Customers

A customer is the account you invoice. A delivery address is a location served by that account. One customer can have several addresses, such as branches of the same business.

Finding somebody

Search Customers by name, email or phone in the bar above the list. A phone number matches however it is written, such as 07700 900123 or +44 7700 900123, and contacts’ emails and phone numbers count too. Choose All, Trade or Consumer, and tick Owes money to see only customers with an outstanding balance. If you have your shop, Shop account shows the customers with a Confirmed sign-in, those whose sign-up has an Email not confirmed, or those with No shop account. Price list, Ordering and Marketing are under Filters, which shows how many of them are on. Ordering shows the customers whose new orders or deliveries are Stopped for money owed now, or those Set to stop while unpaid, owing or not. Clear filters puts everything back.

Select a column heading, such as Customer, Owed or Overdue, to put the list in that order, and again to turn it round. Move between pages at the top right of the list or at the foot, where Per page sets how many show at once.

Select a customer’s name to open them. The ⋯ button at the end of each row has Open customer, See orders, See invoices, Change price list, Set payment terms, Make trade or Make consumer, and Archive.

Changing several customers at once

Tick the customers you want to change, or tick the box at the top for everyone on the page. A bar appears at the foot of the window saying how many are ticked. Where there are more on other pages, Select all N matching customers chooses every customer that matches. Then choose:

• Change price list: see Price list.
• Set payment terms: how they pay their next orders. For Pay later (on account), type the days to pay, or leave it blank for your usual number.
• Make trade or Make consumer: which prices they pay on their next orders. Their payment terms stay as they are.
• Stop new orders while unpaid: whether new orders stop while they have an overdue invoice.
• Set email language: the language of their emails, invoices and reminders.
• Merge into one: pick the account to keep, and the others fold into it with everything they have: orders, invoices, cylinders, deposits, prices, addresses and contacts. A different name, email address or phone number stays on the kept account as a contact. Merge up to 10 customers on one page at a time. This cannot be undone.
• Archive: takes them off your customer list and out of new orders. Past orders and invoices keep them.

Bottle asks you to confirm, then says what changed. A customer the change does not apply to is left as it was and named, with the reason.

Open a customer to see their details and delivery addresses, contacts, invoices, orders, regular schedules, cylinders, agreed rates and data-management options. Invoices, orders, regular deliveries, agreed rates and shop accounts each have the same search, filters and pages as the full lists.

Customer details

Use Trading name for the name your team recognises. Add a Legal name if the invoice needs a different name.

Choose payment terms:

• Pay later: invoice after delivery, or on the customer’s invoice schedule.
• Pay before delivery: send a payment link before the order is planned.
• Pay on delivery: take payment at the stop.

Set Days to pay for that customer, or leave it blank to use your business default.

New customers use the home or business defaults in Business settings → Invoices → How customers pay. You can change the customer’s terms or override the payment method on an order.

Choose per-delivery, weekly, monthly or quarterly invoicing as appropriate. Scheduled invoices can include pay-later deliveries, cylinder rent and deposit credits. Use your business invoice dates or customer-specific dates. See Invoices.

Office notes are for the office only. Drivers do not see them. Put gate codes, padlock codes and delivery instructions in Notes for the driver on the delivery address. Drivers see those on the stop in the driver app.

Contacts

The Customer group shows the customer name, which goes on their orders and invoices. It also shows whether they are trade or consumer, and their legal name. Select Edit on the group to rename them.

Main contact details holds the main contact’s name, email, phone and the language their emails are written in. The name can be left blank, for example for a consumer whose customer name is their own. Select Edit on the group to change it.

Additional contacts lists anyone else who needs Bottle emails. For each one, tick what to Send them:

• Order and delivery emails: order confirmations and delivery updates, like the main contact.
• Invoices and payment reminders: invoices and overdue-invoice reminders. Add as many people for invoices as the customer needs; Bottle sends the invoice to each distinct email address.

Tick both for someone who needs both.

Who they are is optional: choose Partner, Family member, Carer, Neighbour or Landlord for a consumer, or Owner, Manager, Accounts, Site contact or Colleague for a business, or type your own.

