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It’s not uncommon for businesses to drop or lose previous customers and clients. Perhaps some of these customers only wanted to purchase the business’s products and/or services a single time, or maybe they relocated to a new region where they can no longer easily reach the business’s location. These are just a few instances when a business may “break ties” with one or more of its customers.

Don’t Delete Customer Data

There are a couple of different ways to handle the information of former customers and clients in Quickbooks, one of which is simply to delete it. If your account is cluttered with unnecessary data, such as the information of former customers, you may assume the best course of action is to delete it.

Unfortunately, deleting this information can render in inaccessible in the event that you ever need it. Sure, you might be able to find it in a previous backup of your Quickbooks account, but this can be a time-consuming, pain-staking process. But leaving the information in place may clutter your account with unnecessary data, making it difficult to perform normal accounting operations.

The Solution: Hide Customer Data

Rather than deleting unnecessary customer data in your Quickbooks account, you should hide it. This essentially makes the customer and their respective data inactive, but you can still access the information  at any given time. Whether you’re balancing a fiscal period or performing your taxes for the year, you’ll have complete access to all “hidden” customer data. And if a previous customer wants to engage with your business again, you can reactive with the click of a button.

To hide customer data in your Quickbooks account, access the Customer Center > Customers & Jobs tab > double click the customer whom you wish to hide. Click the option titled Customer is inactive to hide the customer on your account. When you are finished click OK to save the changes and complete the hiding process. The customer will now be temporarily disabled from your account, and his or her information will no longer display.

If the customer wishes to reengage with your business, go back into the Customers & Jobs tab to reactivate them. From the edit menu in this tab, simply uncheck the option titled Customer is inactive to reactive them. Changes will instantly appear in your account, with the customer’s data reappearing.