Contact groups & types
Create, maintain and use customer types (contact types) and customer groups (contact groups) as a navigation source – including the default contact type and the global urgency setting.
→ Open customer types in SimpliServ · Open customer groups
Contact types (customer types) and contact groups (customer groups) are two separate classifications for your contacts. The type describes what a contact is (e.g. individual, company, supplier) and controls behaviour such as requiring a company name. The group segments customers by function (e.g. "regular customers", "wholesalers") and can provide defaults such as payment term, discount or urgency duration.
You maintain both under Administration → Contacts. The page has three tabs: Customer types, Custom fields & cards and Customer groups.
To open the page you need the View settings permission (admin.settings.view). To create, edit and delete you additionally need the respective permission: customers.types.create / .update / .delete for customer types, or customers.groups.create / .update / .delete for customer groups.
Create a contact type (customer type)
A customer type sets the basic behaviour of a contact.
Open the "Customer types" tab
Under Administration → Contacts, switch to the Customer types tab.
Click "Add customer type"
The button in the top right of the list opens a side sheet for creation.
Fill in the fields
- Name (required): the displayed label, e.g. "Company" or "Individual"
- Description: an optional note, shown in the list
- Colour: a hex or CSS colour value for the badge (template swatches available)
Set behaviour modifiers
Using toggles, you enable properties that control the behaviour of contacts of this type:
- Is business customer: a company name is required for this type
- Is dropship partner: marks partners who sell your products while you ship directly to their customers
- Is supplier: contacts of this type can be assigned as product suppliers
Save
Click Create customer type. The type is immediately available for selection in the contact form.
Create a contact group (customer group)
Groups are for segmentation and can bring defaults for their customers.
Open the "Customer groups" tab
Under Administration → Contacts, switch to the Customer groups tab.
Click "Add customer type"
Use the button in the top right to open the side sheet for creation.
Fill in the fields
- Name (required): e.g. "Wholesaler" or "Regular customers"
- Description: an optional note
- Colour: a colour value for the badge
- Default payment term (days): the default for customers in this group without their own payment term
- Default discount (%): the default for customers in this group without their own discount
- Urgency duration: the default handling time for customers in this group (with a selectable unit of hours / calendar days / working days). Empty = the global default is inherited.
Save
Click Create customer type. The group is available for selection in the contact form.
You pick the type and group per contact in the contact form. In the contact list the type appears as a coloured badge and the group is shown as text. See Create a contact.
Editing and deleting
In the respective list, click a row to open the sheet. There you change the name, colour, description as well as the defaults or attributes and save with Save changes. Delete customer type removes the entry from all future selections after a confirmation.
Customer groups in the navigation
Contact groups can be included as a dynamic navigation source: if you enable the Contact groups source in the navigation editor, SimpliServ automatically creates a menu item per group. A click opens the contact list filtered to exactly that group (/dashboard/contacts?customer_group_id=...). That way you jump straight to e.g. all "wholesalers". You'll find the navigation editor under Administration → Navigation.
Default contact type & urgency
On the Customer types tab you also find two tenant-wide settings:
- Default contact type: the type used when a new customer is created automatically from a service registration.
- Urgency – default: the global default handling time (value + unit) together with pause rules and notifications. Using toggles you pause the clock while a proposal is open, while waiting on parts or while an email reply is pending; a further toggle notifies the assignee on a breach. With Warn from you decide whether warnings start at "Critical (red)" or only at "Overdue only". This global value applies when neither the customer nor their group has its own urgency duration set; the group duration takes precedence over this global default. How the traffic light, inheritance across all levels and pausing the clock work exactly is described in Urgency & SLA.
If type and group aren't enough, define additional custom fields under Administration → Custom fields & cards → Customers. More on this under Create a contact.
Related topics
- Create a contact — here you pick the type and group per contact
- Urgency & SLA — how the handling time is inherited from default, group and customer
- Custom fields — extra fields and cards for contacts when type and group aren't enough
- Appearance & branding — include contact groups as menu items in the navigation editor
How is this guide?