Deleting Accounts

Scenario: You are cleaning up Craig's books and delete some accounts from the chart of accounts. Let's take a look at what happens when you do that.

Margie Remmers-Davis
126 steps
10 minutes

QuickBooks

Akadian

UQB Podcast

This exercise was inspired by [Episode 29](https://uqb.show/29) of the "Unofficial QuickBooks Accountant" podcast with Hector Garcia and Alicia Katz Pollack. In this episode, Hector and Alicia go over what lists to review before and after doing a migration from Desktop to Online. In part, they discuss the Chart of Accounts and what happens when you delete and merge accounts. In this exercise, you'll be able to practice what they discuss so that you can develop a deeper level of knowledge and confidence in QBO. Subscribe to Hector and Alicia's show wherever you find your podcasts; or find out more and listen here: [www.uqb.show](https://uqb.show/)

Start in the Sample Company

Start in the Sample company.

To complete this exercise, you must be in the Sample company. From your QBOA account, click on the Gear icon on the top right corner of the screen, then select Sample company.

Note that you will be logged out of your current account. If you are sure, click "Continue" to confirm.

Now let's get started with the exercise.

Deleting a New Account

Scenario: You create a new account, and before adding any transactions to it, realize that there is already a similar account, so you make it inactive. What happens? Let's take a look.

First, we'll create the new account.

Click "Accountant Tools"

Click "Chart of accounts"

Click "New"

In the "Account name" field, type "Accountant"

Under "Account type," click "Expenses"

Under Detail type, click "Legal & Professional Fees"

Click "Save"

Before adding any transactions, you realize that there is already an "Accounting" account, so let's delete it (i.e., make it inactive) the one you just created.

Across from Accountant, click the down arrow.

Click "Make inactive (reduces usage)"

Click "Yes, make inactive"

Now let's see how this affects reports.

Click "Accountant Tools"

Click "Reports"

This was a expense account, so click "Profit and Loss"

Currently, the deleted account does not appear on the report.

The default for reports is to not include accounts with zero balances, but you can change this.

Click "General options"

Click the "Don't show zero amounts" field.

Click "X" icon. *Report will automatically load.*

Now you can see accounts with zero balances.

You can also choose to display accounts that have been made inactive. But you can NOT exclude the ones with zero balances.

Click "General options"

Click the "Don't show zero amounts" field.

Under "Show non-zero or active", click the "All" field.

Click "X" icon. *Report will automatically load.*

The deleted account shows, even though we have opted not to show accounts with zero balances.

Hector recommends grouping deleted accounts together so that if you ever need to run this report, you can collapse them. Let's see how to do that.

Click "Accountant Tools"

Click "Chart of accounts"

Click "New"

In the "Account name" field, type "Deleted Accounts"

Under Account type, click "Other Expense"

Under Detail type, click "Other Miscellaneous Expense"

Click "Save"

Next we are going to make our deleted Accountant account a sub-account of this new account. To do that, we'll first have to reactivate it.

Click the small grid gear.

Click the "Include inactive" field.\ \ *This setting applies to the whole course.*

Click "X" to close.

Across from Accountant (deleted), click "Make active"

Now we need to edit its details.

Click the down arrow.

Click "Edit"

It will need to be the same account type as its parent account.

Under Account type, click "Other Expense"

Click "Yes"

Under Detail type, click "Other Miscellaneous Expense"

Click the "Make this a subaccount" field.

Under parent account, click "Deleted Accounts"

Click "Save"

Now we will make the "Deleted Accounts" account inactive.

Click the "Filter by name or number" field.

Type "delete"

Across from Deleted Accounts, click the down arrow.

Click "Make inactive (reduces usage)"

Click "Yes, make inactive"

Notice that both "Deleted Accounts" and the "Accountant" account are now inactive.

Merging Accounts

Now we have seen what happens if you delete an account with no transactions. What happens if we merge accounts? Let's take a look.

