Top customers

Top customers answers one question: of the money you actually recorded, who did it come from? It's a lens over your payments, not a separate set of figures — it can't know anything your payment history doesn't already contain.

The screen says so before it shows you a single number: Customer value based on recorded payments — what each customer paid you, including any tax, minus what you refunded. It then names the date CLEO's knowledge begins, which is the day the first payment was recorded.

Choosing a period

Pick from This month, Last month, This year, Last year, Last 12 months or All time. It opens on This year.

The period filters by the day money was received, not the day it was recorded. A payment you entered today for a cheque that arrived in March counts in March.

One ranking per currency

If you've taken money in more than one currency, you get a separate ranking for each, with no combined total anywhere: Recorded in more than one currency. Each currency is ranked on its own — CLEO never adds different currencies together.

The figures at the top

• Net received — everything recorded in that period and currency, minus refunds, with the number of payments behind it.
• Top customer — the highest single customer, and what share of the net they are.
• The top few together — what your top three or five add up to, and their share. This only appears when you have more than that many customers with money recorded, because "the top 3 of 3" isn't a fact worth showing.

Shares are exact percentages of net received.

For the same reason, if some customers were refunded more than they paid, CLEO warns you that the individual shares can add up to more than 100% — the negatives pull the net down while the positives stay where they are.

The ranking itself

Under Ranked by net received each row shows the position, the customer, how many payments are behind the figure, their net received, and their share. The note beside the heading points you onward: Open a customer for their payments — the ranking tells you who, and a client's own payment history tells you what happened.

Two things about the list are worth understanding:

• Leads appear here too, marked with a Lead chip. Someone who hasn't become a client but has paid you is still money you received, and CLEO ranks them the same way. Money is money, whoever it came from.
• A long list is trimmed. When there are more customers with recorded entries than the list shows, CLEO says how many it left out rather than quietly stopping.

Underneath, a line counts the customers with no payments recorded for that period. That is not a claim that they paid you nothing — it's a count of who has no entries, which is often a to-do list for your own record-keeping rather than a fact about your business.

What it can't tell you

• It isn't profit. A customer who pays a lot and costs a lot to serve ranks first here and might rank last in reality.
• It isn't lifetime value unless you have genuinely recorded every payment since the beginning. CLEO shows you where its knowledge starts precisely so you can judge that.
• It isn't loyalty or frequency. One large payment outranks a dozen small ones.
• It doesn't move on its own. Rankings change when payments, refunds and corrections change — never because someone booked, finished work, or was given a plan.

When it's empty

Before there is anything to rank, CLEO says No payments recorded yet. rather than showing zeroes. If the period you chose is empty, it says so and offers you all your recorded history instead.