GoldMine : Easily Copying Contact Information

Did you know that you can easily copy the "main" fields from a Contact Record into the Windows clipboard? This will allow you to easily paste Contact information from a record into an e-mail or a document.

1. Select Edit | Copy Contact Details from the top level menu

2. Check each box next to which Contact Fields you wish to Copy

3. Hit Copy

Now you should be able to Paste that information into pretty much anything else (Word, Outlook, etc) with a simple CTRL-V (The windows command for Paste). You'll notice that each field (with the exception of say, City State and Zip) is separated with a carriage return. Try it!

GoldMine : Previewing Filters within the Search Center

This is a really nice feature; the ability to Preview a Filter or Group directly within your Search Center. A lot of folks like this because it lets them see more information about the Contacts within a Filter than the Preview Tab in the Filters window.

To do this;

1. Open up your Search Center by clicking on "Search" from the top Toolbar

2. Click on the Filters/Groups button on the top "strip" of the Search Center

3. This will open up a Filters and Groups pane along the left hand side, in a tree format

4. To Preview any Filter or Group, simply doubleclick on it

5. GoldMine will prompt you whether or not to apply a "limit" on the Previewed Filter or Group. This is not required. If you'd like to see the entire contents of the Filter / Group, simply click "No"

Your Search Center should now be showing you all the Contacts within the Filter / Group. Keep in mind that your Previewed Filter is "activated" within the Search Center at this point, and to Release it, you must eventually right-click within the Filters and Groups pane on the left hand side and select "Release Preview".

GoldMine : Customizing Tabs for all Users

One of the nicest things about the Contact Record tab "strip" (The Summary, Pending, History tabs, etc) is the ability to re-order the Tabs themselves. With the newer version of GoldMine, this gets even better with the ability to re-order the Tabs for all users.

To do this;

1. Select Tools | Options from the top level menu

2. Click on the Record tab

3. Click on "Tabs"

4. Use Up and Down buttons to re-order the tabs just how you want them

5. You may also check or uncheck each Tab to control it's viewable property

6. To apply the changes to All Users, click the box labeled "Customize Globally"

7. Ok your way out

You will need to relogin to GoldMine to apply any changes. Happy customizing!

GoldMine : Using Events

Events are a kind of special Scheduled Activity in GoldMine. They behave differently than "normal" Scheduled Items in the sense that:

- Event durations are measured in Days, not Hours
- On the calendar, Events only show on the Monthly Tab

To schedule an Event;

1. Select Schedule | Event from the top level menu

2. When scheduling your Event, notice that the Duration only accepts number of Days

3. Plug in the rest of your Scheduled item information as usual

4. Ok your way out

Once the Event is scheduled, it appears in the Pending Tab of the associated Contact, and it's Alarm (if enabled), will act like all other Alarms. The biggest difference is that on the graphical Calendar (Go To | Calendar), it will only appear on the Month tab. Give it a try!

GoldMine : Automatically Alarming Scheduled Items

Did you know that you can automatically set Alarms for certain Activity Types (i.e. Calls, Appointments, Next Actions, etc)? Actually, this has been possible for a long time via an INI file hack, but the newer versions actually have this in User Preferences.

To enable Automatic Alarms;

1. Select Tools | Options from the top level menu

2. Go to the Alarms tab

3. Click "More Options"

4. Check the box next to which Activity Types you wish to automatically alarm

5. If desired, check the box labeled "Show a single alarm for activities linked to multiple contacts", which behaves as expected

6. Ok your way out

You'll notice that now when you go to Schedule one of those Activity Types, the Alarm Date is automatically populated with the same date as the activity. You'll also notice the Alarm Time is omitted. This means that the alarm will happen at any time on the day in question. Try it!

MSCRM 2011: Creating Mail Merge Letter Templates

Create a Letter Template for Global Use

* Determine for which entity (i.e. Account, Contact, Lead or Custom) the letter template should be created.

* From the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Outlook Client or the Web Client, select recipients(s) from the entity list view or from within a particular record and then click the Add tab.
* Click Mail Merge.
* Under Start with a: Select blank template since you are creating a new template.
* Under Merge: Select Selected records on current page.
* Under Select data fields: Click on the data fields button. This is where the fields that can be inserted into your template are chosen. Note: fields from entities that are related to the entity for which the template is being created are also available to be added to the template.

