
Learn how to complete the CustomBooks Setup Wizard and configure the essential settings needed to get your account set up correctly from the start.
In this video, we’ll walk you through completing the Setup Wizard in CustomBooks so you can get your account set up correctly from the start.
When you begin, you can either continue through the Setup Wizard yourself or add another user to complete the setup. If you choose another person, such as your accounting professional, you’ll enter their email address and name, and they’ll be given Administrator access. You can also enable the Support User in case you need assistance during setup.
The Setup Wizard provides a checklist of the information you’ll need. If you aren’t ready to complete everything at once, you can select Finish Later and return to the wizard without losing your progress.
You’ll start by entering your Company Information, including your company type, fiscal year, whether your business is product-based, service-based, or both, and your accounting and reporting methods.
Learn how to configure General Settings in CustomBooks to match the way your business works, from currencies and email preferences to custom fields, units of measure, reporting views, and transaction options.
In this video, we’ll take a closer look at the General Settings in CustomBooks and how you can use them to tailor the system to fit the way your business works.
To get started, go to the Admin Panel and select General Settings. By default, CustomBooks accounts use US Dollars. If your business works with additional currencies, you can enable Multi-currency and begin adding the currencies you need.
Under Email Settings, you can automatically CC one or more email addresses on outgoing emails. Custom Fields allow you to create additional fields for capturing information that is specific to your business.
List Appearance lets you choose whether lists are expanded or collapsed by default. You can also configure your default Unit of Measure and set the decimal precision used for Quantity and Currency fields. Keep in mind that once decimal precision is increased, it cannot later be reduced.
You can also choose whether reports open in Present or Analyze view by default.
Additional settings allow you to enable discounts on Cash Receipts and Bills, permit negative amounts for Service Items, and enable discounts at the line-item level.
By configuring these General Settings, you can shape CustomBooks around your organization’s workflows and preferences while maintaining greater consistency across the system.
Learn how to use the CustomBooks Test Company as a safe environment for training, testing transactions, and exploring workflows without affecting your live company data.
In this video, we’ll show you how to access and use the Test Company in CustomBooks and how to reset it whenever you need a fresh testing environment.
Every CustomBooks account includes a Test Company. You can access it from the homepage using the Test Company icon or from the Admin Panel.
If this is your first time opening the Test Company, or if you recently reset it, CustomBooks may need some time to build the company. Once it’s ready, you’ll receive an email notification.
The Test Company is visually different from your live company. The menu is highlighted in pink and the homepage does not display the standard navigation icons, helping you recognize that you are working in a test environment.
When resetting the Test Company, you have three options. Reset with Live Data creates the test environment using your current CustomBooks data, making it useful for training or testing transactions without changing your live records.
Reset with Test Data loads the sample transactions used in CustomBooks Academy training, allowing you to follow along with training exercises. Erase All Data gives you a completely blank Test Company.
You can also access CustomBooks Academy, the User Guide, and Support resources directly from the Test Company.
The Test Company gives your team a safe place to learn, experiment, and test workflows without impacting your live business data.
Learn how to add a new user in CustomBooks and configure the appropriate security profile so each team member has access to the areas they need.
In this video, we’ll show you how to add a new user in CustomBooks and make sure their permissions are configured correctly.
To begin, open the Admin Panel and select Security Settings. Here, you’ll see a list of the users in your CustomBooks account.
Click the green Add button and select New. Enter the new user’s email address, which will become their User ID and cannot be changed, followed by their first and last name.
Next, select the appropriate security profile. If the available profiles don’t provide the access you need, you can create a new profile and configure permissions for individual areas of CustomBooks.
For example, if someone only needs access to Sales, you can set other areas to No Access while leaving Sales and Sales Tax with Full Access. Once the permissions are configured, give the profile a descriptive name, save it, and assign it to the new user.
After you save the new user, CustomBooks will send an invitation to their email address. They can accept the invitation and create a password if they do not already have one.
Using security profiles helps ensure that each person has access to the tools they need while limiting access to other areas of your financial and business data.
Learn how to temporarily give the CustomBooks Support team access to your account when troubleshooting an issue, and how to remove that access when it is no longer needed.
In this video, we’ll show you how to give the CustomBooks Support team temporary access to your account when you need help troubleshooting an issue.
There may be times when Support needs to access your account to identify and resolve a problem more efficiently. Enabling the Support User allows the team to view the issue directly rather than relying only on screenshots or descriptions.
To enable access, go to the Admin Panel and select Security Settings. This opens your Users List. Click Activate Support User, and a confirmation message will let you know that support access has been added.
