Customers

Add a customer

Every invoice and quote is addressed to a customer, so add the people and companies you bill first. Their details are copied onto each invoice when you issue it.

1. 1Open Customers in the top bar.
2. 2Click New customer. The form opens above the list.
3. 3Enter the Name * — the only required field — and pick the Country first, because the tax ID label and the tax rules follow it.
4. 4Fill in the tax ID (the label changes with the country, for example NIF for Spain), the VAT number (intra-EU) for business customers in another EU country, the Email and the address.
5. 5Choose the Invoice language: the language their PDFs, emails and legal tax wording come out in.
6. 6Click Save.

If the VAT number doesn’t match the usual pattern for the country, the form shows This does not look like a valid VAT number for this country. You can still save, but an intra-EU reverse-charge invoice to that customer won’t issue until the number looks right. Type it with or without the country prefix (DE123456789 or 123456789).

The Invoice language is independent of the language you use the app in. You can work in English and still send a Spanish customer invoices in Spanish.

Check a VAT number with VIES

VIES is the European Commission’s register of VAT numbers. A VIES-validated number is your evidence that the customer is a VAT-registered business, which is what lets you invoice them under the intra-EU reverse charge without charging VAT.

1. 1Save the customer with their VAT number and an EU country.
2. 2Click Edit on the customer again.
3. 3Click Check with VIES under the VAT number.

• •Valid: VIES confirms the number and usually shows the registered name. The customer is stamped VIES-validated with today’s date, and invoices to them stop showing the “not VIES-validated” hint.
• •VIES says this VAT number is not valid: the number isn’t registered for intra-EU trade. Check it with your customer; if they aren’t VAT-registered, invoice them with domestic VAT instead.
• •Could not reach VIES or VIES could not check this number right now: the EU service or the member state’s registry is down. This says nothing about the number — try again later.

The button only appears for customers in an EU country, and only checks the saved number. If you edit the number, the form says Save the customer first, then check the number. Changing a saved number also clears its old validation. UK, Swiss and other non-EU numbers can’t be checked with VIES.

Set a customer’s invoice defaults

Under Invoice defaults you can decide in advance how this customer’s invoices are taxed. Whatever you set here is filled in when you pick the customer on a new invoice or quote, and you can still change it on the document.

• •Tax treatment: leave on Automatic to work it out from the customer’s country and VAT number, or fix one treatment for this customer. See Tax treatments and IRPF.
• •Tax note (printed on the invoice): leave blank for the standard wording of the treatment, or type your own. Your text is only used while the invoice keeps the treatment it was written for.
• •IRPF withholding: Automatic applies IRPF only when both you and the customer are in Spain and IRPF is on in your tax settings; Apply always withholds, at the IRPF % you enter here (blank means your default rate); Do not apply never does — useful for private individuals.

Defaults only fill in new documents. Drafts you already saved keep their own choices.

Give a customer a negotiated discount

If you’ve agreed a special price with a customer, record it under Product discounts so you don’t have to remember it on every invoice.

1. 1Click + Add discount (you need at least one product in your catalogue).
2. 2Pick the product, choose Percent % or a fixed amount off per unit, and enter the value.
3. 3Click Save.

Each product can have one discount per customer. When you pick that product on an invoice line for this customer, the discount is filled into the line’s Discount column, where you can still change it.

Add a customer while writing an invoice

You don’t have to leave the invoice. In the Customer field, type the new name and choose Add customer at the bottom of the list. A short form asks for the name, tax ID, country and invoice language — enough to invoice them — and selects the new customer when you save.

Add the email, address and VAT number later under Customers. Do it before you issue: an issued invoice keeps the customer details it was issued with.

Edit or archive a customer

Click Edit on any row to change a customer. Changes apply to drafts and to everything you issue from now on; invoices already issued keep the name, tax ID and address printed on them, as the law requires.

Customers can’t be deleted, because issued invoices refer to them. Click Archive instead: the customer is greyed out in the list and no longer offered when you create invoices and quotes. Click Restore to bring them back.