We'll start by taking a look at the transactions currently in the "Bookkeeper" account.

Click and clear the "Filter by name or number" field.

Across from Bookkeeper, click "Run report"

As you can see, this account currently has one transaction associated with it: Check #12 for Books by Bessie.

Click "Back to chart of accounts"

Now let's merge the "Bookkeeper" account with the "Accounting" account.

Click the "Filter by name or number" field.

Type "book"

Across from Bookkeeper, click the down arrow.

Click "Edit"

Double-click the "Account name\*" field and hit [[tab]] *If it did not work, change the Account name\* to "Accounting"*

Click "Save"

Click "Yes, merge accounts"

Click "Save"

Now let's take a look at the transactions in the Accounting account.

Click and clear the "Filter by name or number" field.

Type "account"

Across from Accounting, click "Run report"

As you can see, QBO has moved the Check transaction from the Bookkeeper account to the Accounting account.

Click "Back to chart of accounts"

The Bookkeeper account is still there, however. It's just been deleted. Let's see that.

Click and clear the "Filter by name or number" field.

Note the deleted Bookkeeper account.

We can make this a sub-account of our Deleted Accounts account as well.

To do this, we'll have to make it active again, so click "Make active" *Note that when we do this, the transactions will not return to that account, but stay with the Accounting account, where they had moved.*

To make this change, we'll have to make Deleted Accounts active again as well.

Click the "Filter by name or number" field.

Type "delete"

Across from Deleted Accounts (deleted), click "Make active"

Remember that in order to make it a sub-account, Bookkeeper will need to be the same account type as Deleted Accounts.

Click and clear the "Filter by name or number" field.

Type "book"

Across from Bookkeeper, click the down arrow.

Click "Edit"

Under Account Type, click "Other Expense"

Click "Yes"

Under Detail type, click "Other Miscellaneous Expense"

Check "Make this a subaccount," then under Parent account click "Deleted Accounts"

Click "Save"

Finally, make Deleted Accounts inactive once again.

Click and clear the "Filter by name or number" field.

Type "delete"

Across from Deleted Accounts, click the down arrow.

Click "Make inactive (reduces usage)"

Click "Yes, make inactive"

Notice that all of the accounts are now inactive and grouped together.

Let's see how this affects reports.

Click "Accountant Tools"

Click "Reports"

Click "Profit and Loss"

Click "Customize"

Under "Show non-zero or active only," click the "All" field.

To: Click "X" icon. *Report will automatically load.*

All of the deleted accounts are now grouped together at the bottom of the report.

Click the down arrow to collapse them so they don't all show on the report.

They are now out of the way.

Accounts with Transactions

So far, we've looked at deleting accounts that do not have transactions associated with them. What happens if they *do* have transactions? Let's see that.

Click "Accountant Tools"

Click "Chart of accounts"

Click and clear the "Filter by name or number" field.

Type "main"

Notice that there are currently several "Maintenance and Report" accounts. Click "Run report" on the third one.

Notice that this account has two transactions associated with it: a check to Chin's Gas and Oil and a bill from Diego's Road Warrior Bodyshop. The second is actually under a sub-account called "Equipment Repairs."

Let's see what happens when the parent account is deleted.

Click "Back to chart of accounts"

Across from the main level Maintenance and Repair account, click the down arrow.

Click "Make inactive (reduces usage)"

Click "Yes, make inactive"

Now let's see how this affects the Profit and Loss report.

Click "Accountant Tools"

Click "Reports"

Click "Profit and Loss"

As you can see, this account and its sub-account remain on the P&L, even though they have been deleted. You would not want to move these accounts to the "Deleted Accounts" section because they do not have a zero balance.

We can reinstate the Maintenance and Repair account and the transactions will stay with the account.

Click "Accountant Tools"

100

Click "Chart of accounts"

101

Across from the Maintenance and Repair (deleted), click "Make active"

And let's check that P&L again.

