Customers

Contacts, sites & activities

A company has several contacts (purchasing, accounting, dispatch, management) with their own role and number – maintain them in the Contacts block. Billing and delivery addresses as well as branches with delivery windows belong in the Sites block. Call notes and follow-ups with a due date go into the Activities block – an overdue follow-up is flagged.

Status & category

The status reflects the lifecycle: Lead (not yet won), Quoted (opportunity from sales), Active (ongoing relationship) and Inactive (dormant). For Inactive you record the reason (price, quality, insolvency, dormant). The category groups the customer by segment and is filterable. The list lets you find customers via search, tab and filter – including customers without an owner.

Commercial master data & VAT ID

Customer number, VAT ID, tax number, payment terms, payment method, price group and credit limit are the basis on which downstream modules calculate. The customer number is assigned automatically on creation if you leave it empty. For intra-community supplies you confirm the VAT ID (qualified check at the tax office) and record the date and result.

Law & retention

Customer master data underlying invoices is part of the accounting records and must be retained (§ 257 HGB, § 147 AO: commercial letters 6, accounting vouchers 10 years from the end of the calendar year). Set the "Retain until" field and switch retired customers to Inactive instead of deleting them – a hard delete before the retention date is blocked. Changes stay traceable via "Changed by / Created by" (GoBD). Company data is not personal data, but contact persons and their details are (GDPR). The date and result of the sanctions-list and VAT-ID check also belong on the customer.

Who sees what

Admin and dispatcher create, edit, set the status, assign an owner and delete customers (after the retention date). An assigned owner may maintain their own customers even without full management rights. Drivers see the customer master read-only – enough to know where to drive and whom to call.

Part of these packs

• Freight — complete →For freight companies: orders, dispatch, ePOD, damages, drivers & time in one.
• Trade business →For trades & facility: customers, projects, appointments, maintenance & mandatory checks.
• Practice & surveys →For practices/institutes: questionnaires, analytics, appointments & contacts.