Your confusion ends here, @Questioner22.

Allow me to fill you in on everything you need to know about deleting inventory items in QuickBooks Online.

Though deleting the inventory items isn't an option, making them inactive is just the same way. It doesn't delete the item, but you can no longer use it on any activities/transactions. For more information, you can check out this article: Delete a product or service item.

Soon, you might also want to adjust your inventory quantity on hand in QuickBooks Online. This article will guide you through the process: Adjust inventory quantity on hand in QuickBooks Online.

Please let me know if you need clarification about inactivating items, or there's anything else I can do for you. I'll be standing by for your response. 

@Questioner22 

Utilize a 3rd party tool to delete list items with no history. You can only delete list items (accounts, customers, items, and vendors) if no history exists for the list item.

https://transactionpro.grsm.io/qbo

QuickBooks is an accounting system so you can't just delete an asset like inventory.  Every asset on your balance sheet has an offsetting asset, liability or equity amount.  That is why QuickBooks (and Sage) will not allow you to simply delete inventory that has either an opening balance or history, nor should there be, or you would be doing improper accounting.  Deleting inventory is no different than trying to delete a bank account with a balance. 

Can we please get some kind of feature built-in to delete all inventory or at least bulk change the inventory type from "non-inventory" to "inventory". This is simple functionality that should be available, especially at these prices. I don't need Quickbooks to save me from myself - I just need a program that will do what I want it to and not continue to be a huge waste of my time. 

I appreciate your input from every angle, Caufields.

As mentioned by my colleagues above, the option to delete an inventory item is not an option. However, you can make them inactive. To do so, let me show you how:

1. In the left menu, click Sales.
2. Go to the Product and services tab.
3. Mark the items you'd like to change.
4. Click the Batch actions drop-down.
5. Choose Make inactive.
6. Click Yes to complete the action.

For more details, here's an article that you can check: Delete a product or service item.

As for your other concern which is to bulk change non-inventory items to inventory, it's unavailable since you can only do it one at a time. In the meantime, you can consider making the non-inventory items inactive, then, import the inventory items. This way, you'll do it in bulk. For more details about this, see this resource: Import products and services into QuickBooks Online.

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.

You can always add a comment below if you have any other questions. I'm always here to help. Have a great day.

I have a workaround?  You can't delete items, but you can rename and merge them.  This is how I cleaned up a chart of accounts for a client.  They had 8 pages of accounts, now they have 1 1/2 pages.  You do need to be careful in doing this as you don't want to merge accounts that are not alike...maybe same with items?

I can understand not being able to delete Inventory items, but what about non-inventory and service products that have no transaction history?  Somehow I have thousands of them now, and can't do a thing to clean them up.

Meinkauf,

In my case, I have far, far more Products than I do Accounts.  I've tried to re-name/re-use inactive Products whenever I can, but it's a losing battle.

As one post mentioned, there's a period of orienting oneself to the software when starting out.  We're not all accountants that are stamping out accounts for one business after another.  And especially coming from other software, things are done differently enough in QBO that it often takes a fair amount of trial and error to get things right.  

I learned early on to avoid making a Product an Inventory one if I wanted to be able to ever change it, but not to be able to fully delete non-inventory and service products that I've never used is just ridiculous.  I can understand that once a product is intertwined with other entries, it would be risky to try to remove it. But if there is just an entry (a product) sitting there, not ever having been used for anything, it seems ridiculous that removing it would take down the rest of the system.  

Or is QBO saying that one a Product entry is even linked to an account (as it has to be to even be able to save it), it is irretrievably bound to that account?  I'd like to hear the QBO perspective on this.  Or is it simply that with over 4 years of users requesting this, it just isn't as important as adding new, less-than-useful,  features.

Dec 2022 and still no resolution to this problem.  Geez quickbooks.. what the heck is the problem?

I can tell you that QBO does not listen to their base. For an engineering company that has multiple pieces and model numbers changing ever so slightly, it's a never ending nightmare.  QBO engineers only for their own profitable desires to figure out how to charge more. Just like ACH payments. ACH doesn't cost them a dime. Yet they burn their base for it starting back in April of 21.

