This screen is used to create and edit customer account details.

The address details on the customer details tab will be the address that will appear on sales invoices.

Ship-to address may be added in the Ship-To Locations tab. The addresses may subsequently be selected when processing a sales order. The invoice address however will remain the one shown in the Customer Details Tab

This field may be used to hold a user-defined alpha-numeric code for the record. If you enter a '+' the system will automatically insert the record id for the current item. This record id is guaranteed to be unique in Liberty Accounts - but may not be a consecutive sequence.

This field is useful for entering codes that cross-reference codes in other systems and is also used for the invoice and bill uploads under the Specials menu. Note that the codes are case-sensitive and must match exactly during uploads for an item to be loaded.

If this checkbox is unchecked a customer will be considered inactive. Deactivate a customer if you do not want them to appear in customer drop-down lists.

Even though a customer is inactive, any receipts for outstanding amounts due, can be dealt with in the usual way.
See 'Receiving payments' process

Enter the customer's business name as you would like it to appear in drop-down lists. This is required.

Select the country of the customer. It is particularly important that this field is completed correctly for E.U. customers before you start raising invoices if you are VAT registered. Incorrect completion of this field has an impact on VAT reporting.

Select the currency in which this customer is normally invoiced. Invoices, credit notes and customer statements will be printed in the customer currency.

If you are not VAT registered or the customer is UK based then you are not obliged to record customer VAT numbers.
If you are VAT registered and supply to a customer in the E.U. without charging VAT it is critical that you obtain and record their VAT number or HM Customs and Excise may require you to pay the VAT due on the invoice amount.

For European sales the VAT number you enter will be submitted to HMRC as part of the EC Sales Report (V101) if you use Liberty Accounts' online VAT filing. If you have not recorded a VAT number for a customer sales to the customer will not be included in the EC Sales Report.

The validation algorithms for VAT numbers are not made available so we are not able to check for valid vat numbers. If you wish to check that the vat number you have been given is a valid number the European Commission provides an interactive vat number check page
We do check that numbers entered match the formats appropriate to the country you have selected. If you enter an invalid vat number in a correct format, your EC Sales List submission will be rejected.

Formatting Hints:

Select default trading terms agreed with the customer. N.B. The default terms can be overidden when generating an invoice.

If this item is checked the contact name will be included in the customer details on invoices and statements.

e.g. "FAO: Mr John Doe"

Please seek appropriate professional advice if you are in any way unsure about the operation of "Self-Billing" schemes.

Some industries such as construction have special schemes available which allow for agreeements with customers to "self-bill".

If a customer is flagged as self-billing the creation of an invoice will generate a document marked as a "Payment Application".

When a payment application is created it is treated by Liberty as an invoice so you should be sure that any items are defined as "Out of Scope" for VAT purposes.

When actual payment is received you should issue a credit note for the amount received and offset it against the payment application using Receive Payments so that any outstanding amount remains on the application for payment. Next you should create an appropriate VAT invoice for the amount received and use Receive Payments to record payment of the "Invoice".

Bank details may be stored for customers, suppliers and employees to facilitiate generation of electronic payment files for submission via BACS or online banking services.

If provided the bank sort code should consist of exactly 6 numeric characters. Spaces or other separators are not permitted as they are not valid in BACS submissions.

If provided the bank account number should consist of exactly 8 numeric characters. For accounts with less than 8 characters the number should be left padded with zeros. For accounts with more than 8 characters the number should be left trimmed.

Bank details may be stored for customers, suppliers and employees to facilitiate generation of electronic payment files for submission via BACS or online banking services.

If provided the bank account name may not be more than 18 characters to conform to the requirements for BACS submissions.