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Welcome to our Help Centre

Customers

The customers feature allows you to set up one or more customer records and perform multiple tasks with the customer records. The links below give the steps to perform the tasks. To view the steps, click the below links.

You can set up a customer record manually or by importing customer details in the Surf Accounts template. This topic gives the steps to manually set up a customer record.

Setting up a Customer Record

Steps

  1. Log in and click the required business.
  2. The Customers page appears. ClickAdd Customer.

    Tip

    ClosedYou can also set up a customer record by doing the following.

    Move the cursor over

    From the quick menu, click + Customer.

  3. Set up the new customer details based on the instructions below and click Save to save the customer record.
    FIELD STEP
    General Info tab
    GENERAL INFORMATION heading  
    CUSTOMER NAME* Enter the customer name.
    CUSTOMER CODE Each customer is assigned a unique identification code which can be auto-assigned or manually set.
    CONTACT NAME Enter the name of the customer contact.
    POSITION Enter the customer contact person designation.
    CONTACT INFORMATION heading
    STREET Enter the street name in the customer address.
    TOWN Enter the town or city name in the customer address.
    COUNTY Enter the county name in the customer address.
    POST CODE Enter the post code in the customer address.
    COUNTRY Select the country in the customer address.
    PHONE Enter the customer phone number.
    MOBILE Customer mobile number.
    EMAIL Enter the customer email.
    WEBSITE Enter the customer email ID.
    ADDITIONAL CONTACT INFORMATION heading
    FAX Enter the customer fax number.
    SKYPE ID Enter the customer direct line.
    DIRECT LINE Enter the customer Skype ID.
    ADDITIONAL EMAIL Enter the customer Skype ID.
    Invoice Settings tab  
    ACCOUNT INFORMATION heading
    ACCOUNT MANAGER The account manager is the user. If more than one user is available, select the appropriate user.
    CREDIT LIMIT Enter the credit limit.
    VAT NO. Enter the customer VAT number.
    PAYMENT TERMS Enter supporting payment terms and conditions for information, if applicable.
    RCT Principal Tick this option if you want to set the customer as an RCT principal. Note: Prior to setting a customer as RCT principal, you need to enable this option. To enable, on Surf Accounts left panel, click Settings and on the Settings page, click Setup under the ACCOUNTS heading and then tick the Enable RCT Transactions tick box.
    DEFAULT INFORMATION heading
    VAT Exempt Select if the customer is VAT exempted.
    View A/c History This option allows the customer to view the account summary from an emailed invoice. Select the option, then email the invoice. The customer receives the access to the invoice in the form of a link. Upon clicking the link, the invoice preview appears, and it displays a button Account History. When the customer clicks the button, the account statement is shown. If the check box is not selected, the Account History button is not available. In the Sales Invoices page, customers that receive an email are indicated by the icon.
    SEND STATEMENTS Depending on your choice, can email the customer account statement. You have three choices: Always, Not Now and Never. When you choose an option and then generate the Customer Statements report, you can email the statement to the customer. You can also update your choice later when you generate the Customer Statements report.
    DEFAULT NOMINAL CODE Select the default nominal code, if applicable.
    DEFAULT VAT CODE Select the default applicable VAT code.
    DEFAULT DISCOUNT Enter the default discount for the customer, if applicable.
    Company Info tab
    COMPANY INFORMATION heading
    INDUSTRY Select the customer industry.
    TURNOVER Enter the customer business turnover.
    EMPLOYEES Enter the number of employees the customer employs.
    SOURCE Enter how you contacted the customer.
    CATEGORIES Select the customer organisation category. To view the steps to set up custom categories, click here.
    Sub-Contacts tab This tab is enabled after you set up a customer record. This allows you to add one or more alternative contacts to the one you have added earlier. To add a sub-contact, click Add New.
    Projects tab This tab allows you to set up customer projects against which you can record time and expenses. To add a customer project, click Add New.
* Indicates mandatory fields.

To view your plan subscription details, on the top of the page, click .

Viewing the List of Customers

You can view the list of customers and a summary of customer-wise time and product transaction balances.

