Delete a General Ledger account

Sage Support can't assist with accounting decisions. Contact your tax professional or your Sage Consultant if you need assistance determining if you can delete the accounts.

Information

• We recommend deactivating the account instead.
• When is it ok to delete a General Ledger account.
• You can delete a General Ledger account only if the current and future balances are both zero. You can check this in Setup, Accounts, Balances tab.
• Delete the full account before deleting a base account. You'll get a Base and Suffix not found error if you delete the base first.
• Deleted accounts don't appear on financial statements, ledgers, or trial balances.
• Transactions for the deleted accounts still appear on transaction-based reports.
• When you print prior period reports that have deleted accounts with a balance, the accounts don't appear. This can cause the report not to balance. This applies to financial statement, ledger, or trial balance reports.

Delete an account

1. Back up your data files.
2. From the Setup menu, select Accounts.
3. Click List and select the account you want to delete.
4. Click the Balances tab and verify that the Current balance and Future balance are both zero. If you use both cash and accrual accounting, both balances must be zero. Check on both the Balances (Accrual) and the Balances (Cash) tabs.
5. Click the Activity tab (or tabs if you use both accounting methods). Note whether there's activity in any prior periods.
   
   NOTE:

   If there's activity in prior periods, the reports won't balance when printed for a prior period with a balance. Proceed to the next step if this is acceptable. Otherwise don't delete your account.

6. Click Delete, click Yes, and then click Close.

How do I recreate a deleted General Ledger account?

How do I retire a General Ledger prefix and full accounts?