Add A New Contact

This article is for small businesses who use Xero.

Overview

• Add a new contact in Xero web.
• You can also add account numbers or set a default foreign currency for your contacts in Xero web.

 

Add a new contact

When you add a new contact, it displays in the All tab. The same contact also displays in the Customers or Suppliers tab after you enter an invoice, bill or credit note transaction for them.

1. Click the plus icon  and select Contact.
2. Enter your contact's name. If you can, try using the English or basic Roman alphabet so you can check if a contact already exists with that name.
3. Select a contact if there's a match. Xero automatically populates the address when available.
4. (Optional) Enter your contact's details.
5. Click Save.

Contacts can only have one postal and one street address saved. When editing the address on a transaction, it'll also update the address saved against the contacts details.

 

Tip

You can import contacts into Xero with a CSV template file.

 

Add account numbers to your contact records

Add contact account numbers such as registration, membership or identification references to help to identify and search for your customers and suppliers.

You can add account numbers to your contact records either manually or by importing a CSV file.

You can use a combination of letters and numbers. For example, if you have a customer called ABC Furniture Inc, you might like to give them the account number ABC-100.

Manually add contact account numbers

1. In the Contacts menu, select All contacts.
2. Click on the name of the contact you want to update, then click Edit.
3. Click Add Account Number and enter the number in the Account Number field.
4. Click Save.

Import a CSV file of contact account numbers

1. In the Contacts menu, select All contacts.

2. Click the menu icon  and select Export.

3. Open the CSV file that Xero downloads to your computer.

4. In the AccountNumber column, enter your contacts' account numbers. Each contact number should be unique with fewer than 50 characters.

   

5. (Recommended) Delete all columns except for Name and AccountNumber. You should now have a file with just 2 columns and 2 column headings.

   Deleting these columns ensures your existing data stays the same. Sometimes Microsoft Excel automatically reformats some columns such as bank account numbers.

   

6. Save your file with .csv as the file extension. For example, Contactupdate.csv.

7. In Xero, click the menu icon  and select Import.

8. For Step 3, click Browse and select your saved CSV file.

9. Check that Ignore empty fields is selected.

10. Click Import, then click Complete Import to confirm.

 

Set a default foreign currency for a contact

If you have a Business pricing plan with multicurrency, you can add a default foreign currency to your contact's details.

What you should know

• The contact's default foreign currency is applied to any new invoices, bills, quotes, or purchase orders you create for them.

• You can override the default foreign currency on individual transactions.

• You can't import or export the default foreign currency for your contacts.

• A default currency is also set automatically when a contact is invoiced or billed for the first time in another currency.

Set a default currency for a contact

1. In the Contacts menu, select All contacts.
2. Click the name of the contact to open their details, then click Edit.
3. Under Financial Details, in the Currency field:
   • If the currency you want is listed, select it.
   • If the currency isn't listed, click Add Currency, select the currency you want, then click Add Currency.
4. Click Save.