The customer card in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central holds a mix of calculated fields and fields you update manually. The calculated fields show you Balance, Balance Due, Total Sales, Cost, Profit, and Profit Percentage, all derived from the customer ledger entries. Total Sales includes both posted invoices and credit memos as well as open documents like unposted credit memos and return orders.
You use the manually updated fields to control how the customer behaves. The Blocked field stops shipment, invoicing, or both. Privacy Blocked limits access to the customer’s data and automatically sets the Blocked field. You assign a Salesperson Code, link a Document Sending Profile, and set up a Bill-to Customer when invoicing should go to a different customer.
You can also store VAT registration number, GLN for electronic document sending, a prepayment percentage, partner type, and multiple ship-to locations.
Calculated fields on the General tab
On the General tab of the customer card you find a set of calculated fields that give you a quick overview of the customer’s financial situation. All of them are calculated from the customer ledger entries.
- Balance (LCY): Shows how much the customer owes you in total, in your local currency.
- Balance Due: Shows the payments that are overdue as of today.
- Total Sales: Shows the total sales turnover with the customer in the current fiscal year. This includes both posted invoices and credit memos, but also open documents that will change the total, such as unposted credit memos or return orders.
- Cost: The sum of the cost prices from the items and resources you have sold to the customer.
- Profit: How much you have earned on the customer, calculated on posted documents.
- Profit %: The profit expressed as a percentage.
Frequently used fields on the General tab
Besides the calculated fields, the General tab holds several fields you update on the customer over time.
The Blocked field lets you block the customer for shipment, for invoicing, or for both shipment and invoicing.
Privacy Blocked can be turned on if you want to limit access to the customer’s data for privacy reasons. When you activate it, the Blocked field is automatically completed as well.
In Salesperson Code you define the salesperson responsible for this customer.
With Document Sending Profile you connect the customer to a profile that defines how you want to send documents to them. If you leave the field empty, the default profile is used for the customer.
Last Date Modified shows when the customer card was last updated.
Address and contact fields
Under Address and Contact you manage who you deal with at the customer.
In Contact Code you define which contact set up on the customer should be the primary contact. Contact Name can be typed in directly, or it is filled out from the contact code you chose above if you use that.
You add the customer’s primary phone number in Phone No., and in Email you enter the address you primarily send documents to. Home Page holds the customer’s website.
Invoicing fields
The Invoicing section lets you control billing and tax details.
If a bill-to customer differs from the current customer card, you enter the other customer in Bill-to Customer No. Invoices will then be directed to that customer.
In VAT Registration No. you state the customer’s VAT registration number, and in GLN you enter the customer’s global location number if you use electronic document sending.
Payment and partner fields
In the Payments section you can insert a Prepayment % if the customer needs to prepay for all of their orders.
In Partner Type you define whether the customer is a person or a company. You can use this information for filtering elsewhere in the system.
Shipping fields and multiple ship-to locations
On the Shipping tab you can define whether the customer has more than one ship-to location. If so, you set up different Ship-to Codes and choose between them when you create documents.
Q&A
What does the Total Sales field on the customer card include?
Total Sales shows the total sales turnover with the customer in the current fiscal year. It includes posted invoices and credit memos, and also open documents that will change the total, such as unposted credit memos or return orders.
Where do the calculated fields on the customer card get their data from?
Balance, Balance Due, Total Sales, Cost, Profit, and Profit % are all calculated from the customer ledger entries.
What happens to the Blocked field when you activate Privacy Blocked?
When you turn on Privacy Blocked to limit access to the customer’s data, the Blocked field is automatically completed as well.
How do you send invoices to a different customer than the one on the customer card?
You find the other customer and enter it in the Bill-to Customer No. field. Invoices are then directed to that customer instead of the current one.
What is the GLN field used for on the customer card?
GLN holds the customer’s global location number, which you use if you send documents electronically.
How do you handle a customer with more than one delivery address?
On the Shipping tab you set up different Ship-to Codes for the customer’s ship-to locations, and you choose between them when creating documents.