How do I reactivate an account into my Chart of Accounts?

Go to the gear icon within your chart of accounts list and select the box to "include inactive", then make the inactive account active again

Welcome to the Community, connie-barber. I can show you how to reactive an account in your Chart of Accounts.

Here's how an account can be reactivated with just a few clicks in QuickBooks Online:

1. Click Accounting on the left navigation menu and choose Chart of Accounts.
2. Select the small Gear icon above the Action column and choose Include inactive.
3. Click Make active next to the inactive account.

I've included a brief video to serve as an example of this:

I recommend the following article for additional insight into this process, such as what happens when an account is made inactive: How to Delete an Account or Restore a Deleted Account.

As always, I'm just a quick post away if you should need anything. Hope you have a good weekend. 

I need to reactivate several inactive accounts, but I don't have/see a gear icon to accomplish that. I have tried right clicking with no option for activate either. I'm using QB Desktop Pro 2020. Please help me. 

Please help, I need to reactivate several inactive accounts too. I'm using QB Desktop Pro 2020 and don't see a gear icon or any option to reactivate any account. 

I've tried right clicking with no option there either. 

Thanks for joining the thread, @oldgreygrammy. Thanks for the details. I'm here to lend a hand. 

The steps provided by my colleague @David-212915 is for QuickBooks Online. That is why you're unable to see a gear icon. 

In QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT), to make the inactive account active again, follow the below steps:

1. Click Lists at the top menu bar.
2. Choose Chart of Accounts.
3. At the bottom, click the drop-down arrow.
4. Select Show Inactive Accounts.
5. Hit the X mark beside the inactive accounts. This will make the account active again.

To learn more about how Chart of accounts works in QBDT, you may find this article interesting: Understand the chart of accounts in QuickBooks. 

If you have any other questions, leave a comment below. I’m more than happy to help. Have a good one!

Thanks for the tips, but when I hit the X as you said, it takes me to the register for that account. And in the option to edit the account, the "account is inactive" is grey. 

BTW the accounts I need are all Bank Type. Could that be a problem?

Hi @oldgreygrammy,

Thank you for following the steps provided by my colleague.
 

The reason why the Show Inactive Accounts option is grayed out because you don't have any inactive accounts in your Chart of Accounts.

Let me show you through the screenshots below.

For more information about the chart of accounts, refer to this link: Chart of Accounts.

Please let me know if you have other concerns. I'm just a post away. Have an awesome day.

hi. i found my inactive account but the make my account active is not available when i right click OR when I click on the x next to that account. How can I reactivate?

Thanks!

Thanks for getting back to us, lisaschooks.

Based on your screenshot, it seems that we need to check the condition of your company file. This would help us verify whether is a data or program issue.

Before we do any of the troubleshooting steps, I'd recommend updating QuickBooks to the latest release. This would fix any minor program issues. 

After that, we can do the Verify and Rebuild process. This would identify the damaged components on your company file and fix it.

Please let us know how this goes so we can further review it. Any additional details can add as you go with the process would be much appreciated. 

I'm so tired of finding instructions that don't work!

Another ridiculous suggestion. 

Did you ever figure this out?? It just happened to me! The "make account ACTIVE" is greyed out.  I have never in 12+ years seen this.  I'm stressing! Thanks!

this does not fix it.  Why is the option to "make account active" greyed out.  additionally it made account inactive that I had active and now is locked!!!

Thanks for joining this thread, dramirez.
 

I appreciate that you've attempted my colleague's process for reactivating your account. Since the Make Account Active option is greyed out, you'll want to perform JamesDuanT's troubleshooting steps.
 

If that doesn't resolve the issue, I'd recommend getting in touch with our Customer Care Team. They'll be able to pull up your account in a secure environment, conduct further research, and create an investigation ticket if necessary.
 

They can be reached while you're signed in.
 

Here's how:

1. In your top menu bar, go to Help, then QuickBooks Desktop Help.
2. Click Contact Us.
   
3. Enter a brief description of the issue in our Ask a question (or tell us what's wrong) field.
   
4. Hit Continue.
   
5. Select We’ll contact you for a callback or Message Us to start an instant messaging session.

Be sure to review their support hours so you'll know when agents are available.
 

Please feel more than welcome in sending a reply if there's any questions. Enjoy the rest of your day!

I just had this happen to me.  The account I was trying to reactivate was a sub account of another that was inactive.  You can activate the master account or you can edit the account you are trying to reactivate and change it so that it is not a sub account.  From there, you should be able to reactivate

I have tried every direction to reactivate an account and the reactivate button is dim and won't work.  I'm not sure how I made an account inactive that I use but it happened and I need to reverse the problem.

Thanks for joining in the thread, Ora Rae.

I appreciate the time you spent reactivating an account in your Chart of Accounts. I'm here to share additional steps so you can reactivate it again.

This thread already provides the steps to reactivate an inactive accounts for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop users. You should be able to activate it again without any issues. Let's go through some troubleshooting procedures to determine what's causing this.

Please update to the latest release if you're using QuickBooks Desktop. Then, let's repair the QuickBooks Desktop application. This will help us determine if it's an issue with your company file or the QuickBooks software. I'll show you how.

1. Restart your computer.
2. Open the Windows Start menu, then click Control Panel.
3. Select Programs and Features, then Uninstall a Program.
4. Choose QuickBooks from the list of programs, then click Uninstall/Change.
5. Select Continue, or Next.
6. Click Repair, then Next.
7. Once it's done, hit Finish.

Once done, you can also run the Verify and Rebuild data to ensure your company file is free from any data damage.

If you're using QuickBooks Online, you can do some browser troubleshooting procedures to fix it. Let's start with accessing your account using an incognito window. This mode help since it doesn't store any cache data that causes unexpected behavior in the software. Here are the shortcut keys:

• For Google Chrome browser: Ctrl + Shift + N
• For Mozilla Firefox browser: Ctrl + Shift + P
• For Safari browser: Command + Shift + N

Switch back to your regular browser and clear the cache if it works. The process will aid the browser in obtaining the most recent version of the webpage, resulting in a better browsing experience. Alternatively, you can use different supported browsers.

I'm adding the following articles below to help you manage your chart of accounts:

• Make an account inactive on your chart of accounts in QuickBooks Online
• Learn about the chart of accounts in QuickBooks Desktop

Should you need additional help managing your chart of accounts? You can reply to this post, and I'll get back as soon as possible.