Can I delete all custom fields which are inactive?

Thanks for checking in with us, Dony.

If you'll want to delete the custom fields in an invoice, then that option is unavailable. However, you can remove them from your invoice. 

Here's how:

1. Open or create an invoice.
2. Tick the Gear icon beside the Help menu.
3. Uncheck the custom fields you want to remove in your invoice.

If you need to remove custom fields on the other sales forms, we can go to the Custom form styles page.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Gear icon on the top menu.
2. Choose Custom form styles under Your Company.
3. Tick Edit on the form template you want to change.
4. Tap Content.
5. Select the Header part in the sample form.
6. Under Display, click the Custom field link.
7. Remove the checkmark on it.
8. Press Done. 

For more details about customizing your sales forms, check out this article: Customize invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online.

I have a link here that provides you with articles about managing your customer transactions: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/sales-and-customers/07?product=QuickBooks%20Online.

Fill me in if you need a hand with creating recurring transactions. I'll be here to help. Have a great day ahead.

Hi RCV,

             thank you for sharing knowledge. But I want to delete these custom fields permanently from QBO not only from Sales or invoice.

   let me fill you in why do I need that. I am trying to push PO information from one other software and I am using  QB API for that. there are some custom fields which I would like to fill and send it through API. but currently I am getting all those inactive fields which I am not using when I try to access custom fields using API. 

    https://blogs.intuit.com/blog/2019/04/08/enhanced-custom-fields-quickbooks-online-advanced/

here is the explaination for this.

So I was thinking If I would delete all fields which I am not using anymore, API would give me all active which I want to push using API.

  I am sure it is confusing do let me know if you need some more explanation in this.

Dony(D) 

Hi RCV,

         thank you for sharing knowledge. I am sure this would help if I don't want to show custom field into Invocie or sales.

  I want to push data into custom fields using API. When I am trying to access custom fields using API, I am getting only 3 custom fields irrespective of their status(active or inactive). I want active custom fields, so that I can push values in those custom fields using API.

I found this article :https://blogs.intuit.com/blog/2019/04/08/enhanced-custom-fields-quickbooks-online-advanced/

which clearly mention that QB has limitation. 

I am not using all my inactive custom fields anywhere nor I have used them in past I created those only for testing purpose. now I want to delete them so that I can use new custom fields.

I am sure, I can't do it from UI or API. I wondering if QBO team  can do it from backend and clean all custom fields for me.

is it possible?

I have the same question.  Trying to change a sales form custom field from txt to drop down, but this is not an option.  Wanted to delete the custom field entirely and start over.  NO DELETE CUSTOM FIELDS option. 

K

This is an absolute must-have feature and a glaring oversight in this product. There is no warning or other indication that custom fields become PERMANENT. Why can we not remove a custom field? It makes absolutely no sense.

So far we know about Custom Fields, and now I realize that Product Records also cannot be purged (they can be made inactive, but no way to remove them from the system, even if they were never referenced in any invoice)!

What other elements in QBO are PERMANENT (cannot be deleted)?

Same question here!

This is a very significant limitation of this product. Certainly we should be able to remove custom fields - why must these be permanent? What if you make a mistake? Now you must live with this for the life of the product?

This is ridiculous and absolutely must be addressed.

I appreciate your input from every angle, @Mister Clean.

As mentioned by my colleague @RCV, able to delete custom fields is unavailable. As a workaround, you can utilize the inactive field and edit it so you can use. For detailed steps, you can follow the steps provided above by @RCV.

I can see how the features you're looking for would benefit and empower your business. In the meantime, I recommend sending this request straight to our product engineers through feedback. Sharing features and options that you would like implemented is how our engineers look for new product updates.

To send feedback, follow the below steps:

1. Go to the Gear icon at the top.
2. Select Feedback.
3. Enter your comments or product suggestions. 
4. Then select Next to submit feedback.

