Managing Customers

Overview

Customers are at the heart of your field service company. Every site visit, job, and invoice ultimately links back to a customer record. Check-in ARTISAN provides a comprehensive customer management system that lets you store contact information, track communication preferences, write internal notes, and maintain a complete history of interactions.

This guide covers everything you need to know about creating, editing, searching, and managing customer records.

Adding a New Customer

To create a new customer, navigate to the Customers section from the sidebar and click the Create button in the top-right corner.

Civility

The first field you will encounter is the Civility selector. This is a predefined list of titles that cannot be modified (it is consistent across all workspaces). The available options are:

Civilities are displayed in the language of your company's locale when used in customer-facing documents such as invoices and emails.

Name Fields

• First name -- The customer's given name.
• Last name -- The customer's family name.

Both fields are required. The customer's full name (with civility) will appear on invoices, site visit lists, and throughout the application.

Contact Information

Keeping accurate contact information ensures you can reach your customers for site visit reminders, follow-ups, and marketing communications.

Phone Numbers

Check-in ARTISAN provides three separate phone fields to accommodate different contact preferences:

• Phone -- A landline or primary phone number.
• Mobile -- A mobile phone number, typically used for SMS communications.
• Email -- The customer's email address, used for sending invoices and other correspondence.

SMS Opt-In Toggle

Next to the mobile phone field, you will find an SMS opt-in toggle. When enabled, this indicates that the customer has consented to receive SMS messages from your company (such as site visit reminders or promotional messages).

Important: Always obtain explicit consent before enabling SMS communications for a customer. Unsolicited SMS messages may violate local regulations (such as GDPR in Europe). The toggle defaults to off for new customers.

Address Fields

The address section allows you to record the customer's address. This is particularly valuable for field service businesses, as it can also serve as the default job site address. Uses include:

• Sending postal mail or printed invoices.
• Pre-filling site visit addresses for jobs at the customer's primary location.
• Understanding the geographic spread of your clientele for route planning.

The address fields typically include:

• Street address
• City
• Postal/ZIP code
• Country

All address fields are optional. Fill in as much or as little as you need.

Notes

The Notes field is a free-text area attached to the customer record. Use it to store general information about the customer that does not fit into structured fields. For example:

• "Prefers afternoon appointments."
• "Access to the property requires the gate code: 4521."
• "Referred by Martin Dubois on Rue des Fleurs."

Notes are visible to all staff members who access the customer record.

Customer Memos

While the Notes field is a single persistent text area, Customer Memos provide a timestamped, append-only log of internal observations. Think of memos as a private journal for each customer.

How Memos Work

• Each memo is automatically stamped with the date and time it was created.
• Memos are displayed in reverse chronological order (newest first).
• They are strictly internal -- customers never see memos in invoices, emails, or any other communication.

When to Use Memos

Memos are ideal for tracking ongoing situations or conversations:

• "2026-02-15: Called to reschedule next week's visit. New date confirmed for Feb 22."
• "2026-01-30: Customer asked for a quote on bathroom renovation in addition to the plumbing repair."
• "2026-01-10: Customer mentioned they are renovating the garage -- follow up in a few weeks."

The timestamped nature of memos makes them especially valuable when multiple staff members interact with the same customer over time.

Linked Jobs

One of the most important relationships in Check-in ARTISAN is the link between customers and their jobs. Each customer can have multiple jobs, and each job belongs to exactly one customer.

Viewing a Customer's Jobs

When you open a customer record, you will see a relation manager panel that lists all jobs belonging to that customer. From this panel, you can:

• View any job's full profile by clicking on it.
• Add a new job directly from the customer page without navigating away.
• Edit an existing job inline.

Adding Jobs from the Customer Page

To add a new job from within a customer record:

1. Scroll down to the Jobs relation manager.
2. Click the Create button.
3. Fill in the job's details (title, type of work, site address, notes, etc.).
4. Save -- the job is automatically linked to this customer.

