When you first started your arts and crafts business, you could probably remember minute details about all your customers, jobs and vendors. However, as your business grows, the ability to immediately call to mind specific details about these three may have become more difficult. I know it has for me!
That's why setting up types in QuickBooks comes in handy. If you want to know which of your customers are located in a specific geographic area, a type list will quickly provide this information. It's a lot easier than rustling through paper copies of customer invoices to find details about your customers.
I know you'll find this QuickBooks option a real timesaver once you get the hang of using it. So with no further adieu let's get going doing exactly that!
Customer List Types
On QuickBooks' main menu bar select Lists > Customer and Vendor Profile Lists > Customer Type List. There are four types already set up in QuickBooks: From advertisement, referral, retail and wholesale. Looking at these preset options, you probably realize they are geared towards helping you understand where your sales are coming from, which helps you make profit based advertising and marketing decisions.
Explaining QuickBooks Preset Customer Types
In this article, you learn how to set up a special customer type. First,I review your preset options:
- From advertisement lets you identify which advertising campaigns are reeling in your customers. A great way to figure out how to stay within budget while still maintaining and growing your customer base, it allows you to see what advertising is working and which venues you should cancel.
- The absolute best way to get new customers is from existing client referrals, which you can track using a referral type. Not only is it a compliment that a customer likes your company so much they are willing to spread the word, it is an almost no-cost way to bring in new business. I say almost no cost because the wise business owner rewards referrer customers with some sort of price break.
- You don't have to operate a storefront to use the retail type. Basically, I use retail whenever my accounting client is selling directly to the end user. For example, an artist selling a painting to a homeowner at an art festival or someone selling vintage purses on eBay.
- Finally, the wholesale type tracks customers who are intermediaries further marketing your goods to the end user. If you sell to both retailers and wholesalers, it's helpful to break out the type of customer as your pricing and other customer policies will probably differ depending which you are selling to. Plus, depending on the volume of orders from either type of customer that you glean from properly classifying your customer by type, you may decide to only sell retail or wholesale.
Now that you have the low-down on the preset customer types let's set up one tailored for our sample business. Go to page two of this article to learn how to set up a tailored QuickBooks customer type.
See all my tips for preparing customer invoices.
