How To Add Customers In QuickBooks Pro

One critical aspect of setting up your QuickBooks Pro accounts is adding contacts. Without contacts, you’ll have no customers to invoice.

We already explained one method of adding customers in our How to Import Customers Into QuickBooks Pro article, but you can also add customers manually.

Follow these simple steps to add customers to QuickBooks.

Create A Contact

To add a customer in QuickBooks Pro, begin by going to Customers>Customer Center>New Customer & Job>New Customer.

Customer Information is divided into five sections: Address Info, Payment Settings, Sales Tax Settings, Additional Info, and Job Info. The only section that is truly required is Address Information, but we’ll go over each. We’ve divided this post to reflect these categories for easy navigation.

Step 1: Enter Contact’s Name

Type your contact’s name.

Step 2: Add An Opening Balance (optional)

You can add an opening balance for pre-existing customers.

If you add an opening balance, you’ll also need to select the “as of” date. You can click on the blue “How do I determine an opening balance?” link for more details.

Add Address Information

Step 3: Enter The Company Name

Add the company name associated with your contact.

Step 4: Write Contact’s Full Name

Enter your contact’s full name and title.

Step 5: Add Contact’s Job Title

Fill in your contact’s job title.

Step 6: Record Contact Details

Use the drop-down menus to save eight fields of contact details. You can choose to save the following contact information:

• Main Phone
• Home Phone
• Work Phone
• Mobile
• Alt. Phone
• Alt. Mobile
• Main Email
• CC Email
• Alt. Email 1
• Alt. Email 2
• Website
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Twitter
• URL 1
• URL 2
• URL 3
• URL 4
• Skype ID
• Other 1
• Other 2
• Other 3

Step 7: Add A Billing Address

Edit your contact’s address information.

Step 8: Add A Shipping Address

If your contact’s shipping address is the same as their billing address, click “Copy>>.” If not, fill in the proper shipping address now. Then click the blue “OK” button.

Adjust Payment Settings

Step 9: Add An Account Number

Add an account number for your contact (if applicable).

Step 10: Select Default Payment Terms

Select the proper default terms for your customer. These terms will appear on every estimate or invoice you send to your customer (though the defaults can be overridden or changed at any time). You can choose between:

• 1% 10 Net 30
• 2% 10 net 30
• Due on Receipt
• Net 15
• Net 30
• Net 60

Step 11: Select A Preferred Delivery Method

Choose a preferred delivery method that will be used when you send estimates and invoices to your contact. You can choose between:

• Email
• Mail
• None

Step 12: Set A Credit Limit

You can set an optional credit limit for your customer if desired.

Step 13: Select A Price Level

QuickBooks allows you to create price levels, which are basically a means of offering custom pricing for customers or jobs. You can add one now or click the blue question mark to learn more about this feature.

Step 14: Record Contact’s Credit Card Information

QuickBooks Pro gives you the option to save a contact’s credit card information if desired. You can add the credit card number, expiration date, name on card, address, and zip code.

Step 15: Enable Payments

You can opt to let your customers pay you via credit card or bank transfer. You’ll need to create a QuickBooks Payments account first. Once you’ve created an account, click the appropriate boxes for how you want your customer to pay (or come back and edit this later).

Edit Sales Tax Settings

Step 16: Include A Customer Tax Code

In order to save a default sales tax rate to your customer, you’ll need to select “Tax” from the Tax Code drop-down menu. If you don’t want to charge sales tax to this customer, select “Non.”

Step 17: Select A Default Sales Tax

Select a default sales tax to charge your customer (you can override the default when creating estimates and invoices).

Step 18: Add A Resale Number

You can choose to add a resale number if you’d like.

Add Additional Info

Step 19: Specify A Customer Type

Use the drop-down menu to note where this customer came from. You can choose a pre-made option or add your own.

Step 20: Link To A Sales Rep

If you want to link this customer to a specific sales representative, choose the appropriate employee using the drop-down menu.

Step 21: Create Custom Fields

You can create a custom field for your contact. Click the “Define Fields” button in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. Then write a label for your custom field and select whether that custom field applies to customers, vendors, or employees.

Record Job Info

Step 22: Enter A Job Description

Add a job description for the project attached to your customer.

Step 23: Choose A Job Type

Choose the job type or add your own by selecting Add New.

Step 24: Set A Job Status

Set a current status for this project. You can choose between:

• None
• Pending
• Awarded
• In progress
• Closed
• Not awarded

Step 25: Mark The Start Date, Projected End Date, & End Date

Use the calendars to set a project start date, projected end date, and end date (if available).

Step 26: Save The Contact

Finally, you can save your contact by clicking the blue “OK” button on the bottom of the screen.

You can view your customer list or go back to the Customer Center to make sure the customer saved correctly. Repeat this process as many times as needed until all of your customers are successfully added to your QuickBooks account.

If you have any troubleshooting issues, check out the QuickBooks Community or call QuickBooks directly. Don’t forget to check out the rest of our QuickBooks Desktop Pro 101 Series to learn how to import customers, add employees, create an invoice, and more.

Overwhelmed by QuickBooks Pro? Maybe it’s time to switch to QuickBooks Online. QBO is easy to use, cloud-based, and affordable. Best of all, you can easily import your QuickBooks Desktop data into QuickBooks Online. Check out our full review on QuickBooks Online for more details.

Outgrown QuickBooks Pro? Switch to QuickBooks Premier. It’s the same QuickBooks Desktop software you love but with more users and advanced, industry-specific features, which we cover in our QuickBooks Premier review.