If nobody here gets invoices, they go to the main contact and anyone who gets order and delivery emails. Someone ticked only for invoices does not get delivery updates.

Select Edit on a contact to change it. Remove, under ⋯, stops them getting Bottle emails.

Finding an address

Start typing the address in Start typing the address, such as the house number and street. After a few letters, address search lists up to eight matches. Use the arrow keys and Enter, or click, to pick one. The address lines, town and postcode fill in.

Every line stays open after you pick, so check them and correct anything the search missed, such as a flat number or a house name. Address search is a good start, not the last word: you know the door better than it does.

To skip the search, select Enter it yourself and type the lines. If address search is not available, the lines are shown on their own.

The postcode is still checked as you type it. Bottle offers postcodes that start the same way, and says if what you typed is not a postcode.

Delivery addresses

A customer’s delivery addresses are listed under their details. Each one shows its delivery times, what to do If nobody is in, the notes for the driver and where Rounds go to. Add the first address when creating the customer. Use Add an address for additional locations. Edit is on each line. It shows the address first, then a Delivery section with the delivery times, the drop-off point and what to do if nobody is in. Set delivery times opens the times in the same window. Select the times on an address line to open them directly. Make this the billing address, Move address and Archive address are under ⋯.

Give each address a useful label, such as a branch name or site number, and record any location-specific instructions.

Select the intended address when creating an order. Check it even when the customer has only one.

The billing address

Use Make this the billing address under ⋯ on an address to choose which address appears on invoices. You can also select it while adding or editing the address.

A customer has one billing address. If the customer has one address, it is used by default.

How an address is placed on the map

When an address is saved, Bottle looks up where the door is. Each address on a customer shows where Rounds go to:

• The drop-off point: someone has set a drop-off point, which planning uses. Select it to move or remove it.
• The door: address search found the door.
• The street, not the door: it found the street but not the house.
• The middle of the postcode, not the door: only the postcode is known.
• When a postcode can’t be found at all, Bottle puts the address at the middle of its postcode district. Rounds then shows a note under Check these, so you can check the postcode.
• Not on the map. Check the postcode.: there is no point, usually because the postcode is missing or wrong.

The address is not always where the driver delivers, such as the back gate of a house or the yard behind a pub. Set the drop-off point opens the address at its pin, so you can move it there. For the street and postcode ones, set it on a farm, an industrial estate or a long rural postcode. In a town street the street point is often close enough.

Delivery map pins

A postcode location may not identify the correct entrance or access road.

Select Set the drop-off point, move the map pin to where the driver delivers and save. Remove the drop-off point goes back to the address. Planning then uses that location for routing and arrival times.

The original postcode point remains visible for reference. Back to the postcode removes your override. Automatic postcode updates do not overwrite a saved stopping point.

Delivery times

Set delivery hours on an address when access is restricted. Rules can apply every day or to a specific weekday. Add separate time ranges for a lunchtime closure.

A weekday rule overrides an everyday rule. For example, an everyday opening period plus a Sunday closure means no Sunday deliveries.

Planning handles these rules as follows:

• Early arrivals include waiting time.
• Stops that cannot be reached before closing are removed from the round.
• Orders for addresses closed that day remain waiting with an explanation.

Without rules, the address has no delivery-time restriction.

Language for emails

Under Language for emails on a customer, choose the language their order, delivery, payment link and invoice emails are written in. English is the default. A customer can also choose it on your shop: the language they sign up in, or pick later while signed in, is given to the customers they manage. One you set here stays until it is changed.

Your own words stay as you wrote them, such as a reminder email you wrote yourself.

Trade and consumer customers

Mark each customer as Trade (a business) or Consumer (a household). This sets their default payment terms when created. VAT rates are set on products, not determined by the customer’s category.

When a pub changes hands

Move its delivery address to the new customer account. Existing orders and invoices remain with the original customer.

Deposit or rent

Where both charges are configured, choose Deposit, Rent or Deposit and rent on the customer’s record, or follow the business default. The default is set under Business settings → Cylinder charges. The combined option charges a deposit on delivery and ongoing rent while the customer holds the cylinder, useful for beer gas cylinders.

