Customers: contacts, addresses & custom fields

A customer in docket is more than a company name. Three pieces of customer data end up printed on your quotations and invoices — set them up once and every document comes out right:

• Addresses — where documents are addressed to.
• Contacts — the people on the customer's side.
• Custom fields — extra reference values a customer requires on documents, like a PO number.

All three are managed under Admin → Customers → (customer).

Addresses

Every quotation and invoice is written against one of the customer's addresses. Larger customers often have several — headquarters, a subsidiary, a different billing entity. Add each as its own address; when you create a document you choose which one it goes to. An address can also carry the customer's VAT number, which is printed on invoices.

Contacts

Contacts are the people at the customer — with name and contact details. On a quotation or invoice you assign the relevant contact(s), and on your side the internal people responsible. That way a document always says who it's for and who to talk to.

Contacts have a second use together with custom fields — see below.

Custom fields

Some customers require specific references on every document before they'll pay: a PO / purchase-order number from their ordering system, a cost center, an internal project code, a named approver. That's what custom fields are for.

A custom field is defined per customer and has:

• a name — what's printed as the label, e.g. "PO number",
• a type — free text, or a contact picked from that customer's contacts (e.g. "Approved by"),
• an optional default value.

What this means for quotations and invoices

Once a customer has custom fields, they appear in the editor sidebar of every document for that customer's projects (quotations, order confirmations, invoices, delivery notes). Fill in the value per accounting cycle — e.g. the PO number for exactly this engagement.

The value is printed in the info block at the top right of the PDF, right next to the document number and dates — where the customer's accounts-payable team looks for it. Contact-type fields print the person's name.

Example — customer with an ordering system: Create a custom field "PO number" (text) on the customer. When their order arrives, put the PO number into the quotation's sidebar — it's on the quote, the order confirmation and every invoice of that cycle, and the customer's system can match your invoice automatically. No more "invoice rejected, missing PO reference".

Archiving

Custom fields can be archived when a customer stops requiring them — old documents keep their values, new documents no longer ask for them.