Account Management

Use Sales > Accounts > Customers to find, create, and maintain the customer, vendor, and lead records that orders, invoices, payments, and purchasing depend on.

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Find an Account

Go to Sales > Accounts > Customers. The same screen opens from the other leaves under Accounts: Vendors, Leads, Payment Health, and Duplicate Review each open their own tab. You can also jump to an account from the command palette, or from any account name link on an order, invoice, or payment. You need View Accounts to open the page. If you belong to more than one company and an account link belongs to another one of yours, Arcus switches you to that company and opens the account, with the message Switched to the company name to open this account. If the switch fails you see Could not switch to the company name to open this account. Try again. The list starts with summary cards and tabs so you can quickly separate business customers, individuals, vendors, leads, and payment-health review work.

• Summary cards: Total Accounts, Active (not deactivated), Overdue Balances (customers with at least one past-due open receivable), and New This Month.
• Search: find accounts by name, email, phone, or visible account information.
• Type tabs: All, Business, Individual, Vendor, and Lead, each with a count. An Attention tab appears only when an account matches none of the type tabs.
• Payment Health: a review list of customers whose payment behavior needs attention.
• Duplicate Review: groups of accounts that look like the same customer or vendor, with a count badge. Use it with Account Merge.
• Pricing Level filter: review accounts assigned to a specific price tier.
• 1099 filter (Vendor tab): All 1099 status, 1099-NEC flagged, 1099-MISC flagged, W-9 on file, or Not 1099.
• Show Inactive: include accounts that were deactivated but kept for history.
• Columns: customer tabs show Display Name, Type, Tags, Pricing Level, Email, Main Phone, City, Last Purchase, Outstanding, and Lifetime Revenue; the Vendor tab shows its own set instead: Vendor Name, 1099 / W-9, Main Phone, Email, City, AP Balance, Last Bill, Open POs, Lifetime Spend, and Tags. Use the Columns menu to hide or restore columns.
• Export: export the current account list when your role has Export Reports. The export follows the tab you are on.

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Create an Account

Select Add Account when you need a new customer, vendor, or lead. Start with the smallest accurate record; you can fill in addresses, contacts, terms, tax settings, and payment methods after the account exists.

1. Go to Sales > Accounts > Customers.
2. Select Add Account. The button is disabled with a tooltip when your role does not have Create Accounts.
3. Choose the account type.
4. Enter the company or person name.
5. Confirm the display name that operators should recognize in searches and dropdowns.
6. Add email and phone if you have them.
7. Choose payment term and pricing level when they should default on orders or invoices.
8. Click Create Account. You see Account created and the account opens.

As you type, Arcus shows possible matches from your existing accounts, with their email, phone, and city, so you can open the existing record instead. If the server finds a likely duplicate when you save, the modal shows Possible duplicate account with the existing records. Open the existing account, or choose Create anyway when the new record is genuinely different.

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Finish the Account Detail

The account detail page is where the record becomes operational. Review the header actions, tabs, primary contact, default addresses, tax settings, credit information, and related communication history before the account is used heavily.

• Edit: update account identity, contact details, defaults, and other account fields.
• Create Quote: start a quote for this account with the account preselected.
• Create Sales Order: start a sales order with account defaults applied where available.
• Issue Credit: create customer credit when the account has credit activity to record. The button needs Post Journal Entries; confirming Issue Credit Memo also needs Refund / Void Payments, and without it the confirm stays off with the reason. When it succeeds you see Credit memo and its number issued for the amount, with a View link that opens the memo.
• Receive Payment: record one customer payment and spread it over open invoices. On a customer with no open balance the same button reads Record Deposit / On-Account Payment and records money held as account credit. It needs Process Payments and is shown disabled, with the reason, when your role does not have it. See Record an Order Payment and AR Management.
• Record Prepayment (vendor accounts): record money paid to a vendor before its bill arrives. Needs Post Journal Entries.
• Clear ACH Hold: an ACH returns on file banner asks you to verify banking information before processing ACH payments for the account. Select Clear ACH Hold once you have, which needs Edit Accounts. You see ACH hold cleared.
• Add tag: apply account tags used by your team for review, holds, or workflow signals.
• More actions menu: Convert Type (to Business, Individual, Lead, Vendor, or Investor), Deactivate or Reactivate (needs Edit Accounts), Merge with another account (needs Merge Accounts), and Delete (needs Delete Accounts).
• Merge Account: combine duplicate accounts when your role allows it and the records are the same account type.

The customer service console on a customer account puts the daily actions in one place:

• Email: pick a template and add an optional message. Resend Invoice sends the most recent invoice PDF, Resend Receipt the most recent payment receipt, Send Statement the current outstanding-balance statement, and Resend Shipping the latest tracking link. If the customer opted out of that email, you can choose Send anyway. You see Email sent to the recipient. Needs Edit Accounts.
• Log Call: record an Inbound or Outbound call with notes, then Save Call; you see Call logged. Needs Edit Accounts.
• New Order: start a sales order for this customer. Needs Create Orders.
• Receive Payment: open receive payment for this customer. Needs Process Payments.
• Returns: recent returns, with View all to open the customer’s returns.

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Set Defaults That Affect Orders

Account defaults reduce order-entry mistakes. They do not replace the operator’s review; users should still confirm addresses, terms, pricing, and tax behavior on important orders.

