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General preferences for QuickBooks Desktop for Mac

by Intuit Updated 1 month ago

Learn how to view and change your preferences in QuickBooks Desktop for Mac.

Preferences let you organize QuickBooks to work the way you need it to. Use Preferences to set up backups, change your company information, play sounds, and many more. 

Change your preferences:

  1. Select QuickBooks, then Preferences.
  2. Select the preference you want to change.
  3. To change another preference, select Show All to show all preferences.
  4. When you're done, close your Preferences.

My Company preferences set basic and important info about your company such as your company's name and when your fiscal year starts.

  • Company Name. The name of your company. ( Note: The company name doesn't have to be the same as the filename for your company data.)
  • Address. The address for your company you want to appear on invoices, checks, and other forms. You can enter different addresses for Shipping(appears on purchase orders) and Legal(appears on 1099/1096).
  • Federal ID. The ID you use when filing your company's federal taxes.
  • Phone number, fax, website, and email address. Additional contact info for your company.
  • Reporting Info. QuickBooks uses your fiscal year to set the date range for certain reports and graphs. For example, if your fiscal year begins in July, the beginning date for reports based on your fiscal year is July 1st. ( Note: You can change the date range for any individual report or graph when you create it.)

Customize the info that displays and prints on your vouchers in QuickBooks Desktop for Mac.

You can customize what info you include on vouchers by setting your check preferences.

  • Payee: name of the vendor.
  • Date: The date when the check is made.
  • Account name: This displays the first 16 lines of the account name.
    Note: QuickBooks prints the name of the inventory item on checks for inventory purchases.
  • Memo (first 16 lines): Used for additional details like account information, period, and what the payment is for.
  • Amount (first 16 lines): Amount of each item.
  • Total amount: total amount of all items.

If you use job tracking, you can edit the descriptions to show the status of a job. These are 

  • Pending
  • Awarded
  • In progress
  • Closed
  • Not awarded

When you set up or edit the info for a job, you can mark the job's current status. The status appears on the Customer:Job list and in job reports.

Change the sounds that play when you do certain tasks. QuickBooks offers several sounds to choose from, and you can use your own sounds as well. 

  • Play Sounds. Check this if you want QuickBooks to play sounds when you use QuickBooks. If the checkbox is selected, you can choose which sounds you want to hear.
  • Save a record sound. Select the sound you want to hear when you save a record, like when you create an invoice or update an estimate.
  • Deleting a record sound. Select the sound you want to hear when you delete a record, such as when you delete a sales receipt.
  • No more records sound. Select the sound you want to hear when there are no more records available. One example would be when you select Next on the Create Invoices window but there are no more invoices to show.
  • Memorize sound. Select the sound you want to hear when you memorize something in QuickBooks like a bill you've entered or a report.
  • Volume. Slide the volume bar to increase or decrease the volume level of the sounds.
  • Open Sounds Folder. Select to open the sounds folder if you want to add your own sounds. Copy the sound file you want to use to this folder. Put any AIFF, WAV, or MP3 sound in the Documents/QuickBooks/Sounds folder and it'll be available for QuickBooks.
QuickBooks Desktop Mac Plus

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