hanging a vendor to an employee in QuickBooks Online isn't as straightforward as changing a customer to a vendor.
You can only change the Other Names of vendors, employees, or customers in QuickBooks. Changing from a vendor record to an employee record or customer record to a vendor record requires deleting the original record or making it inactive. Since records with transactions cannot be deleted, they need to be inactive. Once all additional information has been provided, a new vendor or employee can be created.
Note: QuickBooks does not allow changing a name type from Other Names to anything else.
The only way to delete an item permanently in QuickBooks Online is to make it inactive. The option to permanently delete an item is only available in QuickBooks Desktop.
Steps to Change Vendor to Employee
Change vendor, customer, or employee name type
Currently, QuickBooks does not offer an option to change the type of a name to another type.
For example:
Changing a customer to a vendor or employee
Changing a vendor to a customer or employee
Changing an employee to a vendor or customer
There are two options available if you want to change the name type.
Option 1: The name needs to be deleted and recreated under its proper name type. Remember that it only works if there are no transactions for that name.
You can find the name in the Center (Customer Center, Vendor Center, or Employee Center).
Right-click on the name and choose Delete (Customer: Job/Vendor/Employee).
Option 2: Inactive the name and recreate it under the right name type. This works when the name has transactions associated with it.
Go to the Center (Customer Center, Vendor Center, or Employee Center) where the name exactly exists.
And right-click on the name and choose to Make (Customer: Job/Vendor/Employee) inactive.
Note: The only way to change other names is to change their name type (Customer, Vendor, or Employee), and once they have been changed, they cannot be changed again.
Issue while changing the name type to another customer, vendor, or employee
Sometimes when you try to enter the name or want to change the name you face an error.
A message appears that says: "The name supplied already exists. Another customer, vendor, or employee is already using this name." These errors may occur due to:
It happens when you try to import data from QuickBooks Desktop or when you turn on the payroll after adding employees to QuickBooks Online.
It is possible that the customer, vendor, or employee name you are trying to add already exists in QuickBooks Online.
Editing the duplicate or making it inactive
In case of an error continue, there might be more than one duplicate in the customer list. You can select duplicate or make the customer inactive (if you don't have a requirement).
You can choose from Sales, Expenses, Workers, or Employees, and then select Customers, Vendors, or Employees.
Search for duplicate vendors, customers, and employees.
Choose Edit.
In the Display name field, add digits at the end of the name. (Note: If you don't have the profile requirement, make the existing name inactive. Making the existing name inactive also allows you to add a name that is identical to the existing name).
Choose Save.