* Microsoft Office Word will be automatically opened.

Click the Add-In tab and click on CRM.
* Follow Microsoft Word’s Mail Merge wizard panel:
* Choose Recipients
* Insert the date, address block, body of the letter and signature and format appropriately.
* Complete the merge by printing.

Note: If the mail merge was initiated through the Outlook Client, you will have an option at this point to automatically upload the Template to CRM. If the mail merge was initiated through the web client, you need to save the template (XML file) and then go into Settings, Templates, Mail Merge Template and manually upload the saved template.

In both cases you will now need to make the template available to the Organization. Go to Settings, Templates, Mail Merge Template, Select the New Template, Drop Down on More Actions and choose to Make Available to New Organization.

The letter template is now available to be used. When you go back into to do a mail merge using this template, in the first page of the wizard, under Start with a: select Existing Template.

Note: If a mail merge is initiated through the Outlook Client, you will have an option after completing the merge to create a letter activity at that time. If a mail merge is initiated through the web client, you will need to manually create a letter activity.

MSCRM 2011: Implementing Activity Feeds

One of the new features that came out in the November Service Release for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 was Activity Feeds. Activity Feeds are a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 version of a LinkedIn or Facebook home page where it displays recent 'activities' or updates related to those entities in which you choose to follow. It provides an event-driven view of changes in your Dynamics CRM. A new lead is created, an account is reassigned, a case is resolved, an opportunity advances through the pipeline: these are all examples of the kinds of events that can be surfaced through feeds. They, however, are not social CRM and have nothing to do with social media. The current release is intended for an “internal audience”. It exposes information about Dynamics CRM records to Dynamics CRM users.

Some of the features are as follows:
* A What’s New area is added to your Workplace area.
* Share an insight with your colleagues or update your status
* Edit your personal profile and add a photo
* View who and what you are following in the Activity Feed area
* See other user's status updates

Activity Feeds are composed of the following components: Wall, Post and Follow.

The wall is where the activity feeds are shown activity feeds. Users all have a personal wall, which is what you see when you click What’s New at the top of the Workplace. Records can also have a wall – not surprisingly referred to as the Record Wall. If an entity is configured to have a record wall, you can access it by clicking Record Wall in the form navigation. You can enter a personal status in the Text Box at the top.

Posts are what make up your activity feed. Every item appearing on a wall is a single post record. Part of the power of the activity feeds implementation comes from this architecture: post is an entity. You can create advanced find queries for post and create workflows with posts and posts can trigger workflows.

If a record type is enabled for activity feeds you can follow it. For example, you might follow an account or an opportunity record that you’re particularly interested in. If you follow a record, any post made on that record’s wall will appear on your personal wall as well.
Most record types now have Follow and Un-follow buttons on the ribbon; they will only be clickable if a record type is enabled for feeds.

Configuring Activity Feeds

Activity Feeds are included in a managed solution package. Depending on your deployment scenario, you may or may not have to import the solution package before you can use them.

If you run Dynamics CRM 2011 on-premise, or Dynamics CRM Online with an organization that was setup before the November 2011 service update was released, you need to download the solution package from the Dynamics marketplace and import it. After importing the solution and activating processes, nothing is configured automatically, and you will need to configure activity feeds.

If you setup a new Dynamics CRM Online after the 11/11 service update was released, activity feeds are included automatically in your organization. In this scenario, activity feeds (Configurations) are enabled for several entities, and post rules are activated for the lead, opportunity, case and dialog record types.

After the solution is imported, you will see two new options in the System area of Settings: Activity Feed Configuration and Activity Feed Rule.

Activity Feed Configuration

Activity feeds are configured on a per entity basis. Basically, in order to enable activity feeds for an entity, you need to add a configuration record for it. After installing the solution, for example, you can follow these steps to enable activity feeds for the Lead entity:

* In the Navigation Pane, click Settings, and then click Activity Feeds Configuration.
* On the ribbon, click New. The Post Configuration form appears.
* Type lead in the Entity Name field, and select the Enable walls… option.
* Click Save & Close, and then publish the Lead entity as instructed.

You can enable activity feeds for most record types, including: Contact and Account, Lead, Opportunity, Case. Activity records such as Task, Appointment and Custom entities.

