Setting up Vendors and Customers in Quickbooks correctly will save you a lot of time and trouble down the road.
When you use the Vendor and Customer features in Quickbooks, you accomplish two main goals — quick and easy payment and invoicing as well as improved tracking of expenses and income.
When you have detailed sales and expense information at hand, you’re better able to assess where you can increase sales and decrease expenses. Not to mention that tax time is much easier when your business income and expenses are organized.
How to Add/Import Vendors To Quickbooks Using An Excel File
Importing vendors to Quickbooks using an Excel file is the fastest way to get your vendor center set up. If you have more than nine or ten vendors, we recommend using this method.
Here’s how it’s done.
Step 1: Create Your Vendor List
You’ll start by creating a vendor list on an Excel spreadsheet, using only Sheet 1 (Quickbooks can’t import additional sheets simultaneously). Be sure that each column of information for your vendors is separate. You can choose to add a number of columns/pieces of information for your vendors, such as:
- Vendor name
- Your contact for the vendor
- Street address
- City
- State
- ZIP Code
- Email address
- Phone number
- Cell number
- Fax number
- Tax ID number
- Opening vendor balance
- Opening balance date
You don’t have to add all of those pieces of information, but you can if you wish. Know that you have to give each column a header name as you create your vendor list in Excel. Then it’s on to Step 2.
Step 2: Prepare To Import Your Vendors
Once you’ve got your spreadsheet finished you can access the Vendor Import screen in Quickbooks. Here’s how.
From your Home page, click on Expenses, and then click on Vendors.
On the right side, you’ll see a box that says “New Vendor”. Click the dropdown arrow on that box and select “Import Vendors”.
Step 3: Upload The Excel Spreadsheet
Next, you’ll see a box that prompts you to select your file. Click “Browse”. Find your Vendor list file and click on it to start the input.
Step 4: Assign Column Names
The next box that appears after you upload your spreadsheet is a box that reads “Map your fields to Quickbooks fields.”
If the field names on your spreadsheet match the field names on the mapping page, Quickbooks automatically correlates the fields. If the names don’t match, you’ll have to manually arrange and name the fields on your spreadsheet to the correlating Quickbooks mapping fields. But don’t worry, this is pretty easy.
However, it’s easier if you name your fields in a way that coordinates with Quickbooks names.
After the data is listed, be sure all of the fields contain the information they’re supposed to contain. Make any necessary changes.
Step 5: Review The Data
Next, you’ll see a page titled “Import Vendors.” Once you’ve got an accurate picture of the final information input, review it all to ensure accuracy. For instance, ensure your first and final rows of vendor information match your spreadsheet.
If there is an error, click the “back” button and fix the information. Once you’re certain all of the fields populated correctly, you can click the “Import” button at the bottom right hand corner of your screen.
That’s all there is to it! Next, let’s go over how to add vendors manually.
How To Add Vendors to Quickbooks Manually
Adding vendors to Quickbooks manually is fairly easy. However, as discussed earlier, if you have more than a few vendors to add, you’ll save time by creating an Excel spreadsheet and importing the vendors.
For manual adding of vendors, the process is as follows.
- Click on “Expenses” from the Home page
- Then click on “Vendors”
- Click on the “New Vendor” button
- Fill in the Vendor Information” screen with all pertinent information
- Click on the “Attachments” button if you want to add W-9 forms or contracts to the file
- Hit “Save” to save the new vendor information
- Go back to the Vendor Center and access the new vendor to verify information is correct
If you need to change anything, you can use the “Edit” button within the vendor’s profile to change information. Note that this button is helpful down the road too if your vendor moves, if the vendor contact information changes, and so on.
Now you’ve got all of the information needed for each of your vendors at your fingertips. Assessing expenses and paying vendor bills has just become much easier.
Now let’s talk quickly about how to delete vendors from Quickbooks.
How To Delete Vendors From Quickbooks
You might be wondering how you would delete a vendor from Quickbooks. Relationships change, and sometimes you might stop using one vendor supplier in exchange for another.
For that reason, you might want to delete a vendor from Quickbooks. How do you do that?
The short version of this section is that you can’t. Quickbooks Online doesn’t allow for deletion of vendors. For this reason, it’s important to be thoughtful when you add vendors. In other words, don’t do so frivolously.
But sometimes–even after thoughtful additions–you need to get a vendor removed from your database.
