Customer Type Defaults

Customer Type Defaults let you set different Biller Genie behavior for different groups of customers, using customer types you've already set up in QuickBooks. It's the middle layer of Biller Genie's settings model — broader than per-customer overrides, more targeted than your global baseline. The classic example: charge late fees and require autopay for retail customers, but not for your large wholesale accounts on Net 30.

How customer-level settings stack

Biller Genie resolves settings layer by layer, from most-general to most-specific:

1. Global Customer Defaults — the baseline for every customer.
2. Customer Type Defaults (this article) — overrides for a QuickBooks customer type.
3. Per-Customer Overrides — overrides for one specific customer.

The most-specific layer that has a value wins. If you've saved Customer Type Defaults for a type, those override your global defaults for customers of that type. If a per-customer override exists, that wins over both.

What customer types are (in QuickBooks)

Customer types are a native QuickBooks feature that lets you tag customers into segments for reporting and workflow. There's no fixed meaning — businesses use them however they want. Common patterns:

• Customer relationship: retail, wholesale, distributor, contractor.
• Service tier: standard, premium, enterprise.
• Billing arrangement: autopay, Net 15, Net 30, monthly retainer.
• Industry vertical: HVAC vs. plumbing vs. electrical, or whatever lines of business you serve.
• Referral source: direct, partner-referred, marketplace.

Customer types are set up and assigned inside QuickBooks, not inside Biller Genie. In QuickBooks Online: Sales (or Customers & leads) > Customers > Customer types to create them, then edit a customer's Additional info tab to assign one. Customer types are a QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced feature — they're not available on Simple Start or Essentials. See Intuit's Help Center: Organize or sort customers by type.

Before you turn this on — does it fit your workflow?

Customer Type Defaults are powerful when your customer types map to a real Biller Genie policy difference. Examples that work well:

• Retail customers must autopay; wholesale customers can pay manually on Net 30.
• Subscription customers get monthly statements; one-time customers don't.
• Service-contract customers don't get late fees; everyone else does.

If your customer types are purely a reporting tag in QuickBooks with no behavior change in Biller Genie, you may not need this feature at all — just leave it off and use global defaults plus per-customer overrides for the exceptions.

Requirements

• Biller Genie: Premium plan.
• QuickBooks Online: Plus or Advanced (the lower tiers don't expose customer types).
• QuickBooks Desktop: Customer types are available across editions; subtype hierarchy is read flat by Biller Genie (see below).
• At least one customer type must already exist in QuickBooks and have synced to Biller Genie.

How Biller Genie reads customer types

• One type per customer. QuickBooks only lets a customer have one type at a time, so each customer inherits exactly one Customer Type Default (or the global default if no type defaults are set).
• Flat in Biller Genie. QuickBooks Desktop supports parent/child subtypes, but Biller Genie treats every type as flat — it uses whichever type is assigned to the customer and ignores the hierarchy.
• Subtypes are QuickBooks Desktop only. QuickBooks Online doesn't support customer subtypes.
• "Without Type" is a real bucket. Customers who don't have a type assigned in QuickBooks roll up under "Customers Without Type" — you can configure defaults for them just like any other group.
• Synced from QuickBooks. You can't create or rename customer types inside Biller Genie. The type list comes from your accounting-software sync. Deleted types are filtered out of the dropdown.

What settings can vary by customer type

Most behavioral settings on the General, Invoice Messenger, and Reminders tabs can be overridden per type:

• Allow Credit Card / ACH / APM Payments
• Allow Partial Payments
• Allow Payment Plans
• Charge Late Fees
• Enable Receipts
• Require Stored Payment Method at Checkout
• Require Auto-Pay at Checkout
• Ignore Conflicts (email)
• The full Invoice Messenger matrix (Upcoming Payment, Payment Due, Invoice Updated, Statement, Payment Overdue, Upcoming Late Fee — each with Email and Paper Mail toggles)
• The full Reminders matrix (same six message types, Email and Paper Mail)

How to enable and configure Customer Type Defaults

1. Open Control Panel > Customer Defaults.
2. In the top-right corner, toggle Enable Customer Type Defaults to Yes. (If the toggle is missing, confirm you're on the Premium plan and that customer types have synced from QuickBooks.)
3. A dropdown appears at the top of the page. Pick the customer type you want to configure — or pick Without Type for customers that have no type assigned in QuickBooks.
4. Adjust settings across the General, Invoice Messenger, and Reminders tabs as needed for that type.
5. Each tab saves independently. Use either Save Defaults for New Customers (future customers of this type only) or Save and Apply to Existing Customers (current AND future customers of this type). The save button text changes to reflect the type you're configuring (for example, "Save Defaults for New Customers Without Type").
6. Repeat for each customer type you want to configure.

