currency when the customer normally buys in a specific currency.

3. Click Save.

Customer details and commercial defaults

Leave a default blank when your team must choose it for each transaction. A customer default helps data entry, but staff can still need to check the value on each quotation, order, or invoice.

4. Add contacts and invoice recipients

Select Address & Contact.

To add a contact:

1. Click New Contact.

2. Enter First Name and Last Name.

3. Add the work email address under Email IDs and mark the main address as the primary email.

4. Add phone numbers under Contact Numbers.

5. Tick Is Primary Contact when this person is the main contact for the Customer.

6. Check Links and confirm that the Contact is linked to the Customer.

7. Click Save.

Add a separate linked Contact for each person who must receive sales documents or statements. Use clear contact details and confirm the recipients in the email window before you send a document.

Back on the Customer, select the main person in Customer Primary Contact. NexWave uses this selection when it fetches the primary contact and email into other records. If you edit the selected Contact later, reselect Customer Primary Contact and save the Customer so that its fetched details are current.

5. Add billing and shipping addresses

On Address & Contact, click New Address.

1. Enter a clear Address Title.

2. Select the correct Address Type, such as Billing or Shipping.

3. Enter Address Line 1, City/Town, Country, and Postal Code. Add the other available address details when they apply.

4. Check Links and confirm that the Address is linked to the Customer.

5. Click Save.

Completed billing address linked to a Customer

If the Address form shows Preferred Billing Address or Preferred Shipping Address, select the flag that matches the address purpose.

Create separate linked addresses when billing and delivery locations differ. Do not overwrite a billing address with a temporary delivery location. Add the delivery location as another Address instead.

Back on the Customer, select the normal address in Customer Primary Address. If you edit that Address later, reselect Customer Primary Address and save the Customer so that its fetched details are current.

6. Set tax details

Select Tax.

1. Enter the customer's tax registration or business number in Tax ID when your organisation records it.

2. Select Tax Category only when a configured category must control the customer's tax treatment.

3. Click Save.

Do not guess a tax number or category. Confirm it from an approved source. A wrong tax default can affect every new sales transaction for the customer.

7. Set payment terms, accounts, and credit controls

Select Accounting.

1. Select Default Payment Terms Template when the customer has agreed payment terms.

2. Add a Credit Limit row for the correct company when your credit policy requires a limit.

3. Select On Credit Hold only when your approved credit-control process requires it.

4. Use Accounts only when the customer needs a non-standard receivable account. Most customers should use the normal company receivable account.

5. Click Save.

Payment terms and credit controls

Review the payment terms and credit limit with the finance owner before you use the Customer. Do not increase a credit limit only to let one order proceed. Follow your organisation's credit approval process.

8. Review the Customer before use

Complete this check before staff create live transactions:

• Customer Name, Customer Type, Customer Group, and Territory are correct.

• Default Price List and Billing Currency match the commercial agreement, or are intentionally blank.

• The main Contact is linked and selected in Customer Primary Contact.

• The primary email is correct. Any additional invoice or statement recipients are stored as separate linked Contacts.

• Billing and shipping addresses are separate where needed. Address Type, Links, and any available preferred flags are correct.

• Tax ID and Tax Category are correct, or are intentionally blank.

• Default Payment Terms Template, Credit Limit, and Accounts follow the approved finance settings.

• Disabled and Is Frozen are not selected for an active Customer unless there is an approved reason.

Create a draft quotation, sales order, or sales invoice as a final test. Select the Customer and check the contact, email, billing address, shipping address, currency, price list, payment terms, and tax result. Correct the Customer record before you submit a live transaction.

Maintain a Customer record

Update a contact or address

Open the linked Contact or Address from Address & Contact, make the change, and save it. Then return to the Customer, reselect Customer Primary Contact or Customer Primary Address when applicable, and save the Customer.

Keep old locations only when staff still need them for current work. Select Disabled on an Address that must no longer be used.

Rename the Customer

Use Menu > Rename when the same customer changes its legal or trading name. Check the result in the Customer list and on a draft sales transaction. A rename keeps links to the same business record.

Merge duplicate Customers

Choose which record must remain before you merge. Review both records for:

• open quotations, orders, invoices, payments, and credit notes;

• Contacts and Addresses;

• price list, currency, tax, payment-term, and credit settings;

• the name that staff must use after the merge.

Open the duplicate, select Menu > Rename, select the option to merge with an existing record, and choose the Customer that must remain. Complete the merge only when you have the required permission and are certain that both records represent the same customer.

After the merge, check linked transactions, Contacts, Addresses, balances, and a new draft sales transaction. A merge is not a substitute for correcting two genuinely different customers.

Stop new use without deleting history

Select Settings, tick Disabled, and save the Customer when it must not be used for new work. Use Is Frozen only when your credit-control process requires a transaction block.

Disabling or freezing a Customer keeps its history. Do not delete a Customer that is linked to business records.

Troubleshooting

Related documentation

• Selling

• Price Lists and Pricing Rules

• Sales Order to Despatch, Invoice & Payment Process

• Send Customer Statements

• Import Records with Data Import