Once troubleshooting is complete, you can remove that access at any time by clicking Deactivate Support User. CustomBooks will display a confirmation that the user has been removed. If inactive users are visible in your list, the Support User will then appear as inactive.
Temporarily enabling the Support User when needed can help the CustomBooks team investigate issues directly and reduce unnecessary back-and-forth during troubleshooting.
Learn how to disable a user in CustomBooks when someone should no longer have access to your company, helping you maintain secure and accurate user access.
In this video, we’ll show you how to disable a user in your CustomBooks account.
Start by going to the Admin Panel and selecting Security Settings. You’ll see a list of all users associated with your CustomBooks account.
Open the user you need to disable, check the Deactivate User option, and then click Save and Close.
The user will no longer have active access to your CustomBooks company.
Managing users as team members join, leave, or change responsibilities helps ensure that only the appropriate people have access to your company and financial data.
Learn how to create Payment Terms in CustomBooks, configure early-payment discounts, and apply those terms to invoices or set them as defaults for specific customers.
In this video, we’ll show you how to create a new Payment Term in CustomBooks and use payment terms to manage when customers should pay and any incentives you offer for early payment.
To get started, go to Lists and select Payment Terms. Here, you’ll see the Payment Terms currently available in your account.
Click Create and select New. Enter a description for the term, specify the applicable number of days, and enter the percentage discount you want to offer for early payment. For example, you can create a term that provides a 5% discount when payment is received within five days.
Once created, Payment Terms can be applied directly to Sales Invoices or assigned as the default for a specific customer.
To assign default terms, open the customer record and select the Financial tab. Choose the appropriate Payment Term, and future Sales Invoices for that customer can automatically use those terms.
Setting up Payment Terms helps standardize your billing process and can provide customers with an incentive to pay sooner.
Learn how to dock tabs in CustomBooks so you can view related records and transactions side by side, compare information more easily, and reduce unnecessary switching between screens.
In this video, we’ll show you how to dock tabs in CustomBooks so you can view information side by side.
For example, if you have a Sales Order and a Purchase Order open and want to compare them at the same time, right-click one of the tabs and select Dock. Then choose where you want the tab positioned. Selecting Right will dock that document on the right side of your screen while allowing you to continue working with other tabs on the left.
When you’re finished with the side-by-side view, right-click the docked tab and select Undock / Show Separately to return it to a standard tab.
You can also dock a tab by clicking and dragging it downward. When the docking window appears, select the position where you want the tab displayed.
Docking tabs gives you a convenient way to compare related records and documents without repeatedly switching back and forth between screens.
Learn how to manage and close open tabs in CustomBooks so you can keep your workspace organized while moving efficiently between tasks.
In this video, we’ll show you the different ways you can close and manage open tabs in CustomBooks.
As you work in CustomBooks, the links you open appear in new tabs. This makes it easy to move between different records and tasks without losing your place.
When you’re finished with an individual tab, simply click the X to close it.
If you have several tabs open, right-click any tab to access additional options. Close All closes every open tab. Close All Other Windows keeps the tab you’re currently using open while closing the others. Close All to the Right closes every tab positioned to the right of the selected tab.
These tab-management options make it easy to clean up your workspace while keeping the records and screens you still need readily available.
Learn where to review and update your Company Info in CustomBooks, including the company name, entity type, tax IDs, logo, address, and contact information used throughout your account.
In this video, we’ll show you where to find and update your Company Information in CustomBooks.
To get started, go to the Admin Panel and select Company Info. In the upper-left section, you’ll see your company name. This can be updated when needed and is the name that appears on reports and documents you send to customers or vendors.
Below the company name, you can select your entity type. If you’re unsure which entity type applies to your business, consult your financial advisor. You can also indicate whether your company is product-based, service-based, or both.
This area also contains your state and federal tax ID numbers along with other company information.
You can upload your company logo, with a recommended size of 167 by 100 pixels. If the image is larger, CustomBooks will attempt to resize it for you.
On the right side, you can enter your physical address and company contact information.
Keeping this information current helps ensure that your reports, records, and customized documents display the correct details for your business.
Learn how to use the Audit Log in CustomBooks to track account activity, filter changes by record, user, action, or date, and review revision history for updated records.
In this video, we’ll show you how the Audit Log in CustomBooks can help you track activity and review changes made within your account.
To get started, navigate to Accounting and select Audit Log under Tools. At the top of the screen, you’ll find several options for filtering the activity shown in the report.
You can filter by Record Type, User, User Action, or a specific date range. For example, selecting a user allows you to see records that person created, changed, or deleted. Selecting Delete from the User Action filter narrows the results to records that were deleted.