The choice applies to new cylinder deliveries; existing recorded agreements stay unchanged. Selecting Rent or Deposit and rent starts monthly rent invoicing if the customer has no billing period. You can change that period. A charge’s Who pays setting still determines whether it applies to this customer. The customer’s explicit choice takes precedence over a price list choosing deposit or rent. See Who pays a deposit or rent.

On a new order, Bottle says which applies to the chosen customer, such as “19kg propane: on rent, £3.00 a week, no deposit”.

Cylinders they already have

Cylinders held on a customer counts deliveries minus returns recorded in Bottle. Customers added after you start using Bottle begin at a confirmed zero. For customers you already had, Bottle asks you to check the opening balance because the figure may not include cylinders they held before Bottle.

For cylinders they already held, select Add cylinders already held. Search for a cylinder, enter the quantity, then use Add another cylinder for each other size. Held from is optional. Use an approximate date if you know it; if you leave it blank, rent and deposit-refund timing starts from the date the customer was added to Bottle. Save the opening balance once, when the list is complete.

Select Balance is complete when every cylinder is entered. If they held none before Bottle, select it without adding anything. The Cylinders section then shows Opening balance confirmed, the opening quantity—including zero—and the confirmation date. Before confirmation it shows Opening balance not checked with the two actions still available.

Once confirmed, the current balance includes the opening balance and all later deliveries and returns. Deposit refunds and rent count from the dates you gave, so a sliding scale gives back the right amount. Where refunds are added by the office, Bottle waits for this confirmation before offering a possible cylinder refund.

Adding them from one list

Customer cylinders shows every customer and the cylinders they hold, so you can enter opening balances without opening each customer. Search for a customer and open the menu at the end of their row. Select Add cylinders, enter the sizes, quantities and optional Held from dates, then select Save opening balance. When the customer has nothing else to add, select Balance is complete from the same menu, then Confirm balance. Tick several customers to add the same cylinders to each, or to confirm their balances together. See Customer cylinders.

Cylinder problems they report

A customer can report a problem with a cylinder from Your cylinders in their account on your shop: Lost, Stolen, Damaged or I’ve moved to another supplier, with a note if they like. It is only a notice to you. The cylinder stays on their account, marked for example Reported lost on 3 October, and rent goes on, until you act. They can withdraw the report until then. Owners and admins get an email and a notice in the bell, which opens the customer.

Above Cylinders held on the customer, Cylinder problems they reported lists each report with who made it, when, what they wrote, and how many they hold now as Bottle has it. Choose one of:

• Write it off: the cylinders come off what the customer holds from today, with no charge, and rent on them stops from today.
• Invoice the customer: type the amount for each cylinder, the VAT rate and the description they will read. An invoice is raised now and sent the usual way, with its number and payment link. The cylinders come off what they hold from today, and rent stops.
• Dismiss: nothing changes. The cylinders stay on their account.

No deposit is refunded by any of these. Deposits come back with the cylinder; if you decide to give one back anyway, add the refund as you usually would. Each choice can carry a note, which the customer sees on the shop and in the email telling them what you did. Until you choose, the report stays open.

Every report stays listed under Earlier, with who acted and when, or that the customer withdrew it. Customers → Cylinder reports lists the reports waiting across every customer, and All shows those dealt with. For a trade customer, only someone with the Manager role on their shop account can report a problem.

Agreed rates

Agreed rates lists only the products this customer pays differently for: each one’s list price, their own price, and any quantity prices, on one line. Products at your list price are not listed. Search by product, or choose Customer price or Quantity prices to see one kind. Their own agreed price comes first, before their price list and before the Trade or Consumer price. See Who pays what.

To agree prices, select Add, then Customer prices. Search for the products or choose a kind of product, type a price against each one you want to agree, and select Agree prices. Products left blank stay at your list price. To change one later, select Change on its line.

Remove agreed rate, under ⋯ on a line, removes their own price for that product, so they pay your usual price again.

Price list

While a customer is on a price list, they pay its prices, so their own prices are greyed out and Add is turned off. Take them off the price list to set prices just for them.

