Clearing Old Accounts Payable

Hello nc13,

Cleaning up your accounts and eliminating unnecessary entries can be a great way to keep your books organized. QuickBooks Online makes staying organized fun, with lots of ways to record transactions and straightforward processes for tasks like reconciliation and filing your taxes. It's important that you take the correct steps when dealing with journal entries and clearing accounts, so I'd like to point you in the right direction.

Since the journal entry in question is from 2017, it's likely that it's been included as a part of a reconciliation or tax filing, not to mention that your books may have been closed for that period. Deleting older entries like these can cause issues that roll over into current reconciliations, and result in additional adjusting entries.

You also indicated that this entry is a opening balance entry, in which case it was created to represent the starting point for the account, summarizing all past transactions. It's possible that the entry was created at a time when there was an open balance for this supplier. 

To make sure that you're taking the appropriate steps and that you understand the implications of clearing this entry, my recommendation is to reach out to an accounting professional. They'll be able to guide you on the best practices for your business, and explain the purpose of specific journal entries. If you're already working with an accountant it's easy to invite them to work on your books with you. Just access the My Accountant tab, then enter their email address and hit Invite.

If you don't have an accountant just yet, the Find a pro to help button will be a great resource. It'll take you to our database of QuickBooks-certified accountants that are located all across the country. Take a look through to find one in your area that best fits your business. 

I'm confident that with the help of an accounting professional, you'll have things sorted out in no time.