Managing Customer Information on Invoices and Estimates
In Sliptree, managing customer information while creating or editing invoices and estimates is designed to provide flexibility while maintaining the integrity of historical data.
Here's how it works and how you can control the behavior:
1. Creating New Customers Directly on Invoices or Estimates
When creating or editing an invoice or estimate, you can easily add a new customer directly on the same screen:
- How to Add a New Customer: Simply click on the "Customer" area on the invoice or estimate and enter the new customer's details.
- Control Whether to Save the Customer Profile: At the bottom of the customer panel, there is a toggle option labeled "Create customer profile." This toggle is on by default, meaning the new customer information will be saved to the customer database for future use.
- If you turn the toggle off, the customer details will be saved only to the current invoice or estimate. This is useful for one-off sales where you may not want to clutter your customer database with profiles for customers who may not return.
2. Modifying Customer Details on New Invoices or Estimates
When creating a new invoice or estimate and selecting an existing customer, you may want to update customer details such as name, address, or contact information:
- Control Saving Changes to Customer Profile: When you modify the customer's details, a toggle appears at the bottom of the customer panel, labeled "Update customer profile." This toggle is on by default when creating a new document.
- This means any changes made to the customer's information will automatically be saved to the customer profile, ensuring that the latest details are used in future transactions.
- You can turn this toggle off if you prefer that the changes only apply to the current invoice or estimate and not affect the customer's saved profile.
3. Editing Customer Details on Existing Invoices
When editing an existing invoice or estimate, changing customer details works a bit differently. In this case, the "Update customer profile" toggle is off by default. This precaution helps prevent accidental overwriting of newer customer information with outdated data from an older invoice or estimate. If you want to update the customer profile with the changes made on the existing invoice, you can manually turn the toggle on.
4. Updating Invoices with the Latest Customer Details
If you are editing an existing invoice or estimate and the customer profile has been updated since the document was last saved, Sliptree provides an option to load customer details from profile. Clicking on this button allows you to update the document with the latest customer details from the customer profile. This ensures that you have the most up-to-date information without manually entering it.
5. Handling Deleted Customer Profiles
If a customer profile is deleted from your database, invoices or estimates associated with that customer will still retain their historical data. When you edit such a document, all historical customer details remain intact. Any changes made to these details will apply only to that specific document, as there is no longer an active customer profile to save them to.
6. When Changes are Committed
Regardless of the scenario, it’s important to note that changes to customer profiles or details on invoices or estimates are only saved when the invoice or estimate is saved. This gives you full control to review all information before committing to any changes.
Summary
Sliptree provides several flexible options for managing customer information on invoices and estimates, helping you balance the need to update records with the importance of maintaining historical data integrity. By understanding these controls, you can ensure accurate customer information is used across all your sales documents while preserving a clear, compliant record of past transactions.