When to use this: giving groups of customers (Senior Citizen, Wholesale, Staff…) a standing discount that applies itself.
A customer type is a discount profile. You set the percentage once, tag customers with it, and every bill you raise for them starts with that discount already filled in — nobody has to remember it at the counter.
Steps — create a customer type
-
Open Settings → People & Access → Manage Customer Types & Discounts.
-
Click Add Type (bottom right). Give the type a Name and a Default discount in percent, then click Save.
In the picture, 1 is Add Type, 2 is the type's name, 3 is the discount percentage, and 4 saves it. The two types already created are listed above the dialog with their percentages, so you can see at a glance what each group gets.
-
Repeat for each group you price differently.
The starred type is the walk-in type. One type carries a ★ and is labelled Org default (walk-in). Its discount is what a bill with no customer linked starts on. To move the star, use the ⋮ menu on a type and choose Set as org default. The same menu has Edit and Deactivate — types are deactivated, not deleted, so old bills keep their history.
Steps — assign the type to a customer
-
Open the customer from Customers and click the pencil icon at the top right to open Quick Edit Customer.
-
Set Customer Type (discount profile) to the type you want, then click Save Changes.
1 is the pencil that opens the dialog, 2 is the Customer Type (discount profile) dropdown — shown here still on Default (walk-in), before a type is picked — 3 saves the change, and 4 is the Customer Type row in the Account block behind the dialog, which is where you can check the type later without opening the editor.
Tags are not customer types. The Tags section lower in the same dialog (Regular, Staff, Senior Citizen, Wholesale…) is free labelling for search and filtering. Only the Customer Type (discount profile) dropdown changes what a bill charges.
Steps — see it work on a bill
-
Open Billing and link the customer (the customer chip at the top right).
-
Add a product. The Disc % column fills in from the customer's type by itself, and the Discount line in the totals panel updates.
1 is the linked customer, 2 is the Disc % cell that filled itself from that customer's type, and 3 is the resulting Discount in the bill total.
-
You can still type over Disc % on any line — the type sets the starting point, not a ceiling. See BILL-04 for the discount rules on a bill.
Good to know
- Changing a type's percentage does not change bills already saved. It applies to the next bill you start.
- Clearing the customer from a bill drops it back to the starred walk-in type's discount, not to zero.
- Opening and managing Customer Types requires the Customer Policy permission — see SET-08.