# Add and manage clients

> Add a client on the web or your phone, what a client record holds, how the duplicate warning works, and how to edit, archive, restore and merge.

Source: https://support.billingmart.com/clients/manage-clients
Updated: 2026-10-17 · Applies to: Web, iPhone, Android · Section: Clients

A client is a person or company you bill. You add one under **Clients**, give it a name and, if you have them, an email and a phone, and then pick it on invoices, estimates and recurring invoices. Owners, admins and staff can add and change clients. Viewers can look but not change anything.

## Add a client on the web

1. Open **Clients** and select **New client**. You can also add one without leaving an invoice or estimate. In the client picker, choose **Add new client**, or pick **Add** with the name you typed.
2. Fill in the **Name**. It is the only required field.
3. Add what you know: **Company**, **Email**, **Phone**, **Billing address**, **Invoice language**, **Currency** and **Notes**.
4. Select **Save client**.

The word on the form follows your business type, so it may say "customer" or "patient" instead of "client".

If you fill in any part of the address, the first line and a two-letter country code, like US, are required. An email or phone that cannot be read is refused with a message next to the field.

## What a client holds

| Part | What to know |
| --- | --- |
| Contacts | Up to 10 emails and phones. Each usually starts unverified. An address already confirmed on BillingMart shows verified within moments, and your own confirmed email is verified as soon as you add it. See [Verified contacts and why a send is blocked](https://support.billingmart.com/clients/verified-contacts.md). |
| Billing address | One address. |
| Invoice language | New invoices, estimates and statements for this client use it. If you leave it empty, the workspace's language is used. |
| Currency | Saved on the client. New invoices do not take their currency from it today. They use your business's currency. |
| Notes | Internal. They are never shown to the client. |

A client has no payment-terms setting of its own. A due date comes from your business settings or from the date you set on the invoice.

You add the email and phone while you create the client. After that, use **Add contact** on the client's page. A client that is archived or merged cannot get new contacts.

## The duplicate warning

When you save a new client, BillingMart checks whether another client already holds the same email or phone. It does not compare names. If one does, the form shows "A client already holds one of these contacts" with two choices:

- **Open** that client, or **Use** it when you are in a picker.
- **Create anyway**, which saves a second record.

A second record splits the history, so use the existing client unless you mean to keep two. You can combine them later with a merge. Archived clients are not counted as duplicates.

## Change, archive and restore

- **Edit** changes the name, company, address, language, currency and notes. Emptying one of those fields and saving removes it.
- **Archive** hides the client from the default list. Its active recurring schedules are paused, and restoring the client does not restart them. Invoices already sent stay live and payable. Drafts are kept. The message after you archive says how many of each there were.
- **Show archived** brings archived clients into the list, where **Unarchive** restores one.

## Merge two clients

**Merge** is on each active row of the list for owners and admins. You choose the client to **Keep**. Invoices, estimates, recurring schedules, payments, saved methods, time, expenses and mileage move to it, along with any contact it does not already hold. The other record is archived and marked as merged. A merge asks for a recent sign-in and cannot be undone.

## On your phone

In the iPhone and Android apps, **Clients** is a tab. Owners, admins and staff can add a client, edit one, add a contact and archive. The phone form has name, company, currency, email, phone and notes. It has no address or language, and it cannot restore or merge, so use the web for those. The duplicate warning works the same way, with **Create anyway**.