---
title: "Customers, Suppliers & Products"
description: "Set up customers, suppliers and the products and services you sell once, with tax and currency defaults every invoice, bill and payment draws from."
url: "https://bareledger.app/guides/directory"
category: "Sales & customers"
updated: "2026-10-29"
publisher: "BareLedger (Syneria Technologies OPC)"
---

# Customers, Suppliers & Products

> Customers, suppliers, and the products and services you sell: the shared data every document draws from.

Before you can raise an invoice or a bill, the app needs to know *who* you're transacting with and *what* you're transacting in. That shared information lives in two places, open to everyone in the organization: **Customers & Suppliers** and **Products & Services**, both under the **Directory** section of the sidebar.

## Adding a customer or supplier

There's only **one** contact form — a person or company doesn't have to be filed as strictly a "customer" or a "supplier." Go to **Directory → Customers & Suppliers** and click **New contact**:

- **Name** — the only required field.
- **Customer** / **Supplier** checkboxes — tick either or both. A contact you both buy from and sell to (a barter arrangement, a supplier who's also a client) just gets both boxes checked; you don't need two separate records.
- **Active** — untick this to hide a contact from new-document pickers without deleting their history.
- **TIN**, **Payment terms (days)** (defaults to 30), **Email**, **Phone**.
- Depending on your company's country, a compliance section may appear (for example, 1099 vendor details in the US, or an EOPT business-buyer flag in the Philippines) — fill this in if your administrator has told you it applies.
- **Address** — optional; pick a type (Billing, Shipping, Registered, Branch, Other) and fill in as much as you have.

Click **Create**. The contact list shows a **Customer** or **Supplier** badge (or both) per row, and you can filter the list by type.

## Adding a product or service

Go to **Directory → Products & Services** and click **New item**. Picking one of these on an invoice, bill, or expense line auto-fills its price, tax rate, and account so you don't have to type them every time.

- **Type** — Product, Service, Non-inventory item, or Other charge.
- **Code** and **Name** — both required; the code is a short, unique SKU or service code.
- **Short description** — shown as the default line description on transactions.
- **Category** and **Unit** (e.g. hour, pc, box) — optional, for your own organization.
- **Selling side**: **Sales price** (what you charge customers by default), the sales tax rate, and the **Revenue account** it should post to.
- **Buying side**: **Purchase cost** (what you typically pay a supplier), the purchase tax rate, and the **Expense account** it should post to.

Click **Create**. From the list you can **Edit**, **Duplicate** (a quick way to create a similar item), or **Deactivate** an item — deactivating just hides it from new-document pickers; anything already invoiced or billed with it is unaffected.

> Changing an item's price, tax rate, or account only affects transactions you create *after* the change — invoices and bills that already used it keep whatever price and account were in effect when you created them.

For a large catalog, **Import CSV** / **Export CSV** buttons let you bring in or download the whole product list at once instead of entering items one at a time.

## Common mix-ups

- Looking for a separate "Suppliers" list — customers and suppliers share one contact list, distinguished only by the Customer/Supplier checkboxes and badges.
- Expecting a price change on a product to update old invoices — it doesn't; only new transactions pick up the new price.
- Trying to delete an item or contact instead of deactivating it — deactivating (not deleting) keeps historical documents intact.