Managing customer addresses

Summary

Each customer can hold multiple addresses on their profile (billing, home, work, other). One address is marked Primary - that is the one used on the Bill To block of invoices and statements. Business customers in particular benefit from a proper billing address on every invoice they receive.

For UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man addresses you can type the postcode, click Find address and pick the premises from a list. Each lookup that finds addresses uses 1 credit.

If you import customers from Techman, any address data on the source record is brought across automatically - you do not need to type it in again.

Prerequisites

• You can edit customers (same capability as editing the customer name).
• You are on the customer’s Overview tab (Customers > [pick a customer]).
• To use Find address, your account needs credits available.

Steps

Viewing addresses on a customer

1. Open the customer’s record. It opens on the Overview tab.
2. Find the Addresses card.
3. The Primary address appears at the top with a badge. Other addresses appear underneath.
4. If no address is on file, the card shows “No addresses on file” with an Add Address button.

Adding an address

1. Click Add Address.
2. Choose the Address Type: billing, home, work, or other.
3. Fill in the address, either with a postcode lookup (see below) or by hand:
   • Postcode (required, up to 20 characters). It sits at the top of the address fields.
   • Address Line 1 (required).
   • Address Line 2 (optional).
   • City (required).
   • County (optional).
   • Country (required). For a new address it starts as the customer’s country, e.g. United Kingdom.
4. Click Add Address.

The first address you add to a customer is automatically marked Primary. You can change which one is primary later.

Finding an address by postcode

1. In the Add Address or Edit Address dialog, type the postcode into Postcode.
2. Check the line under it. It reads “Uses 1 credit when addresses are found. Nothing is charged if the postcode isn’t found. You have [balance] credits.”
3. Click Find address, or press Enter in the postcode box. Pressing Enter runs the lookup and never saves the form.
4. A list headed Choose an address opens, e.g. “14 addresses found”. Type in Search these addresses, e.g. flat 47 to narrow a long list.
5. Click the right address. Address line 1, line 2, city, county and postcode fill in. If the country box still holds its starting value, it is set too (United Kingdom, Jersey, Guernsey or Isle of Man).
6. If you had already typed a different address, you are asked “Replace the address you’ve typed?”. Click Replace or Keep mine.
7. Check the fields. Every field stays editable. Then click Add Address or Update Address.

The button appears for UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man addresses. If the Country box names another country, the button is replaced by “Address lookup covers UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man addresses. Enter the address below.” The same Find address button also appears on your organisation’s own address in Settings > Organisation, at the same cost.

Editing or deleting an address

1. On the address card, click the Edit icon to update fields, or the Delete icon to remove the address.
2. Deletes are confirmed before they apply.
3. If you delete the primary address and the customer has other addresses on file, you need to mark one of those as the new primary (see below). The system does not pick one for you.

Marking an address as primary

1. When a customer has two or more addresses, each non-primary address shows a Set as Primary action.
2. Click it to make that address the customer’s primary. The previous primary loses the badge.
3. Only one address can be primary at a time.

How the primary address appears on invoices

The primary address appears in the Bill To block on the invoice PDF, below the customer’s name. If the customer has no primary address on file, the invoice falls back to showing the customer’s name on its own.

This is the single most useful reason to keep at least one address per business customer - their accounts payable team almost always needs a billing address on the document.

Expected Outcome

• Every customer carries the addresses you have for them, in one place.
• The right address (Primary) lands on every invoice automatically.
• Imported addresses from Techman are visible alongside any you have added by hand.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
No Bill To address shows on an invoice	The customer has no primary address on file	Add an address on the customer’s Overview tab and mark it Primary
The wrong address shows on a new invoice	A different address is currently set as Primary	Open the customer, find the right address, click Set as Primary
An imported address looks half-empty	The source record (e.g. Techman) only had some of the fields filled in	Edit the address to complete it
”Must be 20 characters or fewer” under Postcode	The postcode is longer than 20 characters	Check the postcode. Any format is accepted up to 20 characters, so overseas postcodes work too
”No addresses found for [postcode]. Check it, or enter the address below.”	The postcode is mistyped or does not exist	Check it and try again. Nothing is charged. If suggestions appear, e.g. “Try SW1A 1AA - 1 credit”, click one to look that postcode up instead
”Not enough credits for an address lookup.”	Your credit balance is below the cost of a lookup	Type the address by hand, or click Manage billing to add credits
”Credits are paused on this account, so address lookup is not available.”	Credits are paused on the account	Type the address by hand, and ask your account owner to check Settings > Billing
”Too many lookups. Try again in a minute.”	Lookups are limited per person and per garage to stop runaway use	Wait a minute and try again, or type the address
”Address lookup isn’t available right now. Enter the address below.”	The lookup service did not answer	Type the address by hand. Nothing is charged
”Showing the first 100 addresses. If yours isn’t listed, enter it below.”	The postcode covers more than 100 premises, such as a large block of flats	Search the list, or type the address by hand
No Find address button	The address is outside the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man, or postcode lookup is not available on your account	Type the address by hand
Cannot find a Set as Primary action	The customer only has one address on file - it is already primary by default	Add another address; the action appears once a second address exists

Notes

• The address-type list (billing / home / work / other) is fixed. If you have an unusual case, use “other” and lean on the line-1 / line-2 fields for context.
• Imported addresses may carry a type the dropdown does not show (older Techman exports sometimes do this) - the original value is preserved and displayed; you can edit the address to bring its type into the standard list.
• Postcode lookup is available when adding or editing an address on a customer record, and on your organisation’s address. It is not offered when creating a new customer, on the online booking page or in the customer portal.
• A lookup is charged only when addresses come back. Looking up the same postcode again while the dialog is open is free (“Already looked up - free.”). Closing and reopening the dialog charges again. See How credits are consumed by each feature.
• Post towns from a lookup are written in normal capitals, e.g. “Newcastle upon Tyne” rather than “NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE”.
• An older address with a blank country is shown blank. Torqueflow does not guess one, and you can still change other fields on it.