QuickBooks 2012 – Turning Off Annoying Pop-Up Messages & Ads

NOTE: These instructions also work in QuickBooks 2013 and 2014
QuickBooks 2012 has both good and bad pop-up messages – just like any other version of QuickBooks, but there is nothing more annoying than having an ad pop-up when you are working in QuickBooks.  Let’s be honest, getting rid of the message is another mouse click that you have to make and if messages and ads are popping up frequently we get into the habit of not reading what they have to say and miss something that could very well be important.  This article discusses how you can turn off most of them in QuickBooks 2012.

Ok, I get it – Intuit is a business that makes it’s money selling software and services to it’s customers; but as a customer/business owner I have already purchased the software and probably have the services that I need already in place; so to be honest I get really annoyed with pop-up messages and ads.  I bet you do also.

To be fair, there are actually some good pop-up messages in QuickBooks – for example:

• those that prompt or remind you to add a class to a transaction when you’ve forgotten and you’ve turned on the class tracking feature
• the one that warns you when you are posting a transaction directly to Retained Earnings – which is something that you really do NOT want to do
• the warnings that appear when you accidentally select a date that is 90 days in the past or 30 days in the future
• the warning that will appear if you enter duplicate bill numbers for the same vendor
• the warning that will appear if you enter a check number, invoice number, estimate number, etc. that has previously been used

For the most part messages & pop-ups can be controlled through settings in the Preferences section {Edit menu -> Preferences}; where you will find both personal and company preference settings.  Only the QuickBooks Administrator can make changes to the settings in the Company Preferences tab when they are logged into QuickBooks in single-user mode; yes, another inconvenience but one that is well worth the effort.  I highly recommend that the QuickBooks Administrator take the time to check out the Company Preference tab for each of the 22 different sections and choose which types of messages should and should not appear.

Individual users also have some control over what messages appear.  For experienced users, I recommend that they to to the Edit menu -> choose Preferences and:

• select Desktop View -> My Preferences tab and uncheck the Show Getting Started Window
• select General -> My Preferences tab and uncheck the Bring back all one-time messages, Turn off pop-up messages for products and services, and Show ToolTips for clipped text
• select Sales & Customers -> My Preferences and uncheck the Show Payment toolbar on Receive Payments and Sales Receipts forms if your company does not wish to add Intuit credit card or eCheck processing
• select Service Connections -> My Preferences and uncheck Give me the option of saving a file whenever I download Web Connect data and If QuickBooks is run by my browser, don’t close it after Web Connect is done – if you do not use Online banking

Many pop-up windows and messages have a “Don’t show this again” checkbox option, checking this option instead of just clicking the OK button will rid you of the annoying box for good; so taking a minute or so each time a window pops up can help you to make informed decisions and rid you of wasted mouse clicks later.  I know, sometimes it’s just “easier” at the moment to click the OK button just to get rid of the window – but that is a bad habit to get into.

Some advertising messages, you just can’t get rid of, for example the Do More with QuickBooks block on the Home page, but you can close it.

In QuickBooks 2012, Intuit has added a new “advertising” message to printed Employee Pay Stubs – you’ll now find a Powered by Intuit logo on each pay stub that you print for your employees.  I found this to be quite annoying.  Only the QuickBooks Administrator can remove this logo by going to the Edit menu -> Preferences -> Payroll & Employees -> Company Preferences -> Pay Stub & Voucher Printing -> and uncheck the Print Intuit logo option.

Are you annoyed with pop-up messages and ads?  If so please take a moment to leave a comment or share this article with others on your favorite social networking site.