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Employees & Payroll

How Do I Change an Onscreen Form Such As Create Invoices To Show More Line Items?

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Making changes to the windows of QuickBooks is easy.

Let’s use the Create Invoices window as an example.  By default, this window shows just 2 invoice lines.  In this article, we’ll change the default look.  An important point to keep in mind is that you should not close the Create Invoices window until you’ve completed all the steps in this article.  Otherwise, you’ll lose your work and need to start over.

Here’s the Create Invoices window in its smallest form.  Pay close attention to the right border.  We’ve positioned our mouse pointer directly on the border, and it’s now turned into a left-right arrow.  It only provides this functionality when your mouse is positioned directly on the border; if you move it off the border, your pointer shape and function will change.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Create Invoices Right Border

With your mouse pointer positioned directly on the border, make the Create Invoices window bigger by dragging this border to the right.  To drag something in Windows, hold down your primary mouse button while moving it to the desired position.  Since we started with the smallest form, we can’t drag it to the left.  Next, drag the bottom border down and watch more invoice line items immediately appear.  Re-size the window to fit your needs.

Let’s carry our customization 1 step further.  Position your mouse directly on the fine line between any 2 columns, such as the one between U/M and Rate.  Your mouse pointer will change to another type of left-right arrow.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Create Invoices Column

To change the width of a column, drag the pointer when it’s positioned directly on the line between 2 columns and is in the shape shown above.  Again, it only provides this functionality when your mouse is positioned directly between 2 columns; if you move it away from this position, your pointer shape and function will change.  One common need in re-sizing a window such as the Create Invoices window is to increase the width of the description field.  With this knowledge, that’s now an easy task.  Re-size any column to suit your needs.

Once you’ve completed customizing the look of your Create Invoices window, you need to save your work.  To do that, do not close the Create Invoices window.  Instead, go to the Edit->Preferences menu, and choose Desktop View from the submenu shown.  Since QuickBooks can store different desktop settings for individual users, be sure you’re on the My Preferences tab.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Preferences Save Current Desktop

Click the radio button Save current desktop and click OK.  Your changes to the Create Invoices window are now saved.  To confirm that, close the Create Invoices window and re-open it.  It should now open to your customized size and layout.  Since you’ve just saved your desktop with the Create Invoices window open, that window will open the next time you start QuickBooks.  If you want different windows to open by default, simply open them and save the desktop in that state.

This same technique can be applied to most, if not all, data entry screens in QuickBooks.

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How Do I Resort Lists?

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Lists are one of the foundations of QuickBooks, and from time to time they can become out of order.  That’s when they need to be resorted.  Some common indicators that it’s time to resort your lists include:

  • the list itself is out of order
  • an element is missing
  • new entries in a list appear at the top of the list instead of in their sorted order
  • you can’t turn on the account number preference
  • selecting a Customer:Job, Vendor, or Employee in a Center fails to display existing transactions for that name
  • Names don’t properly auto-fill when entering a Name filter on the Advanced tab of the Edit->Find… function

Resorting any list will undo any special order you’ve applied to the list, and this activity can’t be done in multi-user mode.  It’s always a good idea to backup your company file before undertaking an action that can’t be undone.

There are 8 lists that can be resorted. They are:

  1. Customers:Jobs
  2. Vendors
  3. Employees
  4. Other Names
  5. Accounts
  6. Items
  7. Memorized Reports
  8. Memorized Transactions

Since this technique is often used to address possible data corruption, we’ll outline the most efficient technique to resort multiple lists, but you can also choose to resort an individual list by opening up a Center and right clicking on a list element.

The first 4 lists are collectively referred to as Names or Entities, and there’s an easy way to resort these 4 lists:

  1. Open the Write Checks window by clicking on Banking->Write Checks or using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + W
  2. In the Pay to the Order of field, click Ctrl + L
  3. Opt to include inactive list entries by clicking the Include Inactive checkbox
  4. Click the Name button and choose Re-sort List from the menu
  5. Click Ok to resort the lists
  6. Uncheck the Include Inactive checkbox

The screenshot below shows the combined Name list in Step 4:

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Resort Name List

Our related article explains how to provide easy access to this combined list of all Names.

Resorting the Chart of Accounts and Items lists follow similar procedures, except each of these lists will have to be resorted individually.  To access the Chart of Accounts, click the Lists->Chart of Accounts menu selection or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + A.  To access the Items list, click Lists->Items.  Opt to include inactive list entries, resort the list from the button in the lower left of the window, and uncheck the Include Inactive checkbox before proceeding to the next list.

Resorting Memorized Reports and Memorized Transactions are similar to the above steps, except there’s no need to include inactive list entries since they’re not allowed on these lists.  To access Memorized Reports, click the Reports->Memorized Reports->Memorized Report List menu selection; to access Memorized Transactions, click Lists->Memorized Transactions or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + T.

After resorting lists, close and reopen your company file (.qbw) to insure that all changes are successfully written to disk.

Resorting lists is discussed in this Intuit knowledge base article.

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How Do I Compare QuickBooks Various Payroll Services?

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Intuit offers 3 payroll services for companies: Basic Payroll, Enhanced Payroll, and Assisted Payroll.  There’s also a 4th payroll service, Enhanced Payroll for Accountants, targeted to accounting professionals providing services to clients.  Intuit provides an online PDF to compare its various payroll services.

We prepared our own feature and cost comparison of QuickBooks payroll services along with services from ADP and Paychex.  You can read the full article or our 1 page summary.

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How Can I Display a List of All Names?

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In QuickBooks, Customers, Customer:Jobs, Vendors, and Employees are called Names.  In transaction entry screens, the selection of a Name is filtered to include only the type of Names normally associated with that transaction type.  For example, when entering a Vendor Bill, the selection of a Name is filtered to only include Vendors.

Sometimes, it’s helpful to be able to review a list of all Names in one place, especially when trying to follow a consistent pattern if an entity appears on more than 1 list.

To display a list of all Names, follow these simple steps:

  1. Open the Write Checks window by clicking on the Banking->Write Checks menu selection or using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + W
  2. In the Pay to the Order of field (ie, the check payee), use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + L to display a list of all Names
  3. Add the Name List window to the Icon Bar by clicking on the View->Add “Name List” to Icon Bar… menu selection
  4. Assign a Label and Description to the new window
  5. Optionally, change the default icon selection that will appear in the Icon Bar to represent the Name List
  6. Click Ok

You now have a list of all Names in an easy-to-access window. The list provides a consolidated window of 4 pieces of information: Active Status, Name, Name Type, and Balance Total.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Name List

Note that the Write Checks window was used to access all Names because a check can be written to all of the different Name types and by-passes the filtering set by QuickBooks on different transaction types.

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