In this article, we shall discuss how to delete a customer in QuickBooks Online as well as Desktop. As long as you are using QuickBooks, you need to learn how to manage the customer database. At times, certain entries regarding customers might have to be removed, when they are rendered irrelevant to the business, or have merged with another customer.
QuickBooks is one of the most widely used softwares which allows provides various features that help to facilitate business operations. While the regular operations are the ability to create as well as manage customer profiles, there might be certain occasions when a customer needs to be deleted from the accounting books.
The crucial part is that no data should be unnecessarily lost. By going through this guide, you should have an idea about how to delete a customer in QuickBooks account, as well as its implications on your financial records.
Why would it be necessary to delete a customer in QuickBooks?
There could be several reasons why it becomes necessary to delete a customer in QuickBooks Online. We have discussed some of them as follows:
- Double entries: Accidentally two profiles might have been created for the same individual. In that case, it would be required that the information is consolidated. Otherwise there would naturally be problems in the financial reporting that follows. In case the double entries are not duly dealt with, there will likely be confusions as well as errors.
- Need to comply with legal requirements: The situation might arise where a customer’s details might have to be removed, forcibly or otherwise, from the accounts. This could be due to regulations in place that promote data protection, or requirements that are unique to the specific industry. It could also be as a result of requests on the part of private individuals regarding customer privacy. The legal arrangements require you to comply with the concerned laws, and thus delete a customer in QuickBooks.
- Irrelevant Customers: Over a period of time, there might be a substantial number of erstwhile customers on the books, who are no longer actively engaging with the business. Removing these customers from the books will certainly save you space. It will also allow you to redirect your attention to the customers that are active, and maintain meaningful relationships in the corporate world.
- Data Clean-up: If your business has an extensive network, as well as clientage, the customer database might tend to get cluttered. It is necessary to keep it uncluttered, in order to keep it as efficient as possible.
Restart and Delete a Customer in QuickBooks Online Specifically.
In order to delete a customer in QuickBooks Online specifically, you can follow the steps as mentioned below:
– Enter the credentials of your QuickBooks Online account and login.
– Start by clicking on “Sales” on the left-hand menu.
– Next, select the “Customers” tab located at the top of the page.
– Locate the customer you wish to remove, and click on their name
to access their profile.
– Once you’re in the customer’s profile, click on the “Edit” button in
the upper right-hand corner.
– Scroll down to the bottom of the page and find the “Delete”
button. Click on it.
– You’ll be asked to confirm the deletion. Click “Yes” to proceed.
– After confirming, the customer will be deleted. To add a new
customer, click on the “New Customer” button in the top right
corner of the “Customers” page.
Locate Inactive Customers in QuickBooks Online
As mentioned above, at times you might need to perform some cleanup activities. This is in order to keep your customer database easy and clean to look at, as well as fully operational.
– Navigate to “Get Paid and Pay” or the “Sales” option, and press on “Customers”.
- Press on the “Settings” icon in the Action column.
- You need to select “Include inactive” from the current menu.
- Find the inactive customer that you are concerned with, and press “Make Active” to reactivate account.
Do you need to take any measures before you delete a customer in QuickBooks Online?
You need to keep in mind that deleting a customer in QuickBooks Online would, for all practical purposes, permanently remove the information from the account. Consequently, you need to make sure that there will be no eventual requirement of the data of the customer.
Before you decide to delete a customer in QuickBooks, you may consider backing up the QuickBooks Online data. This would be an effective safeguard against accidental deletions of data.
One other measure which you can consider taking is to export the data to a file before deleting the customer’s data. First, go to the “Business overview” section and then click on “Reports.” If there’s an option like “Take me there,” you can use that.
Next, find the report you want to save. Once you’ve located it, select it.
At the top of the report, you’ll see an icon for exporting. Click on that.
A dropdown menu will appear. From there, choose “Export to Excel.”
Finally, save the file in a spot that’s easy for you to find, like your desktop or Downloads folder. This way, you can access it quickly when you need it.
Deleting a customer in QuickBooks Desktop
Following are the steps to be able to delete a customer in QuickBooks Desktop version:
– You may launch the QuickBooks Desktop, and press on “Customers”.
– From here, you need to navigate to “Customer Centre”, and press on “Customer Jobs”. Under this, you need to select the name of the customer whom you wish to remove.
– Press on “Edit”, and proceed to select “Delete customer job”.
There will be a prompt which appears, and you need to select “Yes”. Once this is done, you can close the window.
Deleting a customer payment in QuickBooks
While you can delete a customer in QuickBooks to keep the interface clean, deleting customer payments in QuickBooks can be used for correcting mistakes that have been made, or for removing the errors. This is a useful step in helping you manage customer payments in a better manner.
Navigate to the “Customers” section and choose the option for viewing the payment history of a specific customer. Locate the payment you want to remove and click on it, then select the “Delete” option. To initiate a fresh transaction, select “Receive Payment” and input essential information like the customer’s name, bank account, check details, and the payment amount. Finally, allocate the payment to the correct invoices by marking them as paid.
Conclusion
Thus, in this article, we have seen how you can delete a customer in QuickBooks (both in Online as well as in Desktop). We have also spent some effort in trying to understand why this might be necessary. We have seen how deleting some customers can actually help you in maintaining the operational efficiency of QuickBooks.
Source: Intuit