Create an account

Add a new lead or customer from All Accounts with the Quick add page, choose whether it starts as a lead or an active customer, then fill in the rest later.

In the sidebar, open Accounts, then All Accounts. The page address is /accounts. An account is the record Nova keeps for anyone you work with, a household or a company. Every quote, work order, and invoice hangs off one.

Before you start

Your admin has to give your role the Create accounts permission. If you do not see the Add Account button, ask them.

A lead is someone who has not bought anything yet; a customer has. In Nova the difference is the account's lifecycle status: a status under Leads marks a lead, and a status under Active accounts marks a customer. You can change it any time, so pick what fits today.

Steps

1. Select Add Account. The Quick add page opens. Its address is /accounts/quick-add.
2. Choose the Account type: a household for a person or a family, a company, or other. For a company, type the Company name.
3. Leave Account number blank unless your organization numbers accounts by hand. Nova assigns the next number when it saves.
4. Pick the Lifecycle status. Choose one under Leads for a prospect, or under Active accounts for a paying customer.
5. Type the First name and Last name of the person you deal with. Nova builds the Account name from what you type.
6. Add the Email and Phone you will use to reach them, and anything worth remembering in Notes, such as a gate code or a second number.
7. Optional: under Address, find the address with Search or type it with Manual, then under Use for turn on what the address is for, such as service or billing.
8. Select Create account. If Nova finds an account that looks the same, Possible duplicate account opens so you can compare them. Choose Merge into existing account to add what you typed to the existing account, Create separate record to save a new one anyway, or Keep editing to go back.

What you see

Nova opens the new account. Its number and lifecycle status sit at the top, and the details you typed are already in place. From here you can add more people (Add a contact to an account), addresses, and work for this account.

If something looks different

• The full form opens instead of the quick one. Your admin chose the full form as the default under Settings, then Create Defaults under Accounts. The full form has the same essentials in its Account section, then Contacts, Account locations, and Billing basics sections you can open as needed. The lifecycle field is called Lifecycle there. Finish with Create account, or press Quick add instead to switch back.
• You want the full form. Select Open full form on the quick page; what you already typed comes with you. You can also open the arrow beside Add Account and pick the full form. Its page address is /accounts/new.
• You started from All Leads or All Customers. The button there is named for leads or customers and pre-selects the matching lifecycle status; the steps are otherwise the same.