Deline

Why can I only anonymise this customer, not delete it?

The customer has invoices or quotes, and tax law says you must keep issued invoices with the customer's name, address and tax number. So Deline cannot delete that customer. Instead it anonymises them: the email and contact details are removed, and only what the law requires stays.

  • L2 · Explanation
  • WhereAll countries
  • WhoOwner
  • PlanBasic and up
  • Timeabout 1 min

Delete or anonymise?

  • Delete customer: only for a customer with No documents (no invoices or quotes). The customer is gone.
  • Anonymise customer: for a customer with documents. Removed: email and contact details. Kept: name, tax number and address. Documents already issued are not changed.

Both cannot be undone.

What does the message mean?

  • "This customer has documents you must keep, so it can only be anonymised.": use Anonymise customer.
  • "This customer has no documents, so it can be deleted instead.": use Delete customer.

How long must the documents be kept?

Deline says it in the dialog for your country. In Cyprus, records with issued invoices are kept for 6 years. In Spain, issued invoices are kept for at least 4 years, and the accounting books for 6.

Who can do this?

Only the owner. Others see Only the owner can do this.

Explanation written from the Deline app's own screens and texts (build eba146497 (Deline cf723fe1f)); it has no steps to check.