By Janet English, Intuit Solution Provider

Business owners look for a consistent, reliable accounting system to track sales and expenses plus run business reports. One of the leading accounting software packages is QuickBooks, a registered product made by Intuit that is the nation’s most popular accounting software. It has the capacity to process sales, track customers, vendors, employee records, print checks and pay bills and is used by more than 85% of small businesses.

Additionally, there are a number of companies who’ve made software plug-ins that extend the capabilities of QuickBooks. Intuit offers QuickBooks Point of Sale (POS), which turns your computer into a cash register, allowing you to scan items to speed sales, track inventory trends and save many bookkeeping hours.

We’ve worked with QuickBooks for 17 years, and we’re always willing to share helpful suggestions and timesaving tips.

Finding Related Transactions in QuickBooks
Sometimes there is a need to find related transactions in QuickBooks, such as the check that pays a bill, a payment applied to an invoice, related deposits, etc. QuickBooks has made that easy with a History button in transactions screens. Open any transaction, such as a bill payment check; click the History button at the top of the transaction window and a list of bills paid by the bill payment check will be displayed. You can double-click on a bill to view its details. This works for all related transactions in QuickBooks. If you don't see the History button, use Ctrl H on your keyboard.

Saving Time by Adding Filters Before a Report Generates
When you generate a report in QuickBooks, default information is used and the report is displayed on the screen. How often do you change the information and then generate the report again? In QuickBooks, you can have the Modify Report screen come up prior to generating the report. Choose Edit | Preferences from the menu and then select the Reports & Graph option. On the My Preferences tab, check the checkbox entitled Prompt Me to modify report options before opening a report. This will tell QuickBooks to open the Modify Report screen before generating a report, allowing you to put in your specific report criteria the first time the report is generated. It can be a great time saver.

Janet English is Director of Strategic Initiatives at English Management Solutions, where she manages the marketing and business development functions. She founded the company in 2002 with her partner William English, Advanced QuickBooks Pro Advisor, and they’ now one of the nation’s top POS resellers. Learn more at http://www.englishmgmt.com.