May 12th, 2012
Keeping QuickBooks Running in the Background
If you need to open QuickBooks frequently throughout the day, the program will launch faster if QuickBooks is running in the background all of the time. Using the Keep QuickBooks Running For Quick Startups option, each time you open QuickBooks, it will load immediately. However, keeping QuickBooks running takes up RAM and other computer resources. In addition, you may have trouble updating, uninstalling, or repairing QuickBooks because software needs to be closed in order to apply changes. To configure this option to best meet your needs:
- Choose Edit | Preferences from the QuickBooks menu bar.
- Click the General icon on the left pane and then click the My Preferences tab.
- Select or deselect the Keep QuickBooks Running For Quick Startups check box to enable or disable this option.
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May 11th, 2012
Warn When Editing a Transaction in QuickBooks
This option tells QuickBooks to flash a warning message when you change any existing transaction and try to close the transaction window without explicitly saving the changes. This means you have a chance to abandon the edits before you make a change that you’re not sure about. If you don’t use this option in QuickBooks, the edited transaction is saved automatically, unless it is linked to, and affects, other transactions (in which case, a warning message appears to apprise you of this complication). Do the following to turn on this option:
- Choose Edit | Preferences from the QuickBooks menu bar.
- Click the General icon on the left pane and then click the My Preferences tab.
- Click the Warn When Editing A Transaction option check box.
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May 10th, 2012
Warn When Posting a Transaction to Retained Earnings
Enabling the Warn When Posting A Transaction To Retained Earnings option means that QuickBooks displays a warning message when you try to post an amount to the Retained Earnings account. The message explains that in QuickBooks the Retained Earnings account is designed to track profits, and the amounts that are posted to the account automatically are generated, not manually posted through a transaction. If this is a user who doesn’t understand the account (or inadvertently chooses the account from a drop-down list), the warning message might prevent the user from going on (which is almost always a good thing). Enable this option by doing the following:
- Choose Edit | Preferences from the QuickBooks menu bar.
- Click the Accounting icon on the left pane to open the Accounting preferences, and click the Company Preferences tab.
- Choose the Warn When Posting A Transaction To Retained Earnings option by clicking the check box.
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May 9th, 2012
Reminders in QuickBooks
The Reminders option in QuickBooks allows you to see a message box when you open a company in QuickBooks, alerting you to accounting or bookkeeping tasks that need to be done. You can choose whether you want to see reminders in a summary list or with a complete detailed list. For a number of the tasks you must designate when you want your reminders to appear. To set up your reminders in QuickBooks:
- Choose Edit | Preferences from the QuickBooks menu bar.
- Click the Reminders icon on the left pane and click the Company Preferences tab.
- Choose Show Summary, Show List, or Don’t Remind Me for each of the enumerated available reminders (Some of the items might be grayed out because they are only available in QuickBooks Premier editions).
- Choose the amount of lead time you want for each of the items by filling in the box to the far right.
- Click the My Preferences tab and click the Show Reminders List When Opening A Company File check box.
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May 8th, 2012
QuickBooks Decimal Point Placement
If you use this option in Quickbooks, when you enter characters in a currency field, a decimal point is automatically placed to the left of the last two digits. For example, if you type 5421, when you move to the next field the number changes to 54.21. If you want to type in even dollar amounts, type a period after you enter 54, and QuickBooks will automatically add the decimal point and two zeros (or you can take the time to enter the zeros, as in 5400, which automatically becomes 54.00). This is a handy feature for those of us who don’t want to take the time to add decimal points and zeros. To have the decimal point placed automatically:
- Choose Edit | Preferences from the QuickBooks menu bar.
- Click the General icon on the left pane and then click the QuickBooks My Preferences tab.
- Select Automatically Place Decimal Point by clicking the check box.
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