How to delete a bill in MYOB

Work out what's tied to the bill. MYOB names two things that block deleting one: a payment applied to it, and a date inside a locked period, where locking stops any transaction in that period from being deleted. A bill in a locked period needs the period unlocked first.

If there's a payment, look at whether it has been reconciled or matched to a bank transaction. MYOB will only delete a bill payment that is neither, so a reconciled payment has to be unreconciled on the Bank reconciliation page, and a matched one unmatched on the Bank transactions page, before you go any further.

Be sure you want the bill gone rather than corrected. In MYOB's desktop notes, a deleted purchase is taken out of your records permanently.

1. From the Purchases menu, choose Bills.
2. Find the bill you want to remove in the bills list.
3. Click its Bill number. The Bill page opens with the bill's details.
4. If a payment is applied, delete it first: in the Activity history at the bottom of the bill, click the payment's reference number, click Delete, then click Delete again at the confirmation message.
5. Back on the bill, click Delete at the bottom of the page.
6. When the confirmation message appears, click Delete. MYOB returns you to the Bills page.

The bill no longer appears on the Bills page. If you had linked a document from your uploads to it, that document goes back into your uploads.

Any payment you deleted along the way is removed as well.

MYOB's help gives no way to restore a deleted bill, so getting it back means entering it again from scratch.

When the Delete button stays inactive in a browser, check the two causes MYOB lists: a payment still against the bill, or a locked period. Clearing whichever applies makes the button available.

AccountRight on the desktop works differently and has a longer checklist. You open the purchase from the Purchases Register in the Purchases command centre and choose Delete Purchase from the Edit menu. Deleting needs a user role that permits it, and a Security preference set so transactions can be deleted, not just reversed. The purchase has to sit in the current financial year, outside any locked period. Payments, supplier deposits, applied debit notes and early-payment discounts on it must go first, and if removing it would push stock on hand below zero, an inventory adjustment comes first. A shaded zoom arrow on a purchase points to one of three things: that Security preference, a transaction from an earlier, closed financial year, or one that's part of an electronic payment already processed.