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Add customers and suppliers

Keep everyone you deal with under Contacts, split into a Customers list and a Suppliers list. Add them one at a time, or bring a whole spreadsheet in at once with a CSV file.

Customers and Suppliers

Worklog keeps the people you deal with under Contacts, split into two lists: Customers (the people you sell to) and Suppliers (the people you buy from). Adding someone once means their name, phone number and payment notes are ready whenever you make a quote, invoice or purchase order.

Under each list, the 📄 PDF and 📊 CSV / Excel buttons print it — name, phone, email, address, banking details and how they pay — as you have searched or narrowed it. It is other people's personal information, so POPIA applies to the file as much as to the list. A list you have narrowed says so under the PDF's title.

Open Customers or Suppliers from the menu. Each list has a Search box (a name, their CUS- or SUP- number, or a phone number), then two buttons. Show ▾ narrows the list: to the ones who owe you (or you owe) money, the ones with an overdue invoice, and by payment behaviour on Customers (Good, Slow or Problem payer) or payment term on Suppliers — each choice shows how many it would leave. Sort ▾ orders it by name A → Z or Z → A, by what is still owed (VAT included) highest or lowest first, by their CUS- or SUP- number, or with the ones you changed most recently first.

💡Don't see Suppliers? A Service business or a Professional & personal services business starts with it hidden. The owner can turn on Show every tool in Business details.

Add a customer or supplier

  1. Open Customers (for someone you sell to) or Suppliers (for someone you buy from).
  2. Tap the + Add button in the top right.
  3. The Type is already set to match the list you opened — Customer or Supplier.
  4. In the Name field, type the person's full name or business name. This is the only field you must fill in.
  5. Add their Phone, Email and Address if you have them (all optional).
  6. If they're VAT registered, fill in VAT number — 10 digits starting with 4. On a customer it prints on the invoices you send them. On a supplier, if your business is VAT registered, a payment filed against them starts on the claim (VAT on a tax invoice) under VAT to claim instead of asking — still check you have their tax invoice — on a line in Banking → + Add once you have paid them before under the same name, and on a saved entry when you pick them from the list.
  7. For a customer, pick a Payment behaviour: Good payer, Slow payer or Problem payer. For a supplier, pick the Payment terms instead: On delivery, 7 days, 30 days, 60 days, Cash only or Pre-payment.
  8. Type anything else worth remembering in the Notes field (optional).
  9. Optional but worth doing: tap 🏷️ Set category and pick their usual category — the SARS heading most of this customer’s (or supplier’s) lines fall under. Every line on their quotes, invoices, supplier invoices and purchase orders then starts with it filled in, instead of an amber tag you have to set line by line.
  10. Tap Save Customer (or Save Supplier).
💡The payment behaviour and payment terms are just for your own reference, so you know at a glance who pays on time and what each supplier expects.

Customers have one extra box: a Custom field for anything unique to your business. Type a Label (like Pet name, Vehicle or Account) and its Value (like Biscuit), and it is saved with that customer. Leave it blank if you do not need it.

Save a supplier's bank details

When a contact is a supplier, you get an extra Banking details section with two boxes: Bank and Account number. It only appears for suppliers (the people you pay), so you will not see it on customers. Fill them in if you would like them handy for the next time you pay that supplier.

⚠️Banking details are sensitive personal data under POPIA. Only capture them with the supplier's knowledge, and only so you can pay them. Worklog shows this reminder right above the two boxes.

Once saved, the bank and account number show on that supplier's row in your Suppliers list, next to a small bank icon, so you can see them at a glance without opening the contact.

💡Bank details are optional. Leave them blank if you would rather not keep them, and you can add or remove them later by opening the supplier and tapping Save Supplier.

Change or remove a contact

  1. Open Customers or Suppliers and find the person in the list.
  2. Tap their name to open the contact.
  3. Change any of the details, then tap Save Customer or Save Supplier.
  4. To remove them, tap the ✕ on the right of their row and confirm.
💡Removing a contact is safe. Worklog keeps them on any quotes or invoices you have already made, it just takes them off your active list.
⚠️The 🧹 on a row is different: it permanently erases their phone, email, address, banking details and notes. Use it when someone asks you to delete their details under POPIA. Their name stays on quotes and invoices you have already issued, and it can't be undone.

Add a lot of contacts at once

If you already have a list of customers or suppliers in a spreadsheet, you can bring them all in together instead of typing them one by one, using the ⬆ Import button at the top of the list.

  1. Open Customers or Suppliers and tap the ⬆ Import button in the top right.
  2. Tap Download template CSV and fill in your contacts using that file as a guide. Only the name column is required.
  3. Tap Choose CSV file and pick your file.
  4. Check the preview. It shows a Will import number and a Duplicates skipped number (anyone whose name already exists is skipped).
  5. Tap the Import button to finish, then tap Done.
⚠️Import adds to the list you are on: importing from Suppliers brings the rows in as suppliers, and importing from Customers brings them in as customers. Open the right list before you start so your contacts land in the correct place.
💡If a payment behaviour or payment term in your file is blank or spelled differently to Worklog's options, that contact comes in with it left blank. The same goes for a VAT number that isn't 10 digits starting with 4. The preview shows a small warning for anything it did not recognise, and you can set it later by opening the contact.
💡The supplier template has bank_name and account_number columns, so you can bring bank details in with the import too. The client template does not have them, since bank details are only kept on suppliers. It has a vat_number column instead, for customers who are VAT registered.
Related guides
Set up your business →Create and send an invoice →Send a quote →Log money in and out →Contacts Reports →
Still stuck? Open the in-app help assistant, or email us at hello@worklogsolutions.co.za.
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