Customers and organisations
Put a customer on hold, block or archive it, and control credit
Use the customer status to warn about, stop or hide a customer in sales, and the credit limit with the company credit policy to control credit sales.
3 min readLast updated
In this article
Every customer has a status that decides what the sales screens do with it, and a credit limit that decides how far it can buy on credit. Both are set on the customer and checked automatically each time someone sells.
The statuses
Status | What happens in sales |
|---|---|
Active | The customer can be invoiced. |
On hold | Sales still post, with a warning on the sales screens. |
Blocked | No new invoices. Receipts and returns still work. |
Blacklisted | No new invoices: the company does not deal with this customer. Receipts and returns still work. |
Archived | Hidden from sales screens and never deleted. Its invoices and ledger stay intact. |
Change a customer's status
Open CRM › Customers › Customers, then open the customer's 360 view from the row's Actions menu.
Select Change status.
Choose the new status. A short note under the list explains its effect.
Every status other than Active needs a Reason. Type it and select Save.
The customer's organisation takes the same status. A block or blacklist on an organisation also applies to the customers under it.
Why customers are archived, not deleted
A customer with invoices is part of your books. Archiving takes it off pickers and sales screens but keeps every invoice, receipt and journal entry, so statements and audits still add up. To use the customer again, set it back to Active.
Set the credit limit
In the customers list, open the row's Actions menu and select Edit.
Under Billing terms, enter the Credit limit and the Payment term (days), then select Save.
A limit of 0 means no limit. The payment term is used to calculate invoice due dates, and so the aging buckets on Customer 360.
What happens when a credit sale passes the limit
The check runs only on credit sales; cash sales are never checked. It compares the customer's outstanding balance plus the unpaid part of the new sale with the limit. What happens next depends on the company's credit policy in CRM settings:
Not checked: nothing happens.
Warn (the default): the sale goes through, with a message giving the limit, the outstanding amount and the excess.
Block (manager can override): the sale is refused. A user who holds the permission to override the credit limit can let it through by giving a reason. The override is recorded with the amounts, the user and the reason.
You can follow credit use on Customer 360: Credit utilization turns to Near limit or Over limit as the balance grows.
Common questions
A blocked customer wants to pay. Can I take the payment? Yes. Blocking stops new invoices only; receipts and returns still work.
Does unblocking the organisation unblock the customer? Change the customer's status back to Active yourself and check the result on Customer 360.