Deleting Budget Categories

I tried deleting some budget headings but it said they were in use.
These were headings for events that were one-time-only that happened long ago. I checked back for the last 5 years and there were no entries in or out in these categories and there were no sub categories.
Why can I not get rid of them?

punman wrote:I tried deleting some budget headings but it said they were in use.
These were headings for events that were one-time-only that happened long ago. I checked back for the last 5 years and there were no entries in or out in these categories and there were no sub categories.
Why can I not get rid of them?

Are they at zero balance? Did any transaction at all take place in the last 5 years? (it is 5 for Canada, right?) You won't be able to get rid of them until after current year plus 5. In the meantime, you might want to hide them.

lajackson wrote:You won't be able to get rid of them until after current year plus 5.

Or current year minus 5. This 5-year period lajackson is speaking of for Canada (it's 3 years in the US) is the time to retain financial records for historical and auditing requirements by law.

mkmurray wrote:Or current year minus 5.

Yes, go with the minus, toward the long, long ago direction. (Whew, I feel younger already).

I can't see any activity in the past 5 years for these categories.
We have not used them in 2009 either.
You ask are they zero balance? I thought budget balances did not carry forward from year to year so even if we did use one particular category in 2008, would it not have a zero balance in 2009 if we never used that category in 2009?