Over the years, customers, vendors, and inventory items come and go. That means lists get cluttered up with obsolete records. While you can’t delete those customers, vendors, or inventory items as long as you still have transactions linked to them, there is an easy way to hide them so they don’t show in the drop down lists.
Open the Options menu from the main Sage 50 window and choose Global. On the Accounting tab of the Global Options window check the box next to Hide inactive records. This will hide all types of inactive records: customer, vendors, inventory items, employees, GL accounts, and jobs/phases/cost codes. So anywhere you choose an ID for a customer, vendor, etc. only active records will show.
If you want to view information for something that is marked inactive you have several choices.
- Use a report. Inactive items still show on reports unless specifically excluded in the report options.
- Manually enter the ID of the inactive record. If you know the ID, you can simply type it in instead of choosing it from the list in the maintenance windows, or even the task windows.
- Turn off the option to hide inactives, and then turn it back on when you’re done.
Now you know how to hide inactive records, but the important question is “what qualifies as inactive?”
Sage 50 only considers something to be inactive if you have checked its Inactive box in the Maintain window. In Maintain Customers, Maintain Vendors, etc. you’ll find a check box labeled Inactive, usually in the upper right section. if this box is checked, Sage considers it inactive; if it’s not checked Sage considers it active regardless of when the last related activity occurred.
If the idea of marking records inactive one by one doesn’t appeal to you there’s an easier way, at least for customers, vendors, and inventory items.
From the Maintain menu choose Make Records Inactive. Or, click the System tab on the left side of the main Sage 50 window and then click the Make Records Inactive button in the Data Maintenance section. The Set Multiple Records as Inactive window will open. At the top of the window select Customer, Vendor, or Inventory Item. Then enter a date at Last activity dated before and click the Find Records button. (Note that it says Before not On or Before.)
You’ll then be given a list of all the customers, vendors, or inventory items whose last activity was prior to the date you chose. You can click to select All or None, or manually select/deselect items from the list. When you’re satisfied with your selection click the Make Inactive button and you’ve just avoided having to manually check the Inactive box for each individual record.
Note that if you inactivate a customer or vendor that has a balance, their balance does not go away. If that balance is no longer valid, you need to adjust it using a credit memo, or writing off bad debt, etc., as appropriate. The same is true for inventory items. any quantity on hand will still remain after the item is marked inactive. If you want to remove them from inventory you’ll need to post an inventory adjustment.
