Not everyone in your contacts is a customer. Some of them you pay, some haven't bought anything yet, and some are other firms you work alongside. Mucka lets you say which is which.
The five
- Customer — they pay you. This is what everybody starts as.
- Lead — they've enquired but haven't bought yet.
- Supplier — you pay them. Merchants, fuel, plant hire.
- Trade — another firm you work with. Subbies and contractors.
- Other — everything else. Software, insurance, parking, accountants.
Showing just one lot
On Contacts, next to the search box, there's a dropdown reading All relationships. Open it and you'll see the ones you've actually got, with a count against each. Tick as many as you like — Customers and Leads together gives you the people you sell to, Suppliers and Trade the people you buy from. Untick the lot and you're back to everything.
On your phone it's the same, behind the filter button next to the search box, under Relationship.
All is on by default, and stays that way until you change it, so nothing is ever hidden from you unless you asked for it.
Changing one
Open the contact and there's a box saying They are our. Pick the right one and save. That's it.
This is a different question from Residential or Commercial at the top of the same form. That one decides how they're addressed on paperwork, whether you get a company name and VAT number or a person's name. A supplier is usually commercial; a lead might be residential. Both boxes matter and neither replaces the other.
If your book came over from Xero
This is really what it's for.
Xero keeps customers and suppliers in one contact list and just ticks a box on each. Mucka used to bring the lot across as customers, so it wasn't unusual to open your contacts and find Screwfix, your fuel card, a parking receipt and your Dropbox subscription sat in with the people who actually pay you.
Two things changed:
- New imports read Xero's own ticks. If Xero says supplier, it comes in as a supplier.
- Where Xero doesn't know, Mucka goes on whether a sales invoice came over with them. Xero only ticks those boxes once there's been a transaction, so a customer you've just added looks the same as a parking receipt until there's an invoice to go on.
QuickBooks and FreeAgent never had this problem. They keep suppliers somewhere separate, so only customers were ever coming across.
Nothing changes on its own
Every contact you already had is a customer, and stays a customer until you change it. Mucka won't quietly re-file people you already know, because it would rather show you a supplier in with your customers than hide a customer behind a filter you never set.
If you've got a lot to sort out, the quickest way is to filter down to Other, work down that list, and set the ones that are wrong.