Customers

• Introduction
• Create & Edit Customers
  • Creating a new customer
  • Editing customer details
• Import & Export Customers
  • Export customers
  • Import customers
• Customer Actions

Introduction

The Customers section lets you maintain a directory of people or businesses who make payments through your system. Each customer record includes:

• Basic identity fields (name, email, phone)
• Optional address details (address, city, state, postcode, country)
• A unique record that links to their payments and invoices

Customers can be created manually, imported from a file, or updated directly in the system. Maintaining accurate customer records improves reporting, prevents duplicates, and enables better customer relationship management.

Create & Edit Customers

Creating a new customer

To add a customer manually:

1. Click New customer from the Customers page.
2. Fill in the required fields:
   • Name
   • Email
   • Phone
3. Optionally add address details (Address, City, State, Postcode, Country).
4. Click Save.

TIP

Keep customer information accurate and complete. This improves reporting and helps prevent duplicates.

Editing customer details

To update an existing customer:

1. Find the customer in the list.
2. Click the Edit button.
3. Update the necessary fields.
4. Click Save.

WARNING

Changing a customer's email address may affect how the system matches them to existing payments and invoices. Ensure the new email is correct before saving.

Import & Export Customers

The Actions menu on the Customer list provides Export customers and Import customers options for bulk operations.

Export customers

Export customer data to a CSV file for backup, reporting, or migration purposes.

Steps:

1. Click Actions → Export customers.
2. Choose the columns to include in the export.
3. Click Export.

Export details:

• Columns available: Name, Email, Phone, Address, City, State, Postcode, Country
• File format: CSV (UTF-8, comma separated)
• Output: One row per customer with selected columns

TIP

Select only the columns you need for the target system. This keeps the export small and easier to verify.

Import customers

Use Import customers to bulk create or update customer records from a CSV file.

Steps:

1. Click Actions → Import customers.
2. Prepare your CSV file following the format requirements below.
3. Select your CSV file.
4. Review the preview and validation results.
5. Click Import to process the file.

CSV format requirements

• File type: CSV (UTF-8)
• Header row: Required (first row must contain column names)
• Columns: Case-insensitive; unknown columns are ignored
• Delimiter: Comma (,)

Supported headers

Header	Required	Description
name	Yes	Customer's full name
email	Yes	Email address (used for matching existing records)
phone	Yes	Contact phone number
address	No	Street address
city	No	City name
state	No	State or province
postcode	No	Postal code
country	No	Country code (e.g., BD, US, GB)

Example CSV

name,email,phone,address,city,state,postcode,country
Jane Doe,jane@example.com,+1 555 0100,221B Baker Street,London,,NW1,GB
John Smith,john@example.com,+8801712345678,House 12,Dhaka,Dhaka,1207,BD
Alice Johnson,alice@example.com,+44 20 7946 0958,10 Downing Street,London,,SW1A 2AA,GB

Validation rules

• Name: Non-empty string
• Email: Valid email format (used as unique identifier)
• Phone: String; use international format when possible (E.164 recommended, e.g., +8801712345678)
• Optional fields: Stored as provided; no specific validation

Create vs Update behavior

The import system uses the email address to determine whether to create or update:

• Email matches existing customer: The record is updated with new values.
• Email not found: A new customer is created.

WARNING

Make sure emails are unique and stable. If the same person appears with multiple emails, multiple customer records will be created.

Common import issues

Issue	Solution
Encoding errors	Save your CSV as UTF-8 without BOM
Fields not mapping	Ensure header row is present and column names match supported headers
Data in wrong columns	Verify delimiter is comma; if fields contain commas, wrap them in quotes
Duplicate customers	Use consistent email addresses; check for typos before importing
Special characters broken	Ensure file is saved with UTF-8 encoding

TIP

Best practice: Import a small test file first (3-5 rows), verify the results, then run the full import. This helps catch formatting issues early.

Customer Actions

Available actions for customer records:

Action	Description
View	Display customer details and associated payments/invoices
Edit	Update customer information
Delete	Permanently remove the customer record
Export	Export selected customers to CSV
Import	Bulk create or update customers from CSV

WARNING

Deleting a customer removes their record from the system. Associated payments and invoices will remain but won't be linked to a customer. Only delete customer records if they were created by mistake.