Add and manage customers in QuickBooks Online

Learn how to add, edit, delete, or merge customers.

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 quickly add them to transactions or invoices. Here’s how to add customers and keep your customer list up-to-date.

Add a customer #

1. Go to the Sales menu.
2. Select the Customers tab.
3. Select New Customer.
4. Enter your customer’s info.
5. Select Save.

Tip: If you need to keep notes or mark a customer as tax-exempt, you can enter this when you create their profile.

Add a sub-customer #

You can create sub-customers of main customers (also known as parent accounts). This is useful if you want to track individuals who are part of a group or specific accounts for a larger organization.

First, create a regular customer account for the group or organization. Then add each member or account as a sub-customer:

1. Go to the Sales menu.
2. Select the Customers tab.
3. Select New Customer.
4. Select the Is sub-customer checkbox.
5. Enter the sub-customer’s info.
6. In the Parent▼dropdown, select the parent account. Tip: Select Bill with parent or Bill this customer if you want to bill sub-customers individually or as part of the group.
7. Select Save.

You can have unlimited sub-customers. Parent accounts can have up to four levels down of sub-customers.

Make a sub-customer into a regular customer #

Simply edit the sub-customer’s profile and uncheck the Is sub-customer checkbox.

Delete a customer #

To remove a customer, you can make them inactive. This hides them from lists and menus. Even if a customer is inactive, all transactions associated with them stay on reports.

1. Go to the Sales menu.
2. Select the Customers tab.
3. Select the customer’s name to open their profile.
4. Select Edit.
5. Select Make inactive and Yes to confirm.

If you see transactions for an inactive customer, it will say “Name (deleted).”

Merge duplicate customers #

If you have duplicate customers, merge their profiles. This deletes one profile and moves their existing data into the profile you want to keep.
Note: Make sure both customers don’t have any sub-customers. If they do, make their sub-customers into regular customers.

1. Go to the Sales menu.
2. Select the Customers tab.
3. Select and open the customer profile you don’t want to keep.
4. Select Edit.
5. In the Display name as field, enter the name of the customer profile you want to keep. The names need to match exactly.
6. Select Save.
7. When asked if you want to merge the two profiles, select Yes.