102

Click "Accountant Tools"

103

Click "Reports"

104

Click "Profit and Loss"

The parent account has been reinstated. The sub-account would need to be reinstated as well.

Deleting a Balance Sheet Account

So far, we've only looked at Profit & Loss accounts. What happens if we delete a Balance Sheet account? Let's take a look.

105

Click "Accountant Tools"

106

Click "Chart of accounts"

For the purpose of this exercise, we are going to delete the Savings account. Notice that this account currently has a QuickBooks balance of $800. *Note, too, that it is currently showing a **bank balance** of $200. Remember, we don't control the Bank Balance.*

107

Click and clear the "Filter by name or number" field.

108

In the Savings row, click the down arrow.

109

Click "Make inactive (reduces usage)"

110

Click "Yes, make inactive"

Now let's see what the report looks like.

111

Click "Accountant Tools"

112

Click "Reports"

113

Click "Balance Sheet"

114

Click "General options"

115

Under "Show non-zero or active only," click the "All" field.

116

Click "X" icon. *Report will automatically load.*

The deleted savings account is now showing as a zero balance.

What happened to the $800? It was moved to Opening Balance Equity. Let's take a look.

117

Across from Opening Balance Equity, click "-10,137.50"

As you can see, QBO has created a Check transaction to move the money from Savings to OBE.

Let's see what happens if we make the account active again.

118

Click "Accountant Tools"

119

Click "Chart of accounts"

120

Across from the Savings (deleted), click "Make active"

Like we saw [previously](https://scribehow.com/shared/Deleting_Accounts__mgYD5K7dSj-NdAEA71NMjA#e92e0e3e) when we made the Bookkeeper account active again, the account is showing as zero. But let's look deeper.

121

Click "View register"

122

Close any pop-ups.

All of the transactions are still there, it's just that QBO added that check transaction to move the money to OBE. (See that the memo says "Created by QBO Online.) To return the Savings account to its previous state, all we have to do is delete this transaction.

123

Click the transaction.

124

Click "Delete"

125

OBE transactions are always automatically reconciled, so deleting this will not affect anything. Go ahead and click "Yes"

126

Click "Back to Chart of Accounts"

Finished! The savings account balance has been restored. *Don't forget, we don't control the Bank Balance.*

Want More Hands-On Exercises?

[Click here to join the QBO Gym Locker Room](https://www.facebook.com/groups/qbo.gym.locker.room). This free Facebook group is your spot for **hands-on practice** using QuickBooks Online. You'll get: - Free Getting Started Course (learn how to get your free QBO accountant account, how to navigate QBO, and how to practice in the Sample Company) - Over 100 Free exercises - Free Exercise-of-the-Week (like this one!) - Weekly livestreams so you can follow along We look forward to your success story!

📝 Feedback

Questions/Problems/Concerns?[ Send feedback.](https://www.bookwidgets.com/play/k6rmQMKk-iQAEzXMdagAAA/BEXUQBE/feedback-scrib?teacher_id=6434462993219584)

Deleting Accounts

Scenario: You are cleaning up Craig's books and delete some accounts from the chart of accounts. Let's take a look at what happens when you do that.

Margie Remmers-Davis
126 steps
10 minutes

QuickBooks

Akadian

UQB Podcast

Start in the Sample Company

Start in the Sample company.

To complete this exercise, you must be in the Sample company. From your QBOA account, click on the Gear icon on the top right corner of the screen, then select Sample company.

Note that you will be logged out of your current account. If you are sure, click "Continue" to confirm.

Now let's get started with the exercise.

Deleting a New Account

Scenario: You create a new account, and before adding any transactions to it, realize that there is already a similar account, so you make it inactive. What happens? Let's take a look.

First, we'll create the new account.

