To delete an account from the chart of accounts, there must be no transactions posted to the general ledger that reference the account ID. If an account has a nonzero balance, you must delete or remove transactions associated with it. These can include beginning-balance entries.
If an account has a nonzero balance, you can enter an adjusting G/L transaction in the General Journal to bring the account's balance to zero. Then, after two year-end closings, you can purge or delete the account.
You can make the account inactive to ensure that no further transactions are associated with it. Then after two year-end closings, you can purge the account.
If the account has a nonzero balance in any accounting period within the two currently open fiscal periods, Sage 50 displays a message stating that you cannot delete the account.
If you still want to remove an account that has had a nonzero balance at one time, examine the history of the account in the Maintain Chart of Accounts window. Then, display the General Ledger report including a date range of the two open fiscal years. Locate the account transactions; then double-click to display the corresponding task window where the transactions originated. Finally, delete these transactions, and return to the general ledger. To remove an account beginning-balance entry, select the Beginning Balances button in the Maintain Chart of Accounts window.