Businesses

Manage client and supplier businesses in your account.

Overview

Businesses (also referred to as Companies) are the entities you work with in Beeswax. They represent the clients you invoice, the suppliers you pay, or any other organisation you interact with as part of your work.

Beeswax is designed as a B2B (business-to-business) application. All financial transactions — Projects, Invoices, Quotes, and Expenses — are allocated to a Business. Even when working with individuals (such as a husband and wife commissioning design work), you create a Business to group those people under.

Businesses can be categorised as:

  • Client — A business you provide services to and invoice
  • Supplier — A business that provides services to you and sends you expenses/bills
  • Both — A business can be marked as both a client and a supplier

You can access businesses from Contacts > Businesses in the main navigation, which shows all businesses in your account split into Clients and Suppliers tabs.

Creating a Business

Click the Add Business button to open the creation modal.

Fields

Field Required Description
Name Yes The business name. Must be unique within your account.
Address No Street address
City No City or town
State No State, region, or county. Dropdown options are shown for UK, AU, and US regions.
Postcode No Postal or ZIP code
Country No Country
Phone No Business phone number
Fax No Fax number
Website No Business website URL
Client No Toggle to mark this business as a client (someone you invoice)
Supplier No Toggle to mark this business as a supplier (someone who invoices you)

Region-Specific Fields

Depending on your account's region, additional fields may appear:

  • ABN (Australian Business Number) — For AU/NZ accounts
  • ACN (Australian Company Number) — For AU/NZ accounts

Important Notes

  • Business names must be unique within your account — you cannot create two businesses with the same name
  • A business can be marked as both a Client and a Supplier simultaneously
  • The account owner's business has additional settings (business hours, timezone) and serves as your own company profile

The Businesses List

The Businesses page displays all businesses in your account, split into Clients and Suppliers tabs.

Features

  • Search — Type to filter businesses by name
  • Clients / Suppliers Tabs — Switch between viewing clients and suppliers
  • Sorting — Click column headers to sort

Columns Displayed

Each row shows:

  • Business name and address (clickable to view details)
  • Revenue Comparison — a bar chart comparing current and last financial year revenue
  • Drafts — number of draft invoices or expenses
  • Outstanding — total outstanding amount
  • Invoices — number of invoices

Business Details

Click on a business name to view its full details. The layout differs depending on whether this is your account owner's business or another business.

For Other Businesses

The business detail page shows:

  • Business Information — Name, address, phone, website, client/supplier status, custom fields
  • Projects — Active projects allocated to this business
  • People — Contacts and users associated with this business
  • Statements — Outstanding receivable and payable statements
  • Running Ledger — Financial transactions filtered by date range

For Your Business (Account Owner)

Your own business page includes additional settings:

  • Business Hours — Configure working day start and end times
  • Timezone — Account timezone setting
  • Billing — Subscription and billing information
  • Default Tax — Set a default tax rate for the business

People & Contacts

Each business can have multiple people (contacts) associated with it. People represent the individuals you communicate with at that business.

Adding People to a Business

From the business detail page, you can:

  1. Click Add Person to create a new contact under this business
  2. Fill in their details (name, email, phone, etc.)
  3. Optionally mark them as an Accounts Contact to receive monthly statements
  4. Optionally invite them as a user with system access

Accounts Contact

When a person is marked as an Accounts Contact, they will receive automated monthly statement emails showing outstanding invoices for their business.

Inviting as a User

Any contact under a business can be invited as a user, giving them access to Beeswax. When inviting, you select a role (Basic, Manager, Accountant, Super Admin, or Client). See the Users help section for details on roles.

Online Payments Default

When Online Invoice Payments is set up, editing a business (other than your own) shows an Online Payments? toggle. When it's on, new invoices for this business include an online Pay now link by default — you can still change it on each individual invoice.

  • A person's own Online Payments? setting overrides the business setting for invoices addressed to that person.
  • Changing the default does not affect invoices that already exist.
  • See the Online Invoice Payments help article for full details.

