Deleting records in relation with other tables I need suggestions on deleting records in relation with other tables

For example i have a client in the clients table and this client has bills, payments, wire transfers etc... so this client id is in relation with other tables, it seems like i will never be able to delete this client because of past records, because if i delete this client other tables wont be able to inner join the clients table and all the records which has this client id will be vanished :)

I hope i was clear enough on my explanation,
My question is; what is the right way in a situation where i have to delete a client record?
IMHO the best way is: Do not delete the records.

As far as I understand your are talking about accounting and financial information. Usually this information cannot be deleted, at least for a minimum space of time, 5 years on my country. (More time for medical &amp; health products) 

If, for some reason, a customer becomes inactive, use a status field to mark him.


        status | description
        -------|-------------
          0    |   Active
          1    |   Blocked
          2    |   Deleted
          n    |   ....



However, if you must delete all this information. I'd suggest you to define and develop a function (stored procedure, udf, etc) that takes care of all required changes in your DB. May be saving historical information, just to know when, who and why this records has been deleted.