Beside the Agreed rates heading, Price list shows the price list the customer is on, such as Gold, or None. A customer is on one price list or none. Choose another list, or None, to move them. Bottle says what will change before it does. Where they have agreed prices on products the list prices, you can choose to remove those so the list prices apply, or keep them, since their own agreed prices come first.

In the Customers list, the Price list column shows each customer’s list, and the Price list filter shows one list, or customers on none. To move one, use ⋯ on its row. To move several at once, tick them, or tick the box at the top for everyone on the page. A bar appears at the foot of the window saying how many are ticked. Where there are more on other pages, Select all N matching customers in the bar chooses every customer that matches. Then select Change price list, choose the list, or No price list (take them off), and select Next. Bottle says how many will move, then Put on the list, or Take off price list, makes the change.

Their own quantity prices

Quantity prices charge one customer less each when they buy more of one product, such as “10+ at £30.00” on 47kg propane. Select Add, then Quantity prices, choose the product, type the number and the price each, and press Save. On a product already listed, use Set quantity prices under ⋯. Change quantity prices and Remove quantity prices are there too. Their quantity prices go with their own agreed price where they have one.

Download price sheet, under Price sheet in the ⋯ menu at the top of a customer, gives you a PDF price sheet for them, in your business’s name, address and logo. It lists every product you sell them at the price they pay today, with their agreed rates, price list and quantity prices already in place, and the cylinder deposits they pay. If you are registered for VAT, it shows each price before VAT and with VAT.

When you sell on your shop, Rates PDF on a trade customer makes their price sheet. Choose Agreed prices only for just the products priced for them (their agreed rates, price list and quantity prices), or Full catalogue for everything you sell them. View PDF opens it in a new tab and Download PDF saves it. Email PDF emails it to the customer with the prices listed in the email. Nothing is sent until you select Email PDF.

Shop accounts

If you have your shop, Shop accounts on a customer lists the people who sign in on it to order for them, and the invitations not accepted yet. For each one you see their email, whether they have confirmed it, when they last signed in, and whether they use two-step sign-in. Search by email, or choose Confirmed, Not confirmed or Invited.

A sign-in is joined to a customer when someone signs up on your shop with the email on the customer, when you approve their trade application, or when they accept an invitation.

On a trade customer, each person has a role:

• Manager: orders, sees invoices, and invites or removes colleagues.
• Buyer: orders, but does not see invoices.
• Accounts: sees invoices and statements, but cannot order.

Change a role under ⋯ on their line. Invite a new user sends an invitation by email with the role you choose; it shows as Invited until they accept, and Withdraw under ⋯ cancels it.

Remove access under ⋯ stops someone ordering for this customer, for example when they leave the business. They keep their sign-in on your shop, but no longer see this customer’s orders or invoices.

Marketing

Marketing on a customer shows whether they have agreed to offers and news by email, text message, phone call and post. Each one is Agreed, Withdrawn or Not asked, with when it changed, where (shop sign-up, shop checkout, their shop account, the office, an import or the API) and who changed it. Every customer starts as Not asked: Bottle never assumes anyone agrees.

Customers agree on your shop by ticking the box when they make an account or check out while signed in, and they can turn each channel on or off at any time under Marketing preferences in their shop account. A tick at a guest checkout shows as Not confirmed and does not count, because anyone can type any email address there. It never counts on its own: the customer has to tick the box themselves when they make a shop account. After 30 days it shows as Not asked again. What they choose there shows here straight away, and what you change here shows in their account.

Agreement belongs to the email address it was given for. If you change a customer’s email, a yes given for the old address shows as Agreed for another email and they drop off marketing lists until they agree again.

If a customer tells you they want offers, press Record agreement on that channel, choose how they told you (over the phone, in person, in writing, by email or another way) and add a note if it helps. It is recorded with your name.

Remove consent is always there for a channel they agreed to. Press it and confirm, and they drop off marketing lists for that channel straight away. It works even if your Bottle bill is unpaid.

When you merge two records, a stop comes across: if the duplicate said stop, the kept record says stop too. A yes on the duplicate does not come across; ask the customer again if you need it. When you erase a customer, every choice is withdrawn and the history no longer says who they were.

