Customers¶
Your customer list is the foundation of everything in Substrate — every job is linked to a customer, so keeping these records accurate saves you time every time you create a new quote.
Finding a Customer¶
Click Customers in the left sidebar. Type any part of a name in the search bar at the top to filter the list instantly.
Adding a New Customer¶
- Click New Customer.
- Fill in their details:
- Name (required)
- Phone
- Sales Tax — pick the tax rate that applies to this customer
- Billing Address
- Click Save.
Tip
You can create a customer on the fly while writing a quote — just type a new name in the customer field and Substrate will prompt you to save them without leaving the quoting screen.
Editing a Customer¶
Click the pencil icon on a customer's row to edit their details right from the list. Or click their name to open their full record and edit from there.
If a customer has more than one location, you can add multiple billing addresses from the edit form.
Seeing a Customer's History¶
Click a customer's name to open their record. You'll see a table of every work order linked to them — job ID, description, stage, order date, and total value — covering both active and past work for that client.
QuickBooks Sync¶
If your shop uses QuickBooks, each customer shows a sync status next to their name:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Synced | Their record is up to date in QuickBooks |
| Resync | They exist in both systems but something has changed — run a sync to update QB |
| Not Synced | They're in Substrate but haven't been pushed to QB yet |
Substrate is the source of record — syncing pushes your data to QuickBooks. Any new customers already in QuickBooks are pulled into Substrate automatically when you sync.
To run a sync, go to Settings → QuickBooks → Sync Customers. (Admin role required.)
Note
If you see a message saying a customer is "inactive in QuickBooks", their record exists in QB but has been deactivated there. Reactivate them in QuickBooks first, then sync again.
Suppliers¶
Your material suppliers are managed separately. See Managing suppliers for a full walkthrough.