Delete or make a customer inactive in QuickBooks Online

Make a customer inactive to remove them from your active lists while preserving their transaction history for reporting. In QuickBooks Online, "deleting" a customer is the same as making them inactive.

Overview

You cannot permanently delete a customer profile if there are transactions associated with it. Instead, QuickBooks makes the profile inactive. This hides the customer from your lists and menus but keeps their data available in reports.

Important:

• Sub-customers: If you make a parent customer inactive, all sub-customers also become inactive.
• Projects: You cannot make a customer inactive if they have linked projects. You must delete the projects first.
• Transactions: Transactions for inactive customers appear in reports with "Name (deleted)" next to the customer.

Delete or make a customer inactive

You can remove customers individually or in batches.

Delete a single customer

1. Go to All apps , select Customer Hub, then select Customers & leads (Take me there).
2. Select the name of the customer you want to remove.
3. Select the Edit ▼ dropdown.
4. Select Make inactive, then select Yes, make inactive to confirm.

Delete multiple customers

1. Go to All apps , select Customer Hub, then select Customers & leads (Take me there).
2. Select the checkbox next to each customer you want to remove.
3. Select the Batch actions ▼ dropdown.
4. Select Make inactive.
5. Select Yes to confirm.

Restore an inactive customer

If you need to work with a deleted customer again, you can reactivate their profile.

1. Go to All apps , select Customer Hub, then select Customers & leads (Take me there).
2. Select the Settings ⚙ icon above the list.
3. Select the Include inactive checkbox.
4. Find the customer you want to restore.
5. In the Action column, select Make active.