When setting up a post configuration (i.e., enabling an entity for activity feeds), you cannot browse to the entity – you need to type it in.
After enabling feeds for an entity you can follow it and you can post updates on a record’s wall (assuming the Enable walls… option is selected). You can also select multiple records and follow them all at once.

Activity Feed Rules

By itself, enabling activity feeds (i.e., creating a configuration record) for a record type doesn’t do anything except gives users the ability to follow records of that type. In particular, it doesn’t specify anything about the events that might cause posts to get pushed out automatically. That’s the job of rules.
Rules specify when posts will be automatically created for certain record types. You cannot create rules. Currently rules can only be created by the system, and they are only created for certain record types! Suppose you followed the steps in the previous section and enabled activity feeds for the Lead Entity. If you then click Activity Feeds Rules, you will see a New Lead created and A Lead has been qualified Rules which are automatically created.

Some items to consider considering rules:

* You cannot create rules yourself – there’s no UI to create or manage them. The system creates them automatically, but only for certain record types.
* Case, opportunity and lead all have post rules automatically created, as do the activity types task, appointment and phone call.
* Custom entities can be enabled for feeds, but they do not have any post rules created automatically.
* For the rules the system creates, you can activate or deactivate them, and you can also delete them.
* Post Configurations can be deactivated or activated. If you deactivate a configuration (e.g., for opportunity), any associated rules are deactivated. If the configuration is then activated again, ALL rules for that entity will be activated (even in cases where they are not all activated the first time you configure the entity).
* Configurations can also be deleted. If they are, any associated rules are deleted.

You can also follow Users. When a User is followed, the rules that are activated above will post items to your wall when the User you are following also makes changes to those entities.

In the next service update of Microsoft Dynamics CRM expected second quarter 2012, there will be a series of enhancements to the Activity Feeds feature: like/dislike, enhanced filtering and an updated mobile activity feeds client for Windows Phone 7.5.

MSCRM 2011: Teams and Queues

Teams are a convenient way to group users who work together on sets of records in Dynamics CRM. Teams can own records and are assigned security roles the way that users are assigned security roles.

To create a new team, click the Teams link from the Administration page in the Settings area. Give the team a name and make sure it is linked to the correct business unit.

Teams in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 can own records. It’s also possible to assign security roles to teams which will allow customers to manage overall security at a team level, rather than a user level.

When a team is created, a queue for that team is automatically created.

Routing your work with queues
You can use queues to manage your activities and cases. There are two types of default queues:

*Items available to work on. This folder contains active cases and activities that have been assigned to you, but that you have not yet accepted. This can include e-mail messages that you have received.
*Items I am working on. This folder contains cases and activities that you've accepted and are currently working on.

Items can appear in a queue for several different reasons:

*E-mail. E-mail sent to an individual appears in that person's Items available to work on view. Public queues can also have an e-mail address.
*Assignment. Records move into a person's Items available to work on view when other people assign those records to them. You can also assign an item to yourself.
*Workflow. A workflow can place items into both public and private queues automatically.

When you've finished working on a record in a queue, you can resolve it, close it, reassign it, or remove it, depending on the type of record and what needs to happen to it next.

Follow these steps to assign a case, activity, or other record in the Queues list to yourself, or to another user:

* In the Navigation Pane, click Workplace, and then under My Work, click Queues.
* On the Actions toolbar, in the Queue Items drop-down list, select Items available to work on.
* In the list, select one or more queue items that you want to assign.
* On the Queue Items tab, click the Work On button.
* In the Assign Queued Items dialog box, do one of the following:
* To assign the selected items to yourself, select the Assign to me to work on radio button. Click OK to close the dialog box.
* To assign the selected item to another user, select the Assign to another user to work on radio button and Click the Lookup button. In the Look Up Record dialog box, in the View drop-down box, select the view you want. In the Search box, type part or all of the name you want, and then click the Search for icon. In the list, select the name you want. Click OK to close the dialog box and save the name.
* Click OK to close the Assign Queued Items dialog box.

Note: If you assigned the queue item to yourself, it is now available for you to work on. You can see all items assigned to you in the Items I am working on view.

Yes/No Prompt

A client asked this: We created a new autotask, however, when we run it a Yes/No prompt appears. Can you explain how to stop this from happening?

