Can't Delete a Record

When I try to delete an record, I can't-- the menu is grey. Why?

Deleting Accounts

Goldenseal accounting software will not let you delete an account if it is included in any transactions.

For example, once you enter Material Purchases for a Material Supplier account, you won't be able to delete that account.

If you delete all of the transactions that use an account, you can then delete the account, too.

HINT-- If an account is no longer needed but it has past transactions that refer to it, change the account status to Closed. That way it will not show up in menu lists for new transactions.

Deleting Transactions

Goldenseal will not let you delete a business transaction if it has been paid or used in time-and-materials billing-- it needs to stick around to account for the payment. Goldenseal also locks transactions that are referenced in some other by an account-- for example, you can't delete an Estimate that has been awarded to a Project account.

To delete a closed transaction, you'll first need to unlock the record. You do that by voiding or deleting the transaction that closed it.

For example, to delete a paid material purchase, follow these steps:

1. Choose Material Purchases from the Costs menu.
2. Locate the record you'd like to delete.
3. Choose Payment Transaction from the View menu. It will show that bank transaction that paid for this item.
4. If the bank transaction only pays for this one transaction, change its status to Void, or delete the record. If the bank transaction includes a breakdown of several items, uncheck this purchase, then click the Enter key.
5. You'll now be able to delete the purchase record.

To delete an awarded estimate, follow these steps:

1. Choose Projects from the Accounts menu.
2. Locate the project that uses the estimate.
3. Click in the Estimate field, and erase the estimate.
4. Hit the Enter key to save changes.
5. You can now delete the estimate.

Deleting List Items

Goldenseal small business accounting software will not let you delete a list item that is used in an account, a transaction or another list.

If you would like to delete a list item even after it has been used, follow these steps:

1. Choose Preferences from the Options menu, and choose Interface from the submenu.
2. Turn on the Can Delete Lists After Use checkbox, then click OK.
3. You can now delete the list item.

WARNING-- you may get error messages when you open a record that refers to a deleted list item, since the list record no longer exists.

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