# Customer management

## What is this?

Customer management maintains real customer master data — name, customer
number, contact person, address — instead of free text on the project. A
project can optionally be linked to a customer; the customer page shows all
of that customer's projects at a glance.

## How to use it

- **Create a customer:** Via "New customer" on the customer overview. Only
  the name is required; all other fields (customer number, contact, address,
  notes) are optional.
- **Customer number:** Unique within the organization — two customers can't
  share a customer number, but multiple customers without one are fine.
- **Address:** Country is a dropdown and sits before the street field, since
  it affects the other address fields. When "United States" is selected,
  city and postal code swap order (city before the ZIP code, labeled "ZIP
  code") to match the address format used there. All other countries keep
  "postal code, city".
- **Assign a customer to a project:** The project form (create or edit) has a
  "Customer" section with "Existing customer" (dropdown) and "New customer"
  (enter customer data right in the project form, without switching to the
  customer page first) tabs. Without a selection, the project stays without a
  customer link.
- **Filter the project list by customer:** The project list has a customer
  filter dropdown in addition to the text search.
- **Customer detail page:** Shows master data, contact, address, and all
  assigned projects with a link to each one.
- **Customer logo:** The customer detail page lets you upload a logo (PNG or
  JPG, up to 2 MB). It appears automatically in the header of every report
  for a project of this customer — no manual upload when generating a
  report — and as a tile next to the customer name on the detail page of
  every linked project. A project without a customer, or a customer without
  a logo, simply shows no customer logo.
- **Delete a customer:** Only possible when no project is assigned to the
  customer anymore — otherwise a message explains which project is still
  attached. Remove the project link first (switch it to "— No customer —" or
  assign the project to a different customer), then delete again.

## Common issues

- **"I can't delete the customer."** At least one project is still linked —
  the error is intentional so no project is left with an orphaned customer
  reference.
- **"The customer number is rejected."** It's already used by another
  customer in the same organization — customer numbers must be unique.
- **"A project doesn't show a customer even though I selected one."** Check
  whether the project form was actually saved (a "Changes saved" toast
  appears) — without saving, the selection only exists in the open form.

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Source: https://www.testlabiq.com/en/help/customers