How to Remove Archived Products and Customers
Learn how to efficiently clean up your inventory and customer list by removing archived products and customers from your database.
Written by Ryan Osborne
Updated at October 9th, 2026
Table of Contents
Managing Archived Records:
Deleting Customers and Products
As your business evolves, maintaining a clean and efficient database becomes essential. Merchanter now includes enhanced functionality for permanently removing archived customers and products from your system, helping you streamline your records and improve system performance.
Important Considerations Before Deletion
Before proceeding with deletions, understand these critical restrictions:
- Products - cannot be deleted if they appear on any quote/order lines or have stock movements recorded against them
- Customers - cannot be deleted if they have any order history within the system
- Large deletion operations (particularly involving hundreds of records) may process slowly—for bulk removal, consider working in smaller batches for better performance
Deleting Archived Customers
Please make sure you are logged into the system with an account that holds a Prime User Role, then from the Menu, navigate to Contacts → Customers → Archived Customers to view your inactive customer records.
From here, you can select individual customers or multiple records by clicking on them. Once selected, click the Delete button to permanently remove these customers from your system, provided they have no associated order history. The system will display a confirmation prompt before proceeding with deletion.
and a confirmation after deletion.
If you wish to clear all the customers from the archive, there is a delete all button. Please use this with caution; you cannot undo the removal of the customers.
Deleting Archived Products
Access archived products through the menus Products → Products → Products - Archived.
Just like the customers, this view includes both Delete and Delete All buttons for record management. Select individual products or multiple items for removal. Products with any recorded stock movements or order line associations will be protected from deletion to maintain data integrity.
You will get a confirmation prompt before proceeding with deletion.
and a summary after.
Please be careful with the delete all button, as the deletions cannot be undone.
Performance Recommendations
During extreme scenarios involving mass deletions (such as 800 records) demonstrated slower processing times. For optimal performance when managing and removing large volumes of archived records, we recommend:
- Processing deletions in smaller batches rather than attempting to delete all records simultaneously
- Reviewing record associations before initiating deletions to minimise errors
- Utilising the summary information provided after deletion operations to verify completion
Post-Deletion Confirmation
Following any deletion operation, the system provides a clear summary of the process outcomes, confirming which records were successfully removed and noting any items that could not be deleted due to system restrictions or existing associations.
This functionality provides greater control over your database management while maintaining necessary safeguards to preserve important historical data and system integrity.
Video