Financial Statements

Businesses with outstanding invoices or expenses can have financial statements generated and sent.

Outstanding Statements

The statements section shows:

  • Receivable — Money owed to you (outstanding invoices you have sent)
  • Payable — Money you owe (outstanding expenses/bills)

Generating Statements

  1. Navigate to the business detail page
  2. Click Email Statement or Preview Statement
  3. Preview generates a PDF showing all outstanding items
  4. Email opens a modal where you can:
    • Select recipients from the business's contacts
    • Add CC recipients
    • Write a custom email message (rich text editor)
    • Preview the PDF attachment before sending

Running Ledger

The running ledger shows all financial transactions for a business within a date range. Filter by start and end date to see specific periods.

Business Hours & Settings

Business Hours

For your account owner's business, you can configure working hours:

  • Start of Workday — When the working day begins (e.g. 9:00 AM)
  • End of Workday — When the working day ends (e.g. 5:00 PM)
  • Times are set in 30-minute increments using a time picker
  • End of workday must be after start of workday

These hours are used by the system for milestone overdue calculations (working hours vs calendar hours).

Default Tax

Set a default tax rate for the business. This is used as a suggestion when auto-allocating bank transactions.

Timezone

The account timezone setting affects how dates and times are displayed throughout the application.

Import & Export

Importing Businesses

You can bulk-import businesses from a CSV file:

  1. Click Import from the businesses list
  2. Upload a CSV file with the following fields: name, phone, fax, web_address, address, city, state, postcode, country, ABN, ACN
  3. The system processes each row and creates businesses
  4. A report shows how many were successfully imported and any failures

When importing, if a business with the same name already exists:

  • In update mode, the existing record is updated with the new data
  • Otherwise, a new business is created (name uniqueness is enforced)

Exporting Businesses

Use the export dropdown on the businesses list to download in Excel, CSV, PDF, or copy to clipboard format.

Duplicate Businesses

The same business sometimes gets entered twice: "Apple" and "Apple Pty Ltd", or a supplier created again when an emailed invoice spells its name differently. Beeswax checks your businesses every night and tells you when it finds copies.

How you'll know

  • A red dot appears on Contacts in the main navigation, and the Businesses item shows how many businesses may have been entered more than once.
  • A yellow banner at the top of the Businesses list says how many were found, with a Review duplicates button.

Reviewing duplicates

  1. Click Review duplicates on the banner. A full-screen review opens.
  2. Pick a group on the left. Very likely groups have the same name once endings like "Pty Ltd" or "Limited" are ignored, the same Australian Business Number or bank account, or a similar name with the same phone number or website. Possible groups only have similar names, so check them carefully.
  3. Choose the business to keep. Beeswax suggests the one with the most documents.
  4. Untick any business in the group that isn't really the same.
  5. Pick which of the names to keep, then click Merge and confirm.

To tell Beeswax that a group isn't a duplicate, click Not duplicates. It won't suggest those businesses together again.

What a merge does

  • Invoices, expenses, quotes, payments and refunds move to the business you keep, including deleted ones, so restoring one later still works.
  • People, notes, files, project access, project team entries, bank-feed lines and employees' superannuation fund choices move too. Two people with the same email address become one person.
  • Empty details on the business you keep (phone, website, address, bank details, Australian Business Number) are filled from the other business. Client and supplier flags are combined.
  • The other business is deleted, but its name is remembered. When the bank feed or an emailed invoice uses the old name, Beeswax finds the business you kept instead of creating the old one again.
  • The merge is recorded in the activity log.

Merges can't be undone from Beeswax, so check the cards before you confirm.

Things to check before merging

  • Xero: if both businesses are linked to Xero contacts, merge the same contacts in Xero too (Contacts, then Merge). Beeswax keeps the link of the business you keep.
  • Locked periods: documents dated on or before your lock date will show the business you keep. Their amounts, accounts and tax don't change.
  • Client logins: people at the merged business who sign in to Beeswax will see the kept business's statements.

