One way to boost productivity in QuickBooks is to customize the company and user preferences. There are lots of little tweaks you can make within QuickBooks to make the software easier to use and in some cases less annoying. You can customize the preferences in QuickBooks by selecting Edit on the main tool bar and then Preferences. You will notice that there are several preferences that can be changed and that each contains a "My Preferences" tab and a "Company Preferences" tab. This way each user can customize how they would like QuickBooks to operate, while playing by the company preferences rules that only the QuickBooks administrator can set. Now I will tell you some of the preferences that I tend to change.
General Preferences - The first thing I change here is under Automatically recall information. I check that box and then select automatically recall the last transaction for this name. I like the fact that QuickBooks brings back the most recent coding and memo. This helps reduce coding mistakes and also duplicate entries. Be careful though on the recalled coding as we all know a bill for a particular vendor does not always get expensed the same way.
Another change I make here is to uncheck the "Beep when recording a transaction" preference. I just find it annoying and I bet your coworkers will as well.
Checking Preferences - I like to set the default accounts for all items listed: write checks, pay bills, pay sales tax and make deposits. I think that is saves time and reduces mistakes.
Accounting Preferences - here you can turn on and off: use account numbers, use class tracking etc. If you don't know what class tracking is or if you can use it read this. You can also turn of warnings for posting transactions to far in the past or future.
Tax: 1099 Preferences - Here you can turn on or off the 1099 feature in QuickBooks. You can also link an account or accounts to the various 1099 categories; this is something many people don't know. If you have several different expense accounts you use when issuing payments to 1099 independent contractors you can still issue 1099 forms correctly. In the Account column next to the proper 1099 category select "Multiple Accounts." This will bring up your chart of accounts and you can then select the appropriate accounts.
There are many other preferences that I didn't even touch on. So many of the preferences can be changed to have QuickBooks work the way you want it to. If you ever find yourself saying "I wish QuickBooks could do this or didn't do that" there is probably a preference change you can make to have the software work better for you. If you have any specific questions about customizing the preferences in QuickBooks I would be happy to answer them through email.
