Hello there, jkhowsr.
Currently, the feature to make the options for the date range default is unavailable. You'll have to set it up manually every time you wanted to see the Year to date transactions.
No worries, I am going to send your post as a feedback to our product developers. They will be the ones that will assess and consider the functions that can help customers do their work easier.
For future reference, I can see that this article can be handy: Add older transactions to QuickBooks Self-Employed.
Let me know have any questions in mind. I'm here to answer them. Have a good one.