If you are in need of the ability to delete a vendor but can’t because Quickbooks won’t allow it, you do have another option. Instead of deleting vendors from Quickbooks Online, you can put vendors into an “inactive” status. Here’s how.
- Click on “Vendors” and click on the “Vendor Center” dropdown
- Once you see the name of the vendor you wish to make inactive, click on the name
- You’ll see another dropdown box with several options
- Click on the “Make Inactive” button
The vendor should now be in an inactive status.
Related Article: 12 Common Bookkeeping Mistakes And How To Fix Them
Now let’s talk about how to add and import customers to Quickbooks.
How to Add/Import Customers To Quickbooks Using An Excel File
As with importing vendors, adding customers to Quickbooks is much easier using an Excel file if you have more than a few customers to add. If you’ve got less than nine or ten customers to add, you can use the manual addition steps we’ve listed below.
Step 1: Create Your Customer List
The customer list you create in Excel for importing will look similar to the Vendor list you created. You’ll include information such as:
- Customer name
- Company name
- Street address
- City
- State
- ZIP Code
- Email address
- Phone number
- Cell number
- Fax number
- Opening balance
- Opening balance date
As with vendors, you can choose which pieces of information to include in your customer list and which to leave out. And remember to give each column a header name as you create your customer list in Excel.
Step 2: Prepare To Import Your Customers
Once you’ve got your spreadsheet finished you can access the Customer Center in Quickbooks.
From your Home page, click on New Customer on the right side of your screen. Then you’ll see a dropdown box that says “Import Customers.” Click on that box.
Step 3: Upload The Excel Spreadsheet
Next, you’ll see a box that prompts you to select your file. Click “Browse”. Find your Customer list file and click on it to start the input.
Step 4: Assign Column Names
The next box that appears after you upload your spreadsheet is the same as described in our Vendors section. You’ll see a box that reads “Map your fields to Quickbooks fields.”
Again, if the field names on your spreadsheet match the field names on the mapping page, Quickbooks automatically correlates the fields. If the names don’t match, you’ll have to manually arrange the fields on your spreadsheet to the correlating Quickbooks mapping fields.
You’ll want to check the “Next” box at the bottom of your screen and review all of the data.
Step 5: Review The Data
If the data is correct, you can click “Import.”
If there is an error, click the “back” button and fix the information. Once you’re certain all of the fields populated correctly, you can click the “Import” button at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen.
See how easy that was? Next, let’s go over how to add customers to Quickbooks manually.
How To Add Customers to Quickbooks Manually
Adding customers to Quickbooks manually works very similarly to adding vendors manually.
For manual adding of customers, the process is as follows.
- Click on “Sales” from the Home page
- Then click on “Customers”
- Click on the “New Customer” button in the upper right-hand corner
- Fill in the Customer Information” screen with all pertinent information
- Hit “Save” to save the new customer information
- Enter payment information for the customer when prompted
When you’re entering the payment information, you can also enter the preferred delivery method and other pertinent information.
And you can use the “Notes” section to enter other information you might want to have on hand for each customer.
Finally, review all information for accuracy. Hit the “Save” button if everything is accurate, or hit “Edit” to change information.
How To Delete Customers From Quickbooks
Deleting customers from Quickbooks works exactly the same as deleting vendors: You can’t. However, you can follow roughly the same procedure you do in the Vendors section to place a customer on an “inactive” status.
- Click on “Customers” and click on the “Create Invoice” dropdown next to the name of the customer you want to make inactive
- Click the “Make inactive” box
As with vendors, it’s important to be thoughtful when choosing which customers to add to your Quickbooks database. Since they’ll be there forever, use this feature carefully.
Related Article: How To Use Class Tracking In Quickbooks
As you can see, setting up customers and vendors in Quickbooks is easy. The learning curve is slight, and the Quickbooks software design is user friendly.
Conclusion
Quickbooks is one of the most popular accounting software programs, and with good reason. Aside from helping you organize and maintain every aspect of your company’s income and expenses, Quickbooks is easy to use–even for beginners or the technically challenged.
We’ve used Quickbooks at Cloud Friday for the entirety of our business. We find it’s the best accounting software for helping business owners run their companies efficiently.
And running your business efficiently is an important step in creating and maintaining profitability and growth. To learn more about the wide variety of services Cloud Friday offers, check out our services page.
