Create and maintain customers and suppliers

Quick summary: Create a reusable contact with correct legal details, addresses, and commercial terms.

Before you start

Apps

Your Odoo address

Enter the base address of your Odoo instance. It will be stored only in this browser.

Odoo base address

The documentation does not receive your address, username, or password.

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• Contacts

You need permission to create contacts. Ask the accounting owner to confirm tax details and commercial terms when they are uncertain.

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Open Contacts in Odoo

Your Odoo address

Enter the base address of your Odoo instance. It will be stored only in this browser.

Odoo base address

The documentation does not receive your address, username, or password.

Forget addressCancelSave

Create the main contact

1. Search Contacts by name and tax number before selecting New. Include archived records if the company was used before; a duplicate splits its sales and accounting history.
2. Select Company for a legal entity or Person for a person. Enter the full name, registered address, country, and tax number. A branch of the same legal entity normally belongs below the company.
3. Enter the email address and telephone number used for business communication. Verify the address before sending a quotation or invoice.
4. On the Contacts & Addresses tab, add the people and any separate invoice or delivery addresses. Use the contact structure guide to choose their parent and address type.
5. On the sales and purchase tab, review available payment terms and the customer pricelist. Sales and purchasing may use different terms. Accounting fields and defaults depend on the selected company and your access rights.
6. Save, then select the contact on a draft quotation or purchase request. Check the resulting addresses, currency, taxes, and payment terms before sending it.

Maintain an existing contact

1. Open the existing contact and compare the requested change with the legal or commercial information supplied by the customer or supplier.
2. Update the relevant address, person, or commercial term. Keep an individual linked to their company so documents retain the intended invoice recipient.
3. Review any open quotations or orders separately. A change to the contact does not guarantee that existing documents have been updated.
4. Archive an unused contact only after checking outstanding work. Follow the duplicate contact cleanup guide to review and merge duplicates with the required permissions; do not delete a used contact to hide the duplicate.

Result and common problems

The same contact can be used as both customer and supplier; do not create two records simply to separate those roles. Sales and purchase usage determines where it appears in filtered lists.

• Contact missing: remove customer/supplier filters and check archived records and the active company.
• Incorrect invoice recipient: correct the company hierarchy and invoice address, then inspect the draft document again.
• Unexpected payment terms: check both the contact defaults and the document itself with the accounting owner.