How to delete customer record?

I'd be glad to help you delete a customer record in QuickBooks Online, chris@optionalth. 

To get started, we need to inactivate the customer profile to hide them from lists and menus.

Here's how:

1. Select the Sales menu.
2. Choose the Customers tab.
3. Click the customer's name to open their profile.
4. Choose the Edit button.
   
   
5. Select Make inactive and Yes to confirm.
   
   

Once done, you'll see the word Deleted beside the name and the transaction of the customer. 

Then, you can start to void or delete the records that are linked to the customer you deleted. In most cases, it's best to void a transaction rather than delete it. That way, the transaction will not affect your account balances or reports, but you always have a record of it. On the other hand, if you wish to delete a transaction, you completely erase it from your books. It won't also appear anywhere on your reports or in your accounts. 

To do this, here's how:

1. Go to the Sales or Expenses menu.
2. Locate and open the transaction.
3. Evaluate the transaction. 
4. Choose the More option in the footer.
5. Then select Void or Delete.
6. Lastly, click Yes to confirm.
   
   

For more insights, you can also review this article: Void or delete transactions in QuickBooks Online.
 

There you have it! You may also want to check out this resource to help you manage your customers in QuickBooks Online: How to add, delete, merge, and restore a customer.

Please let me know how it goes or if I can be of additional assistance. I'm only a post away to assist you always. Enjoy your weekend!

Hi Rubielyn_J (QuickBooks Team),

I appreciate and tried your answer, unfortunately I must not have the right subscription. I have QB Online Simple Start.  I have activated, deactivated, activated, etc. several times and do not see a DELETE button.  I've only had the account a couple months and entered those customers as "samples" to test drive QB. I was told anything I entered could be deleted.  Ugh, this does not make me feel comfortable with inputting real time information, if it can't be changed.  Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

Hi, chris@optionalth.

To delete all your customers in QuickBooks Online (QBO), all you need to do is to make them inactive. Please note that when you delete customers in QuickBooks, the transactions associated with them remain in your company data Reports. There are two ways on how to delete a customer.

Option 1:

1. Go to the Sales menu at the left panel, then pick the Customers tab.
2. Choose a customer, then on the Customer Details tab, click Edit.
3. Select Make inactive at the button, then Yes to confirm the deletion.

Option 2:

1. Go back to the Customers tab, then put a checkmark on the box beside the customer's name.
2. Click the Batch actions drop-down, then choose to make inactive.
3. Select Yes to confirm the deletion.

Once done, inactive customers won't show up again on any search. These instructions are also available from our guide on managing customers in QuickBooks Online.

if the issue persists, let's access your account using a private browser or an incognito browser. This way, we can isolate this concern for a possible browser-related. Here are the keyboard shortcuts that you can use:

• Google Chrome: Ctrl + Shift + N
• Mozilla Firefox: Ctrl + Shift + P
• Microsoft Edge: Ctrl + Shift + P
• Safari: Command + Shift + N

If you were able to delete it, you can go back to your regular browser and clear its cache. Also, you can try other supported browsers to help narrow down the cause of this behavior.

There you have it! You may also check out this article for more information: How to add, delete, merge, and restore a customer.

Keep me posted in the comments down below if you have any other questions. I'll be happy to help.

So, there is no way to actually Delete a customer from QB, they can only be Deactivated?  Is there another QB platform I can use to actually Delete them?  Compared to other products available, this is very rudimentary.  

Thanks for getting back here, chris@optionalth.

For now, we can only make a customer inactive. This helps QuickBooks to keep track of the names associated with the sales transactions recorded. 

While deleting a customer permanently is unavailable, you'll want to uncheck the Include inactive option in the Customer List page. Doing so will not display the inactive customers.

Here's a sample screenshot where to locate the option:

To exclude inactive customers when running reports, you can click the Customize button to filter them. The steps are included in this link: Customize reports in QuickBooks Online. 

In addition, you can send feedback to our product developers. They'll review this idea and might consider updating it in the future.

