# Introduction - Customers

A single customer record behind every quote, invoice and ticket.

**Video coming soon:** A tour of the Customers module: one record, and everywhere it reaches.

A customer is a person or business you sell to. Every sales document points at a customer record, and the record collects everything about them: addresses, contacts, terms, and the documents themselves.

Finance, Inventory and Repairs share the customer list, so a customer opened in one app is the same customer everywhere.

![The Customers screen. A table lists each customer with columns for Name, Company, Email, Work Phone, Mobile Number, Receivables in base currency and Unused Credits in base currency, above a footer reading Showing 1 to 25 of 30 results.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/customers/customer-list.png)

*The customer list. Receivables and unused credits sit side by side, which is the pair to read before chasing anyone.*

## What the record holds

A customer is four things kept together. Each one is edited in its own place on the customer page, and each one reaches a different part of the product.

- **Identity** (who they are): Display name, currency and tax treatment. The display name is what every document prints.
- **Addresses** (where things go): One billing address for invoices and tax, and any number of shipping addresses for orders and deliveries.
- **Contact people** (who you email): Humans with their own addresses. Documents go to contacts, never to the customer record itself.
- **Terms and balance** (how you trade): Payment terms, the credit limit you have recorded, and what they currently owe or hold in credit.

## A customer is not a vendor

Somebody you both sell to and buy from needs two records, and that is deliberate rather than an oversight. The two sides post to different accounts, age in different reports and are chased by different people. Keeping them apart is what stops a purchase netting silently against a sale.

> **Tip:**
>
> **Give them matching display names**
>
> Two records for one company is correct, but only findable if both are called the same thing. Match the names exactly and the pair turns up together in search.

## Where a customer shows up

| In | They appear as | Which means |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Sales documents | The party the document is raised against. | Every quote, order, invoice, payment and credit note points at one. |
| Reports | A row in receivables ageing and sales by customer. | Their balance is only as right as their allocations. |
| Inventory | The destination on packages and shipments. | Shipping addresses come from this record. |
| Repairs | The owner of a service ticket. | The same record, opened from another app. |
| The portal | A sign-in, if a contact is given access. | They see their own documents and can accept quotes. |