Trying to deactivate old clients with completed projects.

Hi @CorvusC,

Welcome to the Intuit Community and thanks for reaching out for support! Having the ability to make a customer inactive is a great way to stay organized and tidy your books. QuickBooks Online is a great tool that's able to show you the balance owed to you by your customers for invoices that you've sent them. I'd be happy to help!

To make a customer inactive follow these steps:

1. From the left navigation bar > select Sales and then Customers

2. Checkbox the customer you'd like to make Inactive

3. Click the drop-down arrow in the Action column and hit Make Inactive

For multiple customers;

1. Checkbox all customers you want to make inactive

2. From the  Batch Actions tab, hit the drop-down arrow choose Make Inactive

You're all set!

If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to reach back out.  We'd love to assist!

Thank you for your quick response, however I feel you might have missed the main part of my question. 

I know how to deactivate clients, and am unable to. 

Based on the info you've shared, I see you benefiting more by contacting our support team outside of the Community. This ensures that your account info remains private and secure. A specialist will also be able to share your screen and help you further with this. You can reach out to our support team by dialing 1-855-253-1536. To find out more about our hours and other contact methods, please follow this link here: Contact QuickBooks Online Support. 

Feel free to keep me posted on how you make out. I'll be here.

This worked for me.

In QuickBooks Online, you can't directly deactivate (make inactive) a customer if they have any associated projects — even if those projects are completed, canceled, or have no active transactions. QuickBooks treats any linked project as a blocker to prevent accidental data loss.

To deactivate old clients with completed projects, follow these steps:

Step 1: Delete the Associated Projects

Deleting projects does not delete the underlying transactions (invoices, expenses, time entries, etc.) — they remain in your books and reports.

1. Go to the left menu and select Projects (if you don't see this, ensure the Projects feature is turned on in Settings > Account and settings > Advanced > Projects).
2. Locate the completed project(s) linked to the customer.
3. In the Action column (or dropdown), select Delete.
   • If the project won't delete (e.g., due to linked time entries), resolve any remaining links first (e.g., unbillable time or open items).
   • You can recover deleted projects later if needed: Click the gear icon at the top right of the Projects page > select Show deleted projects > find the project > choose Undelete and set the status (e.g., Completed).

Repeat for all projects tied to the customer.