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Delete your data and start over in QuickBooks Online

by Intuit•36• Updated 3 months ago

Learn how to delete your data in QuickBooks Online and start over with new books.

Sometimes you need to start fresh with a new QuickBooks Online company. If you're a new customer, you can purge your data and start over. If you've used QuickBooks for a while, you need to create a new company.



Start over in QuickBooks Online

Before you get started:

  • Make sure you're signed in to QuickBooks Online as an admin.
  • These steps help you delete the data for one QuickBooks Online company. If you need to delete all or some of your Intuit data, find out more about managing data or check out our privacy centre.
  • Data imported from QuickBooks Time will also be purged during this process.
  • To reuse your current lists after starting over, find out more about moving your lists to a new company.
  • If you have QuickBooks Online Accountant, don't use these steps. Instead, import a blank QuickBooks Desktop file to start over.

Important information for QuickBooks Online for Accountants

If you're using QuickBooks Online for Accountants, don't follow this process for your own firm’s books. It could cause irreversible damage.

QuickBooks Online Subscriptions under wholesale billing or bill my client are not eligible for purge and are non-transferable.  Please refer to the promotional offer terms and conditions.



Your next steps depend on your subscription level, and whether you've been using QuickBooks for longer than 60 days.



Tip: If you’re not sure how old your company is, sign in to QuickBooks Online. Then, refresh this page for personalized steps.

If your account has been active for more than 60 days, you can't delete the data. Instead, you have to cancel your subscription, then start a new subscription.

Cancel your subscription

Follow these steps to cancel your account. If you have payroll, cancel your payroll subscription too.

Start a new account

Visit the QuickBooks homepage and sign up for a new account. You can use the same user ID and password that you did previously.

  1. Sign up for QuickBooks Online.
    Note: Find out more about the available pricing plans.
  2. Enter your user ID and password. You can use the same user ID and password as before.

This is for QuickBooks Online Advanced, Plus, Essentials, or EasyStart users only.

Warning:This process will delete all data in the company file. Once you delete it, you can’t restore it.
  1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online Company.
  2. Once you're signed in, open this link. Alternatively, you can change the URL to include /purgecompany
    Example: Change https://app.qbo.intuit.com/app/homepage to https://app.qbo.intuit.com/app/purgecompany
  3. The next screen will provide a summary of the items to delete. Type YES to delete the data, then select OK.

Things to know:

  1. If the industry you want to use is different than the one showing, feel free to change it.
  2. Mark whether you would like the system to create accounts based on your industry or start with an empty chart of accounts.
  3. Once your selections are complete, select Wipe Data. When the deletion is complete, you will be rerouted to your homepage.


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