Create and Manage Customers

Use this workflow to create a customer that is ready for invoices and team follow-up, then keep the record accurate as the relationship changes.

Before You Start

• Select the correct team. Customer data is isolated by team.
• Confirm that you are an Owner or Member. Viewers cannot save changes.
• Search Customers for the name and email to avoid a duplicate.
• Gather the primary contact, invoice recipient, billing address, tax identifier, and any lifecycle tag your team uses.

1. Check for an Existing Customer

1. Open Customers.
2. Select All.
3. Clear any active tag or country filters.
4. Search the company name.
5. Repeat with the primary email and contact name if needed.
6. Open likely matches and compare their invoices, notes, and address.

Canvas allows duplicate names and emails. If the correct record exists, edit it rather than creating another customer.

2. Open the Customer Form

Select Create customer from the customer header or empty state.

You can also create a customer from the customer selector in an invoice. In that flow, Canvas returns to the invoice and selects the new customer after a successful save.

3. Enter the Required Identity

Under General:

1. Enter a customer name with at least two characters.
2. Enter a valid primary email.
3. Add a billing email when invoice messages should also go to a finance mailbox.
4. Add the contact person's name.
5. Add the phone and website when useful.

The primary email remains required even when a billing email is present.

When the primary email uses a company domain and the website is blank, the form fills the website with that domain. Personal-mail domains such as Gmail and Outlook are not used for this suggestion.

4. Add Billing Details

Expand Details.

1. Search for the customer's address, or enter the address manually.
2. Confirm Address Line 1 and optional Address Line 2.
3. Select the country and review its country code.
4. Enter the city, state or province, and postal code.
5. Add the tax ID or VAT number.
6. Select the tags that should organize the customer.
7. Add a general internal note when the relationship needs persistent context.

The address search fills available fields, but it does not replace review. Verify the country and postal details before invoicing.

5. Create the Customer

1. Review the name and both email fields.
2. Confirm the address and tax data that will support invoice creation.
3. Select Create.
4. Wait for the form to close.

The create button stays disabled until required fields are valid and the form has changed.

6. Verify the Record

Return to Customers and check:

• the customer appears in All
• the name, contact, email, location, and phone are correct
• the tag chips are present
• Invoices, Projects, Revenue, and Outstanding show - or zero for a new customer
• Customer Since reflects the recent creation

Open the full customer page and verify the contact and address details in the right panel.

If you created the customer from an invoice, confirm that the invoice now shows the correct customer before adding line items or delivering it.

7. Add Team Context

Open the full customer record.

Add a note

1. Select Notes.
2. Enter the decision or relationship context.
3. Select Save note.
4. Verify the author and timestamp.

Add a task

1. Select Tasks.
2. Enter a required title.
3. Add an optional description and due date.
4. Select Add task.
5. Advance it through To do, In progress, and Done as work progresses.

Add files

1. Select Files.
2. Drag files into the upload area or choose them from your device.
3. Wait for upload progress to finish.
4. Confirm each file appears and opens.

Notes and tasks delete immediately from their lists. Customer files ask for confirmation before deletion.

8. Create Related Work

From the customer record or row action menu:

• choose Create Invoice to start an invoice with the customer preselected
• choose Chase overdue to open overdue invoices for this customer
• use the invoice count to open all customer invoices
• use the project count to open related Tracker projects

Do not use Add to List as an organizing action yet. It currently shows a beta notice without creating list membership.

9. Edit a Customer

1. Open the customer.
2. Select Edit.
3. Correct the required and optional fields.
4. Add or remove tags.
5. Select Update.
6. Reopen the record and verify the saved values.

Editing a customer does not retroactively change a finalized invoice. Correct the invoice separately when its saved customer-facing information is wrong.

10. Update Several Customers

From the customer table:

1. Select the customer checkboxes.
2. Use Tags to add or remove a shared tag.
3. Use the country selector to replace country and country code.
4. Clear the selection when finished.

The bulk Status menu is not functional. It reports zero updates and does not store Active, Inactive, or Archived. Use a lifecycle tag instead.

11. Delete Only After Review

Before deletion:

1. Open the full customer record.
2. Review invoices, notes, tasks, files, and projects.
3. Download any customer files that must be retained.
4. Move required relationship context to a retained record.
5. Confirm that clearing the customer link on existing invoices is acceptable.

Select Delete from the full record and confirm the prompt.

Avoid row-menu deletion for planned cleanup because it executes immediately without a confirmation dialog. Bulk deletion has a confirmation step but should still be preceded by a record review.

Verification Checklist

• The customer is in the correct team.
• Primary and billing emails have the intended purposes.
• Address and tax details are invoice-ready.
• Tags match the team's operating convention.
• Notes and tasks identify the next owner and action.
• Financial signals are checked against invoice status.
• No duplicate customer is splitting the history.
• Any deletion was reviewed from the full record first.

Troubleshooting

Create or Update is disabled

Make a change, enter a name of at least two characters, and correct the primary or billing email error. The form requires a valid dirty state before submission.

The customer does not appear after creation

Select All, clear search and filters, and confirm the active team. Scroll to load more results if the team has a large ledger.

Country filtering cannot find the customer

Edit the record and reselect its country so the display name and code are saved together. Until then, clear the country filter and search by name.

The website link opens the wrong place

Copy the displayed domain and open it directly. The form removes the protocol when saving, which can affect link behavior.

A duplicate already exists

There is no merge action. Choose the customer to keep, reproduce required notes, tasks, tags, files, and relationships there, then review the duplicate's invoices before deleting it.

A status change did not stick

Customer status is not implemented. Apply a team-approved lifecycle tag and record the reason in a note.

Related Pages

• Customers
• Customer Records
• Customer Lifecycle
• Review a Customer Finance Record
• Create and Send Invoices