Yes, most likely you enabled a checkbox that is labeled 'Confirm Auto Task Run'. To stop this prompt, do the following:

* Open Autotask > Manage Autotasks > Highlight the autotask

* Look in the lower corner > uncheck the Confirm Auto Task Run

* Click Close > test the autotask

Now that you know how this works, you can also consider ways that it can be used. For example, if you have an autotask that poses a potentially risk if executed accidentally, you could check this box and spell out the risk in the Description of the autotask.

Track Ticket Progress

A client asked: Is there an easier way to track ongoing activity with a ticket than paging through Journal entries to review the activities of a ticket?

We currently append information to the Solution Description on the Call Log screen but feel there should be a better method. 

An alternative approach would be to create a Memo field on the Call Log screen (or Journal) and call it Work Log. This Log would be updated using an autotask appends work performed and a date/time stamp. 

To add a Work Log field, you would do the following:

* Select Administrator > New Edit Set

* Select CallLog > System > Open Table > Add Field

* Enter Field Name and Description (e.g. WorkLog)

* Enter Field Type of Memo > Click OK

* Click Add Field to Form > Place the field where desired

* Add a Command Button > Add Text Label to button

The command button needs to be connected to an autotask that will append information to the Work Log field. To save time, create an autotask named 'Add To Work Log' in Call Logging. The Update Call action and click OK. The details can be added later.

* Click on the command button > Click Control > Connect > Autotask

* Select the 'Add To Work Log' autotask > Click Save

* Close form/table > Close HEAT modules and services > Click Commit 

To complete the Work Log, you need to add the details to the Add To Work Log autotask. This function will allow you to append information to the Work Log field as the ticket progresses and use the Solution Description to hold the final solution.

* Open Call Logging > Click Autotasks > Manage Autotasks 

* Click 'Add To Work Log' > Click Edit > Click the WorkLog field

* Click Insert > Insert Function > Click @UserID() 

* Click Insert > Insert Function > Click @CurrentDate() 

* Click Insert > Insert Function > Click @Prompt() 

* Enter a Prompt (e.g. Enter Work Details) > Click OK

* Enter a Prompt (e.g. Enter Work Details) > Click OK

You will need to add spaces and a colon to the different fields appended to the Log field to make it readable. This can be done while creating the Insert Functions. For example, when inserting @UserID(), add a colon and two spaces before inserting @CurrentDate(). This will separate the two fields and make it easy to read. Do this for the other fields and leave the option as Append on the WorkLog field.

Test this function using the command button and revise as needed.

Quick Customize Error

A client had this problem: When I try to apply a Quick Customize I get an error: 'Could not create recovery file'. Where is this recovery file and how do I fix this error?

This error could be created by the recovery file being directed to a folder where you do not have permissions. To correct this:

* Locate a folder where you can create a file

* Open the registry with regedit 

Note: backup the registry first and get help with this if you are uncertain how to proceed with a registry change.

* Open the following registry key:

"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\FrontRange Solutions\HEAT\Admin\Commit" 

* If a string value named 'Directory' does not exist, then create it

* Right click Commit > select New > String Value > name Directory

* Enter the folder where you verified you can create a file

This should allow you to create the recovery file in the folder where you have permissions.

Business Rule Protection

A client asked this: What can we do to protect our existing business rules while developing new rules?

One approach is to use a Development system to create and test new rules and then use the BPAM import/export function to move the new rules to your Production system. The import/export function is also a good method to backup rules.

After creating new rules on the Development system:

* From the Business Rule Editor, click File > Export

* Select one or more rules to export

* Choose a place to store the .hef file > click Export

Note: if you check Process Linked Items at the bottom of the window, it will retain the Call Group and Auto Tasks used for the rule.

After you export the rules from the Development system, you can import them into the Production system as follows:

* On your Production system, open the Business Rule Editor

* Select File > Import > Browse to the exported .hef file

* Click Import

The new rules will be added to your Production system.

Crystal Reports : Using the Format Painter

In order to shorten the time it takes to make a report look nice, we can use the format painter to first, "copy" the formatting from one field, then "paste" it onto another. Formatting includes everything under the formatting options menu, including things like decimal places, currency symbol, etc.

1. Click on the object you want to "copy" the formatting of.
2. Go to Format | Format Painter on the top level menu
3. Click on the object you want to apply the formatting to

Note: Some versions of Crystal will not have this menu option, but will instead provide a format painter toolbar icon, in the form of a little paintbrush.

