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Still struggling to figure out how to make an account inactive in Quickbooks? While there’s no option with this label, there’s a simple work-around that allows you to deactivate accounts. And if you wish to reactivate them at a later time, you are free to do so — assuming you follow the steps outlined here.

Delete The Account To Make It Inactive

The only viable way to make an account in Quickbooks inactive is to delete it. Once deleted, it’s removed from the Chart of Accounts and financial statements so it no longer shows up when performing routine operations.

Don’t worry, your reporting will remain the same, as deleting an account does not alter transactions balances; it merely adds the “deleted” annotation next to the respective account. You can still find all transactions connected to the deleted account by running a report.

Steps To Deleting an Account:

1. Launch Quickbooks.
2. Access the Company tab > Chart of Accounts.
3. Scroll through the list of accounts and click on the one you wish to delete (AKA make inactive).
4. Click on the Delete button.
5. A message will appear, prompting you to confirm the deletion of the respective account. Double-check to ensure it’s the correct account and click Yes to confirm its deletion.
6. Congratulations, you’ve just deleted the account from Quickbooks!

Note: unfortunately, there’s currently no method for deleting multiple accounts at once. If you need to delete two or more accounts from Quickbooks, you’ll have to follow the steps mentioned above for each account.

How To Reactivate a Deleted Account

1. Launch Quickbooks.
2. Access the Company tab > Chart of Accounts.
3. At the top-right corner of your screen, you should see a button titled Related Reports. Click this button and proceed to the next step.
4. Under Help Topics, select Deleted Accounts.
5. Close out of the Help Topics window.
6. Scroll through the list of accounts and click on the one you wish to reactivate.
7. Click on the box titled Deleted, essentially undeleting the respective account.
8. When you are finished, click Save to finish the process and reactive the account.

Note: if you delete a balance sheet account, you won’t be able to edit or delete transactions associated with that account until it’s reactivated. This is why it’s important to know the proper steps to deleting and reactivating accounts. If you find yourself in this situation, refer back to this post for detailed step-by-step instructions.