You can follow these steps to send feedback:

1. Go to the Gear located at the top.
2. Under Profile, click Feedback.

If you want to check the status of your request, you can click this link: Customer Feedback for QuickBooks Online.

To learn more about managing your customer list and run different reports in QuickBooks, please check out these articles: 

• How to Add, Edit & Manage Your Customers List
• Reports included in your QuickBooks Online subscription

If you have other questions or concerns, please let us know in your reply below. We'll be happy to help you out again. Take care and stay safe!

Okay, since Customers can't be deleted, can they be merged?  Meaning two customers into one?

I have seven "example" customers with no info in them. Is there a way to merge them into one customer? Without them being "Inactive", actually merged into one?

Yes, @chris@optionalth. You can merge customers' profiles. This deletes a profile and transfers your existing data to your desired profile.

Here's how: 

1. Go to the Sales menu, then click the Customers tab.
2. Select to open the customer profile you don’t want to keep, then select Edit.
3. Enter the name of the customer profile you want to keep in the Display name as field. Make sure that the names match exactly.
4. Select Save.
5. Select Yes when asked if you want to merge the two profiles. 

For further insights, take a looks at this article to learn more about managing customers in QuickBooks. 

Furthermore, visit our Article links to browse some help topics and related concerns you may have in the future. 

Feel free to ask some more of your concerns. We're always around to help you again. Take care!

Hi katherinejoyceO,

I've tried this process several times and they don't merge, they just get renamed with a "-01" at the end.  I start with (7) and end up with (7) with new names.  You seem to know what you are talking about.  is there anyway you can do a share screen or somebody from Tier 2 support?  I'm almost in tears with frustration at this point.  Ugh.

Thanks for coming back with the results, chris@optionalth.

I can only imagine how this challenge affects you. All the above-mentioned steps should help you achieve your goal of deleting customer records. Since those didn't work for you, I'll direct you to the support that can help delete it.

Please do contact our QuickBooks Care team to review the possible causes of this issue and come up with a resolution. 

Here's how:

1. Go to the Help menu at the upper right.
2. Select Contact Us.
3. Enter your concern.
4. Click Let’s talk.
5. Choose Get a callback. 
6. Type in your contact info.
7. Select Confirm my call.

You can check out this article for our most updated contact information: Support hours and types.

You might also want to visit our QuickBooks Online learning guides for tutorials and webinars about the product.

I'm just a post away if you have other questions or concerns with payment processing. I'm always here to lend a hand. Thanks for posting and I wish you have a lovely day ahead.

Why does it say deleted, when in fact it still exists?  If I have a customer with zero transactions, and zero invoices etc.. there is no way to delete them from the system.  As a developer it is some what annoying that I can't simply delete it using the API or in the UI.  I am sure you have your reasons, but for God's sake, change the language to what it really it is - inactive.  No deletion is possible.  Unless I am wrong?

I'll share some information when deleting a customer record, ray3.

You'll want to let our product team know how deleting a customer in QuickBooks Online (QBO) will benefit your business needs. You can go to our Customer Feedback page. Then click the Give feedback option to submit a request. I've added a screenshot for your visual guide:

Furthermore, QBO offers a variety of reports that caters to your business needs. You'll just have to customize them to make sure you'll get the information you need most. Go through this article for more details: Customize Reports in QuickBooks Online.

Please get back to us if you have any questions about deleting the customer or vendor list in QBO. We'll always be right here to help.

Thanks for the links.  Lets be honest, you as a company are not going to fix or address this if I post something in those feedback links.  I mean, there is 11k worth of improvements people want how many of those have actually been implemented?  I am willing to guess not more than 5 per. year which if I put mine on the bottom of the stack I would be waiting for about 2,200 years. 

@ray3 , I have the same frustration as you do.  Such a simple action, could make using QB much less aggravating.  No, they are not going to change it.  They don't have to and as we know money is doing the talking to them.  They may have started as a SB, but we are long forgotten.....

Is there some reason we cannot delete a customer?  I would like to delete a customer, not make it inactive, not merge it.  It is my data, how come I cannot do this?