After you've supplied information about your company structure, one of your next setup tasks will be to add information about your customers and vendors. Some online accounting software lets you include more than basic contact details ("customer since" date, birthday, and other similar fields), which can be helpful as you develop and maintain relationships with them. You do the same thing for the products and services you sell, so you can add them easily to transactions. One of the great things about using small business accounting software is that it reduces repetitive data entry. Once you fill in the blanks to create a customer record, for example, you never have to look up that ZIP code again. When you need to reference a customer in a transaction, they will appear in a list. The same goes for vendors, items, services, and employees. No more filling out card files or messy spreadsheets. Once you complete a customer record and start creating invoices, sending statements, and recording billable expenses, you can usually access those historical activities within the record itself. Some accounting programs, such as Zoho Books, display a map of the individual or company's location and let you create your own fields so you can track additional information that's important to you. These record templates vary in complexity, so you need to understand the differences before you go with one accounting service or another. Some, such as Patriot Software Accounting Premium, simply let you maintain descriptive product records. Others, such as Intuit QuickBooks Online, do more. They ask how many of each product you have in inventory when you create a record and at what point you should be alerted to reorder. Then they actively track inventory levels, which provides insights on selling patterns and keeps you from running low.