Customer groups

A customer group is a reusable label that classifies customers by segment or controls which pricing and discounts they receive. Groups come in two distinct types: type groups for classification and pricing groups for pricing behavior.

Why customer groups matter

• Segment customers: Filter, report, and organize by business segment (Enterprise, Retail, Wholesale)
• Drive pricing behavior: Determine which price lists and volume discounts apply
• Set exemptions: Configure commission and freight exemptions that cascade to all members
• Control product access: Restrict which product lines a customer can order from

Customer type groups

A type group describes who the customer is.

• One per customer: every customer must be assigned to exactly one type group
• Classification label: examples: Enterprise, Retail, Wholesale, Distributor
• Used for reporting and filtering: view sales, activity, and order history by segment
• Drives segment-level defaults: commission and freight exemption settings cascade to all members

Type groups answer the question: what kind of customer is this?

Customer pricing groups

A pricing group describes how the customer is priced.

• Zero or many per customer: a customer can belong to multiple pricing groups simultaneously
• Controls pricing eligibility: determines which customer prices and volume discounts apply
• Product line access: can restrict which product lines the customer is allowed to order from
• Commission and freight flags: same exemption settings as type groups, with the same cascading behavior

Pricing groups answer the question: what prices and discounts does this customer get?

Exemption flags

Each group: whether type or pricing: carries two independent exemption flags:

• Commission status: commission_applied (normal) or commission_exempt (no commission)
• Freight status: billed_freight (normal) or free_freight (no freight charges)

These flags cascade to all customers in the group using OR logic: if any group a customer belongs to is exempt, the customer is treated as exempt. See Commission & freight exemption for details.

Type group vs pricing group

Next: Shipping terms