How to Delete Multiple Transactions in QuickBooks

If the transactions on your QuickBooks account have piled up, you might’ve tried to delete them. Only to discover that it isn’t as easy as you initially thought.

To make matters more complicated, deleting transactions in bulk isn’t available on QuickBooks Online. But there’s no reason to worry. This article aims to help you get rid of the surplus data with relative ease.

Furthermore, you’ll get some extra tips on how to manage transactions with QuickBooks.

Before You Start

To delete a few transactions in a single go, you should use the Batch Delete/Void Transactions tool.

This tool/option comes with QuickBooks Desktop Accountant 2017. And the same applies to Enterprise and Enterprise Accountant 17.0, or later.

It’s necessary to be signed in as an External Accountant or Admin. And multi-currency isn’t supported when deleting multiple transactions.

In addition, there are some transactions you can’t bulk-delete at all.

1. Paychecks
2. Invoices featuring reimbursement (items, mileage, or times)
3. Transactions in a closed period
4. Payroll Liability Checks
5. Online Bill Payments
6. Invoices featuring billable cost and time
7. Sales Tax Payments

Bulk-Deleting Transactions – Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1

Launch QuickBooks, navigate to File, and click “Switch to Single-User Mode”. Sometimes there’s also a “Switch to Multi-User Mode” option, don’t click on that. Otherwise, you won’t be able to proceed with further actions.

Step 2

Thereon, navigate to Accountant and click “Batch Delete/Void Transactions”. Choose the transactions you’d like to get rid of. You can do this from the list of Available Transactions.

Step 3

Click on “Review & Void” to proceed with further actions. This option is also available as “Review & Delete”. Either way, it does the same thing.

Step 4

Now, click one of the two buttons – “Back Up & Void” or “Back Up & Delete”. This action is optional and you can choose “Void only” or “Delete only” from the drop-down menu.

To reveal the menu, click on the arrow-down in next to the aforementioned buttons. That out of the way, you just need to confirm by clicking on Yes.

Pro Tip:

If you need to keep a record of the deleted or voided transactions, QuickBooks gives you the option to print them out.

Choose “View Deleted/Voided Transaction Report” and hit Ctrl/Cmd + P to print it out. You can also take the long route and select Print from the File menu.

Alternative Method

This method applies to bulk-deleting bank feed transactions. Here’s what you should do:

Step 1

Select the Banking menu and choose your account. Then, navigate to the “For Review” option and select the transactions you’d like to remove.

Step 2

Hit the “Batch actions” button and select “Exclude Selected”. Now, you can go to the Excluded section and select the given transactions one more time.

Choose the “Batch actions” button again and select “Delete” from the menu.

Note:

Those who want to remove the chart featuring accounts transactions still need to delete them one-by-one. But there have been some rumors that QuickBooks will include a bulk-delete option for this in the future.

Deleting Transactions One-by-One

This method is somewhat easier. Then again, it applies to QuickBooks Desktop and you need to sign in with administrative privileges.

Step 1

Open QuickBooks, navigate to the main menu, and select Lists. Then, click “Chart of Accounts” – it appears under the drop-down menu.

Step 2

Go to the account that contains the transactions you’d like to delete and hit Open. Browse all the transactions and find the one you’d like to remove. Note that the transactions appear in the order of your choosing, and you can change that.

Step 3

Once at the transaction you’d like to ditch, select Edit from the main menu and click Delete. There’s a confirmation pop-up and you hit OK to confirm.

Advanced Filtering Options

If you run all your transactions through QuickBooks, filtering options may significantly speed up removing the surplus ones.

First, QuickBooks allows you to apply filters based on transaction type. And the best thing is that you then get to void or delete them as per the filter. Go to the Transaction Type option, click on the drop-down menu next to it, then click on the specific transaction type.

These include the following:

1. Bill credits
2. Bill payment checks
3. Refund checks
4. Bill refunds
5. Finance charges

Aside from this, you can filter transactions by date. Within the Available Transaction, go to “Show Transactions By” and click on the drop-down menu next to it.

There you can select “Last modified date”, “Enter date”, and “Transaction date”. Plus, QuickBooks gives you the option to hide or show voided or linked transactions.

To hide or show either one, just click on the box in front of the corresponding option. These are located next to the Transaction Type drop-down menu.

Make Your Books Pristine Clean

At present, bulk-deleting QuickBooks transactions is probably more work than you’d bargained for. Primarily because of security or certain regulations that shape the service.

What’s your opinion on this? Why do you think QuickBooks made deleting multiple transactions tricky? Share your thoughts with the rest of the TJ community in the comments section below.