QuickBooks 2005: The Missing Manual

Modifying Customer and Job Information

As long as you enter a customer name when you create a new customer, you can leave the remaining customer fields blank. You can change customer information at any time to add more data or to change what's already there. Similarly, you can create a job with only the job name and come back later to modify or add more. To modify a customer or job, open the Customer:Job List window and then double-click the customer or job that you want to edit.

Tip

If double-clicking isn't your favorite action, select the customer or job you want to edit and then press Ctrl+E.

In the Edit Customer dialog box, you can make changes to all customer fields—that is, all except for the customer balance. QuickBooks pulls the customer balance from the opening balance (if you provide one) and any unpaid invoices for that customer. Once a customer exists, creating invoices (see page 184) is your only option for reproducing the customer's current balance. Similarly, all the fields in the Edit Job dialog box are editable, except for the customer balance. Remember that the changes you make to fields on the Address Info, Additional Info, Payment Info, and Job Info tabs apply only to the job, not the customer.

Note

Unless you have revamped your naming standard for customers, don't edit the value in a customer's Customer Name field. Because the Customer Name field uniquely identifies your customers, you might customize QuickBooks based on the Customer Name field. For example, if ...