• Payment term: pre-fills on orders, invoices, and AR review surfaces.
• Pricing level: influences which price tier or pricing rule is selected.
• Default shipping address: pre-fills ship-to information on new orders.
• Default billing address: appears on invoices and billing documents when available.
• Tax exempt settings: affect whether tax should be charged and what exemption proof is on file.
• Shipping Terms: shows the terms that apply to this customer and where they come from: Recorded on this customer, Company default for your company, or Not recorded. Not recorded comes with a short explanation: nobody has recorded what shipping terms apply, so Arcus shows a blank rather than assuming one. Under FOB shipping point title passes when the goods leave; under FOB destination it passes when they arrive. Arcus does not use this to decide any accounting date. Set the company default in Settings > Payments & Checks > AR & Invoicing. The account card shows the terms; it does not edit them.

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Understand the Account Tabs

The visible tabs depend on your role and the account data, but the common tabs are:

• Overview: identity, primary contact, addresses, credit, terms, tax, and quick actions.
• Analytics: account performance and activity patterns.
• Timeline: audit-style history and account activity.
• Contact Persons: people associated with the account.
• Payment Methods: saved cards or bank methods when Stripe is configured.
• Transactions: related order, invoice, payment, credit, and account activity.
• Communications: emails and account communication history.

The Overview tab also holds a Documents panel: upload files for the account, open them, or delete them. Image and video files show a small preview thumbnail that opens in place, and when an account has more files than the panel lists it says Showing a number of the total documents. Each file shows who uploaded it. Vendor accounts also show Vendor and Prepayments, customer accounts show Eligible Promotions, and Call History appears when RingCentral is connected.

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Use Credit and AR Signals

The Tax and Terms panel shows payment terms, credit limit, outstanding AR, unused credit memos, and available-to-order signals. Use these before creating a large order or extending terms to a customer.

• Outstanding AR: money currently owed by the account.
• Unused Credit Memos: available customer credits that may be applied later.
• Available to Order: a quick credit capacity signal based on the account’s current credit picture.
• Issue Credit: use when a credit needs to be recorded for returns, goodwill, or account correction.
• Credits on file: each credit shows its memo number as a link that opens the credit memo. Each active credit has a Void action to remove it, which needs Post Journal Entries. The window Void credit memo lists what it does: it reverses the unused credit from the account, shows the account’s credit balance before and after, and posts a balancing journal entry; a Reason is required. When part of the credit was already applied to orders, it says Only the unused amount is reversible and that the applied amount stays applied. Confirming Void Credit also needs Refund / Void Payments. You see Credit memo and its number voided, with a View link.
• Credit hold: when an account is on hold, a banner shows the hold with Release Hold; you see Credit hold released. In edit mode, the credit hold switch turns the hold on or off with a reason. Turning it on blocks every open sales order for the account. Changing the hold needs Edit Credit Hold.
• Ship ACH orders before clearance: in edit mode, lets this customer’s bank-debit orders pack and ship before the payment processor confirms the debit settled. You accept the risk of a returned debit.
• Finance Charge Exemption: on a customer, this switch excludes the customer from all automatic and manual late fee assessments. You see Customer marked exempt from late fees or Late fee exemption removed. Needs Edit Accounts.
• Overdue Reminder Opt-Out: this switch skips the customer when Arcus sends automatic overdue reminders. You see Customer opted out of overdue reminders or Overdue reminders re-enabled. Needs Edit Accounts.
• Tax documents: in edit mode, the Tax Exempt switch stays disabled until the account has a tax exemption code (Set a Tax Exemption Code on this account first.). Upload Tax Document stores an exemption certificate; an account that is not saved yet says Save the account before uploading a tax certificate.

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Deactivate, Reactivate, or Delete

• Deactivate asks Deactivate Account and says the account will be marked as inactive. You see Account deactivated. Reactivate brings it back: Account reactivated.
• Delete is only for an account with no history. An account with financial history cannot be deleted; the window says Account cannot be deleted with Accounts with financial history cannot be deleted. and tells you to deactivate it instead, which keeps its records. Otherwise it asks Delete Account and warns that the action cannot be undone, and you see Account deleted.

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What Happens When You Save

• Activity history: creating or editing an account writes an entry to the account’s history listing the fields that actually changed.
• Credit hold: turning the hold on blocks every open sales order for the account, and releasing it lifts that block. The change and its reason are recorded in the account history.
• Shopify customers: when customer sync with Shopify is turned on, saving a change to a synced customer’s details sends the update to Shopify. Changing only the account owner does not send a customer update.
• Emails: the console’s email and resend actions send from your company email and are recorded in the account’s communication history.
• Other users see account changes without refreshing.

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Merge Duplicate Accounts Carefully

Use Merge Account when the same customer or vendor was created twice and one account should become the surviving record. The duplicate account is deactivated and redirects staff to the winner, while operational records move where Arcus can safely move them.

• Choose the winner first: the winner keeps the active account identity.
• Match account types: do not merge a vendor into a customer or a lead into an unrelated business record.
• Review defaults after merge: primary contact, billing address, shipping address, payment default, tags, and notes may need cleanup.
• Respect audit history: some historical accounting or inventory records remain attributed to the original record for audit integrity.

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Common Blocks

• Cannot find an account: check inactive accounts, account type tabs, spelling, and whether the record is a lead or vendor instead of a customer.
• Add Account is disabled: your role does not include Create Accounts.
• Export is disabled: your role does not include Export Reports.
• Wrong price appears on an order: check the account pricing level, product pricing rules, and order line quantity.
• Order starts with the wrong address: update the default shipping or billing address, then confirm the address on the order.
• Tax is not behaving as expected: review account exemption settings, uploaded tax document, product tax setup, and AvaTax status.
• Saved payment methods are unavailable: confirm Stripe is connected and the user has permission to manage or use stored payment methods.
• User cannot edit an account: check account permissions, role overrides, and whether the account is inactive.
• Merge is blocked: confirm both accounts are active, unmerged, in the same entity, and the same account type.

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