Anonymise customer, supplier, or employee data in QuickBooks

Under GDPR, individuals have the right to be forgotten. If your customer, supplier, or employee wants to be deleted from your QuickBooks, there are a couple of things to consider:

• You may have legal or business reasons to retain some or all of your records. You should consider consulting an expert to determine what records should be retained or what should be deleted.
• If you still think that deletion is the right decision for your business, we have instructions on how to manually overwrite data in your QuickBooks account.

Note: The QuickBooks Audit Log may retain trace amounts of personal information stored in log files and logging data. The audit log is not editable in case it’s needed for audit purposes.

For QuickBooks Online

Customers

1. Go to Sales and select Customers (Take me there).
2. Select the desired customer.
3. To change the customer's info, select Edit at the top.
4. Replace their name with a unique name (e.g. DeletedCustomer1, DeletedCustomer2, etc.). We do not recommend merging anonymous customers together. Replace their personal information (e.g. Main Phone, Mobile, Address Details etc.) with anything you want.
5. Select Save.

Suppliers

1. Go to Expenses and select Suppliers (Take me there).
2. Select the desired supplier.
3. To change their info, select Edit at the top.
4. Replace their name with a unique name (e.g. DeletedSupplier1, DeletedSupplier2, etc.). We do not recommend merging anonymous suppliers together. Replace their information (e.g. Main Phone, Mobile, Address Details etc.) with anything you want.
5. Select Save.

Employees

1. Go to Payroll and select Employees (Take me there).
2. Select the desired employee.
3. If the employee has never been paid, scroll to the bottom of the page, then choose Delete this employee.
4. Otherwise:
   1. Go to Personal details and erase the data from there.
   2. In Tax Information, remove the NI number.
   3. Edit the rest of the info.

For QuickBooks Online Accountant

Customers

1. Go to Sales and select the Customers tab.
2. Select the desired customer.
3. To change the customer's info, select Edit at the top.
4. Replace their name with a unique name (e.g. DeletedCustomer1, DeletedCustomer2, etc.). We do not recommend merging anonymous customers together. Replace their personal information (e.g. Main Phone, Mobile, Address Details etc.) with anything you want.
5. Select Save.

Suppliers

1. Go to Expenses and select the Suppliers tab.
2. Select the desired supplier.
3. To change their info, select Edit at the top.
4. Replace their name with a unique name (e.g. DeletedSupplier1, DeletedSupplier2, etc.). We do not recommend merging anonymous suppliers together. Replace their information (e.g. Main Phone, Mobile, Address Details etc.) with anything you want.
5. Select Save.

Employees

1. Go to the Employees or Payroll menu, then choose the desired employee.
2. If the employee has never been paid, scroll to the bottom of the page, then choose Delete this employee.
3. Otherwise:
   1. Go to Personal details and erase the data from there.
   2. In Tax Information, remove the NI number.
   3. Edit the rest of the info.

Limitations:

• Payslips and Leaver and Year-End Forms will remain for this employee and cannot be removed or anonymised.
• Some historical data will not be available to anonymise, for instance historical absences, pay history for prior years, older tax information.
• RTI Submissions and Pension reports will continue to include data for these employees.

As an employer, you may have an obligation to keep these records and the limitations may not be a problem. Learn more about UK records management.

For QuickBooks Self-Employed

If your invoices are not paid

1. Go to Invoices.
2. Find the invoice for the desired client.
3. Select the dropdown in the Action column, then choose Edit.
4. Replace their name with a unique name (e.g. DeletedClient1, DeletedClient2, etc.). Replace their personal information (e.g. Email Address, Address Details etc.) with anything you want.
5. Select Save as draft.

If your invoices are paid

1. Go to Invoices.
2. Look for the invoice for the desired client.
3. Select the dropdown in the Action column, then choose Mark as unpaid. This will change the status of the invoice to Unpaid.
4. Select the dropdown in the Action column, then choose Edit.
5. Replace their name with a unique name (e.g. DeletedClient1, DeletedClient2, etc.). Replace their personal information (e.g. Email Address, Address Details etc.) with anything you want.
6. Select Save as draft.
7. To mark the invoice as paid again, select Send invoice in the Action column, then Mark as paid.
   

Please note that original details might still be available in Audit Trail if there are any old transactions for the customer/supplier/employee.