Crystal Reports : Creating a Verbose value from a "Code"

In many instances, you'll be reporting from a series of Codes. Let's imagine that we are Grouping a report on {ORDERS.PRODUCTCODE}, which is a three character value denoting the type of Product sold.

Values are:

- WID (Widget 5000)
- SRV (Professional Services)
- MSC (Miscellaneous)

But now let's imagine the Boss wants to see the actual Type Names on the report (so, instead of WID he wants to see "Widget 5000".

This is easily done with a simple Formula:

1. From your Field Explorer, right click on "Formulas" and select New.

2. Give your new Formula a descriptive name like {@frmProductCode}.

3. Paste in the following text:

IF {ORDERS.PRODUCTCODE} = "WID" THEN "Widget 5000" ELSE
IF {ORDERS.PRODUCTCODE} = "SRV" THEN "Professional Services" ELSE
IF {ORDERS.PRODUCTCODE} = "MSC" THEN "Miscellaneous" ELSE "Unknown"

4. Now simply Save and Exit the Formula Editor, and place the new Formula on your report. Note the final ELSE kicks out "Unknown", so if someday someone mistakenly entered in "MSV" (fat fingering the "C") for Miscellaneous, we will get an "Unknown" on the report, making it way for us to determine what happened.

Crystal Reports : Aligning Objects within the Designer

Here is an oldy but a goody;

For reports that need to look like spreadsheets, or where your fields need to line up precisely, you will want to learn the Align menu.

Here is the way it works; you can Align a group of selected Objects to share the same:

- Left hand side, Right hand side
- Midpoints, baselines, etc

To make this happen, find two fields you want to Align.

1. Select both of them using CTRL-Clicking. Select the field that NEEDS TO BE ALIGNED FIRST.

2. From the top level menu, select Format | Align | Lefts (for instance)

You'll notice that all your selected objects now share the left hand side with the LASTLY SELECTED ITEM. If you get your order screwed up, simply hit CTRL-Z to undo, then try again!

Crystal Reports : Catching Value Exceptions in Formulas

Here is a typical situation; you're working with a plain text date, by which I mean someone has just been entering in "loose" dates into a text field. So our values could be any one of these combinations of formatting:

1/1/12
01/01/2012
01/12
01/2012
etc...

The problem here was that I had to calculate number of days that had passed since the Date {CONTACT.CONTRACTDATE} in question, so I created a simple formula;

{@frmDateMath}
CURRENTDATE - {CONTACT.CONTRACTDATE}

Which would return the number of days passed. Now, Crystal is pretty forgiving when it comes to plain text dates. It will actually "catch" all of the examples given above.

But when we started to run the report, it kept blowing up on "bad date values". Further inspection of the database revealed that users had been entering in values like:

01/01/2010 Signed
Estimate 01/2012
...etc

Which is to say they were mixing both text and date formats within the same field. So, the natural thing you'd want to do is add an exception to {@frmDateMath} like this; (kicking out 01/01/1980 whenever a date failed)

IF {CONTACT.CONTRACTDATE} LIKE "*Signed*" THEN "01/01/1980" ELSE
IF {CONTACT.CONTRACTDATE} LIKE "*Estimate*" THEN "01/01/1980"
ELSE {CONTACT.CONTRACTDATE}

...which would prevent the formula from ever trying to perform date math on a malformed date. (Assuming all malformed dates have the words "Estimate" or "Signed" in them)

ProTip: You may find yourself providing more exceptions than logic (depending on end users, in which case it is highly desirable to go to the source and start cleaning that up :)

Crystal Reports : Grouping records by the Date

I recently did a report for a client where we were summarizing (summing) Sales by Week of the Year. Remember, whenever you're summarizing values, you need to think about how those values will be Grouped; that more than half the work.

Let us imagine the database field we're Grouping on in called {ORDERS.ORDERDATE}.

So, we would first insert a Group using Insert | Group from the top level menu. Then, simply specifying {ORDERS.ORDERDATE} from the field drop down.

However, by default, Groups on Dates fall into Daily Group (or even worse, Day and Time Groups, if your software is track a time precision).

