The “List” is another basic QuickBooks feature. You will fill out most QuickBooks forms by selecting entries from a list. Lists save you time and help you enter your information consistently and correctly.
QuickBooks Lists are the backbone of the entire process of keeping your books. Each and every transaction that you enter in QuickBooks will work with multiple lists in order to provide you with job costing and accounting functions.
You will find yourself always using these standard lists:
- Chart of Accounts
- Item (Cost Code)
- Fixed Asset
- Price Level
- Billing Rate Level
- Sales Tax Code
- Payroll Item
- Class
- Workers Comp Code
- Other Names
When you select any of these Lists, they display various information, arranged in columns. Did you know that these columns can be customized to display additional information that would be valuable to you and your company?
A good example of customizing information that is displayed in the Chart of Accounts List would be to automatically know, just by looking at the Chart of Accounts, which accounts had been flagged as being 1099 accounts – without having to go into the 1099 Preference and determining which accounts had been selected.
To display a 1099 flag in your Chart of Accounts, you would:
- From the Lists menu
- Choose Chart of Accounts
- Click the Account button at the bottom of the window
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- Choose Customize Columns
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- This displays a Customize Columns – Chart of Accounts window which displays a list of Available columns on the left and Chosen columns on the right. Click on the 1099 Account option to select it, then click the Add button.
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- The 1099 Account option is now displayed in the Chosen Columns on the right. Click Ok to save your changes.
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- Now, when you display your Chart of Accounts List, any accounts that have been selected for 1099 reporting will be flagged and display the type of 1099 required.
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Customizing the columns displayed in the Chart of Accounts listing to display 1099 flag provides a productivity boost all year long – not just at year end.
Go ahead and experiment with the information displayed in various lists by selecting available columns on the left and adding them to chosen columns on the right.
Simple customization such as this will help you get more done in less time – because you don’t have to constantly search for information.
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”.
QuickBooks provides you with a powerful, and time saving tool within your items list, which is often under utilized and often misunderstood — the QuickBooks Group Item.
5 Reasons To Use QuickBooks Group Items:
- Creating and using Group Items is useful for quickly entering a group of individual items that you have already set up as single items in your Item List.
- Group Items are versatile – you can choose to print – or – not to print the items within the group, meaning you can track more detail than your customer needs to see.
- Group Items ensure that you don’t “leave something out” – which means lost dollars on your part.
- Group Items speed up the creation of Estimates and Invoices – imagine being able to pull in 19 items with a single click of a mouse.
- Group Items allow you to bridge the difference in units of measure used to buy and sell products or materials.
The following example deals with the CSI MasterFormat Cost Code section 03.20.00 for Concrete Reinforcing.
How to create a Group Item
In the QuickBooks Item list, you’ll want to have the individual items set up (03.21.00 through 03.24.00) as double-sided items.
Once these items are in place.
From the Item List, click the Item button at the bottom of the list window -> select New. From the New Item window choose Group from the Type drop down menu. In the Group Name/Number type in 02.20.00 Concrete Reinforcing, in the Item column select each of the individual components on the Concrete Reinforcing section. I’ve even added an Subtotal and Overhead & Profit item to the group. My group now contains a total of 10 line items.
IF you want your customer to see all 10 lines within the group, click into and place a check in the “Print items in group” option. IF you do not want your customer to see all 10 line items, leave this option unchecked and they will see ONLY 03.20.00 Concrete Reinforcing, while YOU still see all the detail.
How to Use the Group Item After It’s Created
Open an Estimate or Invoice form, click into the Item Column, find the Group Item and enter you cost amounts (enter costs ONLY if you are using an Overhead & Profit item within the group). As you enter the cost associated with each line item, QuickBooks calculates and updates the subtotal, overhead & profit (if the item is setup as a percentage), sales tax (if applicable), and Estimate total.
When you use the Item list for job costing (on vendor bills, checks, etc.) you would still job cost against the individual items in the item list.
Tomorrow, in Part 2, find out how to use Group Items to bridge differences in units of measure.
