This is for QuickBooks Online bought directly from Intuit. You need to be the company's primary admin.

1. Sign in to the Intuit Account Manager at accounts.intuit.com.
2. Click Products & billing, then select your company name.
3. Find QuickBooks Online and click Cancel.
4. Follow the steps on the screen. You'll get a confirmation when the cancellation goes through.

Shortcut: inside QuickBooks, open the Assistant panel, type "cancel" and choose Cancel subscription.

Add-ons don't cancel automatically. QuickBooks Payroll, Payments, QuickBooks Time and other add-ons each have their own cancellation. Turn off payroll before your last pay run so you're not billed for another month.

If you subscribed in the QuickBooks mobile app, Apple or Google bills you, and you have to cancel there:

• iPhone or iPad: open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions > QuickBooks > Cancel Subscription.
• Android: open Google Play > Payments and subscriptions > Subscriptions > QuickBooks and cancel. You can't cancel a Google Play subscription inside the QuickBooks app.

QuickBooks Online Advanced or Intuit Enterprise Suite? These run on contracts. Contact your Intuit account manager to cancel.

Billed through your accountant? Many small businesses get QuickBooks through their bookkeeper or accounting firm at a discount. In that case, the accountant manages billing. Ask them to cancel or move the subscription to your own billing.

Payments failing? Intuit cancels the subscription automatically after three failed payment attempts. To get back in, resubscribe and reactivate the account.

QuickBooks bills often grow because of plan tiers and add-ons, not the core product. Before canceling, check these:

• A plan that's too big. Plus and Advanced cost a lot more than Simple Start or Essentials. If you don't use inventory, projects or class tracking, a lower plan may be enough. Changing plans keeps all your data.
• Add-ons you stopped using. Payroll, QuickBooks Time and extra apps keep billing even when nobody runs them.
• Extra user licenses. Plans include a fixed number of users. Remove people who left in Settings > Manage users; accountant users usually don't count against your limit.
• Accountant pricing. Your accountant may be able to bill you at a wholesale rate.

Subscope helps here: it shows which QuickBooks add-ons and plans you're paying for and when they renew, so you can trim them instead of canceling your books.

Your data isn't deleted when you cancel. You get read-only access for one year: you can view and export reports and transactions, but you can't add or edit anything. After a year, you need to resubscribe to see your data.

If you have more than one QuickBooks Online subscription under the same login, keeping at least one active gives you read-only access to the canceled company with no time limit.

Before canceling, export your key reports (profit and loss, balance sheet, general ledger) and your lists to Excel, and give your accountant a copy for tax time.