## Zoho Billing - Product, solutions, integrations, support, and resources Index

Access the complete documentation index at:
https://www.zoho.com/fr/billing/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available documentation pages before proceeding.

# Customer Hierarchy

ENTERPRISE EDITION

The Customer Hierarchy feature in Zoho Billing lets you organize customers into different levels, such as parent and child customers or sub-customers. You can group related customers under a single parent customer, making it easier to manage and track their transactions.

**Scenario:**

Charles sells to three customers: Acme Corp, Acme West, and Acme Solutions. Since Acme West and Acme Solutions are branches of Acme Corp, Acme Corp asks Charles to group them together to view all transactions and make payments in one place. Charles creates a customer hierarchy by setting Acme Corp as the parent of the other two. This makes it easier to track and manage their transactions.

**Note:**

This feature is currently in early access for Enterprise edition. Reach out to [](mailto:support@zohobilling.com)[support@zohobilling.com](mailto:support@zohobilling.com) to enable this feature for your organization.

## Enable Customer Hierarchy

To enable Customer Hierarchy in your Zoho Billing organization:

*   Go to _Settings_ by clicking the **Gear** icon in the top right corner.
*   Select **Customers** under _General_ in the _Module Settings_ pane.
*   Scroll down and enable the toggle next to _Customer Hierarchy_.
*   Click **Save**.

The Customer Hierarchy feature will be enabled, and you can assign a parent customer to the required customers.

## Add Customers to Hierarchy

There are two ways to assign a parent customer to a customer in Zoho Billing:

*   [From the Customer Creation or Edit Page](/fr/billing/help/customers/customer-hierarchy.html#create-edit-page)
*   [From the Customer’s Details Page](/fr/billing/help/customers/customer-hierarchy.html#details-page)

**Prerequisite:**

This option appears only if the _Customer Type_ is set to **Business**.

### From the Customer Creation or Edit Page

To add a customer to a hierarchy:

*   Go to **Customers**.
*   Click **\+ New** in the top right corner to create and add a customer to a hierarchy, or go to an existing customer’s _Details_ page, and click **Edit** at the top of the page.
*   In the next page, fill in the following fields:
    *   **Customer Hierarchy:** Enable the toggle next to _Make This a Sub-Customer_, and select the required parent customer from the dropdown.
    *   **View Hierarchy:** Click to view the customer’s level in the hierarchy.
    *   **Preference:** Check **Allow parent customers to view and pay this customer’s transactions via the Customer Portal** to let the parent customers view and pay for their sub-customers’ transactions through their customer portal.
*   Enter the other required details and click **Save**.

The customer will be associated with the selected parent customer and displayed with a **Hierarchy** icon. The parent customer’s name will also appear at the top of the sub-customer’s _Details_ page.

### From the Customer’s Details Page

To add customers to a hierarchy:

*   Go to **Customers**.
*   Select the customer you want to add to a hierarchy.
*   In the customer’s _Details_ page, click the _More_ dropdown in the top right corner, and select **Manage Customer Hierarchy**.
*   In the _Manage Customer Hierarchy_ popup, fill in the required details, and click **Save**.

The customer will be added to the hierarchy and displayed with a **Hierarchy** icon. The parent customer’s name will also appear at the top of the sub-customer’s _Details_ page.

**Note:**

You can add up to five levels of customers in the hierarchy.

**Insight:**

You can also import customers into Zoho Billing and add them to a hierarchy. To do this, your import file must include a **Parent Customer** column. This column will be mapped with the corresponding field on the _Map Fields_ page during the import. Ensure that the parent customer for each record is either included in the import file or already exists in Zoho Billing.

## View Customers in Hierarchy

You can view the customers added to a hierarchy in the customer’s List page. Here’s how:

*   Go to **Customers**.
*   Click the **Hierarchy** icon next to the required customer, or click the **List Layout** icon in the top right corner and select the required view from the dropdown. The available views are: **List View** and **Tree View**.

The list displays the parent and their sub-customers with their relationships and hierarchy levels.

## Customer Hierarchy - Operations

### View Consolidated Overview

The parent customer’s _Details_ page will display a **Consolidated Overview** showing the total outstanding receivables and unused credits for both the parent and their sub-customers.

The parent customer can manage and make payment for transactions on behalf of themselves and their sub-customers. Any unused credits from the parent customer can be applied to their sub-customers’ transactions.

### Manage Parent Customers’ Preferences

When you add customers to a hierarchy in Zoho Billing, you can choose whether the associated parent customer can view and pay for their sub-customer’s transactions. If you’ve enabled the preferences when assigning a parent customer, it will be active, and you can update it any time.

