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Customer Types

Learn what Customer Types are, how they work, and how to assign or update them in Tough Commerce.

Customer Types allow you to assign different billing workflows and payment experiences to your customers in Tough Commerce. Once a customer type is assigned, certain actions and payment options will automatically be enabled or disabled based on that customer’s billing needs.

This helps streamline your workflow and ensures customers are billed in the correct way automatically.

Available Customer Types

Tough Commerce currently supports the following customer types:

How to Assign or Change a Customer Type

1. When Creating a Customer

When adding a new customer using the full customer form, you can select the customer type directly during setup.

2. Editing an Existing Customer

  1. Click the customer name on the customer page to access the customer profile
  2. Select the menu icon (3 dots) in the top left
  3. Select Edit
  4. Choose the desired Customer Type
  5. Save your changes

Change Customer Type

C.O.D Customers

By default, all customers will be created as a C.O.D customer. C.O.D customers use the standard payment workflow, where dispatchers can:

  • Add a credit card directly to an order
  • Save a card on their customer profile
  • Add a payment method later during order creation
  • Send payment links
  • Have offline payments recorded against their orders

Important Changes to Note: The “On Account” payment method is no longer available.

Instead, if a customer needs to pay later, you can:

Option 1: Select “Add Payment Method Later”. This allows the order to be created without immediate payment. You can then:

Track outstanding balances through:

Option 2: Move the Customer to a Contractor Customer Type. This means that no payment method is required when entering an order, and you can then invoice the customer at a later time using the grouped invoice workflow. See the Contractor Customers section below for more information.

Contractor Customers

The Contractor customer type is designed for customers who require invoicing rather than immediate payment during order creation. When creating an order for a Contractor customer:

  • Payment options will not appear
  • “Add Payment Method Later” will not appear
  • Orders must be billed through grouped invoices

To collect payment, you must first create a Grouped Invoice.

What is a Grouped Invoice?

A grouped invoice allows you to combine one or more orders into a single invoice for the customer. This is commonly used for contractors who prefer to receive consolidated invoices rather than paying order-by-order.

Creating a Grouped Invoice

Grouped invoices can be created from: Finance > Orders. Once the invoice is created, customers can:

  • Pay online using the QR code on the invoice
  • Receive a payment link
  • Have an offline payment recorded
  • Use credit memos (Contractor customers only)

For full instructions on grouped invoices, see the Grouped Invoice support article. 

Homeowner Customers

The Homeowner customer type currently functions the same as the C.O.D customer type. Future updates to the Homeowner customer type will include:

  • Restricting customers to a single contact
  • Removing support for multiple foremen/contacts under one customer profile