invoiceninja/docs/clients.rst

Clients
=======

They come in all shapes and sizes. They’re the reason you go to work in the morning. There are new ones coming up, and old ones coming back. What you need is a well-maintained, up-to-date, comprehensive client list to keep your invoicing in order.

Your clients are the core of your freelance business, and your Clients page is the core of your activity on Invoice Ninja.

List Clients
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The Clients page is a list page that presents a summary of all your clients in a user-friendly table. Think of your Clients page as the “central station” of your invoicing activity. Most of your day-to-day invoicing actions can be taken from the various links and buttons that appear on the Clients list page. Now, we’ll take a closer look at the setup of the Clients page, and the range of actions available to you on the Clients page.

To view your client list page, go to the main taskbar and click the Clients tab.

Overview
^^^^^^^^

The Clients page presents a list summary of all your current clients in a table format. The main elements of the table include:

- **Client:** The name of the client
- **Contact:** The name of the primary contact person
- **Email:** The client email address
- **Date Created:** The date the client was created in the system
- **Last Login:** The date an action was last taken for this client
- **Balance:** The client’s payment balance
- **Action:** A range of actions you can take to manage activity relating to the selected client

Actions
^^^^^^^

To select an action for a particular client, hover with your mouse anywhere in the row entry of the client. A gray Select button will appear. Click on the Select arrow and a drop-down list will open.

When you click on an action, you will be automatically redirected to the relevant action page for the selected client. Here are the available actions in the drop-down list of the Action button, and the corresponding action pages that will open:

- **Edit Client** Edit the client’s details on the Clients / Edit page
- **New Task** Enter a new task on the Tasks / Create page
- **New Invoice** Enter a new invoice on the Invoices / Create page
- **New Quote** Enter a new quote on the Quotes / Create page
- **Enter Payment** Enter a new payment on the Payments / Create page
- **Enter Credit** Enter a new credit on the Credits / Create page
- **Archive client** Click to archive the client
- **Delete client** Click to delete the client

Credits
^^^^^^^

You can manage your credits by visiting the Credits page directly from the Clients page. To open the Credits page, click on the gray Credits button that appears at the top right side of the page, to the left of the New Client + button.
Sorting & Filtering Clients

The sort and filter functions make it easy for you to manage and view your client information.

Sort the clients table via any of the following data columns: Client, Contact, Email, Date Created, Last Login, or Balance. To sort, click on the tab of your choice. A small arrow will appear. If the arrow is pointing up, data is sorted from lowest to highest value. If the arrow is pointing down, data is sorted from highest to lowest value. Click to change the arrow direction. (If you click on the Client, Contact or Email arrow, the data will be displayed in alphabetical or reverse alphabetical order.)

Filter the clients list by completing the Filter field, situated at the top right of the page, to the left of the gray Credits button. Clients can be filtered according to the client name, contact person name, or elements of the client name or contact person name. Here’s an example: Let’s filter the table for a client named “Joe Smith” of “Best Ninja” company. You can type “best ninja”, or “best” or “ninja”, or even “bes”, or “nin”, or “ja”, or “Joe”, “Smith”, “Jo” “oe”, “th” or any other grouping of letters in the client name or contact person name. The filter function will automatically locate and present all the relevant entries. This function makes it easy to find clients with even minimal input of information.

.. Tip:: Need to search for a specific client in your Clients list? Start typing the first letters of the client's name and the filter will automatically present the relevant listings.

Archiving/Deleting
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To archive or delete a specific client, hover over the client entry row, and open the Action drop-down list. Select Archive client or Delete client from the list. The Clients table will automatically refresh. Archived clients will appear in the table with a lighter gray font color, while deleted clients are hidden from view.
Note: You can also archive or delete one or more clients via the gray Archive button that appears at the top left side of the Clients table. To archive or delete clients, check the relevant clients in the check boxes that appear in the far left column next to the client name. Then click on the Archive button, open the drop-down list and select the desired action.

Want to view archived or deleted clients? Check the box marked Show archived/deleted clients, situated to the right of the Archive button. The table will automatically refresh, and will now feature the full list of clients, including current, archived and deleted clients.

- **Deleted clients** are displayed with a strike through.
- **Archived clients** are displayed with a lighter gray font color.

You can choose to restore or delete the archived client. To restore an archived client, hover with your mouse over the Action area for the relevant archived client. A gray Select button will appear. Click on the Select arrow, and choose Restore client from the drop-down list. To delete an archived client, select Delete client from the drop-down list of the Select button.

Create Client
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So, you’ve taken on a new client? Congratulations!

Your Clients list is at the heart of your invoicing activity, so it's really important to maintain current information on all your clients. When you start working with a new client, the first thing you’ll need to do is to add the new client by entering their contact information and business details.

When creating and saving a new client to your Clients list, make sure to have the relevant, up-to-date information at hand. You are only required to enter the information one time. Invoice Ninja automatically tracks all invoicing activity for each client. Need to create an invoice, schedule a task or update a payment status? Simply select the client’s name from the Client list.

There are two ways to enter a new client:

1. Via the Create Client page.
2. Or, while creating a new invoice.

Here, we’re going to focus on entering a new client via the Create Client page.

**Let’s Begin**

To enter a new client, go to the Clients tab, open the drop-down menu, and click on New Client. This will open the Create Client page.

The Create Client page is divided into four sections. Enter the information in the relevant fields.

.. Note:: You don’t have to complete every field. Enter the information that is important or necessary for your needs.

Let’s take a closer look at each section:

- **Organization**: Enter details about your client’s business/company/organization, including the company name, ID number, VAT number, website address and telephone number.
- **Contacts**: Enter the name, email address and phone number of your contact person for this client. You can enter as many contact people as you like. To add more contact people, click +Add Contact.
- **Address**: Enter the street address of your client. This will be of particular importance if you need to send hard-copy invoices or payment receipts.
- **Additional Info**: Enter the payment currency, language, payment due date, company size (no. of employees), the relevant industry sector, and any other private notes or reminders you wish to add (don’t worry - no one can see them but you.)

Once you have filled in the page, click Save to save the new client information. From now on, when you click the Client field, the client’s name will appear in the drop down menu. Simply select the client you need and let the invoicing begin!

How to Edit Client Information

The information you enter on the Create Client page acts as your default settings for this client. You can change these settings at any time. How? There are two methods:
Via the Clients list

1. Select the Clients tab to view your client list.
2. Select the relevant client from the list. The summary page of the client will open.
3. Click on the gray Edit Client button, at the top right corner of the page. You will now be taken to the Clients/Edit page, where you can edit any of the fields.

During the invoicing process

1. Open the New Invoice page.
2. Click on the arrow at the right end of the Client field, and select the client name from the drop down menu.
3. Click Edit Client, which appears below the Client field. This will open the Client window. You can now edit the client’s information.