Customer Defaults control how Biller Genie behaves for your customers by default — what payment methods are allowed, whether autopay is required, whether late fees apply, and how invoice messages and reminders go out. You set the defaults once and they shape every new customer added to your account going forward. For most accounts, one set of defaults is enough; for more sophisticated setups, you can switch the page into By Customer Type mode and maintain a different default set for each customer type (Wholesale vs Retail, Net 30 vs Net 60, etc.).
How customer-level settings stack
There are two layers at play, and understanding the difference saves a lot of confusion later:
- Customer Defaults (this article) — the template that seeds settings onto a customer when that customer is first created (via accounting-software sync, manual creation, or import). One default set if you're in Global mode; one per customer type if you're in By Customer Type mode.
- Per-Customer Settings — the actual settings on each customer's record, which can be edited customer-by-customer at any time. See Per-Customer Overrides for Reminders, Late Fees, and Other Features.
Important nuance: Customer Defaults seed a customer at create time and then step out of the way. Editing the defaults later does NOT automatically update existing customers — they keep whatever was set on them at creation, plus any per-customer edits you've made since. There are two explicit "apply to existing" options on the Customer Defaults page (covered below) if you do want to push a change to existing customers; both are deliberate, not automatic.
Where to find Customer Defaults
Open Control Panel > Customer Defaults. The page has three tabs: General, Invoice Messenger, and Reminders.
General tab — payment methods and policies
- Allow Credit Card Payments — your customers can pay with a credit or debit card. Off means card isn't offered on the payment screen, even if your gateway supports it.
- Allow ACH Payments — your customers can pay by ACH (bank transfer).
- Allow APM Payments — Alternative Payment Methods. Today this is primarily PayPal where supported by your gateway.
- Allow Partial Payments — customers can pay any amount up to the invoice total instead of paying in full. Useful for overdue and large invoices where the customer can't pay the full balance right away.
- Charge Late Fees — Biller Genie automatically applies late fees per your late-fee policy. Requires the Late Fee Manager Add-On.
- Charge Technology Fees — when on, Dual Pricing or Surcharging is applied to credit-card payments per your Technology Fees configuration.
- Allow Payment Plans — your customer can request a payment plan from the customer portal. The merchant must approve the request before it takes effect.
- Enable Receipts — Biller Genie automatically emails a receipt when a customer pays. See Receipts in Biller Genie.
Customer-portal checkout behavior
- Require Stored Payment Method at Checkout — the "save my card on file" agreement is forced on at checkout. Useful for any workflow where you'll be charging the card again later.
- Require Auto-Pay at Checkout — a step beyond storing a card: the customer must enroll in autopay so all future invoices are automatically paid. Best for subscription, retainer, or recurring-billing models.
- Display Invoices with Parent in Customer Portal — for sub-customer setups, the parent customer's portal login shows the sub-customer's invoices too. See Parent and Sub Customers.
- Bill With Parent — for sub-customer setups, route the sub-customer's invoices to the parent for payment.
Ignore Email Conflicts
Ignore Conflicts controls whether customers without email addresses appear on the Email Conflicts report. When on, a customer with no email won't be flagged. Use this if you serve walk-in or paper-only customers where you'll never collect an email. See Email Conflicts: Customers Missing an Email Address.
Invoice Messenger tab — how invoices get delivered
The Invoice Messenger tab is a matrix: rows are message types, columns are delivery channels (Email, Paper Mail). For each row, you toggle each channel on or off independently. Email is always available; paper mail requires an active paper-mail account on your subscription.
Message types
- Upcoming Payment — a heads-up sent ahead of the invoice's due date.
- Payment Due — sent on the invoice's due date.
- Invoice Updated — sent when an existing invoice is changed. Paper mail isn't offered for this one because it would arrive after the next update.
- Statement — a periodic statement listing all of the customer's open invoices.
- Payment Overdue — sent once the invoice is past due.
- Upcoming Late Fee — a heads-up before a late fee is applied.
Reminders tab — the follow-up cadence
The Reminders tab uses the same matrix as Invoice Messenger but governs the repeating follow-ups that go out after an invoice has been delivered. Invoice Messenger covers the first touch; Reminders covers the cadence of nudges that keep the invoice top-of-mind until it's paid.
- Same message types as Invoice Messenger.
- Independent Email and Paper Mail toggles per row.
- On the newer Reminders Add-On version, Statements are email-only.
- When Bill With Parent is on, the customer inherits the parent's Reminders settings.
Switching to By Customer Type mode
If different customer types in your business need different defaults — say Wholesale customers should auto-pay by ACH and Retail customers should pay by card without autopay — you can switch the page into By Customer Type mode. Each customer type gets its own default set, and new customers are seeded based on their type at create time.
What customer types are
Customer types are managed in your accounting software, not in Biller Genie. Biller Genie reads them in via sync and uses them to bucket customers — but you can't create, rename, or delete a type from inside Biller Genie.
