Getting Around in QuickBooks

You have more than enough to do running your business, so you don’t want bookkeeping to take any more time than necessary. QuickBooks’ icon bar (which comes in two flavors: left and top) offers shortcuts to your favorite features. Each version of the icon bar has its pros and cons, so you have to decide which one you prefer (or you can hide them). This chapter shows you how to access QuickBooks’ features from both the menu bar and icon bars.

Another way to get your accounting done quickly and efficiently is by accessing features via the QuickBooks Home Page. This page not only provides a visual roadmap of the bookkeeping tasks you perform regularly, but it also gives you quick access to tasks and information related to vendors, customers, and employees, along with the features and overall financial info you use most often. Click an icon on this page and the corresponding window or dialog box appears, such as Chart of Accounts, Item List, Write Checks, or everyone’s favorite—Make Deposits.

This chapter explains how to access Vendor, Customer, and Employees Centers that open when you click the corresponding buttons in the Home Page’s panels. (The Inventory Center, which is available in QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise, is described on page 543.) You’ll also see how to review your company’s finances using the Home window’s Insights tab and the Company Snapshot window.

During a rousing bookkeeping session, you might end up with several QuickBooks windows open at the same time. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to switch between open windows, navigate window ribbon menus, and adjust the size of drop-down menus and columns within windows.