What happens when a new customer syncs in

When a new customer comes in from QuickBooks with a type already assigned, Biller Genie automatically applies your Customer Type Defaults for that type. The flow:

1. QuickBooks customer record arrives via sync (or a customer is created manually with a type).
2. Biller Genie matches the customer's QuickBooks Type to one of your synced customer types.
3. If you've saved Customer Type Defaults for that type, those are applied to the new customer record.
4. If you haven't (or the type doesn't exist in Biller Genie yet), the customer gets your Global Customer Defaults instead.
5. Per-customer overrides can still be added later for any customer that needs to differ from the type's defaults.

This makes Customer Type Defaults a "set it once and forget it" pattern — once you've configured a type, every future customer that arrives with that type inherits the right behavior automatically.

Putting it together — a worked example

Say you run an HVAC service business. In QuickBooks, you tag customers as Residential, Commercial, or Service Contract.

• Global defaults: credit cards on, ACH on, late fees on, autopay optional, no required stored payment method. This is your sensible baseline.
• Residential type: override to Require Auto-Pay at Checkout. Walk-in residential jobs should always autopay so you never chase a one-time consumer.
• Commercial type: turn off Charge Late Fees, allow partial payments, leave autopay optional. Your B2B accounts pay on Net 30; you don't want to nickel-and-dime them.
• Service Contract type: turn on Require Auto-Pay at Checkout, turn off late fees, enable payment plans. Recurring monthly contracts must autopay; if a card fails, you'd rather offer a payment plan than a late fee.

As new QuickBooks customers sync in, each one inherits the right behavior based on its type tag. You only had to set up three buckets once.

Updating a single setting across all customers of a type

When you've already configured Customer Type Defaults and customers have per-customer overrides in place, the surgical option lets you change one setting across all customers of a type without overwriting everything else they have.

1. Open Control Panel > Customer Defaults and pick the customer type from the dropdown.
2. Expand Update individual setting for current customers.
3. Pick the setting from Setting Name, then choose the new value.
4. Click Set Value to All Customers (the button text reflects the type — "Set Value to All Customers Without Type" when configuring the Without Type bucket).

What happens after Save

Save Defaults for New Customers takes effect immediately for future customers of that type. Save and Apply to Existing rolls out to every existing customer in that type bucket. Per-customer overrides on those customers still win — if you want a customer-type default to take precedence over an existing per-customer override, clear that per-customer override first.

Frequently asked questions

I don't see the Enable Customer Type Defaults toggle.

Two common causes: (1) Your account isn't on the Premium plan. (2) No customer types have synced from QuickBooks yet — either because none exist in QuickBooks, or because your QuickBooks Online tier is Simple Start/Essentials (customer types require Plus or Advanced), or because the sync hasn't run yet.

Can I create a customer type inside Biller Genie?

No. Customer types are created and managed in QuickBooks (or whichever accounting software you use). Biller Genie reads them and lets you configure defaults; it doesn't author or edit types.

What if I change a customer's type in QuickBooks after they're already in Biller Genie?

The new type assignment syncs over, but Biller Genie does NOT retroactively apply the new Customer Type Defaults to that customer's existing settings. The customer keeps the settings they already had. To push the new type's defaults to them, use the type's Save and Apply to Existing Customers button, or use the surgical single-setting update for just the fields you want changed.

If a customer has two different types in QuickBooks Desktop subtypes, which wins?

Whichever direct type is assigned to the customer. Biller Genie ignores the parent/child subtype hierarchy and treats only the directly-assigned type. There's no priority between sibling types because a customer can only have one type at a time.

Related articles

• Setting Global Customer Defaults — the baseline that customer-type defaults override.
• Per-Customer Overrides — the layer that overrides customer-type defaults.
• Setting Invoice Defaults — the global look-and-feel of invoices.
• Your First Invoice in Biller Genie — orientation that walks through all the layers in order.