Adding Sidebars To a Word Document

June 30, 2010 - 4:59 PM

Summary: When designing your document, you may want to use sidebars like you see in magazines and some books.

In publishing, sidebars are used extensively, you often see them in magazines and sometimes in books. A sidebar is generally a short, concise information of a subject related to the main text, but which is called out in a boxed format to the side of the main text. Generally if they were included in the main text they would distract from the information being conveyed.

In Word, the usual way of creating sidebars is to use a text box that contains text. To create a sidebar, follow these general steps:

1. Switch to Print Layout view or Page Layout View depending on the version of Word you are using, if you are not already in that viewing mode.
2. Display the page on which you want to place the sidebar.
3. Decide whether you want the sidebar on the left or right side of the page.
4. Add a text box that will contain the sidebar text.  Make sure you have a border around your text box.
   
   
   

Your sidebar has been placed, and you can type text in the box that defines the sidebar.

Creating Credit Memos

January 18, 2010 - 4:11 PM

When creating credit memos in QuickBooks for customer returns, write-offs, or discounts; It is a good habit to immediately open the receive payment window and apply the credit to the appropriate invoice. This will mark the invoice paid, remove it from the customer statement, and prevent the customer from using the credit inappropriately against a different invoice.

For credit memos mailed to the customer, be sure to include a blurb on the invoice that informs the customer how to treat this credit (for example: This credit has been used to offset invoice number 234, please make the same adjustment on your records).

Want further QuickBooks training or custom classes? Contact Bryan Jordan or Kim Pittman at River City Solutions and they will provide answers to your questions as well as assist you in enrolling for classes at The Learning Lab. They are just a phone call away at 816-300-HELP (4357).

MS Excel 07 & 08: Displaying Comment Boxes

December 31, 2009 - 8:38 AM

Scenario: You are creating your financial statements for year-end but you have an
amount that doesn’t fall into your normal business category. So you need a way to
somehow post a comment that will show a little more information about where that
number came from but you don’t want it to print on any of your reports.

If you go to the “Insert” Menu and then select “Comment” it will put a pop up box to the
right of that number. This comment box will only show when they mouse runs over that
number. Comment boxes always appear to the right of the cell of where you add them.

QuickBooks Tip - End of Year

December 08, 2009 - 12:30 PM

Reviewing your QuickBooks company file for problems and making corrections will help you avoid problems in the future plus reduce the time required to prepare business tax returns at year end.

• Run an updated general ledger report and display on screen so it can be checked for errors. Start your review on the last page and work your way to page one. Reviewing income and expense accounts is easier to understand than reviewing balance sheet accounts so begin at the end of the report. You will find most mistakes occurring in the income and expense section. Specifically, look for transactions that are coded to wrong accounts and make corrections. Look for consistency in the way you code transactions. For example, if you are paying a monthly loan, determine that all 12 payments show up in the same account.


• Run the accounts receivable aging summary report. Using a 12/31 date, write off transactions that have been paid but still show up as unpaid, remove credit amounts that are erroneous, write off transactions that are bad debts. To see the details of all customer balances, double click on the grand total amount (bottom right total of report).


• Run the accounts payable aging summary report. If this report shows vendor bills that have already been paid, or will not be paid determine why they still appear on the report and enter appropriate adjusting transactions as of 12/31. If you see negative amounts on this report that are not valid vendor credits, determine why they exist and enter appropriate adjusting transactions.


• From your bank reconciliation window. See what old transactions have not yet cleared the bank. Determine why they have not cleared.


• Reconcile all bank and credit card accounts.

Creating Shortcut Keys in Word for your PC

November 12, 2009 - 11:06 AM

Creating or editing a shortcut key in Word 2007 for your Windows computer can be an easy task.

To create or edit a shortcut key, follow these 10 easy steps:

1. Click the Office button.
   
2. Select Word Options.
   
3. Click Customize.
   
4. Beside Keyboard shortcuts click Customize.
   
5. Use the Categories box to select the category for the command to which you would like to assign a new shortcut.
   
6. Locate the command in the Commands box and select it.
   
7. Click inside the box labeled - Press new shortcut key.
   
8. Press your shortcut key.
   
9. You will see if the shortcut key is assigned to a different command. You can overwrite it, or press "Delete" to undo the shortcut key.
   
10. Click "Assign" .

Clean and simple - Enjoy!

MS Excel 07 & 08: Headers

November 09, 2009 - 8:17 AM

Controlling Row and Column Headers

Did you know that the headers in a Microsoft Excel worksheet can easily be turned on and off by doing a few simple clicks? This tip works for both Excel 07 for the PC and 08 for the Mac.

PC Users:

1. Click the Office button     in the upper left hand corner and then click Excel Options. Excel displays the Excel Options dialog box.
2. At the left of the dialog box click advanced.
3. Scroll through the available options until you see the Display Options for this worksheet section.
   
   
4. Make sure the Show row and column headers checkbox is unchecked. If cleared, then the header and rows are not displayed, if checked then they will show.
   
   (Note: Excel will not allow you to control the display of row and column headers individually. It's all or northing.)

Mac Users:

1. Click on Excel from the menu and then click on preferences. 
2. Click on View.
   
   
3. Make sure the Show row and column headings checkbox is unchecked.  If cleared, then the header and rows are not displayed, if checked then they will show.
   
   (Note:  Excel will not allow you to control the display of row and column headers individually.  It is all or nothing.)

Before

After

QuickBook / Intuit fraudulent emails

October 01, 2009 - 4:18 PM

Intuit is currently investigating fraudulent emails that were sent to some customers the past few days and claimed to be from The Intuit Online Team. The email requests users to update their account information by clicking a link that goes to a fraudulent web site or may download what the email indicates is a “security tool.” Messages of this type frequently include familiar brand logos and legitimate toll-free numbers and postal addresses.
Intuit did not send this email and will never use emails to request personal information or update security tools. A copy of the e-mail is shown below:

Subject: NECESSARY TOOL

Due to increased security measures our company developed a tool for secured access to the web-page. You should follow these instructions:

- download the tool click here

- install it on your personal computer

In case you don’t install this tool within two weeks from the moment of receiving this letter you will be denied access to services provided by our company.

We are here to support. We want to do everything we can to get you up and running. To contact us, or to view Frequently Asked Questions, please click here. Going forward, you can also click support at the bottom of any page or call us at 800-624-1465. (Don't respond to this email; it was sent from an address that can't accept incoming email.)

Best regards,

The Intuit Online team

What should you do?

To protect yourself from fraudulent emails and websites, here's what you can do:

• Be suspicious of any email that asks for personal information, requires you to download anything or requests your authentication information to access your online account.
• Do not click any links in a suspicious email.
• Do not download any tools from an email.
• Delete any suspicious email from your inbox and your trash bin immediately

If you think you've provided personal information such as your login name and password through a fraudulent website, or if you have recently downloaded a “necessary” or “security tool” from a suspicious email, here's what you should do:

• If you have downloaded the tool, please delete it. You should scan your system using an anti-virus program from a respected Security vendor such as Trend Micro, McAfee, Symantec or Microsoft to remove any viruses that may now be on your computer. Several of these vendors also offer free online security tools.
• Change your password to prevent unauthorized users from logging into your account. You should make this change from a system that you know is not infected or only after you have removed the virus from your computer.