Your customer list is the address book behind every job. Once a person or business is on file, their details flow straight onto new reports and rental agreements, their stored licence details pre-fill hire paperwork, and their whole history — what they've hired, what condition vehicles came back in, and whether their licence has been verified — sits in one place. This article covers adding and editing customers, storing licence details on file (and how that differs from a verified check), and everything the customer record pulls together.
What a customer record is for
A customer is anyone you inspect for or hire to — a private driver, a fleet contact, a trade buyer, or a business account. Keeping them on file means you only type their details once. After that:
- Selecting a customer on an inspection report or a rental agreement pulls their details through automatically — no re-typing, and consistent records across every job.
- Their stored licence details pre-fill the hirer section of a new agreement.
- Their full history (reports, agreements, vehicles hired, licence checks) is one click away when they call.
Adding, editing and viewing customers is completely free and unlimited — it never uses a credit. Credits are only ever used for two things: signing off an inspection report and signing a rental agreement (one credit each, around £1). Building drafts, running licence checks and managing customer records all cost nothing. If you're new to how that works, see understanding credits.
Who can manage customers
Owners, Managers and Inspectors can all add and edit customers. The Billing role is focused on credits, orders and invoices and isn't set up to manage operational records. For a full breakdown see roles explained.
Adding a customer
Go to Customers in the Operations area of the menu and choose to add a new one. The form is grouped into three sections so you can capture as much or as little as you need.
Basic details
These are the core fields, and a few are required:
- First name and last name (required).
- Company name — for a business account.
- VAT number — recorded against the company for invoicing.
- Account number — your own accounting or CRM reference for this customer. This auto-fills onto new rental agreements, so use whatever code your back office expects.
- Phone (required) and mobile.
- Email address (required) — this is where the customer copy of a signed report or agreement is sent, so make sure it's correct.
- Date of birth — optional, and stored at the customer level so it applies whether or not they're a driver with a licence on file.
Licence information (optional)
You can store a driver's licence details so they pre-fill when you raise a rental agreement. This section is collapsed by default — open it only if you're keeping licence details on file. See storing licence details below for exactly what each field is for and how it differs from a verified check.
Address information (optional)
The address is used on rental agreements, invoices and the customer copy of inspection reports. You can record address lines 1 and 2, town/city, county, postcode and country (this defaults to the United Kingdom). Like the licence section, it's collapsed by default.
Adding a customer mid-flow
You don't have to leave what you're doing to add someone new. When you're raising a rental agreement and the hirer isn't on file yet, you can add them right there in the agreement, capturing the same basic, licence and address details. A customer added this way is saved to your Customers list and is indistinguishable from one added on the Customers page — so you'll find them there afterwards for any future job.
Editing a customer
Open any customer to update their details at any time — it's free and there's no limit on edits. A couple of things worth knowing:
- Changes apply going forward. Documents you've already signed off keep the details that were captured at the time. A signed report or agreement is a permanent, locked record (see signing off a report), so correcting a customer's address today won't rewrite a job you closed last month.
- The record also shows you light housekeeping detail — when the customer was created, when they were last changed, and who first added them.
Storing licence details on file
Keeping a customer's licence number, categories and dates on file means they pre-fill when you raise a rental agreement for them. That's faster paperwork and fewer transcription mistakes at the desk. The fields you can store are:
- Licence number — the number printed on the driving licence.
- Issue date — when the licence was issued.
- Expiry date — the date the entitlement to drive expires (typically at age 70).
- Photocard expiry — the renewal date for the photo card, which is every 10 years and separate from the licence expiry. The two dates are not the same, so record both where you can.
- Issued by — which authority issued the licence (DVLA by default).
- Categories — every category the driver is entitled to, picked from a list that mirrors the gov.uk groupings (mopeds, motorcycles, cars, vans, and so on) with a short description against each code.
Stored details vs a verified licence check
This is the most important distinction to understand, and it's a common source of confusion.
- Stored details are simply what you've recorded by hand. They're useful for pre-filling paperwork, but they're only as accurate and current as the day you typed them in.
