and now we will learn how to customize the icon bar customizing the icon bar means that we're
going to set up shortcuts to Windows that would normally open from the main menu we can add edit
or remove icons from the customize icon bar window so let me show you how it works these icons on the
left are simply shortcuts to opening the same windows that you could open from the main menu
for example the home if you click here you can open the whole window we talked about that in
the previous with previous video but that's just a shortcut from the main menu if you click company
homepage the very same window will open up now even though we don't use the home page we can
still use the icon bar so that we can simplify our QuickBooks usage very very much right at
the beginning first change the icon bar from the side view to the top view that gives you a
lot more control over the icons and the position of the icons and it makes it much easier to work
with from the top left of the main menu click view and then click top icon bar now you can see here
are all the shortcuts for example if you click vendors the vendor Center opens you don't have
to click vendors from the icon bar you can go to the main menu and click vendors vendor center but
it's nicer to just see an icon and click on it rather than memorize all of the different main
menu choices so to remove the icons from the icon bar we open the customize icon bar window from
the top left click view customize icon bar and each of these little words represents one of the
icons across the top of the bar if we start at the bottom and keep clicking delete you will see that
they are being removed as we delete them from the customize icon bar window please note if you don't
click OK and you just close the window they come back so you have to reopen the customize icon bar
window and after you delete all of the ones that you wish to remove you can click OK now then the
question is what do we want to put up in the icon bar well contractors always make estimates so we
should probably have a shortcut to estimates in the icon bar from the main menu click customers
create estimates now here's how you add a window shortcut to the icon bar at the moment the window
is in front of you go to the top left and click view and there should be a choice with the name of
that window that happens to be open that you can add to the icon bar so we click view and create
estimates to the icon bar for now just click OK now if we close it out and click here we see the
estimate opens same thing with invoice contractors always need to make invoices so the first time you
open the invoice it will be from the main menu click customers create invoice at the moment
the invoice window is the active window in front of you click view ad create invoice to the icon
bar and then click OK and now you have a shortcut for invoice now shortcuts are fine but the really
great thing about the icon bar is that it can memorise reports after we customize them and you
will learn more details about customizing reports in the future for now just follow step by step and
you'll get enough of the idea to be able to really understand the importance of the eye barré so here
are the reports we will add to the icon bar and we will customize as we do them the trial balance
you will learn in a future video how the trial balance is your main report it shows the results
of all your accounts and the chart of accounts but for now let's just add it to the icon bar from the
main menu click reports accountant & taxes trial balance now you may well notice that at the moment
you open the trial balance by default it only shows the results of whatever the last month
transactions are since I am recording this video in January of 2018 that means that the last month
for me was December of 2017 and of course I did not record any 2017 transactions yet so
the first step in customization would be to click the pull down menu scroll all the way up and tell
QuickBooks we want this report to show the results of all transactions regardless of date we have now
slightly customized this report if you look in the top left above the date pulldown there's a button
for customization every single one of QuickBooks reports has the same buttons and the same options
across the top we will click customize report and then we will notice that a window opens up
that is specific for customizing any QuickBooks report notice there are one two three four tabs
of information click the third one you may click the fourth one that says fonts and numbers then
click change font scroll down to a slightly bigger font then when you click OK here click yes and
then click the big OK and you will notice that the fonts in the report have changed so that's
two examples of how to customize a report now here is the bad news if we close this window
right now we lose all of the customizations but if we do this go to the top left then click view ad
trial balance to the icon bar and we just click OK you will notice oh by the way just click the
don't bother me box when you get a pop-up that you don't understand click no now notice if we click
from the icon bar the report looks the way it looked at the moment we saved it with all of the
customization but if we went all the way back to the beginning and click reports accountant - taxes
trial balance it would open up the way it looked originally with the default date and the default
font so now you can see the difference between opening up a report from the icon bar and from the
main menu and now we will go a little more deeply into customizing reports and customizing the icon
bar the report we will put up now is called the journal now the journal is one of the greatest
and most helpful reports in QuickBooks however we're only going to discuss it a little bit here
and there are future videos that clearly explain how great the journal is and exactly how to use it
for now we're just using the journal as an example of how to further customize a report and further
customize the icon bar so from the main menu click reports accountant to taxes journal now don't
worry about this this is just telling you a little more about some of the available features in
QuickBooks click the don't bother me box and click OK now the journal opens up with a default date
setting similar to the trial balance the first thing we will do to change the journal is to click
the pull down arrow and choose the top choice all we are telling QuickBooks that we want the journal
to show the results of all transactions regardless of date the second thing we will do is get rid of
the irrelevant and put in the columns that we need the way to do that is to go to the top
left and click the customize report button and simply uncheck what we don't need so each item
listed here is a column that's listed across the top of the journal so what can we remove well we
can remove the margin we can remove the adj column because that's for accountants for adjustments so
if I click that and remove it and then click OK it's no longer in the report again click customize
report and make sure you have the display tab shown so you can choose which columns should
and should not be there if you scroll all the way down you can remove the memo click OK now there's
no memo field taking up space for columns that we will need we should also remove debit and credit
and replace it with one column just the money amount customize report scroll all the way down to
where it says debit and credit click to remove the check mark and then click amount and then click
OK so now we have a column for the money amount instead of two separate columns for the debit and
the credit believe me this will be more helpful now we're going to add one more column we're going
to add a column that will show you the time and date that the transaction was actually recorded
regardless of the date of the transaction itself so we click customize report and then we click
this one fourth from the top entered last modified click OK now we have a report that will show us
every single transaction that was ever entered into this file the beautiful thing about the
journal is it shows you in the order in which it was entered regardless of date and regardless of
the date of the transaction you'll always be able to see the date that it was entered and modified
so now the journal looks the way we need it to look so let's go ahead and save it to the icon
bar from the top left of the main menu click view and then click Add journal to the icon bar and
then stop here I want to explain what this little thing is that comes up before the icon is added
the label is the word that will show at the bottom of the icon for example the label here is invoice
and the label here is trial balance instead of having it show journal let's type in the word my
oops mom oh okay my journal now if I click don't click okay yet if I click OK the journal will
be up here but it won't say Journal it'll say my journal because that's the label that you put on
the icon the description field whatever you type in here will be the mouse tooltip when you hover
the mouse over the icon so when I click OK notice it says my journal in the label and when I hover
the mouse over it I get all of them gibberish that I typed in to the description field so that's the
purpose of the label field and that's the purpose of the description field and of course when I open
it from the icon bar it looks very much different than it looked at first when I opened it from
the main menu now to fully customize the icon bar you can reopen the view customize icon bar
window and in addition to deleting or adding you can change the order of the icons just by
clicking and dragging actually you have to click this diamond here on the end click and drag it
up and notice it the order will change according to what you put in the customize icon bar window