Merging businesses with nothing linked

When whole groups have nothing linked to them (no documents, people, projects, notes, files or Xero contacts), the review offers a button to merge them all in one step. Each group keeps its suggested business.

Avoiding new duplicates

When you type a name into Add Business, Beeswax lists existing businesses with the same or a similar name. The bank feed, quick allocation and the emailed-invoice reader also match "TPG Telecom Limited" to an existing "TPG Telecom" instead of creating a copy.

Deleting a Business & Reallocation

When You Can Delete

A business can only be deleted directly if it has no associated data (no projects, invoices, quotes, expenses, or people).

Reallocation

If a business has associated data, you must first reallocate that data to another business:

  1. Click Delete on the business
  2. If associations exist, you are taken to the Reallocation page
  3. Select a target business to receive the data (your own business isn't offered)
  4. Everything linked to the business is moved to the target business
  5. Once reallocation is complete, the original business is deleted

Use this when a business is genuinely gone. If it's the same business entered twice, use Review duplicates instead: a merge also keeps the business's details and remembers its name.

What Gets Reallocated

  • Invoices, quotes, expenses, payments and refunds, including deleted ones
  • Notes and files
  • People/contacts
  • Project access and project team entries
  • Bank-feed lines and employees' superannuation fund choices

Delete Confirmation

Deletion requires a confirmation step to prevent accidental data loss.

How-to Guides

Create a Company

  1. From the Main Navigation, select Contacts > Businesses
  2. Click Add Business (top right)
  3. Fill in the company name and details in the sidebar
  4. Click Save

Edit a Company

  1. Navigate to Contacts > Businesses
  2. Click the company name or arrow icon
  3. Click the pencil icon on the company overview
  4. Edit details in the sidebar
  5. Click Save

Delete a Company

  1. Navigate to Contacts > Businesses and find the company
  2. Click the pencil icon on the company overview
  3. Click Delete Company at the bottom of the sidebar
  4. Reassign associated items to another company
  5. Enter your password to confirm

Note: All company-linked data (invoices, expenses, quotes, people, projects) must be reassigned to another company before deletion.

Permissions by Role

Different roles have different levels of access to businesses.

Action Owner Super Admin Manager Accountant Basic Contractor Client
View businesses All All All All Limited Limited Own statements only
Create businesses Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Edit businesses All All All All No No No
Delete businesses Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Review and merge duplicates Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
View statements Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Own only
Email statements Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Import businesses Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Manage people Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No

Key Notes

  • Owner and Super Admin have full access to all business features, including the account owner's company settings.
  • Manager and Accountant can manage all businesses but may have restrictions on account-level settings.
  • Basic users have limited visibility — they can see businesses related to their assigned projects but cannot create, edit, or delete businesses.
  • Clients can only view outstanding statements for their own business.
  • Contractors have limited access focused on task management rather than business administration.
  • The account owner's business has restricted access — only owners, super admins, and accountants can view the full settings page.

Tips & Best Practices

  • Name businesses clearly. Use the official business name as it should appear on invoices and quotes.
  • Mark clients and suppliers. Use the Client and Supplier toggles to categorise businesses for filtering and reporting.
  • Add contacts early. Create people under each business so you can send invoices and statements to the right recipients.
  • Mark Accounts Contacts. Flag the appropriate person at each business as the Accounts Contact so they receive automated statement emails.
  • Use the reallocation feature. If a business is being acquired or merged, reallocate its data to the new business rather than manually moving records.
  • Clear duplicates when the dot appears. Merging copies keeps each business's history in one place, so statements, reports and the bank feed all agree.
  • Set business hours. Configure your account owner's business hours — these are used for milestone overdue calculations based on working hours.
  • Keep addresses current. Business addresses are used on invoices and statements, so keep them up to date.
  • Use CSV import for bulk setup. When onboarding, import your existing client/supplier list from a CSV to save time.
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