Setting Up Customers

What is this page about: How to create, view, edit, and manage customers in Light, the Accounts Receivable records you bill via sales invoices. Covers the Customers list, the create/edit workflow, a customer's default tax code, active vs. disabled status, customer detail tabs, syncing from external systems, and custom properties.

# On this page

• Quick answer
• What is a customer in Light?
• Customers List
• Creating a Customer
• Viewing and Editing a Customer
• Setting a Default Tax Code
• Customer Status: Active vs. Disabled
• Customer Detail Tabs
• Customers Synced from External Systems
• Custom Properties
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Related articles

# Quick answer

To create a customer in Light: go to Revenue & Invoicing → Customers, click + Create customer, fill in the required Name, Email, and Country fields (everything else is optional, unless your workspace has configured its own required custom properties), and click Create. Existing customers can be viewed from a details drawer and edited from a fullscreen edit page. Disabling a customer hides it from lists without deleting its invoice or payment history.

# What is a customer in Light?

A customer in Light is the party you bill through sales invoices. Every posted invoice, payment, and credit note is tied to a customer record. A customer must be attached before an invoice or credit note can be finalised and sent, though a draft can exist without one. This makes the customer the foundation of Light's Accounts Receivable (AR) workflow.

Navigate via Revenue & Invoicing → Customers.

# Customers List

The Customers list is the main table for browsing every customer in your organisation. It shows the following columns:

Status is either Active or Disabled. Light keeps this list intentionally lean so you can scan your customer base at a glance, but every column is sortable if you need to dig in.

# Creating a Customer

To create a new customer in Light:

1. Click + Create customer. A modal dialog opens.

2. Fill in the form:

   • Name (required)
   • Email (required)
   • Domain (optional)
   • Description (optional)
   • Billing address: country (required), state, city, street, zipcode
   • Billing emails:
     • Send to: default recipient email addresses for invoices sent to this customer
     • CC (optional): default CC addresses for invoices sent to this customer
   • Shipping address (optional)
   • VAT
   • Business reg. number
   • E-invoice network: once selected, reveals the EAS code and E-invoice address fields used to send e-invoices
   • Customer type: Business, Consumer, or Government
   • Tax code (optional): a Default tax code Light applies to new lines for this customer (see Setting a Default Tax Code below)
   • Custom properties (if your organisation has any configured for customers)

3. Click Create.

Name, Email, and Country are the built-in required fields, and every other field can be filled in later. (If your workspace has configured its own required custom properties, those must also be filled in at creation.)

# Viewing and Editing a Customer

To view a customer, click any customer row in the list. This opens a right-side details drawer showing the customer detail tabs (see below). From the details drawer, click Edit to open a fullscreen edit page with card-style sections (Business information, Billing emails, Shipping address, E-invoicing, Tax code) and a sticky header with Cancel and Save buttons.

# Setting a Default Tax Code

Some customers need a different tax treatment from your product defaults. A default tax code on the customer means you set it once, and Light applies it to every new line for that customer instead of you picking it line by line.

1. Open the customer and click Edit. You can also set this while creating the customer.
2. In the Tax code (optional) section, choose a Default tax code.
3. Click Save.

Light uses the customer's default tax code on new lines on sales invoices, contracts, and customer credits for that customer.

# Which tax code does a new line get?

When you add a line, Light picks its tax code in this order:

1. The customer's default tax code, if one is set.
2. The product's default tax code, if the line has a product with one. See Products and Pricing.
3. The entity's country default: the tax code the issuing entity uses for the customer's tax country.

You can still choose a different tax code directly on any line, and a code set on the line always takes priority.

Good to know:

• The customer's default applies only when it's an active sales tax code available to the entity issuing the document. Otherwise, Light moves on to the product default.
• Setting or changing a customer's default affects new lines only. Existing lines keep their tax code. Changing the customer on a draft document recalculates the tax codes on its lines.
• Entities that calculate tax with Avatax or Sphere take tax from the tax engine instead. Avatax uses the product's Avatax code.

# Customer Status: Active vs. Disabled

Each customer has an Active toggle in the edit dialog:

• On → status is Active; the customer appears in pickers and lists.
• Off → status is Disabled; the customer is hidden from default lists but historical records remain accessible.

Light never deletes a customer's history when you disable them. Invoices, payments, and contracts stay exactly where they were, so your books stay complete even after a relationship winds down.

Note: the customer picker used when selecting a counterparty on documents (for example journal entries) only shows active customers by default, so a disabled customer won't accidentally get picked. If a customer was already selected on an existing document before being disabled, it still shows there with an Inactive badge.

# Customer Detail Tabs

Opening a customer shows the following tabs:

• Overview: summary including the customer aging widget (current / 1-30 / 31-60 / 61-90 / 90+ days), so you can see how overdue a customer's balance is without leaving Light.
• Payment history: payments received from this customer.
• Contracts: contracts associated with the customer.
• Accounting documents: invoices, credit notes, and other accounting documents.
• Details: additional customer detail information.

# Customers Synced from External Systems

If a customer was synced from an external system, either Salesforce or HubSpot, an External source indicator appears in the customer detail view, showing the source system. This is part of how Light fits into tools you're already using, rather than asking you to re-enter customer data by hand.

# Custom Properties

Custom properties for customers are configured at Settings (gear icon) → Custom properties. Once configured, they appear directly inside the customer create/edit form rather than in a separate section. Light adapts the form to your data model instead of the other way around.

# Frequently Asked Questions

What is required to create a customer in Light?

Only Name, Email, and Country are built-in required fields. All other fields, including billing details and VAT, are optional and can be added or edited later. If your workspace has configured its own required custom properties for customers, those must also be filled in at creation.

How do I edit an existing customer?

Click the customer's row to open the details drawer, then click Edit to open the fullscreen edit page.

Does a customer's default tax code override the product's?

Yes. On a new line, the customer's default tax code comes first, then the product's default tax code, then the entity's country default. A tax code you set directly on a line takes priority over all of them.

If I add a default tax code to a customer, do their existing invoices change?

No. The default applies to new lines only. Lines that already exist keep their tax code, and posted documents stay as they are.

What happens when I disable a customer?

The customer's status changes to Disabled. It's hidden from default lists and pickers, but all of its invoices, payments, and contracts remain fully accessible.

Does Light sync customers from Salesforce or HubSpot?

Yes. Customers synced from Salesforce or HubSpot show an External source indicator in the customer detail view.

Where do I set up custom properties for customers?

Go to Settings (gear icon) → Custom properties. Once created, custom properties appear automatically in the customer create/edit form.

What is the aging widget on the Overview tab?

It buckets a customer's outstanding balance into current, 1-30, 31-60, 61-90, and 90+ day ranges, so you can see at a glance how overdue their balance is.

# Related articles

• Accounts Receivable Overview
• Contracts
• Invoice Generation
• Products and Pricing
• Tax and VAT Configuration
• Sending Invoices
• Tracking Payments and Outstanding Balances
• Customer Credits