Customer already exists, but not in system
I am trying to set up a new customer but keep getting the pop-up stating they already exist. I cannot find the customer in either active or inactive accounts. If I create a new customer I then have 2 in Quickbooks. Thanks.
Comments
Hey Laura,
If ESC is suggesting that the Customer already exists, but you're not able to find it, the usual culprit is an Inactive customer.
Head to the Customer Center.
Customer Info > Customer Center > click Refine Filters in the upper-right corner of the tab.
From here, try a few different filter options:
Option 1:
Inactive Customer: set to Yes
Inactive Location: set to No.
Click apply settings and check again.
Option 2:
Inactive Customer: set to Yes
Inactive Location: set to Yes
Click apply settings and check again.
Option 3:
Inactive Customer: set to No
Inactive Location: set to Yes
Click apply settings and check again.
That should reveal the customer.
Once you find the hidden customer, double-click the entry in the Customer Center and then you can make them Active again by going to the General tab of the Customer and putting a Check Box in the Active field, and then go to the Location field an make sure a Check Box is in the Active field, then click Save.
Lastly, refresh whatever screen you were unable to find them on, as the changes may not show until you refresh/restart ESC.
I had already searched through both active and inactive customers. The customer did not appear in either. So I don't think this will help. Thanks.
Thanks for the quick update!
Hmm, if the system is telling you the customer exists, it really should be somewhere. I have yet to see any scenario that would result differently.
Could you try going through each option I provided? I know checking the Inactive list and Active list is a pretty solid first start, but you'll notice I gave a couple alternative options too.
So give those a shot and see if they help!
OK thanks. I found the customer. Do you know what causes that to happen as I've had that problem before.
Glad you found it Laura! That's usually always the culprit ;)
Yep. Generally when someone is going through and making a Customer or a Location Inactive, they forget one or the other.
So for example, you may have had the Location's Active check box not checked.
Or you may have had the General box checked/unchecked.
It's just that the Inactive Customer List in ESC is literally only looking at "Inactive Customers AND Locations." So that means it won't specifically look for just Inactive Locations. Or it won't look for any weird combinations of the two.
You could probably make a few new custom list views based on the options I suggested earlier, that way you can look a bit quicker in the future :)
so just making the main customer inactive doesn't make the locations inactive? You have to go to each screen and check the box?
Correct, but it may take some further understanding of the logic.
ESC stores your Customers.
A Customer is a collection of Locations
ESC breaks all customers into the General tab and the Location tab.
General tab houses the overall information about the Customer, this could be the Billing info about that customer.
Location tab will have information about all the Locations. This could be alternative billing locations or serviceable locations.
All Customers, regardless of how many locations they have, will -always- have a Location 1, and generally this will be the same information on the General tab.
If you have a customer with multiple locations, and you want to make one of the subsequent locations Inactive, all you need to do is go to the Location tab and un-check the Active check box and click Save.
But if you're trying to make the entire customer inactive, then the General tab AND all subsequent locations must have that check-box unchecked.
Hopefully that helps.
Please sign in to leave a comment.