Five Tips to Becoming an Efficient Quickbooks User
QuickBooks Short-Cut Keys Everyone Should Know
A good way to measure how efficient you are using QuickBooks is to count the number of key strokes it takes you to do to perform a specific function. If you are like me, any time-savers are welcomed. Within QuickBooks, there are a series of short-cut keys that can speed up data entry and reporting. Some of my favorites are outlined as follows:
1) Control-C and Control-V: When making journal entries or entering accounts payable, the Control-C feature allows you to copy text or amounts, while the Control-V will allow you to paste what was previously copied. QuickBooks will remember the last item copied, until you copy something else.
2) Control-Page Up and Control-Page Down: When in any of the registers, you can advance one previous month or advance to the next month simply by hitting Control-Page Up and Control-Page Down, respectively.
3) “M”, “H”, “Y”, and “R”: When running reports, you must select a date or date range. If you are running a monthly report (MontH) you can simply enter “M” in the “From” field and “H” in the “To” field. If you are in the month of January, this will run a report from January 1 to January 31. The same works for annual reports (YeaR), by using the “Y” and “R” short cuts.
4) Control-F: By invoking this command, you will activate the find feature. You will more than likely want to go to the advanced tab and from there you will be able to search for anything in QuickBooks by choosing the proper filters.
5) While not a short-cut key, you should go to the menu bar and choose “View”, and check “Open Window List”. This will create a listing of all open windows. By using this list you can navigate between windows without having to open and close reports.
I find that moving my hands from the keyboard to the mouse increases the time to complete certain functions within the software. By using these short-cut keys, you can decrease your time in Quickbooks and go home early!
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