Customers, contacts and addresses: B2B CRM data structure

In a B2B CRM, the customer is the company you invoice, the people you deal with are its contacts, and each address is its own record, marked for billing or shipping. Company facts such as the legal name and VAT number live on the customer; personal details, on the contact.

Get this structure right and the rest follows: invoices go to the right legal entity, reminders reach the person who pays, and nobody has to guess which of three "Brightline" records is the real one. Get it wrong and every report and every invoice inherits the mess.

Three kinds of record, three jobs

Record	What it represents	What belongs on it
Customer	The legal entity you sell to and invoice	Legal name, VAT or tax number, payment terms, status
Contact	A person at that customer	Name, job title, direct email and phone
Address	A place linked to the customer	Street, city, postal code, country, and what it is used for

The test for where a field goes is simple: if it stays the same when your contact person changes jobs, it belongs on the customer. If it leaves with the person, it belongs on the contact.

The customer is the legal entity

• One record per legal entity. If two subsidiaries each receive their own invoices, they are two customers, even if they share a brand.
• Use the registered name. Invoices in many countries must carry the buyer's legal name and address, and for cross-border B2B sales within the EU often the buyer's VAT number too. A trading name can go in a second name field or a note.
• Keep commercial terms here. Payment terms, the default currency and the customer's status describe the relationship with the company, not with one person.

Contacts are people, not mailboxes

Create one contact per real person you deal with: the buyer, the person who approves invoices, the project lead. A shared address such as accounts@ is useful, but store it on the customer or the billing address rather than inventing a person called "Accounts". Mark one contact as the main one, so everyone on your team knows who to call.

When someone leaves the customer's company, deactivate or update their contact instead of overwriting it with the new person's details. The history of who agreed to what stays readable.

Addresses have a purpose

Many companies invoice from a head office and receive work at a site somewhere else. Treat each address as its own record and say what it is for:

• Billing: where invoices are addressed. Usually the registered office.
• Shipping or site: where goods go or where you do the work.
• A default for each purpose: so a new invoice picks the right one without a second thought.

Business and individual customers side by side

Plenty of B2B companies also sell to private people now and then. Rather than inventing a company name for them, record them as individuals: a person's name, their address, no VAT number. Keeping the two types apart keeps your reports and your invoices honest.

How Swiftly Workspace structures it

In Swiftly Workspace the same three records sit under CRM: Customers, Customer Addresses and Customer Contacts. On a Mac, each customer opens in its own window, with Basic Information, Addresses and Contacts in its sidebar, so a customer's places and people are always one click away.

• Business or individual. On a Mac, you pick Business or Individual under Customer Type when you create the customer. A business has a Business Name, an individual an Individual Name. The type and the name are locked on the form, so they are always there.
• A short customer form. A new company also sees Status, Email, Phone, Payment Terms and Tax ID (VAT). If you need more, an admin can turn extra fields on; our guide to configuring your forms explains how.
• Addresses with defaults. Each address can be marked Default Billing Address and Default Shipping Address.
• Contacts with a main person. A new company's contact form asks for the person's name, with both name fields required, plus email, phone, mobile, job title and salutation. One contact can be the Primary Contact.

You can also check a customer's VAT number against the EU's VIES service from the customer record; how to check an EU VAT number covers what the answer means. Adding a customer step by step is in how to add a customer on Mac.

Common mistakes to avoid

• One record per person at a big customer. You end up invoicing "Jan at Brightline" and "Marie at Brightline" as if they were two companies.
• Addresses typed into a notes field. They can't be picked on an invoice and nobody keeps them current.
• Mixing suppliers into the customer list. Companies you buy from deserve their own records; see managing suppliers next to customers.

If you are still choosing what your customer system should do, start with CRM for small service businesses.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a customer and a contact in a CRM?

The customer is the organization you sell to and invoice. A contact is a person who works there. One customer usually has several contacts, and invoices are addressed to the customer, not to the person.

Should a billing address and a shipping address be separate records?

Yes, when they differ. Separate records let you mark which one is the default for invoices and which one for shipments, and you can change one without touching the other.

How do I handle a customer with several branches?

If each branch receives its own invoices, give each its own customer record. If one head office pays for everything, keep one customer and add each branch as an address.