You may also visit our Feedback forum page. From there, you can see a list of other QuickBooks users who already suggested this feature, as well as the recent updates in QuickBooks.

To know more on how you can customize your sales forms, here's an article that you can check: Customize invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online.

If you need anything else, please let me know. I want to help in any way I can.

Has anyone come up with any way to do this? I have a customer who has a number of old custom fields they don't use anymore. These old fields are blocking our application from retrieving the new custom fields through the API.

Allow me to chime in and provide updates regarding removing custom fields from QuickBooks, @jerrym.

I looked through our reports and blogs about deleting the old custom field, but it is still unavailable. I understand how that feature would be beneficial and enable your business. With this, I'd recommend sending follow-up feedback to our product creators. Thus, they will notify and review your suggestions to consider adding them in future releases.

Proceed to:

1. Go to the Gear icon on the upper right hand. 
2. Select the Feedback button. 
3. Type your suggestions in the field and click Next. 

The company listens to its customer base, which is why many of the program's current features were suggestions from QuickBooks' users. The company wants to hear from you, too, so check out its website to vote on future ideas: Customer Feedback for QuickBooks.

Also, to further guide you in managing your QuickBooks account and business's growth using QuickBooks, I'd recommend checking out one of our Help pages: QuickBooks Support Website. It includes help articles, Community discussions with other users, and video tutorials, to name a few.

I'd be delighted to show you around QuickBooks once more. Please let me know if you have any further questions about QuickBooks. I'd be happy to assist. Be safe always.

Following this thread, as we too need to delete several Custom Fields, as our API only allows coding to the first 3 ever created Custom Fields. 

We also need the ability to edit the Category, however it is "greyed-out" and un-editable. 

Hi, JennCA. I'll point you in the right direction to address your custom field concerns using QuickBooks Online (QBO) concern right away.

I understand how this option would help you to run the program smoothly. 

I suggest contacting our Intuit Developer support. They are the experts when it comes to integrating applications or any API concerns.

 Here's how:

1. Go to this link: https://help.developer.intuit.com/s/.
2. Choose QuickBooks Online under What do you need help with?
3. Click Ask a Question.
4. Log into your existing Intuit Developer Account or create a new one.
5. Enter your concern.
6. Click Ask.

Additionally, here's an article that will guide you on how to delete the custom field value on a transaction in QuickBooks Online API: Manage custom fields.

Stay in touch with me if you need more help in handling your custom fields. Have a great rest of the day. 

This is one of the most unbelievable limitations I've ever run across in integrating APIs. 

There's still no update on plans to improve this awful situation?

This is one of the most unbelievable limitations I've ever come across in my decades of API integration. 

I assume plenty of feedback has been submitted. I just can't even fathom how this is still a thing. My mind is blown.

Has this been resolved yet? I am running into the same issue

Deleting inactive custom fields is still not an option in QuickBooks Online (QBO), aziegl02. I'll provide more details about this and encourage you to send feedback or product recommendations to help improve the features and your experience with the platform.

If you inactivate a custom field, it'll only appear on your old forms but not the new ones. We acknowledge the importance of deleting the unused fields, but this capability isn't yet available. Our product engineers continuously seek to fulfill our customer's needs, and your input is vital in deciding which features will be included in upcoming updates. To do this, here's how:

1. Go to the Gear icon.
2. Select Feedback.
3. Type in your recommendation in the Share your feedback field.
4. Click Next.

You can also visit our QuickBooks Online Feature Requests page to track the status of your submitted feedback.

Additionally, you can pull up the Transaction Detail by Account report to show a list of invoices due on a specific date range. Please see this article for the complete guide: Customize report to see invoices due in QuickBooks Online.

We appreciate your patience while we work on this. Feel free to get back to this thread if you have other feature concerns or questions about custom fields in QuickBooks. I'd be more than happy to help.

As an updated, this feature is still not available, which could be a limiting factor in generating reports with inactive fields in the way, unfortunately.