Customers and accounts — groups, credit limits and statistics

This episode is for anyone who has finished setting Nexto up and is ready to put real customers in it. You will create a customer, give them a phone number and a group, set a credit limit, and learn where to look to see what that customer is actually worth to your business. Everything here uses one single form, because to Nexto every party is an account.

What you will learn

• How to read the customer list and, above all, the net balance column
• How to find one customer among hundreds with the filter row
• How to create a customer with phone number, WhatsApp group and credit limit
• The difference between active, inactive and archived — and why none of them is deletion
• How to group customers and assign a group to several of them at once
• What the customer statistics page tells you that the statement does not

Step by step

Read the customer list

Each row shows the ID number, name, group, WhatsApp group, number of trades and status. The column to watch is the net balance. A customer can be in debit in one currency and in credit in another at the same time; this column converts all of them to your reference currency and gives you a single number — what would be left if everything settled today.

Find the customer you want with the filter row

The filter row above the table will save you a lot of time: by group, by whether they have a WhatsApp group, by status. Once you have hundreds of customers, this row is what finds the one you want in seconds.

Create a new customer

Press the new customer button, then enter the name and the account type. Leave the type as customer for a normal party — but take a look at that list: cash box, bank account, digital wallet, capital, expense, income. All of them are created from this same form, because to Nexto they are all accounts. Only the type differs. That is the rule from core concepts, applied in practice.

Enter the phone number and the WhatsApp group

The phone number will matter later, when you send statements over WhatsApp. The field below it links this customer to a WhatsApp group, which is the foundation of the smart inbox.

Set a credit limit

This field is rarely used but very valuable. If you put a number in, then whenever this customer's debt passes it, Nexto warns you while you are posting and reports it to the manager. Leave it empty and there is no limit.

Choose the state of the account

Further down the form is the state of the account — active, inactive or archived. An active account appears everywhere. An inactive account cannot be picked on a new document, but its history and balance stay exactly where they were. Archiving is only about keeping your lists clean. Note carefully: none of them is deletion. In Nexto, financial history never disappears.

Organise your customers into groups

You can separate your customers into partners, traders, regulars. The benefit is that you can filter reports and lists by group, and see at a glance how much an entire group owes you. If you want to delete a group, Nexto first shows you how many customers are in it — and even if the group goes, the customers don't; they simply end up with no group.

Assigning groups doesn't have to be one at a time either: tick a few customers in the list and give all of them the same group in one go.

Open the statement and the customer statistics

Clicking a customer's name takes you to their statement — the full list of what has happened between you, covered properly in reports and statements. The customer statistics page next to it tells you something different: number of trades, total volume, the profit you made from them, and their rank among all your customers. The in-app page help (the ? icon at the top of the page) has more detail.

Tips

• Nothing disappears quietly in Nexto. Inactive, archived and deleted groups all leave the financial history untouched — that is the same logic you will see all through the software.
• Watch the average balance on the statistics page: how much of this customer's money sits with you on an average day. A customer who trades a lot but never leaves anything with you, and one who trades less but leaves a balance behind, are not the same customer to you.
• Set a credit limit for the customers you worry about, not for everyone. An empty field simply means no limit.
• Don't skip the phone number and the WhatsApp group when you create the customer. Adding them later is extra work, and several features depend on them.

FAQ

Why can't I delete a customer?

Because in Nexto financial history never disappears. If a customer is no longer in business with you, set the account to inactive so it cannot be picked on a new document, or archive it to keep your lists clean. In both cases the past documents and the balance stay exactly where they were.

What is the difference between inactive and archived?

An inactive account cannot be selected on a new document, so it stops new activity. Archiving is only about tidiness — it takes the account out of your everyday lists. Neither one changes any balance or removes any history.

What happens to the customers if I delete a group?

Nexto first shows you how many customers are in that group, so you know what you are affecting. If you go ahead, the customers stay exactly as they were and simply end up with no group.

What does the average balance actually tell me?

It tells you how much of that customer's money sits with you on an average day, rather than how much they traded. It is the number that separates a high-volume customer who leaves nothing behind from a quieter one who always leaves a balance — and that difference is what your pricing decisions should come from.