You can also filter directly from the report. Right-clicking a value such as Sales Invoice lets you find records of that type. You can then refine the results further by right-clicking a user and selecting Find User.
To remove a filter, click the X next to it. Any column in the report can be used to help refine your search and locate the activity you need.
The Revisions column shows how many times an item has been updated. Highlight a row and select Show Revisions to review its revision history.
The Audit Log gives you greater visibility into activity within CustomBooks by helping you identify who created, changed, or deleted records and review the history behind those changes.
Learn how to customize Auto Numbering in CustomBooks for lists and documents, including the use of alphabetic and numeric characters to match your internal numbering conventions.
In this video, we’ll show you where to update Auto Numbering for lists and documents in CustomBooks.
To begin, go to the Admin Panel and select Auto Numbering. From here, you’ll see two main categories: Lists and Documents. You can drill down into the available fields to update the numbering sequence for the records you use.
CustomBooks allows you to combine alphabetic and numeric characters in your numbering system.
For example, if you want Inventory Items to use INV as a prefix, you can update the Last Code to INV-1000 and save the change.
The next time you create and save a new Inventory Item, CustomBooks will automatically assign the next available number in the sequence, such as INV-1001.
Customizing Auto Numbering can help keep your lists and documents organized while aligning record numbers with the conventions your business already uses.
Learn how to enable multi-currency in CustomBooks, add currencies, configure the related accounts, and manage both manually maintained and automatically updated exchange rates.
In this video, we’ll show you how to add currencies and manage Exchange Rates in your CustomBooks account.
First, make sure multi-currency is enabled. Go to the Admin Panel and select General Settings. In the Currency section, select the option to use multiple currencies. Keep in mind that once multi-currency has been enabled, this option cannot be deselected.
Click Add Currency to view the currencies currently configured in your account. To add another currency, click Create and select New. Start typing the currency you need and select it from the list.
CustomBooks will automatically populate information such as the currency symbol, numeric code, alphabetic code, and country. You can also choose whether CustomBooks should automatically update the exchange rate.
You’ll then configure the appropriate accounts associated with the new currency, including the applicable customer and vendor prepayment accounts. These can use your existing default accounts or separate accounts for the new currency.
To review Exchange Rates, go to Lists and select Exchange Rates. For currencies that are not configured for automatic updates, you can manually create the exchange rates you want to use.
The Official Exchange Rates tab provides a historical view of rates automatically updated by CustomBooks at the beginning of each day. You can also use the search field to locate a specific currency.
With multi-currency and Exchange Rates configured, CustomBooks helps you manage transactions involving different currencies while maintaining the appropriate exchange-rate information.
Learn how to personalize the CustomBooks homepage, dashboard views, menus, panel placement, and display scale so your workspace better matches the way you work.
In this video, we’ll explore several ways you can customize the CustomBooks homepage to better fit the way you work.
The Workspace view is designed to provide quick access to frequently used features. Icons act as shortcuts to document lists, while sub-menus under the blue headings provide quick ways to create records or navigate to commonly used areas.
For example, selecting the Sales Orders icon opens your Sales Orders list in a new tab. Hovering over Sales gives you shortcuts for creating records, while the Admin Panel menu can take you directly to areas such as General Settings.
Business Pulse provides a graphical view of business performance, including Sales, Expenses, and Profit and Loss information at a glance.
The Bank view provides quick visibility into your bank accounts. You can select Use As Default to make your preferred view appear automatically when you open CustomBooks.
You can also adjust the size of icons and text by selecting the three ellipses, choosing Change Scale, and moving the slider to make the interface larger or smaller.
CustomBooks also lets you personalize the navigation menu. Under Settings, the Sections Panel allows you to choose which menu items appear, change their order, and decide whether the menu displays text, images, or both.
Panel Setup lets you change where panels appear on the screen. For example, you can drag the Sections Panel to the top if you prefer your navigation menu across the top of the workspace.
These homepage customization options let you organize CustomBooks around the tools, views, and navigation style that work best for you.
Learn how to change or reset your CustomBooks login password by verifying your email address and creating a new password that meets the required security rules.
In this video, we’ll show you how to update the password for your CustomBooks login.
From the login page, click Forgot or Change Password. Enter the email address you use to log into CustomBooks, complete the “I’m not a robot” verification, and click Next.
The next step is to verify your email address. Click Send Verification Email, and CustomBooks will send a verification code to your email. Copy the code into the field provided and click Verify.
