Add a customer on the fly
Quick-create a customer (and their vehicle) from inside the order form — without losing the write-up you've started.
A walk-in you've never seen is standing at the counter and you're mid-write-up. You don't need to leave the ticket to add them — the customer search box creates records too.
Search first. On the new-ticket form, type the name (or phone, or account number) in the Customer box. Always look before you create — a second "Bob's Trucking" record splits their history and their balance across two accounts.
Click Create new customer. When nothing matches, the bottom of the dropdown offers Create new customer with the name you typed. Click it and a small New Customer form opens right on top of the ticket.
Pick the type. Individual for a person, Commercial for a business, Fleet for an account with multiple units. (The type drives which name fields you see and, later, which pricing tier tends to apply.)
Fill the essentials. First and last name (or Company / Business Name), and check the Display Name — that's what prints on orders. Add Phone and Email now if you have them; email matters because invoices, estimates, and pay links all travel by it.
Click Create Customer. The modal closes, the new customer is selected on your ticket, and Meridian has already assigned them an account number. No page navigation, no lost work.
Add their vehicle. The new customer has no units yet, so the form says "No vehicles on file" — click Add a vehicle, enter year/make/model or paste the VIN and use the decode button, and it's selected on the ticket automatically.
When to use the full customer page instead
The quick-create form captures just enough to write the ticket. Go to Customers → All Customers → New Customer (or open the record later and edit it) when you need the rest up front:
- Billing address and tax status — commercial accounts, tax-exempt certificates
- Payment terms and credit limit — anyone you'll invoice on account
- Pricing tier / price level — fleet or wholesale pricing that should apply from the first line
- Multiple contacts — the fleet has a dispatcher, a maintenance manager, and an AP inbox
A quick-created customer is a real, complete record — you can add all of the above later. The rule of thumb: quick-create at the counter, finish the profile before the first statement goes out.
What happens behind the scenes
The customer record is created immediately with an auto-assigned account number, exactly as if you'd used the full page — quick-create is a shortcut, not a lighter kind of record. Nothing posts financially until their first invoice. Meridian does not block duplicate names, so two records for the same person can exist; the fix is Customers → Merge Customers, which moves all history onto one record.
Troubleshooting
It happens — the search missed because of a nickname or typo. Use Customers → Merge Customers to combine the two records; orders, vehicles, payments, and balances all move to the surviving record.
The Email Invoice dialog lets you type an address on the spot — but add it to the record too (open the customer, click the edit button) so statements and pay links work next time.
Display Name is exactly what prints on documents. Open the customer record and edit it — changing it updates how the customer appears from then on.