- QuickBooks Online — Customer types live under Settings > All Lists > Customer Types. You assign a type on each customer's record.
- QuickBooks Desktop — Customer Type is a built-in field on the Additional Info tab of each customer's record.
- Xero — Xero uses Contact Groups, which Biller Genie maps to the same Customer Type model.
Requirements
By Customer Type mode is a premium-plan feature. If you don't see the Enable Customer Type Defaults toggle on the Customer Defaults page, your plan doesn't include it. Contact support@billergenie.com to discuss plan upgrade options. You also need at least one customer type defined in your accounting software — types only sync after they have at least one customer assigned.
How to enable and configure
- On the Customer Defaults page, toggle Enable Customer Type Defaults to On.
- A type selector appears with the header "Default Customer Options – For Customers:" followed by a dropdown listing every customer type synced from your accounting software, plus a special Without Type option for customers who don't have a type assigned.
- Pick a type from the dropdown. Configure General, Invoice Messenger, and Reminders for that type. Click Save.
- Pick the next type and configure its defaults. Repeat for every type you want to differentiate.
- Configure Without Type as a catch-all for customers that don't have a type. This is your fallback baseline.
A worked example
Say you sell to two customer types in QuickBooks: Wholesale (B2B, Net 30, prefers ACH) and Retail (one-off, pays at point of sale, credit card only).
- Wholesale defaults: Allow ACH on, Allow Credit Card on, Require Auto-Pay at Checkout on, Charge Late Fees on, longer reminder cadence.
- Retail defaults: Allow Credit Card on, Allow ACH off, Require Auto-Pay off, no late fees, shorter reminder cadence.
- Without Type defaults: a sensible middle-ground for customers added before you assigned them a type, or that never get assigned one.
When a new customer syncs in from QuickBooks with type "Wholesale," Biller Genie seeds them with the Wholesale defaults. A new customer with type "Retail" gets Retail's defaults. A new customer with no type gets the Without Type defaults.
If a customer's type changes after sync
Changing a customer's type in your accounting software does not automatically re-seed their per-customer settings from the new type's defaults. The defaults only run at customer create/import. If you want to reset an existing customer to match their new type's defaults, you can either edit the customer's settings manually or use the Update individual setting for current customers tool (described below) to push specific settings across all customers of a given type.
Save and apply your defaults
Each tab saves independently. After adjusting a tab's settings, you have two save options — they behave very differently.
Save Defaults for New Customers
The everyday save. The settings you adjusted become the defaults applied to every NEW customer going forward. Existing customers are not touched. This is the right save for almost every situation.
Save and Apply to Existing Customers
Applies your settings to every NEW customer going forward AND overwrites every setting on every existing customer at the same time.
Use this rarely. Typically only at account setup before any per-customer customization, or when you genuinely want to reset everyone to the same baseline.
Updating a single setting across all customers
The surgical option — change one setting across all current customers (or all current customers of one type) without overwriting anything else.
At the top of the Customer Defaults page, expand the Update individual setting for current customers drop-down. Pick the setting from the Setting Name dropdown, pick the new value, then click Set value to all customers. If you're in By Customer Type mode, the update scopes to the currently-selected type only — set the dropdown to All to apply across every type.
Example: you want to turn on autopay for all your Wholesale customers, but you don't want to change anyone's late-fee policy, reminder cadence, or partial-payment settings. Switch to Wholesale, open the drop-down, pick Autopay, set value to On, apply. Done — every Wholesale customer now has autopay on; everything else they had stays the same.
The recommended workflow for established accounts
- For your day-to-day default changes — adjust settings in each tab and click Save Defaults for New Customers. Shapes the baseline for future customers without touching anyone existing.
- For a single setting to push to existing customers — use the surgical Update individual setting drop-down. Changes only that one setting and leaves everything else (including per-customer overrides on other settings) intact.
- For one-off customer adjustments — edit the customer's record directly. See Per-Customer Overrides.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between Customer Defaults and Invoice Defaults?
Customer Defaults control behavior (what payment methods are allowed, whether autopay is on, reminder cadence). Invoice Defaults control how the invoice itself looks (which columns show, footer text, template). Configure both before your first invoice goes out.
How do I see what my defaults are doing on a specific customer?
Open the customer's record. The settings shown there are the ones currently in effect for that customer. Defaults seeded them at create time; any subsequent per-customer edits override what they were seeded with.
I don't see the Enable Customer Type Defaults toggle.
By Customer Type mode is a premium-plan feature. If you don't see the toggle, your plan doesn't include it. Contact support@billergenie.com to discuss upgrades.
Can I create a customer type inside Biller Genie?
No. Types are managed in your accounting software (QBO Customer Types, QBD Customer Type field, Xero Contact Groups). Create or rename types there, then they sync into Biller Genie automatically.
I want a single customer to have different settings. How?
Use Per-Customer Overrides. Edit the customer's record and change the specific settings you want different. The customer keeps the defaults for everything else.