Create and manage your clients

A client’s record holds their name, address, payment terms and contacts. To Bill copies it into every quote and every invoice: you only enter it once.

The client list

In the menu, under Sales, open Clients.

1. Add creates a client.
2. Import brings in your clients from an Excel or CSV file or a bexio export.
3. The filter bar. Type a name, an email address, a city, a postcode or a contact. Filter by Type, City, Unpaid invoices (with or without open invoices) or Added on. Views offers ready-made lists, such as With unpaid invoices.

The All, Private and Company tabs separate private individuals from companies. Click a client’s name to open their record.

Create a client

1. In Clients, click Add.

2. Choose the type (1): Private for an individual, Company for a business.

3. Enter the Name. For a company, To Bill searches the commercial register (Zefix) from the third letter. Choose the right company in the list: the UID number, the city and the address fill in on their own. Check them.

4. Payment terms (days) (2): leave it empty to apply your company’s terms, 30 days by default. Enter a number, for example 10, if this client pays on different terms. To Bill uses it to set the due date of the client’s invoices.

5. Under Address (3), fill in Street and number, Postcode and City. Complement (optional) takes one piece of information per line: c/o, PO box, floor. The Country is Switzerland by default; for a client abroad, choose their country. It shows on the client’s record and is printed on the last line of the address, QR-bill included.

6. Under Contact details, enter the Email and the Phone. Invoices, quotes and reminders go to this email address.

7. Click Save, at the top right.

   

The address and the QR-bill

The Swiss standard limits the name and the street line (complement included) to 70 characters, the postcode to 16 and the town to 35. Beyond that, or without a postcode or town, the QR-bill stays valid, but the “Payable by” area stays blank and your client writes it by hand. The invoice editor flags it under the client: Address too long for QR-bill, with a suggestion to shorten it, or what is missing, with Add the address. See The QR-bill.

Add contacts

A company can have several contact persons, for example its accountant.

1. Open the client’s record, then click Edit.

2. In Contacts, click Add contact (2).

3. Enter the Contact name and the Contact's first name, then their email address and phone number if you have them.

4. Click Set as default for the contact who should appear on the documents. They are then shown as Default contact (1).

5. Click Save.

   

The default contact is copied into the address of new quotes and invoices. In the editor, the Contact person field lets you choose another one for a document.

Private or Company

Contacts only exist for a company. If you switch a record from Company to Private, its contacts are deleted when you save.

A client’s record

Click a client’s name in the list.

1. The tabs: Details (the record), Invoices and Quotes (all of this client’s documents), Contacts.
2. Preview: Total invoiced, Total paid and Total outstanding for this client. An amount in another currency is converted at the rate of its day; an amount in a currency without an exchange rate is not counted and shows apart, under the total, for example “+ USD 800.00 not converted”.
3. Open the client portal shows what your client sees online. See The client portal.

Edit opens the record so you can change it. A change applies to future documents: invoices already sent keep the address they were sent with.

Delete a client

In the list, tick the client or clients, then click Delete. You can also open the record, click Edit, then Delete.

Clients with documents stay

A client who has invoices, quotes, credit notes or a recurring invoice cannot be deleted: these documents must stay complete. If you tick several, To Bill deletes the ones that have nothing and keeps the others.

Import your clients

1. In Clients, click Import.
2. Drop your file: CSV, XLS, XLSX or JSON.
3. Match your file’s columns with To Bill’s fields. Only the Name is required. The other possible fields are the type, the email address, the phone number, the address, the postcode, the city and the UID number.
4. Start the import.

A bexio contacts export is recognised as it is: see Import from bexio.

No duplicate check

An ordinary file creates one client per row, even if that client already exists. Remove from your file the clients already in To Bill. Only the bexio import skips existing clients.

Legal basis

An invoice from a business registered for VAT states the recipient’s name and town, as they appear in the business relationship: Art. 26 para. 2 let. b VAT Act.