# Create a customer

Adding the person or business a repair belongs to, either up front or in the middle of booking a job in.

A customer can be created before anybody walks in, or in the middle of booking a job when it turns out they are new. The second route matters more than it sounds: it is what stops somebody typing a name into the ticket and moving on.

> **Before you start:**
>
> A contact name, an email address and a delivery address. Everything else has a default you can revisit.

## Highlights

- **Add one without leaving the ticket** using the plus beside the customer picker.
- **The addresses do real work**: one bills, the other receives the repaired equipment.
- **Terms of payment set every due date** on every invoice you raise for them.
- **A credit limit is optional** and worth setting for anybody taking on large jobs.
- **Extra people go in Other Contacts**, not in a second customer record.

## Create one

![The Create Customer screen with a breadcrumb reading Sales, Customers, Create. A Primary Contact section holds Salutation, First Name and a required Last Name, then Department, Title, Mobile Number and Work Phone with dialling code pickers, Email and Social Media. A Basic Details section holds a Type choice of two buttons reading Business and Individual with Business selected, then Company, Website and a required Display As field. An Other Details section below holds Tax Treatment set to VAT-UK and a VAT Reg. Number with a GB prefix. The footer holds Attachments, Cancel and Save Customer.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/repairs/resources/customer-create.png)

*The create form opens on the person, not the company. Display As is what every document will call them.*

- **Go to Customers and select the Customer button**

  Or, if you are already booking a ticket in, select the plus beside the **Customer** picker and stay where you are.
- **Enter the primary contact and how to reach them**

  A last name is required; the rest of the block is the email address and the phone number your workshop will actually use to chase an estimate.
- **Choose whether they are a business or an individual, and set Display As**

  A business carries a company name; an individual does not. **Display As** is required and is the name every ticket, quote and invoice will show, so make it the one your team would search for.
- **Enter the billing address**

  Where invoices go. For a larger customer this is often an accounts department at a different site.
- **Enter the shipping address**

  Where repaired equipment goes back to. Copy the billing address only if you are sure they are the same.
- **Set the terms of payment**

  This decides the due date on every invoice they are sent, so it is worth agreeing before the first one.
- **Select Save**

  The customer can now be chosen on a ticket.

> **Warning:**
>
> **Do not create a second record for the same customer**
>
> A duplicate splits the repair history, so the machine you fixed last year is invisible when the same one comes back. Search the list first, including under a trading name that may differ from the one on the delivery note. If somebody needs their own contact details, add them under **Other Contacts** on the existing record.

> **Tip:**
>
> **The portal invitation is worth sending**
>
> **Invite to Portal** on the customer's profile lets them see their own documents rather than ringing to ask. For a customer sending equipment in regularly, it removes a standing interruption from your week.