This inline workflow is the fastest way to set up a new customer and their first job in one go.

For full details on job profiles, see the Managing Jobs documentation.

Linked Invoices

The customer record also includes a relation to all invoices issued to that customer. From the customer page, you can:

• View a list of all quotes and invoices for this customer.
• See the status of each invoice (paid, unpaid, partially paid).
• Click through to view or edit any invoice.

This gives you a complete financial history for each customer without leaving their profile.

Searching and Filtering Customers

As your customer base grows, finding specific records quickly becomes essential. Check-in ARTISAN provides several tools for this.

Global Search

The search bar at the top of the Customers list lets you search by:

• First name
• Last name
• Email
• Phone number

Start typing and results will filter in real time.

Civility Filter

You can filter the customer list by civility using the filter panel. This is useful when you want to:

• View only couples (Mr & Mrs) for joint scheduling.
• Segment customers by title for targeted communications.

Column Sorting

Click on any column header to sort the customer list by that column. Click again to reverse the sort order. Common sorting scenarios include:

• Alphabetical by last name (the default).
• Most recently created customers first.

Editing a Customer

To edit an existing customer, click on their name in the customer list to open their record, then click the Edit button. All fields described above can be modified.

Changes are saved when you click the Save button. The application will validate required fields and display any errors inline.

Bulk Actions

The customer list supports selecting multiple records for bulk operations. Select customers using the checkboxes on the left side of the list, then choose an action from the bulk actions menu.

Deleting a Customer

Check-in ARTISAN includes safeguards to prevent accidental data loss when deleting customer records.

Delete Protection Rules

A customer cannot be deleted if they have:

• Linked jobs -- You must first delete or reassign all jobs belonging to this customer.
• Linked invoices -- You must first delete all invoices associated with this customer.

If you attempt to delete a customer who has jobs or invoices, the application will display an error message explaining why the deletion is blocked and what you need to resolve first.

Why These Safeguards Exist

Deleting a customer who has invoices could break your financial records and audit trail. Deleting a customer who has jobs would orphan those job records. These safeguards ensure data integrity across your company workspace.

Recommended Approach for Inactive Customers

Rather than deleting old customers, consider adding a memo noting that they are inactive. This preserves their history (and the history of their jobs and invoices) while making it clear they are no longer active clients.

Best Practices

Keep Contact Information Current

Periodically review customer records and update phone numbers and email addresses. Accurate contact information ensures that site visit reminders, invoice emails, and other communications reach the right person.

Use Memos Liberally

Memos cost nothing and can save you significant time. When a customer mentions something relevant during a visit -- a new project coming up, a change in site access, a specific requirement for the work -- jot it down as a memo. Future you (or your colleagues) will thank you.

Leverage the SMS Opt-In

If your company sends site visit reminders via SMS, make sure the opt-in toggle is correctly set for each customer. This not only keeps you compliant with regulations but also prevents you from wasting SMS credits on customers who have not opted in.

Civility Matters

Using the correct civility in invoices and emails is a small detail that makes a professional impression. Take a moment to confirm with new customers how they prefer to be addressed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I merge two duplicate customer records?

Currently, Check-in ARTISAN does not support automatic record merging. If you discover duplicate customers, you will need to manually move jobs and invoices from one record to the other, then delete the empty duplicate.

Can a customer belong to multiple company workspaces?

Each workspace maintains its own independent customer database. If you operate multiple branches and the same person is a client of more than one, they will have a separate customer record in each workspace.

How many customers can I have?

The number of customers depends on your subscription plan. The application tracks your current customer count as part of your workspace's usage metrics, and will notify you as you approach your plan's limit. See the Subscription section for details on plan limits.

Next Steps

Now that you know how to manage customers, learn how to create detailed profiles for their jobs:

• Managing Jobs -- Set up job type, site address, photos, and notes for every project.