Click "Accountant Tools"

Click "Chart of accounts"

Click "New"

In the "Account name" field, type "Accountant"

Under "Account type," click "Expenses"

Under Detail type, click "Legal & Professional Fees"

Click "Save"

Before adding any transactions, you realize that there is already an "Accounting" account, so let's delete it (i.e., make it inactive) the one you just created.

Across from Accountant, click the down arrow.

Click "Make inactive (reduces usage)"

Click "Yes, make inactive"

Now let's see how this affects reports.

Click "Accountant Tools"

Click "Reports"

This was a expense account, so click "Profit and Loss"

Currently, the deleted account does not appear on the report.

The default for reports is to not include accounts with zero balances, but you can change this.

Click "General options"

Click the "Don't show zero amounts" field.

Click "X" icon. *Report will automatically load.*

Now you can see accounts with zero balances.

You can also choose to display accounts that have been made inactive. But you can NOT exclude the ones with zero balances.

Click "General options"

Click the "Don't show zero amounts" field.

Under "Show non-zero or active", click the "All" field.

Click "X" icon. *Report will automatically load.*

The deleted account shows, even though we have opted not to show accounts with zero balances.

Hector recommends grouping deleted accounts together so that if you ever need to run this report, you can collapse them. Let's see how to do that.

Click "Accountant Tools"

Click "Chart of accounts"

Click "New"

In the "Account name" field, type "Deleted Accounts"

Under Account type, click "Other Expense"

Under Detail type, click "Other Miscellaneous Expense"

Click "Save"

Next we are going to make our deleted Accountant account a sub-account of this new account. To do that, we'll first have to reactivate it.

Click the small grid gear.

Click the "Include inactive" field.\ \ *This setting applies to the whole course.*

Click "X" to close.

Across from Accountant (deleted), click "Make active"

Now we need to edit its details.

Click the down arrow.

Click "Edit"

It will need to be the same account type as its parent account.

Under Account type, click "Other Expense"

Click "Yes"

Under Detail type, click "Other Miscellaneous Expense"

Click the "Make this a subaccount" field.

Under parent account, click "Deleted Accounts"

Click "Save"

Now we will make the "Deleted Accounts" account inactive.

Click the "Filter by name or number" field.

Type "delete"

Across from Deleted Accounts, click the down arrow.

Click "Make inactive (reduces usage)"

Click "Yes, make inactive"

Notice that both "Deleted Accounts" and the "Accountant" account are now inactive.

Merging Accounts

Now we have seen what happens if you delete an account with no transactions. What happens if we merge accounts? Let's take a look.

We'll start by taking a look at the transactions currently in the "Bookkeeper" account.

Click and clear the "Filter by name or number" field.

Across from Bookkeeper, click "Run report"

As you can see, this account currently has one transaction associated with it: Check #12 for Books by Bessie.

Click "Back to chart of accounts"

Now let's merge the "Bookkeeper" account with the "Accounting" account.

Click the "Filter by name or number" field.

Type "book"

Across from Bookkeeper, click the down arrow.

Click "Edit"

Double-click the "Account name\*" field and hit [[tab]] *If it did not work, change the Account name\* to "Accounting"*

Click "Save"

Click "Yes, merge accounts"

Click "Save"

Now let's take a look at the transactions in the Accounting account.

Click and clear the "Filter by name or number" field.

Type "account"

Across from Accounting, click "Run report"

As you can see, QBO has moved the Check transaction from the Bookkeeper account to the Accounting account.

Click "Back to chart of accounts"

The Bookkeeper account is still there, however. It's just been deleted. Let's see that.

Click and clear the "Filter by name or number" field.

Note the deleted Bookkeeper account.

We can make this a sub-account of our Deleted Accounts account as well.

To make this change, we'll have to make Deleted Accounts active again as well.

Click the "Filter by name or number" field.

Type "delete"

Across from Deleted Accounts (deleted), click "Make active"

Remember that in order to make it a sub-account, Bookkeeper will need to be the same account type as Deleted Accounts.

