# Parties Url: https://dealersip.com/KnowledgeBase/Accounting/Parties-50265/ Last updated: 2026-09-22 Section: Accounting > Parties A **party** is anyone your dealership does business with — a customer, a supplier, a finance company. To work with them, open **Accounting → Parties** from the left-hand menu. Parties are deliberately kept out of the ledger itself. Every posting is clubbed into Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable according to the party's role, so your financial statements stay uncluttered while each party still has a full record of their own (see [Accounting](https://dealersip.com/KnowledgeBase/Accounting-50232/)). ## Finding a party The Parties screen opens on a list of everyone already set up. Along the green bar at the top, from left to right, sit the two filters, the search box and the button that adds a party: - **All Statuses** — the status filter. Leave it as it is to see everyone, or pick **Active** or **Inactive** to see just those. - **All Types** — the party-type filter. Pick one type (Customer, Dealer, Finance Company, Seller, and so on) to see only those parties. - **Search parties…** — type any part of a party's details to find them. - **Add New** — the dark green button at the far right, which creates a party. Four counts sit above the list: **Total Parties**, how many are **Active**, how many are **Inactive**, and how many have an email address recorded. Below them the list tells you how many **records are shown**, and notes that it is **sorted by active status and name** — so active parties come first, alphabetically. Each row shows the party's initials in a small badge, then the **Name**, **Type**, **Opening Balance** (tagged **Receivable** or **Payable** where there is one), **Contact**, **Tax Reg Number**, **Email**, **Phone** and **Location**. The table scrolls sideways if your screen is narrow. Where a party has nothing recorded in a column, the list says so plainly — "No contact", "No email", "No phone", "No tax reg number" — rather than leaving a blank, so you can see at a glance what is missing. On the left of every row are two icons: a **pencil** that opens the party for editing, and a **bin** that deletes it. There are no bulk actions; parties are worked on one at a time. ## Adding or editing a party Press **Add New** to create one, or the **pencil** on a row to change one. Either way the same panel slides in from the right, in three parts. Fields outlined in red are required. ### Party Details - **Party Type** (required) — what kind of party this is. **Choose it first**, because it decides which of the remaining fields appear and which of them you must fill in. If the type you need does not exist yet, the **Create Type** button beside the field makes one without losing what you have typed. A party's type can be changed later if you get it wrong. - **Company Name** (required) — the party's name as you want it to appear everywhere. Names must be unique, so if one is already taken Dealersip refuses the save with *"Party already exists"*. - **Contact Name** — the person you deal with there. - **Opening Balance** — what this party already owed, or was owed, on the day you start using Dealersip. Type the amount, then use the box beside it to say which way round it goes: **Receivable** means they owe you, **Payable** means you owe them. Leave it empty if the party starts from nothing. The amount cannot be negative and takes at most two decimal places. - **Tax Registration Number** — the party's tax number, where they have one. - **Active** — ticked by default. Untick it to retire a party you no longer trade with: they drop out of the pick-lists on new transactions, but their history and any balance they carry remain untouched and keep showing in your statements. ### Contact **Email**, **Email CC**, **Email BCC**, **Phone**, **Mobile** and **Website**. The CC and BCC addresses are used when Dealersip emails this party, so anything you put there is copied in automatically. ### Address The billing address — **Address**, **City**, **State**, **ZIP Code** and **Country** — and a **Notes** box for anything else worth recording. Finish with **Save and Close**, or **Save and Add New** if you have several parties to enter one after another. **Cancel** closes the panel without saving. ## How the opening balance is posted Dealersip does not simply store the opening balance as a number. When you save a party that has one, it writes a proper **opening-balance transaction** behind the scenes, so the amount is part of your double-entry books like everything else. Which account it lands in is decided by the party's type — see [Chart of Accounts](https://dealersip.com/KnowledgeBase/ChartofAccounts-50264/) for how that entry is built. If you change the opening balance later, Dealersip **updates that original transaction** rather than adding a second one, and it keeps the date the party was created. That holds true even if the party started at zero and you add an opening balance months afterwards — the entry is still dated to the party's creation, so it stays where it belongs in your books rather than distorting a later period. ## Deleting a party The **bin** icon deletes a party. A party that has only ever had an opening balance can be deleted outright. Once a party has been used on a transaction, however, it cannot — Dealersip refuses with *"This party has been used, hence cannot be deleted"*, because removing it would tear a hole in entries you have already posted. When you want a party out of the way but cannot delete it, untick **Active** instead. That is what the setting is for. ## The party type shapes the form What you see on the party panel is not fixed. It follows the **Party Type** you chose and how that type has been set up under [Party Types](https://dealersip.com/KnowledgeBase/PartyTypes-50266/): - **Which fields appear** — the billing address section, and type-specific fields such as **Dealer Licence Number** or **Commission (%)**, show only for the types set up to use them. - **Which fields are mandatory** — a type can insist on the Tax Registration Number, the billing address, and so on, before the party will save. - **Where the opening balance goes** — the Receivable or Payable choice sends the balance to whichever account that party type nominates for each side. So if a field you expect is missing, or one you would rather not fill in is being demanded, the place to change it is the party type — not the party. ## A party can be both a customer and a supplier Nothing stops you both selling to and buying from the same party, and when you do they will appear in your Receivables *and* your Payables at the same time. That is correct accounting rather than a mistake, and their own ledger nets the two together. It catches people out often enough to be worth reading in full: see [Why a party can show as both a receivable and a payable](https://dealersip.com/KnowledgeBase/Whyapartycanshowasbothareceivableandapayable-50278/). ## Why a party can show as both a receivable and a payable Confirmed correct behaviour, not a bug - but it confuses people, so it belongs in the manual. Situation: you create a party with an opening balance of 50,000 Dr (they owe you), then buy a vehicle from that same party for 7,345,000 and pay 50,000 cash. - The opening balance posts to **Accounts Receivable** (because the party was created with a Dr opening balance). - The vehicle purchase posts to **Accounts Payable**, and the 50,000 cash reduces that payable. - Result: Accounts Receivable holds 50,000 Dr and Accounts Payable holds 7,295,000 Cr - **for the same party**. - The **party ledger** nets them and correctly closes at **7,245,000 Cr** (= 7,345,000 vehicle - 50,000 cash - 50,000 opening). Points to make in the manual: 1. Receivables and payables are shown **separately (gross), never automatically netted**, even for the same party. This is standard accounting - you only offset when there is a right of set-off and you intend to settle net. 2. So a party you both sell to and buy from will appear in **both** the receivables and payables figures. Neither is wrong. 3. To see the party's true net position, open the **party ledger** - it nets everything and tells you who owes whom. 4. If you actually settle net (pay them the difference and clear the receivable), that needs a **set-off journal**: `Dr Accounts Payable / Cr Accounts Receivable` for the smaller amount. Dealersip has no built-in workflow for this today, so it must be entered as a journal, otherwise the old receivable sits on the books forever. 5. Related tip: check the **party type and opening-balance direction** when creating a party. Money you have advanced to a supplier may belong on the payable side (or an "Advances to Suppliers" account) rather than in Accounts Receivable.