Workshops
Introduction
You’ve learned the steps for performing everyday tasks in QuickBooks. Now it’s time to stretch your QuickBooks legs a bit and pick up some new pointers for making your QuickBooks experience more robust.
This section of the book contains a handful of interesting projects that go beyond the day-to-day experience. Included in these projects are workshops to help you learn to create your own Favorites menu, use the new Document Manager, and see critical information about your business by viewing the Company Snapshot.
Project 1: Creating Your Own Favorites Menu
You can add both reports and forms directly to the Favorites menu. If your QuickBooks file is used by multiple users, trust that your Favorites menu is only seen by you when you log in to the QuickBooks file with a username unique to you. The Favorites menu is also company file-specific, meaning if you have multiple company files, the Favorites menu you create in one file is not available in the other company file.
Begin using QuickBooks more efficiently by creating your own user- and file-specific Favorites menu.
The Project
With the steps shown in this project, you can add or remove the Favorites menu, and customize and organize your own Favorites menu.
From the menu bar, click Favorites, Customize Favorites (not shown).
On the Customize Your Menus window, click on a form or report in the Available Menu Items list on the left side of the window.
Click Add to include the selected item on your Chosen Menu Items list.
Click an item in the right pane.
Click Remove to take a selected item off your Chosen Menu Items list.
Select one of the Chosen Menu Items and click Move Up or Move Down to arrange the items on the list.
Click OK.
See Also
For more customizing tips, see “Add a Memorized Transaction to Your Icon Bar” in Chapter 7, “Using Time-Saving Features”.
Project 2: Customizing the Company Snapshot
The QuickBooks Company Snapshot feature is available in QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, QuickBooks Accountant, and QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions. When you display the Company Snapshot, you see all of the vital information about your company on one screen without losing the ability to drill down to the original documents supporting any of the items or amounts displayed on the snapshot screen.
You can customize the selection of information that appears on the snapshot, and if you really like this feature, you can even turn it into your QuickBooks Home page. If you work with multiple users in the same QuickBooks data file, your Company Snapshot is only seen by you when you log in to the data file with your own username.
The Project
Display the Company Snapshot, add new content, rearrange the content, and examine details of the data. You can set the snapshot as your QuickBooks Home page.
The Process
Click the Company Snapshot button on the QuickBooks Icon Bar or choose Company Snapshot from the Company menu.
Click Add Content to view and select additional reports for viewing on your personalized Company Snapshot.
Click + Add to select a new report or graph for display on your Company Snapshot.
Click Restore Default to remove additional content that was added.
Click Done.
Click Print to print a hard copy of your company snapshot.
Click the header of any graph or report displayed on the Company Snapshot. A move icon displays. Drag and drop the content to any other location on the Company Snapshot.
Change the information displayed on any graph or report by choosing a different date range in the drop-down menu.
Hover over any bar on the graph to see the actual amount represented by the bar (not shown).
Double-click any information displayed on a report or graph to get more detailed information.
Click additional links to useful related tasks. Shown here is the Receive Payments link; click it to record money received from your customers.
To set the Company Snapshot as your Home page, first make sure the Company Snapshot screen is open on your computer screen.
Choose Edit, Preferences, and click Desktop View on the left side of the Preferences window.
Choose Save Current Desktop.
Uncheck Show Home Page When Opening a Company File.
Click OK.
Project 3: Using Document Management
QuickBooks enables you to electronically “paperclip” your documents to transactions to stay organized and save time with QuickBooks Documents. Organize receipts, contracts, statements, and more by attaching electronic or scanned files to any customer, vendor, employee, account, or transaction. Store documents online so that they are easy to find and share.
The Project
Attach a vendor’s original copy of the bill to the recorded QuickBooks transaction and view the source document at a later date.
The Process
Create a transaction in QuickBooks (this example is a vendor bill).
Click Attach File on the transaction; you might be prompted to save your transaction first.
On the Attachments dialog, click Computer if you are attaching a document from your computer (previously saved, downloaded, or saved as PDF).
Click Scanner to scan your source document directly from within QuickBooks (the scanner must be accessible by the computer running QuickBooks).
