"Deactivating" a customer is the cleanest way to handle end-of-relationship situations — when you're no longer doing business with someone and you want them off your active customer list, out of your reminder runs, and out of your reports going forward. It is not the right tool for "I just want to stop sending payment reminders on one open invoice" or "I want to write off this past-due balance." This article covers the right way to handle each of those situations, then explains exactly what deactivation does (and what it doesn't do) so you can use it confidently when it's the right call.
If your goal is to stop billing, do this first
Most "I want to stop billing this customer" situations are not a fit for deactivation. There are three correct paths depending on what you actually want to stop. Pick the one that matches your situation.
| You want to... | Do this |
|---|---|
| Stop chasing one specific open invoice — write it off, mark it uncollectible, refund a duplicate, etc. | Void, delete, or write off the invoice in your accounting software. Biller Genie will sync the closed/written-off state and stop chasing it within minutes. This is how 90% of "stop billing" situations should be handled. |
| Stop all reminder emails to a customer permanently while keeping them otherwise active (e.g. a customer who pays by paper check and doesn't want emails) | Open the customer's record > Edit, turn off the Send Reminders toggle, and Save. This stops all future reminders for that customer specifically while keeping them on your active customer list, reports, and Customer Portal. |
| Opt one specific invoice out of reminders / late fees / receipts without changing customer-wide settings | Open the invoice, click Modify, and toggle off the specific behaviors you want disabled for just this invoice (e.g. Reminders Off, Late Fees Off). |
If after reading those three options you still want to deactivate the customer entirely — for example, because they've genuinely gone out of business or you've severed the relationship — read on.
How to deactivate a customer
- Open the customer's record from Customers > All Customers.
- Click Edit.
- Toggle Active from Active to Inactive (red).
- Click Update Customer.
The customer is now Inactive. The change is immediate.
What deactivation actually does
When a customer is set to Inactive, Biller Genie immediately stops sending:
- Email reminders on all of their open invoices.
- Email receipts after payments.
- Paper-mail reminders if you have the Paper Mail Add-On enabled.
- Autopay charges on their open invoices (autopay attempts are skipped for inactive customers).
All other outbound activity for this customer ends with one toggle.
What deactivation does not do
- Does not delete the customer or their history. All invoices, payments, transactions, notes, and audit trail are preserved.
- Does not close or zero out their open invoices. Open invoices remain open at their existing balance. You still see them on the A/R aging report. If you want them closed, you have to take action in your accounting software (void / delete / write off).
- Does not stop the accounting-software sync. If you add new invoices for this customer in QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, or Xero, those invoices will continue to sync into Biller Genie. They just won't trigger reminders or autopay.
- Does not block manual actions. You can still process a payment manually against an inactive customer's invoice from the merchant portal. The Inactive flag is about outbound automation, not access.
- Does not revoke Customer Portal access. If the customer had portal access, they retain it. To revoke, toggle the Customer Portal access off on the customer record.
Side effect: parent customers automatically un-link their sub-customers
If you deactivate a parent customer that had sub-customers with Bill With Parent turned on, Biller Genie automatically flips Bill With Parent off on every affected sub-customer. After deactivation, each sub-customer goes back to being billed independently (with their own email, stored payment method, and reminder behavior — to the extent each sub has those configured).
If you later reactivate the parent, you'll need to manually re-enable Bill With Parent on each sub-customer that should resume rolling up. See Parent and Sub Customers.
Escape hatch: still want messages on inactive customers
There's a merchant-wide setting called Send Messages to Inactive Customers. When it's on, Biller Genie ignores the Inactive flag for reminders, receipts, and paper mail — meaning inactive customers continue to receive those messages exactly like active customers do. The autopay skip still applies; it's only the messaging behavior that's overridden.
This is uncommon. The use case is "I still want to collect on legacy customers we no longer actively serve, but I don't want them on my new-business pipeline." If your situation is "deactivated by accident, need messages to keep flowing," just reactivate the customer instead.
Reactivating a customer
Open the inactive customer's record, click Edit, toggle Inactive back to Active, and click Update Customer. All outbound behavior resumes immediately.
If you'd previously deactivated a parent that auto-flipped sub-customers' Bill With Parent off, those subs need to have Bill With Parent re-enabled manually after reactivation — the un-link is one-way.
Truly deleting a customer
Biller Genie does not expose a true delete in the merchant portal. To genuinely remove a customer record:
- Delete the customer in your accounting software (QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, or Xero). Your accounting software will block this if the customer has any transactions — you'll need to void/delete those first or set the customer inactive instead.
- When the next Biller Genie sync runs, the customer will be flagged as Hidden in Biller Genie and removed from the active customer list.
For practical purposes, deactivating in Biller Genie is enough for almost every case where you'd think you want a delete — the historical record stays out of your way because Inactive customers are filtered out of the default customer-list view.