If you don't need any of the ledger accounts in the default Chart of Accounts, you can deactivate them temporarily and restore them later.
You may not always be able to proceed depending on the scenario.
📎NOTE: You can only deactivate normal accounts and you can't deactivate bank accounts.
You can still delete bank accounts that are unused.
How to deactivate or reactivate
Go to the Accounting tab, and click Chart of Accounts.
Locate the account ledger: You can find it in the relevant category tab or in the All classes tab.
To deactivate or reactivate the account, click the toggle in the Active column.
📎NOTE: The toggle is blue when active and grey when disabled.
When you deactivate an account, it will no longer appear in the drop-down menus when coding your batch entries.
📌TIP: Alternatively, you can edit the account to change its name or code and use it for something else.
When you can't deactivate
There are cases where you can't deactivate:
If the account has a balance
If the account has a balance
You can't deactivate any account if it has a balance.
If you see a green tick in the Balance column, this means there is at least one entry in the current period.
If you try, you’ll get the following message:
You can't deactivate an account that has an entry in it (any balance) in any period.
📌TIP: You can create a journal to clear the balance on that account. You can then deactivate it.
If it's a bank account
If it's a bank account
Once you create a bank account, you can't change its type or deactivate it.
If you try to deactivate a bank account, you'll get the following message:
You can't deactivate a bank account.
Workaround
Edit
If you can't deactivate the account, you can still edit the account to amend its name and mark it as DO NOT USE.
Delete
If you want to remove a ledger permanently from the Chart of Account, you can delete it if it has no entries in it. This applies to both Bank Accounts and normal Accounts.