# Customer accounts

> An entity's billing relationship with a company or person: terms, currency, and receivable account.

A customer account is how one of your legal entities bills a company or person. Every invoice and
payment names one.

## How it works

The company or person stays one record. The customer account is the entity's relationship with
them, so an entity has at most one customer account per company or person. It holds:

- **Payment terms**, the days after issue an invoice falls due when it names no due date. The
  default is 30.
- The currency the customer is billed in, if it is not the entity's.
- The **Receivable account**, where what the customer owes posts, such as 1200 Accounts receivable.
  An invoice can name another.
- The **Billing contact**, who receives the invoices.

Each customer account gets a number, such as CUST-4. Every member can read customer accounts; only
accountants change them. You can archive a customer account you no longer bill.

<RecordReference type="finance.customerAccount" />

## Next steps

<Cards>
  <Card title="Invoices" href="/docs/apps/finance/invoices" icon="receipt">
    Bill the customer.
  </Card>
  <Card
    title="Vendor accounts"
    href="/docs/apps/finance/vendor-accounts"
    icon="building"
  >
    The same relationship, for whom you buy from.
  </Card>
</Cards>