To manage preferences:

*   Go to **Customers**.
*   Select the sub-customer to manage their parent customer’s preferences.
*   In the customer’s _Details_ page, under _Hierarchy Detail_, slide the toggle next to **Preference**.

The permissions will be disabled for the parent customer, and they won’t be able to view or pay for their sub-customer’s transactions. Slide the toggle again to enable these permissions.

### Merge Customers in Hierarchy

You can merge sub-customers who belong to the same parent customer in a hierarchy.

**Scenario:**

John records Acme Corp and Acme West under the parent customer Acme Group. Later, he learns that Acme Corp and Acme West have been merged into a single business entity. To reflect change in Zoho Billing, he merges the two sub-customers to manage their transactions easily.

To merge sub-customers in a hierarchy:

*   Go to **Customers**.
*   Select the sub-customers you want to merge, and click **Merge** at the top of the page.
*   In the _Merge Customers_ pop-up, select the master sub-customer, and click **Continue**.
*   In the confirmation popup, click **Confirm**.

The selected sub-customers will be merged.

### View Transactions

You can view the transactions for both a parent and their sub-customers directly from the parent customer’s Details page. Here’s how:

*   Go to **Customers**.
*   Select the required parent customer to view the transactions.
*   In the customer’s _Details_ page, navigate to the **Transactions** tab.
*   Click on the transaction you want to view and check **Include Sub-Customers’ Invoices** in the top right corner.

The respective transactions will be displayed.

### Generate Statements

When you generate statements for a customer, you can also choose to include statements of their sub-customers. Here’s how:

*   Go to **Customers**.
*   Select the required parent customer to view the statements.
*   In the customer’s _Details_ page, navigate to the **Statement** tab.
*   Click the _Included Transactions_ dropdown at the top of the page, and select one of the following filters:
    *   **This Customer:** Includes only the transactions associated with the selected customer.
    *   **This Customer & Their Managed Sub-Customers:** Includes transactions associated with both the customer and their sub-customers.

The preferred customer statement will be generated. You can then email, print, or download the statement in PDF or XLS formats.

## Record Payment

If you’ve added customers in a hierarchy, you can record a single payment that applies to both the parent and their sub-customers. Here’s how:

*   Go to _Payments_ and select **Payments Received**.
*   Click **\+ New** in the top right corner.
*   In the _Record Payment_ page, select the **Customer** to record the payment. Ensure that you select a parent customer.
*   In the _Unpaid Invoices_ section, mark **Include Sub-Customer’s Invoices** to include sub-customer’s transactions in the payment.
*   Enter the required amounts and fill in the other required fields.
*   Click **Save as Paid** or **Save as Draft**.

The payment will be recorded for both the parent and their sub-customers.

The parent customer can also make a consolidated payment for themselves and their sub-customers directly from the customer portal. To do this, your customers should:

*   Log into the customer portal.
*   Go to **Invoices** on the left sidebar.
*   Under _Outstanding Invoices_, click the _Show_ dropdown at the top of the page to choose whether to make payments for themselves, their sub-customers, or both.
*   Hover over or select the required transaction and click **Pay Now** to make the payment.

The payment will be made by the parent customer, based on chosen preferences.

## View Reports

If you’ve added customers in a hierarchy, you can view certain reports at the hierarchical level. These reports include:

*   Sales by Customer
*   Customer Balances Summary

To view hierarchy reports:

*   Go to **Reports**.
*   Select the report you want to view.
*   Click the **Hierarchy** icon next to the required customer.

The selected report will be displayed in the hierarchy structure.

## Remove Customers From Hierarchy

If you no longer want customers to be a part of a hierarchy, you can remove the parent customer assigned to the corresponding sub-customers. Here’s how:

*   Go to **Customers**.
*   Select the customer you want to remove from the hierarchy.
*   In the customer’s _Details_ page, click the _More_ icon in the top right corner and select **Manage Customer Hierarchy** from the dropdown.
*   In the _Manage Customer Hierarchy_ popup, remove the assigned parent customer, and click **Save**.

The selected customer will be removed from the hierarchy.

## Disable Customer Hierarchy

If you no longer want to record customers in a hierarchy, you can disable the feature in your Zoho Billing organization. Before you disable, ensure that no customer is associated with a parent customer.

To disable:

*   Go to _Settings_ by clicking the **Gear** icon in the top right corner.
*   Select **Customers** under _General_ in the _Module Settings_ pane.
*   Scroll down and disable the toggle next to **Customer Hierarchy**.
*   Click **Save**.

The Customer Hierarchy feature is now disabled in your Zoho Billing organization.