Some transactions (like invoices and bills) need to be assigned to a contact, so you'll know how much you need to pay each supplier, and how much each customer owes you. For other transactions (like spend money or receive money) it can be helpful to keep track of who you bought from or sold to.
You can then use this information to produce various reports that can give you more information about your business. See Analysing your contacts.
What transactions require a contact?
All invoices must be assigned to a customer, and all bills must be assigned to a supplier. You select the contact from the Customer or Supplier list when entering the transaction.
You can also choose to select a customer or supplier when entering spend money or receive money transactions, but you’ll still be able to record the transaction if no contact is selected.
When you enter a transaction, only contacts of the relevant type will be available. For example, if you’re creating an invoice, only contacts you’ve marked as ‘Customer’ will be available to assign the invoice to.
Quickly adding a contact while entering a transaction
If you want to assign a transaction to a contact you haven’t created yet (for example, if a new customer buys something off you), you can create the contact quickly in the transaction screen, instead of opening the contacts list and creating the contact there.
Choose Create customer from the Customer list when you enter an invoice, or from the Payer field when you enter a receive money transaction. Choose Create supplier from the Supplier list when you enter a bill or spend money transaction.
In the popup window that appears, enter the new contact’s details and click Save.
For more information about using contacts in transactions, see To create an invoice and To create a bill.