I have an external checking account in QB, can I delete the QB checking account? It shows a balance in my COA.

It's nice to see you here in the Community, @Citrus54.

Let me help and provide information on how to delete your checking account in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

If you don't plan to use your checking account anymore, you can make it inactive. QuickBooks makes accounts inactive instead of deleting them so you have access to past transaction data for reporting purposes. 

Before making your account inactive, please know of the following:

• You cannot permanently delete an account, except for merging one account into another.
• Making an account inactive doesn't remove its transactions. Transactions associated with any deactivated (deleted) account stay intact.
• You can't edit a transaction associated with an inactive account. To be able to successfully edit/delete the transaction, you must restore the account first, then go to the register and delete the individual entry. After that, analyze the account and correct it to a zero balance before deactivating it.
• Before making a balance sheet account inactive, correct the balance to zero. If the balance is not zero, QuickBooks Online makes an automatic adjustment entry to zero out the non-zero balance of the inactive account. The automatic entry posts to the Opening Balance Equity account, which is the equivalent of posting to previous years. The entry could potentially cause incorrect tax info to be filed.

Also, If you make an account with a balance inactive, QuickBooks creates a journal entry. This moves the remaining balance to another account. Your existing transactions don't disappear and stay on your financial reports. However, if you decide to use the account again, QuickBooks won't move the balance back or change the journal entry.

When you're ready to make an account inactive. Here's how:

1. Go to Settings, and select Chart of Accounts.
2. Find the account you want to delete.
3. Select the Action dropdown and select Make inactive.

For more detailed information, refer to this article: Make an account inactive on your COA.

I'll also add this article to guide you on how to run financial reports of your business: Run reports in QBO.

Don't hesitate to leave a comment below If you have further concerns about making your checking account inactive. I'll be here to further assist you.