Setting the Checking Preferences

If you display the Preferences dialog box and click the Checking icon, QuickBooks displays either the My Preferences tab, shown in Figure 1, or the Company Preferences tab, shown in Figure 2

Figure 1: The My Preferences tab for Checking Preferences

Figure 2: The Company Preferences tab for Checking Preferences

The My Preferences tab for Checking Preferences lets you tell QuickBooks which account it should suggest as a default account when you open particular types of windows within QuickBooks. For example, if you look closely at Figure 1, you see the Open the Write Checks check box. This is the first check box on the tab. To the right of the Open the Write Checks check box, you see the Form With Account drop-down list. If you select the Open the Write Checks check box, you can select an account from the Form With Account drop-down list. This tells QuickBooks to use or suggest the specified account every time you open the Write Checks window.

The My Preferences tab also includes check boxes that you can use to specify the default account for the Pay Bills window, the Pay Sales Tax window, and the Make Deposits window. If you have multiple checking accounts set up, setting the default accounts using the My Preferences tab is a good idea. Setting these preferences makes it less likely that you'll erroneously write checks on or pay bills from the wrong account.

The Company Preferences tab, as shown in Figure 2, provides check boxes that you can use to describe how checks work within QuickBooks:

• Print Account Names on Voucher: This check box lets you indicate to QuickBooks that it should print account names on the voucher portion of the check.

• Change Check Date When Check Is Printed: Select this check box to tell QuickBooks to use the current system date as the printed check date.

• Start with Payee Field on Check: Select this check box to tell QuickBooks to place the insertion point, or text cursor, on the Payee field when you open the Write Checks window.

• Warn about Duplicate Check Numbers: Selecting this check box tells QuickBooks to alert you to duplicate check numbers. (You want to leave this check box selected, obviously, so that you don't use duplicate or erroneous check numbers.)

• Autofill Payee Account Number in Check Memo: Select this check box to tell QuickBooks to automatically fill in the payee account number when you write a check. QuickBooks retrieves the account number for a payee from the Vendor List or from the Other Names List.

• Select Default Accounts To Use: These check boxes let you specify which account QuickBooks suggests when you open the Create Paychecks window or open the Pay Payroll Liabilities window. Essentially, then, these boxes let you tell QuickBooks which checking account you use to write payroll checks and to pay payroll liabilities, such as federal income tax withholding amounts.