AnchorAnchor
Modules

Contacts

Manage customers, suppliers, and contacts.

Contacts represent the people and companies you do business with.

Contact Types

  • Customer — People you sell to (appears on invoices and quotes)
  • Supplier — People you buy from (appears on bills and purchase orders)
  • Both — Contacts that are both customers and suppliers

Contact Fields

FieldDescription
NameContact or company name
Account codeOptional customer / supplier code (e.g. ABC001). Unique in the organisation, ignoring case
EmailPrimary email address
PhonePhone number
TypeCustomer, Supplier, or Both
Tax NumberABN, VAT number, etc.
Payment TermsDays after invoice (0 = due on receipt; leave blank to use the organisation default from Settings → Financials), End of the month (due on the last day of the month the invoice is dated) or End of next month
CurrencyDefault currency for transactions. Quotes and invoices fill this into Currency when you pick the customer.
StreetPhysical street line 1 — printed on invoices and quotes
Line 2Second street line (suburb / unit / building). Not a PO Box
CityCity or town
State / ProvinceFree text (e.g. Western Cape)
Postal codeStreet postcode (e.g. 8001)
CountryISO-3166-1 alpha-2 preferred (ZA)
NotesInternal notes

When currency is omitted on create (API, MCP, or UI), Anchor uses the organization base currency (e.g. ZAR for South African orgs), not USD. You can still set an explicit currency per contact for multi-currency customers.

Invoice and bill create then inherit that contact currency unless the document body overrides currencyCode.

Account code

Give a contact an optional account code on New Contact or Contact → Details (up to 30 characters, e.g. ABC001).

  • Codes are unique within the organisation, ignoring case: abc001 and ABC001 are the same code. Saving a duplicate shows an error.
  • Leave it blank for no code, or let Anchor fill it in (see Contact codes). Clearing a code, or deleting the contact, frees it for reuse.
  • The contact list has a Code column and a code sort. Search on the contact list, in the contact picker on documents, and in global search matches the code.
  • Merging duplicates keeps the surviving contact's code. If it has none, it takes the duplicate's.
  • CSV imports of invoices and bills match the contact by Contact Account Code when the row has one, otherwise by name (see Import & Export).
  • On a bank line, a code in the description or reference (e.g. a customer paying with ABC001 as the reference) ranks that contact's open invoices or bills first in Match invoice / Match bill, and a bank rule without a contact can settle to that contact (see Banking).
  • The code prints as Account: ABC001 under the contact name on invoices, quotes, credit and debit notes, purchase orders, sales orders, delivery notes, proof of delivery, and statements of account. Custom templates can use {{contactCode}}.
  • A sent invoice keeps the code it had when it was sent.

Price list

On Contacts → Bookkeeping, choose a price list (managed under Inventory → Price lists) to price catalogue items on this customer's documents. None uses each item's sale price.

Default tax

On Contacts → Bookkeeping (and Details), set a default tax rate and optionally mark the contact tax-exempt.

  • Quotes and invoices apply that rate to new lines when you pick the customer. Tax-exempt contacts get No tax.
  • Override tax on any line (including No tax). That choice is kept if you change the customer.
  • Bills, purchase orders, and credit notes do not use this default yet.

Address

Enter a physical (street) address on New Contact or Contact → Details. It is stored as the contact’s billing address and printed on invoices and quotes.

  • Line 2 is a second street line (suburb / unit / building), not a PO Box.
  • Tick Shipping address is different only when delivery is not the same street. Documents use billing, not shipping.
  • Country names that match the country list are stored as the ISO-2 code (South Africa → ZA). There is no default country on create.

Sent invoices keep the address captured at send time. Quotes, credit notes, debit notes, and purchase orders always use the live contact address.

Statement of account

Open a contact → Statement.

  • Choose a period (this/last month, this/last quarter, year to date, last 12 months, or custom dates).
  • The table is a running ledger: invoices, credit notes, payments, and (for suppliers) bills and debit notes. Opening balance is activity before the start date.
  • Download PDF or Email (Email needs a contact email address). The PDF uses your Customer Statement template, or your default invoice template's look when you have none (see Document Templates). The email has the statement in its body and the same PDF attached.

Customers with a portal link can open Statements there. The portal shows the customer side of the same ledger (invoices, credit notes, receipts) for the last 12 months. Suppliers’ bills are not shown on the customer portal.

This is not the bank Check a statement screen and not the Aged Receivables report.

Using Contacts

Contacts are referenced throughout Anchor:

  • Invoices — Select a customer when creating invoices
  • Quotes — Send quotes to customers
  • Statement — Period ledger, PDF, and email (see above)
  • Bills — Record bills from suppliers
  • Purchase Orders — Order from suppliers
  • Projects — Associate projects with clients

Searching & Filtering

The contacts list supports:

  • Search — Filter by name or email
  • Type tabs — All, Customers, Suppliers
  • Pagination — Navigate through large contact lists

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