Deleting Linked Items

Care should be taken when deleting an item(s) as they may be associated with other items in your database. If you attempt to delete an item and receive the following message: "Cannot delete "Item". It is referenced by the following:", it means that the item is associated (linked) with another item in the program. The item cannot be deleted until you remove the link between the two items.

Here is a list of the most common linked items, along with basic instruction on how to remove the association:

You cannot delete an Employee that has Year-to-Dates (YTD) - You cannot delete an employee if they have YTD values. For example, if you have calculated and closed a payroll where an employee earned income for at least one period, the employee will now have associated YTD values. Note: The following items are assigned YTD values when your payroll is closed: Earnings, Deductions and Benefits, and Accumulators. Solution: Wait until the first run of the following year is calculated (i.e. when the YTDs are cleared), then you can delete the employee. Note: If you delete an employee from the Payroll module, you must also delete them from the Employee Database if you want them permanently removed from the system. View a step-by-step tutorial on this feature
You cannot delete an item that is assigned to one or more employees - For example, if you want to delete an earning entitled "Bonus" from the Current Payroll - Earnings screen, but the earning is assigned to one or more employees, you will need to first delete the earning from each employee (by using the Employee - Earning Items screen). Note: The earning can only be deleted if there are no associated YTDs. The same rule applies to Deductions, Benefits, or Accumulators.
You cannot delete an item that is assigned to an Employee Template, Accumulator, or Function - For example, if you want to delete an earning entitled "Bonus" from the Current Payroll - Earnings screen, but the earning is assigned to one or more Templates, Accumulators, or Functions, you will need to first delete the earning from the related screens (in this case, the Current Payroll - Templates, Current Payroll - Accumulators, or Current Payroll - Functions).
You cannot delete a WCB record that is assigned to one or more employees - For example, if you want to delete a WCB record entitled "Manitoba" from the Current Payroll - WCB screen, but the WCB record is assigned to one or more employees, you will need to open the Employee - Pay Parameters screen and remove the association for each employee from the WCB cell.
You cannot delete a Provincial Health record that is assigned to one or more employees - For example, if you want to delete a Provincial Health record entitled "Manitoba" from the Current Payroll - Prov. Health screen, but the health record is assigned to one or more employees, you will need to open the Employee - Tax Parameters screen and remove the association for each employee from the Tax Province cell.
You cannot delete a Distribution that is assigned to one or more employees - For example, if you want to delete a Distribution entry entitled "Factory" from the Current Payroll - Distributions screen, but the distribution record is assigned to one or more employees, you will need to open the associated screen that holds the association. This could be any number of screens since distributions are used widely throughout the program (Templates, Tax Parameters, Earning Items, Deduction and Benefit Items, to name a few).