Show history lists every change, newest first: what changed, when, how and by whom, any note, and for the shop the words the customer saw beside the box. Nobody can edit or delete it, so it is your record if the Information Commissioner’s Office asks how someone agreed.

To see everyone who agreed to one channel, choose it in the Marketing filter on Customers. Owners and admins can change marketing choices; drivers cannot see them.

Trade applications

Businesses that apply for a trade account on your shop wait under Trade applications, opened from the top of Customers when any are waiting, from the bell, or from Your day. Each one shows who applied, how to reach them, when, and everything they sent.

Colleagues they named are shown under Colleagues to invite, with their email and role. Anyone without an email cannot be invited.

Approve adds them as a new trade customer, with Pay later and the days they have to pay or Pay now, or joins them to a trade customer you already have. The dialog lists the colleagues who will be invited. On approval the applicant is emailed with their trade prices, each colleague is invited to their own sign-in, and Bottle says who was invited. Until they accept, they show under Invited, not joined yet in the customer’s Shop accounts. Decline asks for a reason, which is sent to them. See Trade accounts and approvals.

Two records for one customer

Bottle suggests possible duplicates based on email addresses and phone numbers. Phone formatting and letter case are normalised. Names alone are not used to match customers.

Review suggestions in the customer list or on a customer record. Merge accounts combines the records; Not the same dismisses the suggestion.

Under Which account do you want to keep?, select either customer card. The filled circle and highlighted card show the account that will stay. The preview below shows where the other account’s orders and addresses will go. You can open either account to check its details first. Selecting a card does not merge anything; press Merge accounts only when the direction is right.

Nothing merges automatically. You can also select a duplicate manually in Merge & data. Everything the duplicate has moves to the retained record: orders, invoices, cylinders held, deposits, standing orders, prices, addresses, contacts and shop logins. Where both have something, the retained record keeps its own:

• Its own details stay. A blank email, phone, legal name or billing address is filled from the duplicate, and both sets of notes are kept.
• A different name, email address or phone number is added as a contact on the retained record. Without any email address, it is written on the notes instead.
• Where both had a price for the same product, the retained record’s price stays.
• The same delivery address twice is kept once. Delivery notes and leave instructions from the other copy are kept.
• Cylinder rent carries on from the later billed-up-to date, so nothing is billed twice.
• A legal hold or a stop on unpaid orders on either record stays on.

The old record remains marked as merged and links to the retained account.

If both records have their own contact in Xero, the duplicate’s invoices already in Xero stay under its Xero contact, because Xero will not move a paid or cancelled invoice. New invoices go to the retained record’s contact. To tidy Xero, merge the two contacts there too.

Exporting your customers

Press Export on Customers to download the list as a CSV file, which opens in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets. The file follows your search and filters. With none set, it has every customer.

Bottle asks what the file is for:

• All customers has every detail: name, legal name, email, phone, delivery address and postcode, trade or consumer, payment terms, what they owe and what is overdue in pounds and pence, their marketing choice on each channel (Agreed, Withdrawn or Not asked), when they became a customer, their last order and how many orders they have placed.
• For marketing asks which channel the list is for: email, text message, phone call or post. It has only the customers who agreed to that channel, with just what it needs (their email, their phone number or their address), when and how they agreed, and their order dates.

An email list leaves out anyone whose email has stopped working. Only send offers to the people on the list, and take anyone off it who asks you to stop. The last line of the file says End of file and how many customers are in it; if it is missing, the download did not finish, so download it again.

The file holds people’s personal details, so keep it somewhere safe and delete it when you have finished with it. Bottle keeps a record of every export: who made it, when and how many customers were in it. Drivers cannot export customers.

Archiving

Archive customers you no longer serve. Their historical records remain available without keeping them in active customer lists.

Data retention and erasure

Use Privacy and retention to set retention periods, export a customer’s data or process an erasure request. See Privacy.

For an overview of customer accounts in Bottle, see Customer accounts on the Bottle website.

When taking an order for a customer whose opening cylinder balance is unconfirmed, Bottle suggests a like-for-like exchange. Check the expected empties and review any cylinder charge before saving. Actual returns update holdings and refund eligibility without changing the saved charge. See Review cylinder charges before saving.