You are getting a message that indicates the accounts are linked and you have checked the A/P links and it is not there. I would suggest then that you may be using inventory and these accounts are linked directly with an inventory item(s). If so you will have to go through your inventory one item at a time to locate the account, change it to a current account and then move on to the next item. If you have a large inventory item count I would suggest exporting the inventory to a spreadsheet and manipulating the linked accounts in Excel before importing the file back to Simply. File structure must not be changed only the necessary data.

Also, the accounts may not be deleted even after the two year period if you are saving the data for more than two years as this will affect the look up feature for older invices and billings (any where the account may have been used). If you are certain that the accounts are not being used and the account balances are at zero then why not just change the account to inactive so that it does not show on the drop down lists. Also, changing the account to not appear in reports if a zero balance makes them almost invisable.

H Drogemuller, you probably have set up the default expense account on each vendor ledger on the Options tab to point to those expense accounts.  However, if Clyde is correct and they are linked in Inventory, then just run the Inventory and Services List report and put the columns for Expense (COGS) and Variance on the report.  You will not be able sort by the account numbers in the Simply Report but you can dump to Excel and sort to find the items that are applicable easier than looking through one by one.

In current versions of Simply, you can delete accounts older than three years as long as no journal entries have been posted to the account in those years.  But Clyde is correct that comparison reporting over years will be slightly inaccurate (financials only from what I have seen - never seen it affect lookups but not sure if I specifically looked for that either).

 Thanks to those who responded. They are not linked to inventory so far as I know. Early on I entered some part numbers into Inventory but we never used the feature . I would like to know how to clear these out  but that is for another day.

 However under the options tab the accounts are linked to Cost of Goods. I cannot see any option to delink them totally from any of the options that are shown . From what I can see without achieving a delink I am unable to delete the unwanted accounts.  I would appreciate any additional thoughts.

Thanks

You might want to kick yourself on this one, but did you try clicking on the account and hitting delete then hitting save or moving to the next vendor?

 Yes I have tried everything. What if I edited the chart of accounts in Excel, could I import the revised chart or not?

 Further, I have delved more into the problem. Help says ..." to turn off an accounts link, from the setup menu choose Settings, choose the module whose linked account it is  ( in my case I assume Payables) and click Linked accounts listed under that module , high light the account you do not want to use, then press the Backspace key.

What I get when clicking "linked accounts" is the Accounts Payable account. Clearly I do not want to delete this . What am I missing?

 Go back to Richard's suggestion and check for a linked account on the Vendors Records. It will be on the Options tab and will show as the linked Expenses Account.

You are not missing anything on the Linked Accounts tab of the Accounts Payable module so try the Vendors records.

 Clyde, the accounts are not  the vendor records as they show in the AP sub-ledger. They are in the 5000 series under Cost of Goods sold.

Open up a Vendor ledger where you set up their name and address.  Then select the Options Tab.  You will see an expense account there.  Go through all your vendors using the forward triangle beside the Select Name so you can see the expense account for all vendors if you have any.  If you find it, click on it and hit delete.  If that doesn't work, call me tomorrow morning.

If they are not linked in Vendor Records, not linked in Inventory Expense or Variance accounts and not linked in any module under Setup, Settings, module, Linked accounts, then I don't know where it would be linked.  I assume you looked through all the payroll linked accounts as well?  It shouldn't be linked there but you can link to 5000 accounts so it is possible to be there.

The only other possibility, now that I think of it is that it is linked in a Customer ledger on the Options tab similar to the vendor ledger.  It doesn't make sense in most cases to link to an expense account here but the program allows it.

 Thanks to all who contributed to helping sort this out. The offending accounts were in fact linked to the same vendor  in the vendor records. I missed the point being made and failed to check where the vendor records accounts were linked to . When I got my head around this the problem became apparent.

Thanks

Glad you got it sorted out.