Edit or archive a customer

You can update a customer's details at any time, change whether it is active, or archive customers you no longer trade with. Sales Scribe keeps customers that have a trading history rather than deleting them outright, so your invoices, payments and reports stay intact.

Before you begin

• Sign in with the correct Organization selected.
• Editing and archiving customers are everyday actions available to signed-in members of the organisation.

Edit a customer's details

1. Go to Contacts → Customers.
2. Find the customer. Either:
   • Select Edit (the pencil) in the Actions column, or
   • Select the customer's Company Name to open its page, then select Edit Details.
3. Change any field in the Edit Customer window — including its Currency, VAT Territory, Status, and an optional Credit Limit and Payment Terms (days). The credit limit is checked when invoices are created and issued — what happens when it would be exceeded (a warning, a confirmation, or a block) depends on your organisation's Credit control setting. Payment terms drive the due date of new invoices (invoice date + the terms days).
4. Select Save Customer.

Customer status: Active, Inactive, Archived

Every customer has a Status:

• Active — a normal, in-use customer.
• Inactive — still available, but hidden when you tick Active Only in the customer list filters. Use it for customers you rarely deal with.
• Archived — hidden from active lists. Use it for customers you no longer trade with. Archived customers and their history remain in your records and reports.

You can change the status directly in the Edit Customer window at any time — including setting a customer that has invoices to Archived.

Archive one customer (the Delete action)

The Delete action archives a customer rather than removing it, so nothing in your history is lost.

1. In Contacts → Customers, select Delete (the bin) in the Actions column.
2. Confirm at the Delete customer? prompt by selecting Delete.

The customer's status becomes Archived and you see "Customer archived successfully". You can bring it back later by editing it and setting Status to Active.

Note: A customer that has invoices cannot be removed this way. You will see "Cannot delete customer with invoices. Please archive instead." To hide such a customer, open it and set its Status to Archived in the Edit Customer window.

Archive several customers at once

1. In Contacts → Customers, tick the checkbox beside each customer you want to archive. A toolbar appears.
2. Select Archive Selected.
3. Confirm at the Archive selected customers? prompt.

Selected customers are set to Archived. Any that have invoices are skipped (the prompt reminds you of this), so you may archive fewer than you selected.

Export customers

To export the customers you have selected to a CSV file, tick them and select Export Selected. The file includes company name, account number, contact person, email, phone, country and status.

What happens next

Archived and inactive customers drop out of the default lists and the Active Only view, but keep appearing in reports and on the documents that reference them. Reactivate a customer at any time by setting its Status back to Active.

Troubleshooting

• "Cannot delete customer with invoices. Please archive instead." The customer has invoices. Open it and set Status to Archived instead.
• Bulk archive skipped some customers. Those customers have invoices and were left unchanged. Archive them individually through the Edit Customer window.
• Something went wrong (with a reference code). An unexpected problem stopped the change. Try again; if it keeps happening, contact support and quote the reference shown.
• I archived a customer by mistake. Open it (clear the Active Only filter first) and set Status back to Active.

Related guides

• Add a customer
• Check a VAT number with HMRC
• Manage customer addresses
• The customer account page
• Glossary