You can then create your new password. Your password must be between 8 and 16 characters and include at least one lowercase letter, one uppercase letter, one number, and one special character.
Enter and confirm your new password, then click Finish.
You’ll be logged into CustomBooks and can access the companies for which you have permission.
Following these steps lets you quickly update your login credentials while maintaining the password requirements used to help protect your CustomBooks account.
Learn how to create Price Levels in CustomBooks, assign them to customers, and use them with the Price Matrix to support customer-specific pricing.
In this video, we’ll show you how to create Price Levels for your customers and how they can be used in CustomBooks.
To get started, go to Sales and select Price Levels. Here, you’ll see the Price Levels already configured in your account.
To create a new one, click Create and select New. Enter a description for the Price Level and save it.
You can then assign a Price Level to a specific customer. Go to Sales and select Customers, open the appropriate customer record, and select the Financial tab. The Price Level field allows you to assign the appropriate level to that customer.
Price Levels can also be used with the Price Matrix. Go to Sales and select Price Matrix to view your existing pricing entries. When creating a new entry, Price Levels can be used with options such as Item Category + Price Level or Item + Price Level.
By combining customer Price Levels with the Price Matrix, you can create more flexible pricing structures and apply the appropriate pricing across your sales workflows.
Learn how to add and manage Payment Methods in CustomBooks so options such as Venmo, PayPal, or other payment types are available when entering sales and purchase transactions.
In this video, we’ll show you how to add a new Payment Method in CustomBooks.
To get started, go to Lists and select Payment Methods. From here, you can review the Payment Methods already available in your account or open an existing record if you need to make changes.
To add a new Payment Method, click Create and select New. Enter a description for the payment method—for example, Venmo.
You can enter a code manually or allow CustomBooks to automatically generate one for you.
If the Payment Method should be excluded from 1099 payments, select the corresponding option. Then click Save to add the Payment Method to your account.
Once created, the new Payment Method becomes available as an option when entering applicable sales and purchase transactions.
Maintaining your Payment Methods in CustomBooks gives users consistent options when recording transactions and helps keep payment information organized.
Learn how to create Custom Fields in CustomBooks for lists and documents, choose different value types, capture business-specific information, and include custom data on printed forms.
In this video, we’ll show you how to set up Custom Fields in CustomBooks. Custom Fields allow you to capture additional information that is specific to your business on both lists and documents.
To get started, go to the Admin Panel and select General Settings. From there, open Custom Fields.
As an example, we’ll create a Preferred Contact Method field on the Customer record. Expand Company, select Customer, then click Create and New. Enter the field name and choose whether the field should be required.
For the value type, you can choose from the available options. Using Custom Value allows you to define your own choices. For this example, values such as SMS, Email, and Call can be added for the Preferred Contact Method.
Once the Custom Field is saved, it appears on the Custom Fields tab of the Customer record.
You can also add Custom Fields to documents. For example, you can create a Start Date field for Sales Invoices and select Date as the value type. The new field will then be available from the Custom Fields tab when working with a Sales Invoice.
Custom Fields added to documents can also be incorporated into customized printed forms. For example, the Start Date can be included on the Sales Invoice that is sent to the customer.
Custom Fields give you the flexibility to capture information beyond the standard fields in CustomBooks and make that information available where your business needs it.
Learn how to use the Merge Tool in CustomBooks to consolidate duplicate company or item records, choose which information to retain, and reassign related transactions to a single original record.
In this video, we’ll show you how to use the Merge Tool in CustomBooks to combine duplicate records into a single record. Because merging can remove records and change how data is associated, this tool should be used carefully.
One example is when two company records need to be consolidated. To access the Merge Tool, go to the Admin Panel, select Utilities, and choose Merge Tool.
Start by selecting the type of data you want to merge. For example, choose Companies and select the company records that need to be combined.
Next, choose which record will serve as the original record. The secondary record will be merged into this record. You can then select which field values you want to retain, allowing you to keep specific information from either record where appropriate.
Once you’ve reviewed your selections, click Merge to complete the process.
After the merge, select Show Log to review what changed. Related transactions, such as Sales Orders and Invoices, are reassigned to the original record while the duplicate record is removed.
The Merge Tool can also consolidate multiple records. For example, if several duplicate Inventory Items exist, select Items, locate the records you want to combine, choose the original item, and select the attributes you want to retain.
After the merge is complete, the log shows which records were removed and which transactions were reassigned. When you return to the Item list, only the consolidated record remains.
The Merge Tool can help clean up duplicate data while preserving the associated transaction history in a single record. Because the process changes and removes data, review your selections carefully before completing a merge.