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Contacts lists every supplier and customer in a workspace. Billpal creates most of them itself: when a document names a supplier or customer that doesn’t exist yet, a new contact appears. On later documents, Billpal recognizes it again, for example by VAT ID, website, or name. Admins and members can add, edit, merge, and delete contacts.

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What a contact contains

Open a contact to see its details, split across tabs.

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Add a contact

1

Open Contacts

Click Contacts in the navigation, then Add contacts.
2

Choose Add manually

Choose Add manually and pick whether it’s a supplier or a customer.
3

Enter the details

Enter at least the Company name. The more you add, such as Tax ID or website, the more reliably Billpal assigns future documents to this contact.
4

Save

Click Create supplier or Create customer.
To add many contacts at once, see Import contacts from a CSV.

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Alias

Many companies appear under different names on their documents, for example “Amazon EU S.à r.l.” on the invoice and “amazon.com” as the sender. Under Alias you add extra names or domains, and Billpal recognizes the contact by those too. To add one, open the contact, click Add alias on the General tab, and enter a name or domain, for example “Acme Holdings” or “acme.com”. Billpal won’t add a name as an alias if another contact already uses it. Otherwise it would be unclear which contact a document belongs to.

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Account

The Account field holds the number your accounting system uses for exactly this supplier or customer. DATEV calls it Kreditor for suppliers and Debitor for customers. It’s not the ledger account on a document’s line items.
  • Each account number can only be used once per workspace.
  • In DATEV with four-digit ledger accounts, customer accounts range from 10000 to 69999 and supplier accounts from 70000 to 99999.
  • To remove account numbers, select the contacts in the list and click Remove account. This isn’t possible while accounting software is connected.

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Merge duplicate contacts

Sometimes the same company ends up as two contacts, for example when an invoice arrives without a VAT ID. Merge them so all documents sit with one contact.
1

Select the contacts

In the list, select the contacts that belong together and click Merge.
2

Pick the one to keep

Under Contact to keep, pick the entry with the best details. The others merge into it and their documents move there.
3

Check aliases and rules

Billpal offers to add the other contacts’ names as aliases. If rules refer to any of these contacts, Billpal shows it and updates the rules.
4

Confirm

Click Merge.

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When a contact is really your company

If Billpal reads your own company as a supplier or customer by mistake, a contact with your own details appears. Billpal marks it with “Contact needs attention” and “This contact shares identifying details with your company”.
  • This is my company: Merges the contact into your company profile. Its documents and details move to your company, and the contact is removed. Only an admin can do this.
  • Keep this contact and edit the IDs: If it really is a different company, correct the details that match yours.
Members see “Needs an admin” here.

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Delete a contact

A deleted contact is gone for good. If it has documents, move them to another contact first. Billpal asks, for example “Transfer 4 documents to”. If there’s no fitting contact, create one first. You can’t delete the “Billpal” contact. Your invoices from Billpal belong to it.

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Edit several contacts at once

Select several contacts in the list to use these actions:
  • Create a note: The same note is added to every selected contact.
  • Merge
  • Remove account
  • Delete

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Import contacts from a CSV

An import brings in contacts from your accounting system or another tool. Billpal creates new contacts and fills in existing ones.
1

Start the import

Under Contacts, click Add contacts and choose Import CSV. Download template gives you a file with every column and one example row.
2

Choose the file

Drag the file into the window or click Select file. CSV files up to 2 MB are accepted.
3

Map columns

Map each column in your file to a field in Billpal. Company name is required. Default type decides whether rows without a type count as suppliers or customers.
4

Match contacts

Billpal looks for existing contacts that fit each row and shows possible matches. For each row, choose Create, Update, or Skip.
5

Review and import

The preview shows what changes on each contact. The import then runs in the background. At the end you see how many contacts were added, updated, and skipped. You can download the skipped rows as a CSV, fix them, and import again.

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Template columns

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How the import treats existing contacts

  • Matching: Billpal recognizes existing contacts by contact ID, Tax ID, bank account, website, company registration ID, and name.
  • Fill in only: The import adds missing details such as website, address, or account. It doesn’t overwrite values a contact already has. The preview then shows “Keeps …”.
  • DATEV: If you work with DATEV and an account number is outside the valid ranges, Billpal assigns the next free number instead.
Common reasons a row is skipped:

Review

When several contacts could match a document.

Rules

Categorize or tag a contact’s documents automatically.