Quickbooks, Bookkeeping and Accounting Blog

The most common reason to edit an account in the QuickBooks chart of accounts is to reorganize the chart of accounts by changing the account number or account name, or to make an account a subaccount of another account.

Start by opening the chart of accounts. Then click Account and select Edit Account.

Then make the necessary changes in the Edit Account window and click Save & Close.

Finally, a quick note on using subaccounts in QuickBooks: QuickBooks subaccounts are a great way to get more detail on a specific income, expense or balance sheet category in an organized way. However, it is important to note that if you use a lot of subaccounts, you will find that basic reports can become much harder to read. When you add a subaccount, the QuickBooks reports will show the parent account, each subaccount, and then a total for the parent account. As a result, the reports get much longer. When a company starts using lots of subaccounts, I often recommend exporting reports from QuickBooks to Excel and then modifying them for budget and other review meetings, rather than just printing the reports from QuickBooks.