Using E-Mail in QuickBooks

If you want to send transactions to customers via e-mail, QuickBooks offers the opportunity to automatically select the option of e-mailing a sales transaction for those customers configured for e-mail as the preferred send method. QuickBooks has to find a copy of one of the supported e-mail software applications on your computer in order for this to work. If QuickBooks finds an active profile (which means that there is an e-mail account established in the software, and the software is the default e-mail software on your computer), QuickBooks will display a dialog that shows the default e-mail method. If these options aren’t displayed, you must use the QuickBooks e-mail service to send transaction forms and reports. To set up your preferences for sending forms in QuickBooks:

1. Choose Edit | Preferences from the QuickBooks menu bar.
2. Click the Send Forms icon on the left pane and then click the My Preferences tab.
3. Click the Auto-check The “To Be Emailed” Checkbox If Customer’s Preferred Send Method Is E-mail box.
4. Click OK to save these preferences.

How to Customize Estimates in QuickBooks

A number of readers asked how to add a signature line to their QuickBooks estimates where customers can sign to indicate approval. The Custom Estimate template can accommodate this; all you have to do is enable it. 

1. Open the Estimates window in QuickBooks- it shouldn't matter which Estimates template you use (we use the standard Custom Estimates template).
2. Click the Customize icon at the top of the window and move to the Footer tab.
3. Select the Signature option in the Print column (you don't need to see the signature line on the screen when you're preparing an estimate). The signature line appears in the preview screen below the Total.
4. If you wish, change the text from Signature to something more descriptive, such as "I agree (sign and date)".

(You can use the QuickBooks layout designer to move the signature line to the left or center of the form, or to shorten the line-item section of the form to provide more space for the signature.)

How to Use Custom QuickBooks Transaction Templates

Many readers write to complain that when they customize a QuickBooks transaction template to use the field named Other for important data, no reports ever show the data.

Although the fields named Other are available when customizing templates, QuickBooks never links to those fields in reports. Therefore, those fields are rather useless. Create your own custom QuickBooks fields instead of using the Other fields supplied in the templates.