Removing a customer you no longer deal with is straightforward, but it's worth knowing exactly what stays on file and what goes before you do it — especially because some of those records are legal evidence you may need later. This page answers the common questions.
Can I delete a customer?
Yes. Open the customer from your Customers list, then use the Delete action (you'll find it alongside View and Edit on each row, and there's a bulk delete option if you select several customers at once). Before anything happens, a confirmation box appears explaining what will be kept and what will be removed, so you won't lose records by accident.
Deleting a customer is free — like adding, editing and viewing records, it never uses a credit. The only two actions that ever cost a credit are signing off an inspection report and signing a rental agreement.
What's kept when I delete a customer?
Two kinds of record are treated as evidence and are kept, not destroyed:
- Signed rental agreements — proof that a hire happened, on the terms agreed and signed at the time.
- Driver licence checks — proof that you verified a driver's entitlement, points and licence status on a given date.
Rather than being deleted with the customer, these records are detached: they stay in your account for audit and legal retention, but they're no longer attached to a customer profile. You'll still find them in your agreements and on file, just without a linked customer record beside them.
What's removed when I delete a customer?
The customer's own profile is removed — their name, contact details, company and VAT, account number, date of birth, and any licence information you'd stored on file to pre-fill agreements.
Inspection reports linked only to that customer are also deleted, along with everything attached to them — the photos, the captured signatures and the generated PDF. Draft material that exists solely because of that customer goes with the profile too. The confirmation box spells this out before you commit, and it warns that the action can't be undone.
Why are signed agreements and licence checks kept but reports deleted?
A signed agreement and a completed licence check are records you may need to rely on later — to settle a dispute, satisfy an audit, or show that a driver was lawfully verified before they took a vehicle. Quietly erasing that proof because a customer was tidied up would be the wrong default, so those records are preserved and simply unlinked.
Inspection reports behave differently because they're tied to the customer copy you'd send out at the time, rather than standing alone as a contract or a licence verification. When the customer goes, their linked reports go with them. If you need an inspection record to survive independently of a customer, keep the customer on file or share the signed PDF link before deleting.
What does the confirmation box say?
When you delete a single customer, the box is headed "Delete this customer?" and explains: inspection reports linked to this customer will be deleted (along with their photos, signatures and PDFs); rental agreements and DVLA licence checks will be kept for audit but no longer attached to a customer record; and this can't be undone. The bulk version says the same for every customer you've selected. Read it before confirming — there's no undo.
Can I get a deleted customer back?
No. Deletion is permanent and there's no recycle bin, so the profile and its linked inspection reports can't be restored once you confirm. The detached signed agreements and licence checks remain in your account, but they won't be re-attached to a customer. If you're unsure, edit the customer instead of deleting — for example, correct their details or simply stop using the record — rather than removing them outright.
What if I just want to stop using a customer, not erase them?
You don't have to delete anything. A customer you no longer hire to can simply sit in your list unused; it costs nothing to keep them. Keeping the record means their history — reports, agreements, vehicles rented and licence checks — stays neatly grouped on one profile, which is usually more useful than a clean-up. Deleting is best reserved for genuine duplicates, test entries, or a data-protection request.
What if this is a data-protection (GDPR) request?
If your reason for deleting is that a person has asked you to remove their personal data, handle it through the privacy tools rather than a quick row delete, so you have a clear record of what was done. See your data and privacy for how vehReports handles personal data, data exports and retention. Note that signed inspections and agreements are kept (anonymised where appropriate) for legal retention even when personal data is removed — that's a deliberate safeguard, not an oversight, because those records may need to survive for compliance.
Does deleting a customer affect their vehicles or my reports' totals?
No. Vehicles live in your vehicle list in their own right and aren't deleted when a customer is — the "vehicles rented" shown on a customer profile is just a view of past hires, not ownership of the vehicle. Your signed rental agreements remain in your records (detached), so your agreement history and audit trail stay intact. Only the customer's profile and their linked inspection reports are removed.
Who can delete a customer?
Only Owners can delete a customer. Managers and Inspectors can view and work with customer records, but deleting one is reserved for the Owner, because the change is permanent and removes shared records. Whoever you ask to do it, the deletion is recorded in the activity log, so you can always check who removed a customer and when. For more on what each role can do, see the roles guide.