Pinning a Document to Excel or Word

This is a cool trick I learned some time ago. I have a file in Excel that I inevitably need however it’s not a file that I use all the time and forget where it’s saved. Rather than searching through my documents to find it I pin the document to Excel for easy retrieval.

Both Excel and Word allow you to “pin” a file to Recent Documents. This will keep the files you need in Recent Documents thus allowing easy access.

To pin a document in Excel or Word 2007 open the document that you want pinned. From the Office button under Recent Documents you will see a push pin to the far right. Click on the push pin. The pin will turn green to indicate you have pinned the document to Recent Documents.

To pin a document in Excel or Word 2010 open the document you want pinned. Select Recent from the File menu. To the right you will see the push pin under Recent Workbooks. Click on the push pin. The pin will turn blue to indicate you have pinned the workbook to Recent Workbooks.

 

Adding a Background Image To Your QuickBooks Invoice

In an earlier post I talked about customizing your QuickBooks invoice. What I would like to address here is how to add a background image to your invoice.

First choose the image you would like to add as your background. Try to keep the graphic simple, you don't want your background competing with the information provided on your form.

In QuickBooks do the following:

• From the Lists menu choose Templates
• Select or click on the template you want to add a background
• At the bottom of the Templates window click on the Templates button and select Edit
• Click on Layout Designer
• At the top of the Layout Designer window click on the Add drop down box and select Image
• In the Select Image window navigate to the file containing the background graphic
• Double click on the image
• Answer OK to the Warning window
• You should see your image in the Layout Designer
• Expand the image by selecting a corner and dragging outward
• Position the image into the desired location
• Click OK to accept the changes
• Click OK to save the template

Your Friendly QuickBooks Advanced ProAdvisor
925 Office Pros, LLC

 

Customize your invoice in QuickBooks

Here are some simple steps to create a custom invoice in QuickBooks to match your corporate identity.

 In newer versions of the software the task is made easy with all sorts of templates to choose from.  However, you can brand your invoice in any version.   To create your custom invoice, choose Templates from the List menu.  From the Templates button choose new and select Invoice. QuickBooks will make a copy of the original template and rename the template file.

First and foremost add your company logo. In the Logo & Fonts area check the Use Logo box and navigate to the file containing your company logo and upload the file.   While in the Logo & Font you have access to change the font, font size and font color of the Title, Company Name, Company Address, Labels, Data Subtotals Label and Total Label.   You may choose to make your changes here but personally I like to make my changes while in Layout Designer.

Before we head on over to Layout Designer let’s first decide what information we want on our invoice. Click on additional Customization and scan through the fields or options available under the Header, Columns, Footer and Print tabs. Don’t worry about the location QuickBooks chooses to display the information, you can change that later.   

Now the fun begins. Click on Layout Designer and begin the process of customizing your template. You can move fields. Do you want your logo to appear on the right side of your invoice? Just click and drag. Do you want the logo to be larger? Click on a corner and drag outwards.  Do you want the document title larger? Left click on the field and choose properties, font and increase the size.   Do you want the background color for your column headers to be blue? Right click and choose properties, select the background tab, check fill background and select your favorite blue.   Don’t like the border surrounding the Bill To area. Right click and choose properties, select the Border tab. To make the border disappear, uncheck the border top, right, bottom or perhaps a rounded corner is what you are looking for, leave the borders checked and select rounded corners instead.

What is important to remember is that you are creating a document that represents your business. So make it unique but don’t defeat the purpose of the document. It’s an invoice and you want to be paid, so here are a few tips to both personalize and draw attention to fields that our important.

• Add color but make it simple. You might try adding the darkest color from you logo for the font color of your title and address.

• Make the document title clear.  You might try increasing the font size of Invoice.

• As most eyes are drawn to the bottom line you might try adding the due date or your terms below the total field.

• Make the remit to address clear. Personally I like adding the address to the bottom of the invoice, but at the very least make sure the address block clearly states Remit Payment To.

• Add contact information such as a phone number or an e-mail address.

 

After creating your masterpiece be sure and save you changes. The next time you invoice select the new template. Once you save an invoice using your new template QuickBooks will use this template as the default.

Rosemarie

Your Friendly QuickBooks ProAdvisor

925 Office Pros, LLC