- A driver licence check verifies a driver against DVLA. It needs the licence number plus an 8-character DVLA share code (case-sensitive) that the driver generates at gov.uk/view-driving-licence, and a confirmation that you have a lawful basis to run it. It returns the driving status, full and provisional entitlement categories, any endorsements or penalty points, and both the photocard and licence expiry dates — flagging anything expiring within three months.
For a hire, run the verified check rather than relying on stored details alone. It's free and unlimited, so there's no cost reason to skip it. You can read more in running a driver licence check and why licence checks are free.
Does a check update the stored details?
When you run a check from a customer record or from inside an agreement, the result is saved against the customer, so their record keeps the latest verified status on file. You don't have to copy anything across by hand — the customer's licence section shows the stored details alongside the most recent DVLA verification, including the driving status, points and when it was last verified.
A note on Northern Ireland licences
Verified checks currently cover GB (DVLA) licences. Northern Ireland checks are not yet available — that's coming later. You can still store NI licence details on the customer by hand for your own records.
The customer record — everything in one place
A customer record is far more than contact details. Open a customer and you'll see grouped tabs bringing together everything you've done for them:
- Inspection reports — every report raised against this customer.
- Rental agreements — their hire agreements, draft and signed.
- Vehicles rented — the vehicles they've hired from you.
- Driver licence checks — every check you've run for them, with results.
Why this is useful
When a customer calls, you've got the full picture in front of you: what they've hired, what condition vehicles came back in, and whether their licence has been verified and is in date. It also makes raising the next job quick, because their details and history are right there. From the customer record you can also run a licence check directly, and the result saves straight back to the record.
To see how reports and agreements appear across the wider account, see finding and filtering reports and finding agreements.
Finding, filtering and exporting customers
The Customers list shows name, company, email, phone and when each record was last changed. You can search it by name, company and email, and customers also turn up in the global search at the top of the screen, which additionally matches on phone and mobile.
You can filter the list by:
- Email address — show all customers, only those with an email, or only those without one (handy for spotting records that can't receive a signed PDF).
- Country — narrow to a specific country drawn from the addresses you've recorded.
- Added between — a date range for when customers were first added.
To pull a copy out of the system, select the customers you want and use the export action. It produces a spreadsheet of your customers (named with the date), which is useful for reconciling against your accounting or CRM.
What happens when I delete a customer?
Deleting is designed so you never lose anything you're legally required to keep, while clearing out draft clutter:
- Signed rental agreements and driver licence checks are kept for audit. They're simply detached from the customer record rather than destroyed.
- Inspection reports linked only to that customer are removed, along with their photos, signatures and PDFs — so don't delete a customer whose reports you still need.
- Deletion can't be undone.
This is a bigger decision than a normal edit, so it gets its own walkthrough in what happens when I delete a customer?.
Common questions and edge cases
Do I have to fill in the address and licence sections? No. Only first name, last name, phone and email are required. The address and licence sections are optional and start collapsed — fill them in when they're relevant.
A customer has changed address — will my old signed documents be wrong? No. Edits apply going forward only. Anything already signed off keeps the details captured at the time, because signed reports and agreements are permanent, locked records.
Will I be charged for adding lots of customers, or for editing them? No. Adding, editing, viewing, searching, exporting and running licence checks are all free and unlimited. The only actions that use a credit are signing off a report and signing an agreement.
Can two customers have the same email? There's no automatic block on it, but a duplicate usually means someone's been added twice. Use the search and the email filter to spot duplicates before raising a new job.
I added a customer while creating an agreement — where did they go? Onto your main Customers list. A customer added mid-flow is saved exactly as if you'd added them on the Customers page, so they're available for every future job.
Can I store an NI driver's licence? You can store the details by hand for your records, but a verified check against the NI authority isn't available yet — only GB (DVLA) checks can be run for now.
Should I trust stored licence details for a hire? Treat stored details as a convenience for pre-filling, not as proof. For any hire, run the free verified check so you have a DVLA result on the agreement and the customer record.