This request to delete removed or redundant inventory items has been out there for over a decade and they simply state no. If they had one decent programming engineer they could easily resolve this dilemma. They give no reason for the inability to delete items that are no longer in existence or repetitive. However, if you could show how they could make a dime out of it they would complete the task tomorrow. Maybe its time to look for accounting systems that are inventory friendly.

Inventory management features are very complex. You can switch to another accounting application but you still need an inventory management add-on or an additional app to integrate with the accounting app. Unless you are ready to use an ERP-class accounting application.

They are only as complicated as you make them and refuse to fix them. I spend more time trying to figure out how messed up the QBO system is. QBO is supposed to take out complexity and not compound it. They are excellent at compounding complexities. 

Just about four years later. Can we still not completely delete inventory items? Yes, I already know I can make them inactive and how to do it.

Hi, hautecreations. I understand that completely deleting inventory items would be beneficial to your business.

Note that we're always looking for ways to make your experience with QuickBooks more convenient. I would appreciate it if you share your ideas with our product engineers again on this matter. Your suggestions help them build features that might be added in future product enhancements.

Here's how:

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

You can also visit our QuickBooks Online guide to access our self-help articles for other tasks in the future.

Please know that you can always get back to this thread if you have other questions or concerns about managing your inventories in QBO. I'll be around to provide the information you need. Keep safe!

Before I submit feedback in pos. I wanted to ask if there is a way to mass delete a specific vendor and/or department?

Hello there, @ssmotorsports.

At this time, QuickBooks Point of Sale doesn't have the option to delete multiple vendors or departments at once.

I understand that having this option can help save you time. While this option isn't available, I suggest deleting the vendors or departments one at a time.

For now, I suggest submitting feedback directly to our product engineers. They may look into this suggestion further and consider adding this option in future updates.

To submit feedback, you can follow the steps below:

1. Open your QuickBooks Desktop Point of Sale.
2. Go to the Help menu, then select Send Feedback.
3. Enter your suggestion and submit your feedback.

You may also want to learn about store exchange in QuickBooks Point of Sale. This article will help you manage it: Store Exchange Overview.

Come back to this post if you have other concerns or follow-up questions about deleting vendors and departments. I'll be around to provide further assistance.

This reply literally has nothing to do with my original question. Over a year later and there is still no way to delete unused inventory products.

I run accounts of 137 clients and my clients pay thousands of dollars to QB. We are going to switch to a better software. Their team are bunch of robots. Here are the problems that will cause the downfall of QB in near future:

1. You cant delete inventory items.
2. There is no harmony in software. You change filters and software flickers and mains screen dances.
3. Unlike SAP their data base takes so much time to incorporate changes.
4. Worst ever engineers on this planet who have made this cheap and useless software.
5. I am going to start a campaign and end all the subscriptions of my clients.
Also I am going to highly discourage my future clients and many consultants like me to instantly un subscribe from QB.

Very very bad software.
unskilled software engineers.
The are going to be next nokia in accounting software.

our suppliers have changed inventory products several times. I can no longer add new inventory. Desktop version how do I COMPLETELY DELETE IT?

Desktop. Our suppliers have changed their inventory several times. It's loading my inventory as unaddable.

How do I delete several hundred items to make room for the new items?

making them inactive does not free up any space

used QB since 2009. Have almost 15000 items. Can no longer add any. Suppliers changed products and numbers. Making inventory useless and QB obsolete.

Inventory balance is zero but it has a past history since 2009. So no new items can be added. old items are inactive but it doesn't free up any space. QB is junk on inventory reporting.

Hello there, @AbsAuto48659.

I completely understand that it can be challenging to manage your inventory when you need to delete past items. Although, we currently only offer the option to mark items as inactive instead of deleting them, please know that we always appreciate your suggestions to help improve our services to everyone. I recommend sending feedback directly to our product engineers to add your vote on this option. 

Here's how:

1. Click the Settings or the gear icon.
2. Under the PROFILE column, select Feedback.
3. Enter your feedback and click Submit.

We're always looking for ways to improve our service, and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention.

You can also learn how to adjust your inventory quantity in QuickBooks Desktop.

Please feel free to leave a reply below if you have additional concerns about deleting your past items in QuickBooks Desktop. We're always here to assist you.