Steps

    1. Log in and select the required business.
    2. The Customers page appears. It shows the customer list and the summary of time and product transaction balances.

To view your plan subscription details, on the top of the page, click .

Viewing a Customer Record

To view a customer record, complete the following steps.

  1. Go to the Customers page and click anywhere on the row displaying the customer record.
  2. The Edit Customer page displays the customer record.

Sending Email and SMS to Customer

You can send emails or SMS to your customers.

Steps

  1. Log in and click the required business.
  2. TheCustomers page appears. Click for the corresponding customer record and click Email.
  3. To send SMS to the mobile number in the customer record, Click for the corresponding customer record and click SMS.
  4. The Send SMS window appears. Enter your message and click Send.
To send SMS, your account needs to have sufficient credits. To buy credits, on the on the top-right of the page, click and then, on the account page, under the SMS Credit, click Top up to go ahead and buy credits.

Viewing the Customer Account

A customer account gives a summary of all transactions for a customer. It lists all paid and unpaid invoices, credit notes and shows the updated account balance. It also shows the account balance over periods of 30, 60, 90, 120 and 180 days. You can also move to an individual transaction from the customer account page.

  1. Log in and select the required business.
  2. The Customers page appears. Click for the corresponding customer record and, from the inline menu, click Account.
  3. The account by default shows all outstanding transactions.
  4. To view the paid invoice records, select Show all Transactions. To view the invoices or receipts, click the link.
To view your plan subscription details, on the top of the page, click .

Viewing Customer Time Account

You may have set up customer projects and recorded time and expenses against the project. The customer time and expense account gives the summary of all time and expense entries.

  1. Log in and select the required business.
  2. The Customers page appears. Click for the corresponding customer record and then click Time.
  3. The Customer Time Account page appears. By default, it displays all outstanding time and expense transactions .
  4. To view all transactions, select Show all Transactions.
To view your plan subscription details, on the top of the page, click .

Allocating Receipts to Invoices

You can allocate single or batch invoices.

Prerequisites/Assumptions

At least one unallocated receipt and invoice for the required customer are available.

Steps

  1. Log in and from the Business page, click the required business. the total receipt
  2. The Customers page appears. Click and from the inline menu, click Allocation.
  3. The Invoice Allocation page appears. It shows the outstanding or unallocated receipts and invoices. See below.

You can do the following actions on this page:

Allocate Receipts to Invoices

  1. The Invoice Allocation page displays all unallocated receipts and outstanding invoices. Note that for successful allocation, the figure in the Left to Allocate field must be zero, post allocation.
  2. To have Surf Accounts allocate the receipts, click Auto Allocate.
  3. Auto-allocation gives you no control over the allocation. See below the way the receipts are allocated. Note the Left to Allocate field displays zero.

OR

  1. To manually allocate, under the Invoices heading, enter the receipt amount, as appropriate, under the Paid heading.
  2. To save the allocation, click Save.

Tickbox beside the Date heading

This is another way to allocate receipts to invoices.

  • When you tick the tick box beside the Date heading for both Receipts and Invoices, the total receipts’ and invoices’ amounts are moved under the Paid heading.
To successfully allocate by this method, the receipts’ and the invoices’ amounts must be equal.

Changing Customer Records

The Invoice Allocation page shows the selected customer transactions, by default. However, you can change the customer from the CUSTOMER list. Note that if you are in the middle of an allocation already, the ongoing allocation will be cancelled immediately if you proceed. Review the warning message carefully and click Yes or No, whichever appropriate.

Merging Customer Records

You can merge two customer records. Post merge, all transactions and documents of both businesses are available in one of the businesses.

Caution

You are not allowed to undo a merge. You need to be sure that you want to merge.

Steps

  1. Log in and from the Business page, click the required business.
  2. The Customers page appears. Click and from the inline menu, click Merge.
  3. On the Customers window, select a customer which will be merged with the one you had chosen in the above step.
  4. The Information Message window appears. Click OK.
To view your plan subscription details, on the top of the page, click .

Removing Record

To remove a record, on the Customers page, click and click Remove.

In the Confirmation Message window, click Delete.

You are not allowed to remove a record if transactions are recorded against the record.