I am often asked about “closing” the books at year-end in QuickBooks. Many old-school and complex accounting programs require you to perform a closing process at the end of a financial year before entering any information for the current year. In fact, at the large corporation I used to work, we had to close the books every month! After the closing process is complete, the information is “locked down” and there is no changing it. This creates deadlines, bottlenecks, and stress for all of us in accounting trying to get our work done. Most small business owners, and many bookkeepers, are not native accountants and don’t understand the exact reason for the “closing” procedure, they just know it’s something that is done, and are concerned about getting it done.
Do you need to “close the books in QuickBooks”? The answer is yes, and no. Large businesses that provide periodic financial statements to shareholders and/or Board Members must ensure that the statements are accurate and will not be changed after presentation. They must close the books in finality at certain periods in order to present this information as complete. For most small businesses, the cut off is related to filing their tax return.
In other words, once you run the Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet and use that information to file your taxes, you do not want to make any further changes to that year’s data. That makes sense; after all, if you entered some additional Income or Expenses after the year is over, it wouldn’t be reported on your tax return ever. QuickBooks doesn’t have a formal “closing” process, and this makes some people feel like it must not be a “real” accounting program. But QuickBooks is designed for Small Business users, and, although it can be dangerous, there are practical reasons why QuickBooks leaves prior year data open for editing: 1.
It’s not practical to expect every small business to complete all of their year-end work before creating any other transactions in the current year 2. Often there are credit card expenses coming in on statements clear through February. Many businesses depend on our CPA or tax preparer to provide us with adjustments like depreciation expenses that need to be entered once the tax return is prepared. A lot of small businesses depend on a bookkeeper – who may have multiple clients – to reconcile their books.
So, rather than imposing a locked down closing, QuickBooks creates a Journal Entry automatically at the end of the year to transfer the Net Income to Retained Earnings and allows you to set a closing date password. The closing date password feature allows anyone with the password to change prior year’s data, and helps keep you from accidentally entering anything into the wrong year. Setting a closing date password in QuickBooks does not prevent anyone from entering transactions in the “closed” period, but it does give you a warning and require you to enter the password in order to post any transactions. I usually set a closing date password after I have completed my year end “closing” procedures. See my article.
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To set a closing date password: From the Edit menu –select Preferences – on the left of this new window – (at the top of the Preferences Menu) click – Accounting – and then choose the Company Preferences tab on the Right. At the bottom of the Company Preferences window, you will see the Set Date/Password button under the Closing Date section. When you click this button, another window opens and allows you to select a closing date and enter a password. For the closing date, you should enter the last day of the year, not the first date of the New Year. Keep your password simple and easy to remember, I recommend writing it down.
And, of course. Not forgetting where you wrote it down!
Dec 10, 2018 - Yes, a general journal entry (GJE) can be deleted by, Go to Company menu and select Make General Journal Entries. Go to the Main tab, and at the top left corner of the Make General Journal Entries window, click on the Left Arrow (Previous) to locate the GJE that should be deleted. Clients can easily send you a portable company file directly from QuickBooks — no need for you to teach and troubleshoot. Faster Data Entry. Easily add or delete fields to create your perfect data entry screen. With Multi-Instance you can work on multiple files, compare relevant accounts and easily switch back and forth between.
How to Delete a Company File in QuickBooks
Windows (Pro, Premier, Enterprise)
Deleting a company in QuickBooks is as easy as locating the file that your company is stored in on your computer, and deleting it. If you do not know how to locate the file, continue below:
Locate the Company File to be Deleted:
Step 1. In QuickBooks, open the Company file that you want to delete (if you are not already in it) by going to: the File menu, then Open or Restore Company.
Step 2. Select Open a company file, and then click Next.
Step 3. Select the file you want to delete and then click Open.
Step 4. Press the F2 key on your keyboard, and in the new window locate the section that says File Information and make a note of that location. (The file location is the 'path' that leads to the file that your company is stored in on your computer. It should say something like C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersDocumentsIntuitQuickBooksCompany Files(the name of your file).qbw.)
Step 5. Close out of QuickBooks: Click File, then Exit.
Delete the Company file:
Step 6. Navigate to the location on your computer that was recorded in Step 4 above.
Step 7. Right click on your data file to be deleted, and click Delete. (The file should have the green QuickBooks icon as shown here but you should also delete all the files with that same file name ending with .qbw:)
Step 8. Reopen QuickBooks, and select the Edit List button.
Step 9. Check the Hide box on the file that was just deleted. The file should now be deleted and be hidden from the 'No Company Open' window.
How to Delete a Company from QuickBooks Mac
Like QuickBooks windows editions, deleting a company file is as simple as locating it on your computer's hard drive and deleting it. If you do not know how to locate the file, continue below:
Locate the Company File to be Deleted:
Step 1. In QuickBooks, open the Company file that you want to delete (if you are not already in it). Then go to: Help in top menu bar, and select Product Information.
Step 2. At bottom of new screen File Location, mouse over the file path and jot it down. (You will follow this path to get to the file you want to delete). For example Documents > Intuit > QuickBooks > Company Files > (the name of your file).
Step 3. Click the x at top left to close this screen out.
Delete the Company file:
Step 4. Navigate to the location on your computer that was recorded in Step 2 above.
Step 5. Click on the company file to be deleted, and drag it to the trash bin.
Step 6. Now delete the file or files with the disc image for the same company you just deleted. (It should have the .dmg to the end of it). These are backup copies of the company file. QuickBooks Mac creates a backup copy (image) after using quickbooks each time - unless you turn off auto-backup in the preferences.
Step 7. Your deleted file is now in your trash bin. To delete it permanently from your computer, empty your trash bin, or open trash bin to view, and delete this one file or files.
How to Delete a Company from QuickBooks Online
If you are deleting a company file that has been set up within 60 days, you can delete all of the existing data and start over from scratch. However, if your account has been setup for more than 60 days, you will need to cancel your current company and start a new company in order to start from scratch.
To complete the process for company less than 60 days on QBO, follow these steps:
Step 1. Log in to your QuickBooks Online company and change the URL to include /purgecompany
For example:
If your URL shows: https://qbo.intuit.com/c28/app/homepage
Change to: https://qbo.intuit.com/c28/app/purgecompany
Step 2. The next screen will provide a summary of the items being deleted. In order to confirm that you do understand the data will be deleted you must type in the word Yes and click Ok.
Step 3. If the industry you desire to select is different than the one showing, feel free to change and mark whether you would like the system to create accounts based on your industry or start with an empty chart of accounts. Once your selections are complete, click Wipe Data. When the deletion is complete you will be rerouted to your home page.
To delete your QBO company file that is more than 60 days on QBO, follow these steps:
Step 1. Log in to your QuickBooks Online company and click on the gear icon at the top right of screen where your company name is displayed.
Step 2. Under Your Company, select Account and Settings.
Step 3. Click Billing & Subscription in the left of new screen, then Cancel at 'subscribed'.
You will no longer be able to do any work in your company file; however, you will still be able to view your information until they are deleted by Intuit within a few months.