Skip to main content
C
COR115
April 4, 2019
Question

Unable to delete acounts in Chart of Accounts. I get: "This account cannot be deleted because it is used by a recurring template or scheduled liability payment."

  • April 4, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views
We recently imported our data from Quicken into QB.  It transfered 650 categories/accounts.  We cannot bulk delete them and many have transactions tied to them from them 20 years ago.  Is there a way to archive or delete old data and accounts?

1 reply

PreciousB
PreciousB
April 5, 2019

Welcome to the Community and thanks for choosing QuickBooks Online (QBO) for your business needs,  COR115.

 

I can share some insights about the error message when deleting an account.

 

First of all, I noticed that you've posted the same question in this thread: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/community/Account-management/Can-t-inactivate-accounts-because-of-recurring-templates-or/m-p/280736#M7038.

 

You can try following the steps given by my colleague. If there are no recurring templates or scheduled liability payments active on the company, it's possible that you are affected by our ongoing issue. Where some QBO users are getting the same error message even if there are no recurring template that uses the account.

 

While the investigation is ongoing, I'd suggest contacting our Customer Contact Care Team, so we can add you to the list of affected users. This way, we can notify you via email about the status of the issue.

 

  1. Select the Help icon in the upper right of the screen.
  2. Choose Contact us on the pop-up. 
  3. Enter a topic in the How can we help? field and choose Continue. 
  4. Click Get our phone number.
  5. Enter your contact information.
  6. Click Call me.

If the Get a callback option isn't showing, you can change it by entering Support in How can we help?.

 

The screenshot below shows these steps.

 

 


The information above should help you get pointed in the right direction. Thank you for your patience while we're working to resolve this. Please let me know if you have other questions about QuickBooks Online.

C
COR115Author
April 6, 2019

I have not received a satisfactory solution.  I cannot make the accounts inactive; there are over 1600 transactions that were made into recurring templates when they were imported.  As a result, there I have 627 accounts that will not delete or make inactive. There is no way to batch select all transactions and delete them.  It is extremely frustrating that the QBO development team hasn't made that a feature.   I also tried deleting or archiving data over 10 years old.  That also does not work.

    JessT
    JessT
    April 8, 2019

     

    I've got the solution for you to delete the accounts you don't need, COR115.

     

    Though you're unable to do this in batch, you can remove the accounts on the recurring transactions or delete those templates one at a time. This will let you inactivate accounts in the Chart of Accounts. If you use them on your items, you'll have to un-assign them or inactivate the items.

    To remove the accounts on the recurring transaction or delete the transaction template:

    1. Click the Gear icon.
    2. Choose Recurring Transactions.
    3. Double click the template name or click Edit.
    4. Remove the line items (accounts) by clicking the Trash icon on the right side.
    5. Click Save.

    To un-assign an account in an item:

    1. Click the Gear icon.
    2. Choose Products and Services.
    3. Edit the item and change the income and expense accounts.
    4. Click Save and close.

    If there's only one account item on a recurring transaction template, you can just delete it.

     

    If there's anything else that we can help, please go back to this thread.

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement