Your First Customer

This page walks you through adding your first customer and setting up something to bill them for. It covers the essentials only. For the full details on every field and option, see Customers.

What You Need

Before you start, make sure you have:

• A logged-in account with permission to add customers
• The customer’s name, address and email
• Details of what you’re billing them for (see below)

If you’ve set up default values, the platform pre-fills common fields for you.

Add Your First Customer

1. Check the customer doesn’t already exist. Type their name or company into the SmartSearch box in the left-hand menu and press Enter.
2. If no match is found, click Add New Customer from the main menu
3. Enter the customer’s name, address and email
4. Set the billing cycle (Monthly is the most common) and payment terms
5. Click Save

The platform creates the account and shows the customer details page. You can now add numbers or services depending on what you’re billing for.

For full details on all customer fields, billing settings and status options, see Customers. For a task-based guide with best practices, see Managing Customers.

Set Up Billing

The platform handles two types of billing. Most customers need one or both.

Numbers (usage-based billing)

Use numbers when you’re billing for telephone calls, SIP channels, broadband or anything else with usage data. Each number has a tariff that controls how usage charges are calculated.

1. From the customer details page, click Add > Number in the menu bar
2. Enter the telephone number
3. Set the Number Type. For UK non-geographic numbers, “Auto Detect” works out the correct type for you.
4. Choose a tariff from the dropdown
5. Set the Date Sold to the date billing should start
6. Click Save

The platform creates the number and its call plan. You can also attach recurring charges (such as line rental) as features.

For full details, see Numbers or the Managing Numbers guide.

Services (non-usage billing)

Use services when you’re billing for things that don’t involve usage data: hosting, support contracts, software licences, hardware rental or any other recurring or one-off charge.

1. From the customer details page, click Add > Service in the menu bar
2. Choose a Service Type
3. Enter a name and description
4. Click Save
5. Add charges to the service by clicking Add > Feature and entering the charge details

For full details, see Services and Features.

What’s Next

Now that you have a customer set up for billing, here are your next steps:

• Add contacts if other people at the customer’s organisation need to receive bills or updates. See Contacts.
• Set up default values to speed up data entry for future customers. See Managing Default Values.
• Run your first bill when you’re ready. See Billing and Invoicing for how billing runs work.