QuickBooks 2012: 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 to 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 commands 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 on the left side of the Home page. (The new Inventory Center is described on Working with the Inventory Center.) You’ll also learn how to review your company’s finances in the Company Snapshot window and how to access QuickBooks commands from the menu bar and icon bar. Finally, you’ll learn how to work with all the windows you open during a rousing bookkeeping session.

The QuickBooks Home Page

QuickBooks’ Home page (Figure 2-1) is a slick way to work through your company’s bookkeeping tasks. (If it isn’t visible, ...