Special Guest Author Cheryl Skynar: Playing hide and seek in QuickBooks
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Have you ever been looking for something, know that it is in QuickBooks, but just can’t find it? QuickBooks 2010 & 2011 has several ways to search for various items but my favorite search, the one I go to most often, is ADVANCED FIND.
To get to this powerful tool you can go to Edit > Advanced Find or CNTL+F. Once here you can choose either the SIMPLE or ADVANCED find option. I like the Advanced Find because I can choose any number of search parameters. The one I use 99% of the time is the “AMOUNT” field, using the “=” (equals to) option. With this search I can put in an amount and choose for QuickBooks to look for the exact match. This saves me time when I am looking for a particular amount of a check, payment, bill, deposit, invoice… you get the idea.
If you have QuickBooks 2012 they have made searching even easier by placing a search box that is at the upper right hand side of the menu bar. From here you can enter any search criteria (word, amount, date, etc.) and then select SEARCH COMPANY FILE. Just like the example above this will search your QuickBooks file for an exact match to your search criteria.
An added feature to the QuickBooks 2012 version is that they have also included a HELP search in the same search box as above. If you select to search HELP QuickBooks will give you results in a help environment. This is great if you need to find out how to do a particular function. For example, if you type in the word “billing” and search HELP you get a variety of How To’s as well as some trouble shooting topics.
Any way you slice it, QuickBooks is right on the mark with giving you options to find that “something that you know is there somewhere!”
Cheryl Skynar began her career as an Accounting Assistant in 1979. For over 30 years she has worked closely with CPAs and focuses on proper accounting practices to reduce tax liabilities and improve the bottom line for her clients. Cheryl enjoys helping others make their QuickBooks work for them in a easy to understand flow of business. She can be reached at 734-544-8203, or her website is http://www.skynarbookkeeping.com/.