Customer types
Every customer and lead in Breww has a customer type. A type is much more than a label: it sets the default price book, tax treatment, trade store rules and delivery charges for everyone assigned to it, so getting your types right saves you setting the same options on customer after customer.
Where to find customer types
Go to Customers -> Settings & tools -> Customer types, or Settings -> Customer, lead & CRM settings -> Customer types.
The list shows every type you have, how many customers and leads are using it, and a summary of the main options set against it. The people icon on a row opens the list of customers using that type.
Common examples are Pub, Bottle shop, Wholesaler, Taproom, Distributor and Staff, but you can create whatever suits how you sell.
Note: Every customer and lead must have a type, so you'll always have at least one.
Creating and editing a type
Choose New to add a type, or the pencil icon on a row to edit one. Type names must be unique within your brewery.
Price book
Sets the prices used when you raise an order for a customer of this type.
Breww looks in this order and uses the first price book it finds:
- The price book set directly on the customer.
- The price book set on the customer's parent company.
- The price book set on the customer's type.
- Your account default price book, in
Settings->Order/invoice settings.
A price book also carries a currency, so the type's price book decides which currency an order is raised in when nothing more specific has been set. See Price books and pricing.
Price list template
The template used when you produce a price list for a customer of this type. It follows the same customer, then parent company, then customer type order as the price book, before falling back to your account default. See Price lists.
Additional best before weeks
Adds this many weeks to the best before date Breww prints on delivery labels for customers of this type. Leave it blank for no adjustment.
This only changes the date printed on those labels, and only when your delivery settings are set to show best before dates on labels. It doesn't change the best before date recorded against the batch itself.
Delivery drop time
Only shown if you have the advanced deliveries add-on. This is how many minutes a drop to a customer of this type typically takes, and Breww uses it when planning and optimising delivery routes. It defaults to 10 minutes, and can be overridden on an individual customer or on an individual delivery.
Accountancy accounts and tracking categories
Only shown when you have an accountancy integration connected, and tracking categories only appear if your accounting package supports them.
When you raise an invoice, Breww posts the sale to the account and tracking category set here, unless one has been set directly on the customer or their parent company. See Chart of accounts.
Trade store rules
The trade store rules that apply to customers of this type when they browse your trade store. Breww checks the customer, then their parent company, then their customer type, then any rules coming from a customer list, and finally the store's own default rules.
Rules belong to a specific storefront. If the rules set on a type belong to a different store from the one being browsed, Breww skips them and keeps looking, so a parent company's rules for the right store will still apply. See Ordering rules, availability and product overrides.
Delivery charge structure
The delivery charges applied to customers of this type. Structures are created in Settings -> Delivery settings, and can also be set on an individual customer or a parent company, both of which take priority over the type. See Calculating delivery charges automatically.
Tax exempt
The label follows your local tax name, so you may see "VAT exempt", "GST exempt" or "Sales tax exempt". When enabled, customers of this type aren't charged tax on their orders.
A customer is treated as exempt if the option is set on the customer, on their parent company, or on their customer type, so a type is a quick way to make a whole group exempt at once. See How to set the correct VAT/GST/sales tax on products and customers.
Business or consumer
Choose whether customers of this type are generally a Business (B2B) or a Consumer (B2C). This drives real behaviour, not just reporting. Breww uses it to:
- Decide whether reverse charge applies on cross-border sales, and to apply certain country or state-specific tax rules.
- Fill in or deliberately leave out the company name when booking a courier, because couriers price and handle business and residential deliveries differently.
- Create the customer with the right classification (company or private individual) in some accountancy integrations.
Duty options
If your account uses a duty system with customer-type-level options, an extra section appears at the bottom of the form, named after your local duty.
UK accounts see Apply draught relief by default for all customers of this type? with three choices:
- Use account default - follow your duty settings. The option itself tells you what that setting is currently.
- Apply draught relief by default, if available - apply draught relief to eligible products for these customers.
- Don't apply draught relief by default - never apply it by default for these customers.
Whichever you choose, you can still override draught relief on an individual invoice line. Changing these options requires the Beer duty permission.
Deleting a type
Use the bin icon on a row. If any customers or leads are using the type, Breww will ask you to choose a replacement type for them first, because every customer must have a type. You'll then be asked to confirm, and the deletion can't be undone.
Customer types and order predictions
Breww also treats your customer types as segments when learning seasonal ordering patterns, so customers of the same type help predict each other's ordering behaviour. See Order predictions and churn risk.