Using the Open Window List in QuickBooks is a huge productivity booster as it will allow you to quickly and easily go back and forth between tasks. It will also allow you to see just how many and which forms and reports you do have open.
Using the Open Window List is MUCH faster than opening and closing window or forms that you often use.
If you aren’t currently using the Open Window feature, you either close each form when you are done with it, or you always have a lot of windows open and don’t realize it. When you exit QuickBooks at the end of the day you may think that you only have one window open, but in reality you have maybe 8 or 10 – so when you start QuickBooks the next morning it has to load all of those open windows – quite possibly including several reports; this only adds to the amount of time that it takes before you can actually get to work.
Here’s how to activate the Open Window feature:
From the View menu -> click on Open Window List.
When you are working in QuickBooks on an average day, your Open Window List could show that you are working on Creating Estimates, viewing a Balance Sheet, Receiving Payments, working with your Chart of Accounts, working with your Item List, using Weekly Timesheets, entering Vendor Bills, viewing a Payroll Summary Report, looking at the Profit & Loss Report, working with your Payroll Item List, and even looking at an employee record. Each of these normal day to day activities creates a open window.
By utilizing the Open Window option, you can easily identify just how many form, report, and task windows you have open at the end of the day. A good habit to get into is to close all of these items before you exit QuickBooks. Close your open forms and reports by going to the Windows menu -> and choosing Close All. The next morning when you start QuickBooks you may find that it will load faster if you start with a “clean slate”.
The Add/Edit Multiple List Entries is another new feature in QuickBooks 2010; where you can work with Customers, Jobs, Vendors, Service Items, Inventory Parts or Non-Inventory Parts. I can see this as being a very useful feature, and so far my favorite new feature in 2010.
New QuickBooks users will be able to quickly add these list entries (speeding up setup time) and existing users can also benefit when they need to update say their item list with new pricing, change preferred vendors, change Expense or Income Accounts.
Access this feature from the Lists menu -> Add/Edit Multiple List Entries to display the following window. Using the List drop down menu, you can select to work with the following Lists – Customers (and Jobs), Vendors, Service Items, Inventory Parts, and Non-Inventory Parts.
Let’s say for instance, that I wanted to work with my Service Item (Cost Code) List, I would select that list from the drop down menu (1), and then I would want to click the Customize Columns button (2) to be able to work with all the specific elements within the item (3). Once the Customize Columns window (3) is open I can see a list of available columns that I can work with as well as the chosen (default) columns.
I would probably want to select or choose to work with all of the columns that are available – and I would do this by clicking on each item in the Available Column (1) and then click the Add button (2) – this action moves the item element from the Available Column to the Chosen Column window.
Once I had moved all of the Available elements to the Chosen Columns, I would click OK
I would also want to move things around so that the columns more accurately matched the layout of the actual Item Record
Once I had arranged the order of my Chosen Columns, I would then click the OK button so that the flow of data entry would be more consistent with how data would be entered if you set up the items individually.
Once you have the Item List entries displayed, it’s very easy to update costs, change expense accounts, preferred Vendors, etc. and save all the changes with a click of the button.
For example, let’s say that you wanted to change the Expense Account associated with ALL of your items, you would first click into the first cell that contains the Expense Account and using the drop down menu that appears – change the account.
Next, right click the newly selected account and choose the Copy Down feature. This will replace ALL of the existing entries with the new account.
And ALL of your Expense accounts have been changed to reflect the new one that you just selected. Very cool!
As with all good things – there are also bad; and by that I mean that we start running into problems with Customer & Vendor record elements that aren’t accessed through this process. Now this doesn’t mean that the feature is worthless, it just means that you can enter most of the basic information but will still need to edit Customer, Job, and Vendor Records individually to complete the rest.
In the Customer/Job List, you cannot access the following elements:
- From the Address Info Tab
- Ship To Address
- Email Cc info
- From the Additional Info Tab
- Preferred Send Method
- Price Level
- From the Payment Info Tab
- Preferred Payment Method
In the Vendor List, you cannot access the following elements:
- From the Address Info Tab
- Email Cc info
- From the Additional Info Tab
- Billing Rate Level
- From the Account Prefill Tab
- Account selection
