Pressing Enter moves between fields.
Pressing Enter in QuickBooks behaves differently than in Windows world – it closes/saves the window/dialog box you are working on instead of moving to the next field. If you often inadvertently press Enter instead of Tab to move to a next field, you can turn on this option to help you.
Automatically open drop-down lists when typing.
This option is very handy if you have a lot of customers/vendors/items. Once you start typing the first letter of the name, the drop-down list appears starting with the alphabet you typed. The same is true if you start typing the next letters. You then just have to select the name you intend to open.
Beep when recording a transaction.
When you turn on this option, the program beeps each time a transaction is recorded.
Automatically place decimal point.
When this option is enabled, the program places a decimal point automatically before the last two numbers you type. In other words, the last two numbers you type represent cents. For example, typing 18899 automatically become 188.99. This is also a very handy feature once you get used to it.
Warn when editing transaction.
This option is on by default, meaning that the program automatically prompt you with a warning message when you edit a transaction and try to leave without saving it (say, by opening another window/transaction). In other words, it gives you a chance to abandon the edit you make.
If you turn off this option, the edited transaction is always saved, unless it is linked to another transaction (say, a cheque that links to a vendor bill).
Bring back all one time messages.
One time messages are informational dialog, such as a Don’t Show This Message Again, that sometimes annoys you. Turn off this option if you don’t want to be bothered by it.
Turn off pop-up messages for products and services.
Enabling this option stops any marketing from Intuit for their products and services.
Show ToolTips for clipped text.
Often times, your text in QuickBooks are truncated because the screen can’t accommodate it. Activating this option tells the program to display the entire text when you position a cursor over it.
Warn when deleting a transaction or unused list item.
This option is on by default , which ask you to confirm when you want to delete any transaction or list item that is never used in a transaction. However, you can’t delete an item or name that has been used in a transaction.
If you turn off this option, you can delete any transaction or list item that is never used in a transaction without confirmation.
Keep QuickBooks running for quick start up.
When you enable this option, the program launches faster each time you open it as it stays running in the background. Otherwise, it takes longer to start up your QuickBooks.
Automatically remember account or transaction information.
When you turn on this option, the program prefills information in bills, cheques, and credit card transactions windows with previous transactions by the same vendors. Once it is enabled, you can choose from the two options:
- Automatically recall transaction for this name.This option tells the program to duplicate the information from the last transaction and useful for recurring transactions with the same amount and account.
- Pre-fill accounts for vendor based on past entries. QuickBooks looks into the past transactions of the current vendor if there are many similarities. If there are many similarities, the program prefills the fields; otherwise, it does not.
Default date to use for new transactions.
This option is used to tell QuickBooks what date you want to appear on your new transactions window.
- Use today’s date as default. Use this option if you are always up to date with your transactions entry.
- Use the last entered date as default. Use this option if you are behind in entering transactions and you have a bunch of transactions to be entered on the same past date.
Keep custom item information when changing item in transactions.
This setting determines how the program does when you change the description text or the price for an item you place in the sales forms, and then you change the item (because you realize it is a wrong item):
- Ask. When you change the item, the program asks you whether you want to change only the item and keep the description intact. You can then answer Yes or No on the dialog box, and you can also tell the program to” Save this as a preference”.
- Always. When you change the item, the program will always keep the descriptive text you type on the sales form, without updating to the item record.
- Never. When you change the item, the program will fill in the description with the new item description.
The Company Preferences
The format.
This setting is to select the hour format – Decimal or Minutes.
Always show years as 4 digits.
Choose this option if you prefer to display the year with four digits.
Never update name information when saving transactions.
By default, each time you change the name of customer or vendor, or address on the forms, QuickBooks asks you if you this information appear next time, i.e. updating the original information in customer/vendor record. You can select Yes, No, or Cancel.
If you always want to keep original information intact and don’t want to be bothered with the “Information Changed” dialog box above, check this option.
Save transactions before printing.
By default, QuickBooks save transactions before printing them to make sure your computer data are equal to printed data. It’s a good idea to leave it this way to prevent anybody from printing a transaction without recording it, say, a cheque without recording it.