Click and clear the "Filter by name or number" field.

Type "book"

Across from Bookkeeper, click the down arrow.

Click "Edit"

Under Account Type, click "Other Expense"

Click "Yes"

Under Detail type, click "Other Miscellaneous Expense"

Check "Make this a subaccount," then under Parent account click "Deleted Accounts"

Click "Save"

Finally, make Deleted Accounts inactive once again.

Click and clear the "Filter by name or number" field.

Type "delete"

Across from Deleted Accounts, click the down arrow.

Click "Make inactive (reduces usage)"

Click "Yes, make inactive"

Notice that all of the accounts are now inactive and grouped together.

Let's see how this affects reports.

Click "Accountant Tools"

Click "Reports"

Click "Profit and Loss"

Click "Customize"

Under "Show non-zero or active only," click the "All" field.

To: Click "X" icon. *Report will automatically load.*

All of the deleted accounts are now grouped together at the bottom of the report.

Click the down arrow to collapse them so they don't all show on the report.

They are now out of the way.

Accounts with Transactions

So far, we've looked at deleting accounts that do not have transactions associated with them. What happens if they *do* have transactions? Let's see that.

Click "Accountant Tools"

Click "Chart of accounts"

Click and clear the "Filter by name or number" field.

Type "main"

Notice that there are currently several "Maintenance and Report" accounts. Click "Run report" on the third one.

Let's see what happens when the parent account is deleted.

Click "Back to chart of accounts"

Across from the main level Maintenance and Repair account, click the down arrow.

Click "Make inactive (reduces usage)"

Click "Yes, make inactive"

Now let's see how this affects the Profit and Loss report.

Click "Accountant Tools"

Click "Reports"

Click "Profit and Loss"

We can reinstate the Maintenance and Repair account and the transactions will stay with the account.

Click "Accountant Tools"

100

Click "Chart of accounts"

101

Across from the Maintenance and Repair (deleted), click "Make active"

And let's check that P&L again.

102

Click "Accountant Tools"

103

Click "Reports"

104

Click "Profit and Loss"

The parent account has been reinstated. The sub-account would need to be reinstated as well.

Deleting a Balance Sheet Account

So far, we've only looked at Profit & Loss accounts. What happens if we delete a Balance Sheet account? Let's take a look.

105

Click "Accountant Tools"

106

Click "Chart of accounts"

107

Click and clear the "Filter by name or number" field.

108

In the Savings row, click the down arrow.

109

Click "Make inactive (reduces usage)"

110

Click "Yes, make inactive"

Now let's see what the report looks like.

111

Click "Accountant Tools"

112

Click "Reports"

113

Click "Balance Sheet"

114

Click "General options"

115

Under "Show non-zero or active only," click the "All" field.

116

Click "X" icon. *Report will automatically load.*

The deleted savings account is now showing as a zero balance.

What happened to the $800? It was moved to Opening Balance Equity. Let's take a look.

117

Across from Opening Balance Equity, click "-10,137.50"

As you can see, QBO has created a Check transaction to move the money from Savings to OBE.

Let's see what happens if we make the account active again.

118

Click "Accountant Tools"

119

Click "Chart of accounts"

120

Across from the Savings (deleted), click "Make active"

121

Click "View register"

122

Close any pop-ups.

123

Click the transaction.

124

Click "Delete"

125

OBE transactions are always automatically reconciled, so deleting this will not affect anything. Go ahead and click "Yes"

126

Click "Back to Chart of Accounts"

Finished! The savings account balance has been restored. *Don't forget, we don't control the Bank Balance.*

Want More Hands-On Exercises?

📝 Feedback

Questions/Problems/Concerns?[ Send feedback.](https://www.bookwidgets.com/play/k6rmQMKk-iQAEzXMdagAAA/BEXUQBE/feedback-scrib?teacher_id=6434462993219584)