Yesterday I mentioned how by default, QuickBooks has way too many icons on the home page. Well, I also think that there are too many icons on the icon bar by default. The icon bar is the toolbar at the top of the window that has icons for things like the Home Page, Customer Center, Vendor Center, etc.
Tip #9 of 30: Customize the icon bar
The nice thing about the icon bar is that you can totally customize it and make it your own. Just go to the “View” menu and click on “Customize Icon Bar”. You will see the list of icons currently included on the bar. You can delete any that you don’t want and you can drag them up and down to reposition them. You can add new icons here too, but I think there’s a better way to do it.
Close the Customize Icon Bar window and return to your QuickBooks desktop. Open the screen that you want to add to the icon bar. For example, if you want to add an icon that open up the “Transfer Funds” screen you first open up that screen. Now that it is open in front of you, go up to the “View” menu and select “Add Transfer Funds Between Accounts to Icon Bar…”. You will get to choose an icon graphic, a label and a description. Bam! You just added your own shortcut icon to the icon bar! By default it goes all the way over on the right so you may need to go into the “Customize Icon Bar” screen to move it to the position that you want it.
This technique works for just about any window, including reports. So you can put icons on your icon bar for easy, one click access to the reports that you use most often. It is a huge time saver! And your report gets saved along with any filters or custom columns that you have set up, making it even more useful.
Did you find this tip useful? If so, I would love for you to leave a comment below. I would also love to hear some of your favorite QuickBooks tips!
This post was written by Michael Debyah.
Hi there! I'm Mike. I am a CPA and an Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. I teach QuickBooks locally in classrooms and do one-on-one training sessions. I created this site so I could extend my teaching to more people and offer them the best support possible.
Hi Mike,
First I want to thank you for all that you do for QuickBook users. You are awesome.
Just wondering if there were any tips-of-the-day after Tip 9. I just discovered this website and have been watching the podcasts. I also checked out the Tips and couldn’t find any after No. 9.
Thanks,
C Geiger
Unfortunately, that was a failed experiment. I guess trying to post a tip every day during my busiest time of year wasn’t a good idea!
I like your tips and lessons very much. Even though I am a CPA, I can sometimes forget the easy way to accomplish certain things in Quickbooks. I was going through your 30 tips in 30 days and I am unable to get past tip number 9. I must be doing something wrong. Help.
Dave
Hi David – Unfortunately, the whole “30 tips in 30 days” thing was a failed experiment. I couldn’t keep up with publishing every day. It was my fault for trying to do that during the busiest time of the year. So #9 is as far as I got!