Click Doc Center if you are attaching a scanned document that was previously scanned or saved but not yet attached.
Click Done.
The transaction with the attachment shows the number 1 in orange indicating there is one attachment.
Click Company, Documents, Doc Center to open the document center (not shown). You can sort the documents by name, description, added date, or attached to by clicking on the column headings. You can open, remove, or view details of documents.
To add more documents, click Add a Document or Scan a Document.
After you select a document, you can View Details, Open, or Remove it as needed.
Click Close.
Project 4: Color-Coding Your Accounts
If you have multiple bank accounts in QuickBooks, you might find that it’s easy to make an entry in the wrong account. By color-coding your accounts, you can have a visual reminder of which account you’re working with, thus making it less likely you’ll make an error by using the wrong account. When you change the color of a cash account, for example, not only does the account register change, but so do the forms associated with that account. When you prepare to write a check, the check color matches the account color.
The Project
Assign a new background color to an account from within the account register. For this example, we are using a cash account; however, this procedure works for any balance sheet account.
The Process
Press Ctrl+A to open the Chart of Accounts window.
Double-click the account for which you want to change the color.
With the account register open, choose Edit, Change Account Color from the main menu (not shown).
Click a Basic Color or click the Define Custom Colors button to choose from the complete array of colors.
Click OK.
Your color is now applied to the account register.
Press Ctrl+W to open a check form.
Change the bank account to the account whose color you just changed. The new color appears as a box around the check form.
Project 5: Using To Do Notes
As part of the QuickBooks Reminders feature, you can create To Do Notes to remind yourself of, well, actually anything. Just like you might keep a list on your desk to remind you of calls to make, errands to run, gifts to purchase, and so on, you can use the To Do Notes in the QuickBooks Reminders and record all of your To Do items in your QuickBooks program. Not only does this save paper, but it also organizes your personal and business To Do lists in one convenient spot and adds the To Do items to your daily tasks.
The Reminders list is part of the Company Snapshot dashboard that you can choose to have displayed on your QuickBooks desktop at all times. Use the To Do Notes feature to make QuickBooks your one-stop place for all of your tasks, not just your QuickBooks tasks.
The Project
Create a To Do Note, establish when you want to be reminded of this task, edit the task, and remove the note after the task is executed.
The Process
Choose Company, To Do List to display your To Do List.
Choose To Do, New To Do, or press Ctrl+N to open the New To Do window.
Select the Type of To Do.
Choose a Priority level.
If appropriate, check the With box to select a lead, customer, vendor, or employee.
Enter the due date and time.
Enter the details.
Indicate the status.
Click OK.
If a task has been completed, edit the task and change the Status field to Done (not shown).
The To Do List can be filtered by Type, Status, With, or Date as needed.
If needed, click Reports to create a report of the To Do’s.
Did You Know?
To Do Notes are not limited to QuickBooks tasks. Do you want to remember your best friend’s birthday? Do you want a reminder to pick up some steaks on the way home from work? Have you got a meeting at school this week? You can enter personal reminders as well as QuickBooks reminders in the To Do Notes.
View your To Do Notes on the Company Snapshot.
Project 6: Using the Lead Center
The QuickBooks Lead Center enables you to keep track of data about your leads or sales prospects in one place inside QuickBooks. You can view and sort leads, enter key information for the leads, create to do’s, notes, and more.
The Project
Create a lead, add a note, and convert the lead to a customer.
The Process
Choose Customers, Lead Center to open the Lead Center.
Click New Lead.
You can import multiple leads. You can access a spreadsheet-like window to enter leads quickly or copy and paste them in from Excel or elsewhere.
Enter the Name.
Select the Status of Lead-Hot, Warm, or Cold.
On the Company tab, enter details and contact information, website, social media information, and more.
On the Contacts tab, you can enter details for multiple contacts within the same company if needed.
Click OK.
Select Active Leads and click on a lead name to see the information for the lead on the right side.
Tabs organize related To Do’s, Contacts, Locations, and Notes for each lead.
Right-click a lead and click New Note.
Enter details for the note and Click OK.
Right-click a lead and click Convert to a Customer.
Click Yes to confirm you want to convert the lead to a customer.
