Set Up Customers

Who pays you, besides your guests?

Most of your sales come through the POSPOSPoint of sale. The system you ring up checks on, like Toast or Square.. But if you cater an office lunch every Friday, sell pastries wholesale to the coffee shop down the street, or host private events, you’re sending invoices and waiting to get paid. In DishBooks, the people and businesses you bill are called customers.

Set up a customer once, and you can invoice them and record their payments without retyping their details every time.

Think of it this way: vendors are the people you pay. Customers are the people who pay you.

Before you start

• You only need a name. Everything else is optional, so you can add a customer in seconds and fill in the rest later.
• Handy to have: their billing address, a contact name, email and phone, and your payment terms (for example, Net 30).

Add a customer

1. Go to Sales → Customers and click + Create new (top right). No customers yet? Click + Create in the middle of the page.

   

2. Under Customer details, enter the Name. That’s the only required field. Add a Tax ID, Notes (like “Catering, Friday lunch”) and Terms (like “Net 30”) if you want them on file. Leave Active switched on.

3. Under Contact details, add their Primary Email and Phone. Billing someone different from your main contact? Click + Add contact to add more names and emails.

   

4. Scroll down to Address and enter where you send their invoices.

   

5. Click Save (top of the panel).

Your customer now shows up on the Customers page, with their email and phone, ready to pick when you create an invoice or record a payment.

Need to make a change?

On Sales → Customers, click the ⋮ at the end of the customer’s row and choose Edit. Update their details and click Save.

No longer working with them? Edit the customer and switch off Active. They’ll drop out of your list (which shows active customers by default), but their past invoices and payments stay put. Use Delete from the ⋮ menu only for a customer you added by mistake. DishBooks won’t delete a customer who has invoices, payments, credit memos or journal entriesJournal entryA record of money moving between GL accounts. Each one lists debits and credits that must be equal., so switch off Active instead.

Tips and common questions

Who counts as a customer?

Any person or business that owes you money on an invoice: catering clients, wholesale accounts, private event hosts, a sister restaurant you sell product to.

What should I set as terms?

Whatever you’ve agreed with that customer. Setting terms here means each invoice gets the right due date automatically.

Where did my inactive customers go?

The list shows Active customers by default. Click the × on the Active filter, or use Filter, to see everyone.

What’s next

With your customers set up, you’re ready to send invoices and record what they pay you.

Next up: Create an invoice