Quickbooks, Bookkeeping and Accounting Blog

I highly recommend making QuickBooks accounts you are no longer using inactive. Doing so reduces the number of accounts available when entering data and thereby simplifies data entry. In addition, contrary to what most people think, the fewer accounts you use (within reason), the more valuable your financial reports are. Looking at a financial report with 100 expense categories is overwhelming, but if there are only 15 expense categories, you can learn something from the report. You might ask for more detail on some of the categories, but it is generally not necessary to have separate accounts to get this extra detail. Also, it is incredibly easy to make inactive accounts active again, so there is no harm in making them inactive.

To make an account inactive, simply open your chart of accounts, select the account you want to make inactive, click Account and then Make Account Inactive (alternatively, right click on the account you want to make inactive and select Make Account Inactive).

To see inactive accounts in your chart of accounts, simply check Include inactive. The inactive accounts will then appear with an “X” to the left of them designating them as inactive.

To reactivate inactive accounts in QuickBooks, simply select the inactive account you want to activate, click Account and then Make Account Active (alternatively, right click on the account you want to make active and select Make Account Active).