Finding and editing customers
The customer list is where you look people up, open their account, correct their data, reset a password or create an account on their behalf - for a phone order, a B2B customer or a new member of staff. This article covers the list, the Customer Info tab and deleting accounts. The other tabs of the customer record are described in The customer record: orders, carts, addresses and more.
Where to find it
Go to Customers → Customers. The list shows e-mail, name, customer groups, whether the account is active, when it was created and the last activity. Click an e-mail address to open the customer.
Searching and filtering
The wide box at the top searches by Email (a part of the address is enough). Click Filters to show more fields: First name, Last name, Customer groups and Customer tags. Username, Company, Phone and Zip code appear as well when those fields are enabled in customer settings. Then click Search.
The Customer groups filter starts with Registered selected. To find a guest - for example the owner of an abandoned cart - remove Registered and choose Guests. To list your staff, choose Administrators, Store manager or Vendors.
How to create a customer
- On the customer list click Add new.
- Enter the Email and a Password. If usernames are enabled, the Username is required too.
- In Customer groups keep Registered. Add other groups only when the account needs them (see the rules below).
- Choose the Store the customer belongs to and fill in the name, company and address fields you need.
- Leave Active switched on, otherwise the customer cannot sign in.
- Click Save, or Save and Continue Edit to stay on the record and open the other tabs.
GrandNode checks that the e-mail address (and username) is not already used and that the password matches the password rule from customer settings.
Fields on the Customer Info tab
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sign-in name and address for all messages. Must be unique. | |
| Password | Leave empty to keep the current password. Type a value to set a new one - useful when a customer cannot use the password recovery e-mail. |
| Customer groups | Group membership: Registered or Guests, plus any others. Drives permissions, prices, visibility and panel access. |
| Customer tags | Free labels. Type at least three letters to pick an existing tag or type a new one - it is created on save. See Customer tags. |
| Active | Inactive customers cannot sign in. New registrations waiting for e-mail validation or admin approval are inactive. |
| Two-factor authentication is enabled | Shows whether the customer turned on 2FA; switch it off to let a customer who lost their authenticator sign in with the password only. |
| Manager of vendor | Links the account to a vendor, so it can sign in to the vendor panel. The account must also be in the Vendors group. |
| Manager of store | Links the account to a store, so it can sign in to the store manager panel. The account must also be in the Store manager group. |
| Store | The store the customer belongs to. Required when a non-administrator creates the account. |
| Owner | E-mail of a parent account. Makes this account a sub-account of that customer (the owner manages sub-accounts from My account on the storefront). |
| Sales employee | The sales employee who looks after this customer. Orders the customer places carry this sales employee and, if set, their commission. |
| Name, gender, date of birth, company, address, phone, fax | Personal data. Which of these fields appear depends on the form fields enabled in customer settings. |
| Is tax exempt | No tax is charged on this customer's orders. |
| Free shipping to the next order | Shipping is free on the next order; GrandNode clears the flag after that order. |
| VAT number | Shown when EU VAT is used; Mark as valid / Mark as invalid change its status by hand. |
| Newsletter | One check box per store; subscribes or unsubscribes the customer's e-mail. |
| Admin comment | Internal note, never shown to the customer. |
At the bottom of the tab you see read-only facts: IP Address, Created on, Last activity, Last visited page (when storing it is enabled) and Last purchase date. Custom customer attributes appear between the personal fields.
Rules GrandNode enforces on groups
- A customer must be in Registered or Guests, never both.
- Only an administrator can add someone to Administrators.
- A customer in Vendors must have Manager of vendor set, and a vendor account cannot also be a store manager.
- A customer in Store manager must have Manager of store set.
- A customer in Sales manager must have Sales employee set.
- An administrator cannot be linked to a vendor or a store at the same time.
If a rule is broken the record is not saved and the message appears at the top of the form.
Exporting customers
Click Export on the list and choose Export to Excel (all found) to download every customer matching the current filters, or tick rows first and choose Export to Excel (selected). The file is an .xlsx workbook.
Deleting customers
Open a customer and choose Delete from the ⋮ menu, or tick several rows on the list and use Delete (selected). Deleting does not remove the document from the database: GrandNode marks it deleted, replaces the e-mail and username with an anonymous value, clears the addresses, personal fields, cart, groups and tags, and removes newsletter subscriptions. Orders stay, so your sales history and invoices remain complete. You cannot delete your own account, and built-in system accounts (such as the search engine and background task accounts) cannot be deleted.
Tips and common mistakes
- "Add the customer to 'Guests' or 'Registered' customer group" - you removed Registered while editing groups. Add it back.
- A new vendor or store manager cannot open their panel: check both the group and the link field (Manager of vendor / Manager of store).
- A customer says they registered but cannot sign in: check Active. With e-mail validation, use Re-send activation message from the ⋮ menu; with admin approval, switch Active on.
Related
Question not answered here? Ask the community on GitHub Discussions ↗