The last invoice is paid, but the customer still appears in your active list. Before you tidy up the record, check whether their next invoice is already scheduled.
Closing out a former customer involves two decisions: what happens to future billing, and what happens to the customer record. Handle them in that order. Keep the existing invoices, payments, and other financial records.
Choose the section for your accounting system.
QuickBooks Online
1. Check future billing first
Go to Settings > Recurring transactions and find each template for the customer. Open Edit and check its type and schedule.
If you want to keep a template for occasional manual use, change its type to Unscheduled, then select Save template. An unscheduled template has no automatic schedule; someone must choose to use it. If you no longer need the setup, you can instead delete the template from its action menu. Be sure you are selecting the template, not an existing invoice.
Reopen any retained template to confirm the saved type. Check for invoices already created, too: changing the setup is not a review of existing transactions. If separate payment or subscription services bill this customer, check their scheduled activity as well.
See Intuit's guidance on template types and editing or deleting templates.
2. Check whether the customer can be made inactive
Two checks matter here:
- Linked Projects: Projects are job records within QuickBooks Online, such as a renovation or consulting engagement. If this customer has linked Projects, leave the customer active. QuickBooks Online blocks inactivation in that case; do not delete job records just to tidy the customer list. You can still address future billing in step 1.
- Sub-customers: Making a parent customer inactive also makes its sub-customers inactive. Continue only if that is appropriate for all of them.
3. Make the eligible customer inactive
- Go to All apps > Customer Hub > Customers & leads.
- Open the customer and select Edit.
- Select Make inactive, then confirm with Yes.
Transaction history remains in reports. The customer name may appear with “(deleted)” beside it; that label does not mean the transactions were erased.
If work resumes, select Include inactive in the customer list settings and choose Make active for the customer. Review future billing separately before restarting it. These status changes and exceptions are covered in Intuit's customer inactivation guide.
Xero
1. Stop the repeating invoice setup
Go to Sales > Invoices > Repeating and locate the customer's templates. Choose the approach that matches the end of the engagement:
- Keep the setup for a possible return: Open the template and add an End Date. Check it against the next invoice date so the schedule matches the final billing you intend, then save.
- Permanently stop that template: Select its checkbox on the Repeating tab, choose Delete, and confirm with OK.
Deleting a repeating template stops new invoices from it and leaves already-generated invoices unchanged. Recheck any retained schedule and review invoices already created. Check any separate payment or subscription service as well. See Xero's repeating-template guidance.
2. Archive the contact
Once no new transactions are needed, find the customer under Contacts > All contacts and use the contact's Archive action. If the control is unavailable or Xero prevents the change, ask your administrator to review the permissions or displayed message. Do not remove financial records to force it through.
Archiving retires the contact from use while retaining the financial history. The contact can be restored if business resumes. Xero documents archived status in its contact reference.
Finish with a quick check
Open a past invoice or relevant report to confirm you can still find the customer's history. Then leave a short note recording:
- Customer status: inactive, archived, or still active with the reason.
- Future billing: which templates or services you checked, what you changed, and any remaining scheduled activity.
- Follow-up: anything unresolved and who will handle it.
A cleaner customer list is useful. Knowing that the billing setup matches the end of the engagement is what makes the closeout complete.