Managing Your Personal Finances with Quicken [Electronic resources] : Visual QuickProject Guide

Enter Transactions p. 43

If you need to write a postdated check, simply enter a future date in the Date field. At the bottom of the register, Quicken will display the Balance Today and a future balance showing the balance as of the date of the post-dated check.

To quickly enter a date in the current month, type the day in the Date field and press the Tab key. Quicken automatically enters the current month and year.

In any field in which QuickFill works, you can use the up-and-down arrow keys to scroll alphabetically through the possible matches. For example, if you type Hom in the Description field, QuickFill might guess Home Depot. Pressing the down arrow key would tell QuickFill to try the next possibility in the QuickFill list, Home Savings. Pressing the up arrow key scrolls up alphabetically through the list.

Most of the time you'll want to keep your account registers sorted by date, but sometimes (like when you're trying to track down a particular check) you'll want to sort by the check number. Click the Date column header to sort by date; click the Number column header to sort by number. On Windows, you can also click the other column headers to sort by those fields.

Sometimes it's useful to do a quick calculation while entering a transaction. For example, you might need to add up several checks when making a deposit. Quicken's QuickMath feature gives you a calculator right in the account register. QuickMath works a bit differently on Windows and the Mac.

On Windows, most fields where you can enter numbers have a small calculator icon. Click the icon to pop up a calculator, then type numbers and click the arithmetic operator buttons to complete the calculation. The calculation's result appears in the number field when you're done.

You can also access the calculator by pressing any of the arithmetic operator keys (+, -, *, /, or =).

On the Mac, in any field where you can enter an amount, press any of the arithmetic operator keys (+, -, *, /, or =) to pop up a "paper tape." Enter the numbers you wish to calculate, and press an operator key between each number. When you have entered all your numbers, click the Total button at the bottom of the paper tape or press Enter. Quicken places the calculation's result in the number field.

Split Transactions p. 45

If you decide that you don't want to split the transaction after all, on Windows, click the Cancel button in the Split Transaction window. On the Mac, click the Clear Split button, which deletes all the information in the split lines.

You can add as many lines of categories as you need to a split transaction.

Schedule Transactions p. 48

On both Windows and Mac, you can view your scheduled transactions in a list. On Windows, choose Tools > Scheduled Transactions List. On the Mac, choose Lists > Scheduled Transactions.

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Write Checks p. 54

When you're away from home, you can write checks from the checkbook that your bank provided when you opened your account, or you can use your preprinted computer checks and fill them out by hand. I prefer to use my regular bank checkbook and enter the information into Quicken when I return home. I differentiate between the checks that Quicken prints and ones I handwrite by using two widely different sets of check numbers for each kind of check. For example, I started my computer checks at 1000 and my hand written checks start in the 4000 range. Quicken has no problem dealing with different sets of check numbers.

Print Checks p. 56

You can buy preprinted computer checks from Intuit, but they're more expensive than other sources such as ASAP Checks ([www.asapchecks.com]) and Checks for Less ([www.checksforless.com]).