QuickBooks 2013: The Missing Manual

Chapter 2. 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. The QuickBooks Home page is your command center for all things financial; it helps you get your accounting done quickly and efficiently. The 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, and the corresponding window or dialog box appears. The Home page also includes Company and Banking panels with icons that open windows like the Chart of Accounts, Item List, Write Checks, and everyone’s favorite—Make Deposits.

This chapter explains how to use the workflow icons on the Home page, as well as the 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 Working with the Inventory Center.) You’ll also see how to review your company’s finances in the Company Snapshot window and keep track of upcoming or overdue to-dos and transactions with the QuickBooks Calendar.

If you typically work with more than one window open in QuickBooks, the Home page might be buried beneath a mosaic of transaction windows, such as Create Invoices and Enter Bills. If ...