QuickBooks Tips >
Setup and Customization Tips > Look Professional With Customized QuickBooks Forms
Look Professional With Customized QuickBooks Forms
One of the many ways
that QuickBooks makes your life easier is its ability to create
business forms for all of the financial transactions your company
produces. You simply fill in the blanks or choose data from drop-down
lists, and QuickBooks generates a document you can e-mail or send.
Only problem is, sometimes the pre-formatted default forms don't
include all the fields you need. Further, they look rather, well,
plain. This being October, you might want to add a Halloween-centric
logo, for example. Fortunately, QuickBooks is flexible. Using simple
tools, you can modify the prefab forms that are included with the
program to add a logo or other graphics and indicate which fields you
would like to have appear.
Made To Order
To get started, click
Lists/Templates. (In Simple Start, open a new invoice and click
Customize/Manage Templates.) The window shown in Figure 1 opens.
As you can see, QuickBooks already provides multiple versions of some
forms. Take a look at these before you do any modifying to see if one
will meet your needs.
Figure 1: The
list of QuickBooks forms templates gives you many pre-formatted
options.
Select a template you
want to start from, like the Intuit Service Invoice. Click the arrow
in the Templates box, and a list of command options drops down. Click
on Edit Template. The Basic Customization window opens, as shown in
Figure 2.
Figure 2: The
Basic Customization window allows you to alter existing form designs.
Customizing Templates
Templates are designed
for use with Intuit's preprinted forms. So if you want to make
additional changes, you'll have to make a copy of the form
before doing so (which may or may not work with Intuit's
forms). Click Manage Templates, and then click the Copy button. The
program creates a modifiable copy of the template, which you can
rename by replacing the text in the Template Name box. Click OK. As
you make changes on the left side of the window, you'll see
those modification reflected in the graphical representation of your
invoice on the right.
Make It Personal
Probably the easiest
thing you can do to jazz up your invoice is to add a logo. This is
simple. Click the box next to Use logo. The Select Image window
opens. Browse to the image you want and select it, then click Open.
The image appears with your contact information at the top of the
page.
Add Interest With Color
Next up is your choice
of color schemes, should you want to use one. Click the arrow below
Select Color Scheme. You'll see several options here. Select
the one you want, and then click Apply Color Scheme. If you don't
like the fonts supplied with the template, you can easily change
those, too. Under the Change Font For option, select the field type
you want to modify and click Change Font. Select the desired font and
any effects you want in the window that opens and click OK.
Further Customization Options
Additional changes can
be tricky. To add your phone number, for example, click the box next
to Phone Number. You'll have to use the Layout Designer to make
this modification. To do so, click the Layout Designer button. You'll
see a window similar to the one in Figure 3. If you've
never used a layout design tool, you'll have to work with this
a bit. You'll need to grab the phone number and position it
where it should be. Then click Properties and Font (and/or Color).
Make the necessary changes and click OK.
Figure 3: The
Layout Designers allows you to make more complex adjustments to your
forms.
Click the Add button to
insert text boxes, data fields, and images, and Copy and Remove to
use those functions. Click OK when you're happy with your
changes. This will take you back out to the Basic Customization
window, where you can modify your invoice further. For example, you
can click the Print Status Stamp box to have QuickBooks stamp your
invoices with words like "PAID." Click the Additional
Customization button to make other changes, as shown in Figure 4.
By checking and unchecking default boxes under each tab, you can
continue to change the appearance of your invoice.
Figure
4: The Additional Customization window gives your finer control
over the format of your forms.
Enhance Your Business With Custom Forms
You may be able to use
QuickBooks invoices right out of the box. But even if you can, it's
a good idea to freshen up the boilerplate forms and add your
company's own personal touch to them. In these tight economic
times, you should take any actions you can-small as they may
be-to present a professional, personalized front to your
customers. QuickBooks provides the tools to help you do just that.
Previous Tip - Back to tips - Next Tip
