Add and manage customers in QuickBooks Online

Learn how to add, edit, delete, or merge customers in QuickBooks Online.

As your business grows, it's important to stay organized and keep track of your customers. In QuickBooks Online, you can add customer profiles so you can add them to transactions or invoices. Here's how to add customers and keep your customer list up to date.

In this article, you'll learn how to:

• Add a new customer
• Add a sub-customer
• Edit a customer
• Delete a customer
• Make a customer active again
• Merge duplicate customers

Add a new customer

Add your customers to the customer list so you can track their future transactions in QuickBooks Online.

Here’s how:

1. Go to Sales and select Customers (Take me there).
2. Select New customer.
3. In the Customer display name field, enter the display name for your customer (this is a required field).
4. Then, review each section and enter any other important customer info.
5. Select Save.

Import customers from an Excel file

If you have a spreadsheet with your customer info, you can import it into QuickBooks Online all at once.

Before you get started, prepare your customer list in Excel to make sure that the column titles and the order of the columns in your Excel sheet are in the correct format.

To see how your Excel file should look, download and open this sample.

When your Excel sheet is ready, follow the steps below to import into QuickBooks Online:

1. Go to Sales and select Customers (Take me there).
2. Select the dropdown ▼ next to New customer, then select Import customers.
3. Select Browse.
4. Follow the steps to upload your Excel file, then select Next.
5. Map the fields in your file to the fields in QuickBooks Online, then select Next.
6. Select the customers to be imported, then select Import.

Add a sub-customer

You have the option to create sub-customers under your top-level customers (also known as parent customers). This is useful if you want to track individual customers who are also part of a group or a large organization.

While you can have unlimited sub-customers, parent accounts can only have sub-customers up to four levels deep.

If you haven’t added the parent customer yet, add them as a new customer first (see steps above). Then add each sub-customer as follows:

1. Go to Sales and select Customers (Take me there).
2. Select New customer.
3. Enter the sub-customer’s name and contact info.
4. Select the Is a sub-customer checkbox. This action will display a parent customer dropdown menu.
5. In the Parent customer ▼ dropdown, select the parent account.
6. Select Bill parent customer checkbox if you want to bill the customer with the parent. Leave this unchecked if you want the sub-customer to bill for themselves.
7. Review each section and enter any info you need for the sub-customer.
8. Select Save.

Note: If you need to change a sub-customer into a top-level customer in the future, simply edit the sub-customer's profile and uncheck the Is a sub-customer checkbox.

Edit a customer

When you edit customer information, the changes will be reflected in other areas of your company file including previously sent invoices. QuickBooks Online also updates any recurring templates that use previous information like billing, shipping, and email addresses, and the preferred payment method and terms. 

Here’s how to edit a customer’s info:

1. Go to Sales and select Customers (Take me there).
2. Select the customer you want to update.
3. Select the Customer Details tab.
4. Select Edit.
5. Make any changes.
6. Select Save.

Delete a customer

To remove a customer, you can make them inactive which hides them from lists and menus. Even if a customer is inactive, all their transactions will still be available on reports.

Important: If you delete a parent customer, you also delete their sub-customers. But, if there is a project attached to the customer, they can't be made inactive. To make the customer inactive, delete any projects attached to the customer.

1. Go to Sales and select Customers (Take me there).
2. Select the customer's name to open their profile.
3. Select the dropdown ▼ next to Edit.
4. Select Make inactive, then select Yes, make inactive to confirm.

Note: If you see a transaction for an inactive customer, it displays as 'Name (deleted)'.

Make a customer active again

1. Go to Sales and select Customers (Take me there).
2. Select the Settings ⚙ icon above the action column.
3. Select the Include inactive checkbox.
4. Look for the inactive customer on the list.
5. In the Action column, select Make active.

Merge duplicate customers

If you have duplicate customers, you can merge their profiles. This deletes one profile and moves their existing data into the profile you want to keep.

Note: Make sure neither customer has any sub-customers. If they do, you’ll first need to change their sub-customers into regular customers first.

1. Go to ​Sales and select Customers (Take me there).
2. Select and open the customer profile you don’t want to keep.
3. Select Edit.
4. In the Customer display name field, enter the name of the duplicate customer profile you want to keep. The names need to match exactly.
   Note: If this is a sub-customer of a parent customer make sure to select the Is a sub-customer checkbox. Then, enter the name of the parent customer.
5. Select Save.
6. When asked if you want to merge the two profiles, select Yes.