Customer accounts

📍 Where to find this module?
Main Menu > Sales

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Introduction #

The Accounts module centralises information about your customers, leads, partners and suppliers. It is accessible via Main menu > Sales > Accounts.

An account represents an entity (company, association, public body) with which you maintain a business relationship. It is the anchor point for all commercial documents: quotes, orders, invoices, credit notes, support tickets, etc.

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1. Create an account #

Access #

1. Access the Accounts module via Main menu > Sales > Accounts
2. Click the Add Account button

Information to fill in #

Main information:

• Account name: the company name or the entity name (required)
• Account type: the nature of the relationship (Customer, Lead, Partner, Reseller, etc.)
• Industry: the sector in which the entity operates
• Website: the entity’s website URL
• Phone / Email: the main contact details

Addresses:

• Invoicing address: used by default on quotes, orders and invoices
• Delivery address: used by default on delivery notes

Good to know: the account’s addresses are automatically reused when creating commercial documents (quotes, orders, invoices). You can edit them on a case-by-case basis on each document.

Parent account:
The Parent account field lets you establish a hierarchy between accounts. For example, a subsidiary can be linked to its parent company. This structure makes it possible to view the organisational structure of multi-entity groups and can be used for recurring invoicing and pricing via price grids (see section 5).

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2. Account types #

The account type defines the nature of your relationship with the entity:

Good to know: the account type has no functional impact on commercial documents. It is mainly used for segmentation and reporting.

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3. Account overview #

An account record provides a complete view of the business relationship thanks to the related tabs:

• Contacts: the individuals linked to this account
• Quotes: the commercial proposals issued
• Customer orders: the purchase orders recorded
• Invoices: the invoices issued
• Customer credit notes: the credit notes issued
• Documents: associated files (contracts, attachments, etc.)
• Activities: calls, meetings and tasks linked to this account
• Tickets: associated support requests
• Sites: the different sites (delivery addresses) linked to this account

This centralised view lets you quickly find a customer’s full history without navigating between different modules.

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4. Available actions #

Create a document from the account #

From an account record, you can create directly:

• A quote
• A customer order
• An invoice

The account will be automatically pre-filled in the new document.

Send an email #

You can send an email directly from the account record. The email will be archived in the activity history.

Duplicate #

Use the Duplicate function to create a new account from an existing one. The main information is copied over (excluding linked documents).

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5. Account hierarchy #

The Parent account field lets you structure your accounts in a tree:

• A parent account can have several sub-accounts
• Each sub-account keeps its own documents and contacts
• The hierarchy is visible from the parent account record

Important: Kafinea does not provide a consolidated view of a group of accounts’ quotes and invoices. Each account (parent or sub-account) manages its own documents independently.

Recurring invoicing on the parent account #

When creating a recurring purchase order, an option Invoice the parent account is available in the “Recurring invoicing information” block. When this option is enabled, the automatically generated invoices are linked to the parent account rather than the purchase order’s account. This makes it possible, for example, to centralise invoicing on the parent company while managing orders at each subsidiary level.

Example of use:

An industrial group (parent account) with several subsidiaries (sub-accounts). Recurring purchase orders are entered on each subsidiary, but by enabling the “Invoice the parent account” option, the generated invoices are automatically linked to the parent company.

Price-grid pricing based on the group #

Price grids offer two pricing strategies that leverage the account hierarchy:

• Volume discount (group): the unit price is determined by the group’s total consumption (parent company + subsidiaries). Each subsidiary is invoiced for its own consumption, at the unit price determined by the group’s overall volume.
• Tiered volume discount (group): pricing tiers are calculated based on the group’s total consumption. Each subsidiary’s share is proportional to its contribution to overall consumption.

These strategies allow a group to benefit from more advantageous rates thanks to pooling consumption volumes between the parent company and its subsidiaries. For more details and calculation examples, see the documentation on pricing strategies.

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6. Special cases #

Account with multiple delivery addresses #

An account has a default invoicing address and a default delivery address. For customers with multiple delivery locations, Kafinea offers the Sites feature.

Sites allow you to define multiple addresses linked to the same account. Each site has:

• A code and a name to identify it easily
• A full address (street, city, postcode, country)
• A Default site indicator to designate the main site

An account’s sites are visible and manageable directly from the account record, in the Sites tab. This allows you to keep a centralised directory of all your customer’s delivery addresses.

When creating a commercial document (order, delivery note, etc.), you can change the delivery address by referring to the sites saved on the account.

Merge duplicates #

If the same customer has been created twice, use the Merge function to combine the two records. Documents linked to the duplicate will be linked to the retained account.

Delete an account #

Deleting an account does not delete the associated documents (quotes, invoices, etc.). They simply lose their link to the account. Before deleting an account, check that there are no documents in progress.

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7. Frequently asked questions #

What is the difference between an account and a contact? #

The account represents the entity (company, organisation), while the contact represents an individual within that entity. An account can have multiple contacts.

How do I turn a lead into a customer? #

Simply change the Account type field from “Lead” to “Customer”. There is no specific conversion process for accounts.

How can I see all a customer’s invoices? #

From the account record, go to the Invoices tab to view all invoices issued for this customer.

Can accounts be imported in bulk? #

Yes, Kafinea offers an import function that lets you create or update accounts from a CSV file. Access this function via the Accounts module actions menu.

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8. Glossary #

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Related references 🔗 #

• Contacts
• Customer Quotes
• Customer purchase orders
• Customer payments
• Suppliers
• Leads