QuickBooks: How do I give customers an account number?

Need to set up an account number for your customers in QuickBooks?

Here's how...

Open the Customer Center, highlight the customer, and double-click on their name. Once there, click the "Payment Info" tab. You'll see a screen that looks like this:

Once there, you can populate the "Account No" box with whatever letters, numbers or combination of both you like.

Note that you can establish a credit limit for this customer on this screen as well.

Be aware that QuickBooks has no capability to automatically assign account numbers - you'll have to manually enter them as needed using whatever numbering sequence your business prefers.

Once you populate this field, you can easily include it on your invoices, statements, or other forms within QuickBooks.

IS AN ACCOUNT NUMBER EVEN NEEDED?

Since you can easily look up a customer by name in QuickBooks, I think the value of assigning account numbers has diminished over the years.

No question that this capability was critical years ago when a lookup by name was not possible or impractical. Not so sure about its' usefulness today.

YOUR BUSINESS STILL USING ACCOUNT NUMBERS?

Feel free to drop a comment into the box below to let our community know if account numbers are still alive and well in your business!

RELATED INFORMATION:

• The differences between a customer and a job in QuickBooks
• Set up recurring invoices and accept payments from your customers online

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Comments

[Scott Gregory, QuickBooks Expert]

Hi Doug:

The desktop version of QuickBooks allows for customer account numbers, but the Online version apparently does not (I looked too, and didn't see a place for it).

Intuit has suggested these options if a customer number is needed:
https://qboe.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2492

In many small businesses, customer lookup is driven by name, not number so this may be why they opted not to include it? Just a guess though...

Scott Gregory

[Doug Lerner]

I was trying QuickBooks Online and was disappointed to find there is no place to enter a customer account number. It seems like a strange omission because (1) I have a customer number with Intuit so they must think it is important and (2) when setting up vendors you can add your account number with them.

So I wonder why there is no way to enter a customer account number for your own customers.

I'm in a quandary as to what to do now.

doug