System Debtor vs Client Debtor

System Debtor vs. Client Debtor Comparison

While both views represent the same physical entity—the company or person obligated to pay an invoice—they track different relationships and configurations within the Quiddly Operations Portal.

	System Debtor View	Client Debtor View (Client-Specific Profile)
Purpose	To define the global, platform-wide profile of the debtor’s risk and identity. This view is for managing the entity itself.	To define the debtor’s financial rules and status relative to a specific Invoicing Client (the party being paid).
View Scope	Global. Rules here affect the debtor across all clients and services (e.g., master credit limit).	Client-Specific. Rules here override global settings only for the actions related to the linked Invoicing Client.
Key Settings	Master Credit Limit, Insurance Limit, Global Balance (total debt across all clients).	Client-Specific Balances, Client-Specific Exclusion Toggles (e.g., Exclude debtor from reminder event for this client only).
Financial Context	Shows the Total Outstanding Debt across the entire platform.	Shows the Outstanding Debt and Balances owed specifically to the linked Invoicing Client.
Operational Impact	Affects platform-wide processes, such as determining if any client can finance invoices for this debtor.	Affects client-specific processes, such as whether this client’s invoices are excluded from collection steps.

How debtors are created

A debtor cannot be created manually or in advance. There is no create action for debtors in the Operations Portal or the API. Debtors are created when an invoice is activated:

• Client debtor. On activation the system looks for a client debtor with the same client and the same Customer number. If there is none, a new client debtor is created from the invoice.
• System debtor. A system debtor is created on activation only when the invoice’s debtor has a legal identification number, and only if no system debtor with that number exists. Without a legal identification number, the debtor has a client debtor card only. When a later invoice for the same customer number brings the number, the system debtor is created then. A VAT number can be added on the client debtor in the meantime.
• Internal identification. An internal identification number is optional. When an invoice carries one, the debtor is also grouped under that internal identification number.

Changing the identification number

If an invoice arrives with an existing Customer number but a different legal identification number, the client debtor takes the new number and the invoice debtors under it are updated to the new number. A new system debtor is created for the new number, and the old system debtor is left with no client debtors or invoices. This is why some system debtors are empty.

The legal identification number cannot be edited on the client debtor itself. It comes from the invoice.

Legal and internal identification

The Debtors page has two tabs, By legal identification and By internal identification. They list different groups of debtors, so a search for the same number in each tab can return different client debtors and invoices, and their balances can differ. An invoice with a legal identification number does not always carry an internal one.

Which debtor data an invoice uses

The invoice keeps its own copy of the debtor data, the invoice debtor, taken from the data supplied when the invoice was created: name, addresses, e-mail, phone and so on. It does not follow later changes on the client debtor by itself. In particular:

• The debtor name on an invoice is the name supplied at creation. If the debtor is renamed on the client debtor, existing invoices keep the old name until their data is updated, either with Update open invoices? when saving the client debtor (see The Client Debtor View) or when the integrating system sends the new name.
• Distribution of the invoice uses the e-mail and phone on the invoice debtor. Adding an e-mail on the client debtor therefore does not help invoices that were already activated without one, unless you tick Update open invoices? when you save.
• When a new invoice is activated, fields the invoice does not supply (legal identification number, internal identification number, GLN, VAT number, e-mail, phone, cell phone) are filled from the existing client debtor.
• The exception is E-mail (expired documents): for expired notifications, reminders and final notices the current value on the client debtor is used, and if it is empty the e-mail on the invoice is used.