Managing Customers

Overview

Customers are the foundation of your Forz account. Every job, estimate, invoice, and site connects back to a customer record. A customer represents a company or individual you provide field service to. Forz tracks their contact information, service addresses, outstanding balances, and full work history in one place.

Before You Begin

Prerequisites:

1. You have the Customers: Create permission on your role.

2. At least one status is configured for customers (Settings > Status Options).

3. If using QuickBooks integration, connect your QuickBooks account first (Settings > Integrations).

Creating a Customer

Required fields

1. Click Customers in the sidebar navigation.

1. Click the + New button in the top-right corner. A form opens.

1. Enter an Organization name. This is required and must be unique across your account.

Contact and address fields

1. Enter a First name and Last name for the primary contact person.

1. Enter an Email address for the customer.

2. Enter a Mobile Phone number.

3. Enter the service address: Street 1, Street 2 (Optional), City, State, and Zip Code.

4. Select a System type if the customer's primary site has a known system (e.g., HVAC, fire alarm).

5. Add Labels to categorize the customer (e.g., "VIP", "Commercial", "Residential").

6. Click Save.

Expected result: Forz creates the customer record with an auto-generated customer number (e.g., CUST-1001) and sets its status to the first status in your Customer status workflow (typically "Active"). The customer appears in your customer list.

Note: When you save a new customer, Forz automatically creates a contact from the first and last name you entered, and a service address (site) from the street address. You do not need to create these separately.

Editing a Customer

1. Click Customers in the sidebar navigation.

1. Click the customer row to open the customer detail view.

2. Click the field you want to edit (e.g., organization name, email, phone).

1. Make your changes and click Save.

Expected result: The customer record updates and a confirmation message appears.

Tip: Click the Stats tab on a customer detail view to see revenue, outstanding balance, average invoice value, and payment behavior at a glance.

Searching and Filtering Customers

Searching

1. Click Customers in the sidebar navigation.

1. Type a search term in the Search bar at the top of the list. Forz searches by organization name.

2. Press Enter or wait for results to load.

Expected result: The customer list filters to show matching records.

Filtering

1. Click the Filters button above the customer list.

1. Select one or more filter criteria:

   • Created — filter by date range

   • Status — filter by one or more customer statuses

   • Assignee — filter by the user assigned to the customer

   • Labels — filter by one or more labels

2. The list updates as you apply filters. Active filters appear as tags above the list.

Expected result: The customer list shows only records matching your selected filters. Click the X on a filter tag to remove it.

Managing Customer Status

Customer statuses track where a customer is in your relationship lifecycle (e.g., "Active", "Inactive", "Prospect").

1. Open a customer record.

1. Click the Status dropdown or status badge.

2. Select the new status.

Expected result: The status updates and the Status Updated date refreshes.

Note: Customer statuses are configurable. Go to Settings > Status Options and filter by "Customer" to add, rename, or reorder statuses.

Using Labels

Labels help you categorize and filter customers. Common examples: "Commercial", "Residential", "VIP", "Property Manager", "Net 30".

1. Open a customer record.

1. Click the Labels field.

2. Select one or more labels from the dropdown.

3. Click Save.

Expected result: The selected labels appear on the customer record and in the customer list. You can filter the customer list by label.

Tip: Configure labels in Settings > Labels and filter by "Customer" to create new labels or reorder existing ones.

Assigning a Customer to a User

1. Open a customer record.

1. Select a user from the Assignee dropdown.

2. Click Save.

Expected result: The assigned user appears on the customer record and in the Assignee column of the customer list.

Deleting a Customer

Forz uses soft delete for customers. Deleted customers move to the trash bin and can be restored.

Warning: You can only delete a customer that has no linked jobs, estimates, sales orders, projects, invoices, recurring jobs, or recurring invoices. Remove or reassign these records first.

1. Open the customer record.

2. Click Delete (or the trash icon).

3. Confirm the deletion.

Expected result: The customer moves to the trash bin. To restore it, go to Settings > Trash Bin, find the customer, and click Restore.

What Happens After Creation

When a customer is saved, Forz automatically:

• Assigns a customer number — sequential, unique (e.g., CUST-1001).

• Sets the initial status — the first status in your Customer status workflow.

• Creates a primary contact — from the first name, last name, and email you entered (only if first name is provided).

• Creates a primary site — from the street address you entered (only if street is provided).

• Creates a system — on the new site, if you selected a system type.

Customer Detail View

The customer detail view shows:

Left column — Details:

• Organization name, customer number, status

• Primary contact name, email, phone

• Primary service address

• Labels, assignee, custom fields

Right column — Tabs:

• Overview — deals, primary contact card, primary site card, financial summary

• Deals — linked deals (if CRM module enabled)

• Estimates — estimates for this customer

• Jobs — jobs for this customer

• Sales Orders — sales orders for this customer

• Projects — projects for this customer

• Invoices — invoices for this customer

• Tasks — tasks linked to this customer

• Files — attached documents and files

• Custom prices — customer-specific pricing (if enabled)

Common Scenarios

Property management company with multiple sites

A property management company like "Greenfield Properties" manages 12 apartment buildings across the city. Create the customer with the organization name "Greenfield Properties" and the head office address. Then add each building as a separate site with its own street address. Each site gets geocoded for route planning.

HVAC contractor onboarding a new commercial client

1. Create a new customer with organization "Downtown Office Plaza LLC".

2. Enter the facility manager's name and phone number.

3. Enter the building address.

4. Select "HVAC" as the system type.

5. Save. Forz creates the contact, site, and HVAC system automatically.

6. From the customer detail view, create a job for the initial site survey.

Tracking a VIP residential customer

For high-value residential customers, add the "VIP" and "Residential" labels when creating the customer. Assign the customer to a dedicated account manager using the Assignee field. Filter the customer list by the "VIP" label to review your priority accounts.

Troubleshooting