# Finding and editing customers

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](https://grandnode.com/customers-customer-record).

### 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**.

![Customer list with the filter panel open: first name, last name, customer groups and customer tags](https://grandnode.com/Plugins/Theme.GrandNodeCom/Content/kb/customers/customer-list-filters.webp)

The Filters panel. The Registered group is preselected, so guests are hidden until you remove it.

> 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

1. On the customer list click **Add new**.
2. Enter the **Email** and a **Password**. If usernames are enabled, the **Username** is required too.
3. In **Customer groups** keep **Registered**. Add other groups only when the account needs them (see the rules below).
4. Choose the **Store** the customer belongs to and fill in the name, company and address fields you need.
5. Leave **Active** switched on, otherwise the customer cannot sign in.
6. 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

![Customer edit page, Customer Info tab, with e-mail, customer groups, tags, active switch, manager of vendor, manager of store, store, owner and sales employee](https://grandnode.com/Plugins/Theme.GrandNodeCom/Content/kb/customers/customer-edit-info.webp)

Customers → Customers → a customer: the Customer Info tab.

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Email** | 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](https://grandnode.com/customers-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](https://grandnode.com/customers-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

- [The customer record: orders, carts, addresses and more](https://grandnode.com/customers-customer-record)
- [Customer groups and access control](https://grandnode.com/customers-customer-groups)
- [Registration, login and customer privacy](https://grandnode.com/customers-registration-login-and-privacy)

- [Web page](https://grandnode.com/customers-manage-customers)