To change the Group to Weekly;

1. Select Report | Change Group Expert from the top level menu.

2. Select the Group you wish to modify, click the Options button.

3. When Crystal detects a Date Value as a Group, it displays the "The Section will be Printed" drop down. Select the appropriate interval from this list. In our case, we used "For each week".

You'll notice that now your Report is Grouped by Week (Based on {ORDERS.ORDERDATE}).

GoldMine : Setting the Calendar Time Increment

Did you know that you can specify the Increments on the Daily Calendar? By default, the Daily Calendar (Go To | Calendar) divides the day into thirty minute increments. Some businesses (especially those with a lot of Phone Call volume) may wish to set this to fifteen minutes.

To do this:

1. Select Tools | Options from the top level menu

2. Select the Calendar tab.

3. Drop down the "Increment Time By" list and select your desired increment

4. OK your way out.

Try it!

GoldMine : Auto-selecting Field Contents

Did you know that you can set GoldMine to "auto-select" the contents of a field when you click into it? Think of it like this; when you click into the Address bar of Internet Explorer or Firefox, the contents are automatically selected (highlighted), making it east to overwrite whatever is there by simply typing. It also makes it easy to Copy the contents of the field by simply hitting CTRL-C (the default Windows Copy command).

To set this up:

1. Select Tools | Options from the top level menu
2. Select the "Record" Tab
3. Check the box labeled "Select Contents of Fields"

You will need to log back into GoldMine when prompted to affect the change. Try it!

GoldMine : Viewing Filters in the Search Center

Did you know that you can view and Activate Filters from within the Search Center?

1. Open the GoldMine Search Center by clicking on the "Search" toolbar button.

2. Click on the Filters/Groups button at the top of the Search Center.

3. You'll notice that a Filters/Groups pane has opened itself up within the Search Center. Open up either the Filters or Groups tree and select the Filter/Group you wish to Activate.

4. GoldMine will prompt you to apply a Limit on the currently selected Filter/Group. You can simply click "No.". (What that actually does is bring you to the Optimize tab of the selected Filter/Group.

5. You'll see that your selected Filter/Group is now displayed as Search Results.

This is handy as you can take advantage of the Column format of the Search Center (the Preview portion in the Filters window only shows Contact and Company name).

NOTE: The last selected Filter/Group will be "Active" for the Search Center until you Close and ReOpen the Search Center.

GoldMine : Linking Documents the Easy Way

I am a big fan of Easy. Did you know that you can easily link a document to a Contact Record by dragging a file onto it from Windows Explorer?

1. Find the file you wish to link using Windows Explorer.
2. Simply drag-and-drop it into GoldMine onto the Contact Record. The Links Tab need not be open.
3. You'll see the familiar "Linked Document" window pop up. Notice that the filename is already filled in using the information from the file you just dragged into GoldMine.
4. Simply hit OK. Your Document is Linked.

ProTip: When linking documents to GoldMine, always make sure the document is linked somewhere other Users can get to it (like a Public network drive, for example).

GoldMine : Setting Tabstop Order

I am a big fan of keyboard shortcuts; take for instance the TAB key. When editing a field on the Current Contact Record in GoldMine, you can hit TAB to cycle through the other fields. But you'll probably notice, depending on how much customization you've done so far, that the order might be a little screwy.

To set the field order, simply bring up the properties of any field on the Contact Record.

1. Enter Screen Design mode by right-clicking on the Contact Record and selecting "Screen Design".
2. Double-click the field you wish to modify.
3. Select the "Layout" tab.
4. Change the "Position" number on the lower right hand side to reflect where the field should appear in your TAB cycle.

To Make it Easier: Do a print screen of your GoldMine Contact Record, and print it out using Microsoft Paint or something similar. Then mark each field on the paper with their corresponding order numbers. Only THEN go ahead and edit the TAB stops in GoldMine. The reason being is that it can be easy to get "lost" when working without a map. Try it!

QuickBooks: Two Instances of One Bank Account

I am a bookkeeper for a small business and created a bank account in QuickBooks and entered some Journal Entries with owner's contribution, his reimbursable expenses etc.. Unfortunately, it seems the owner decided to continue working on the data file and set up the bank account in QuickBooks to connect to his bank account on line so he can download the transactions. Now there are two of the same bank accounts in QuickBooks. How do I move the 'entries' I created into the account that is mapped to the bank online so that everything is in one place?

Response:
You can merge the two bank accounts. However, if the owner has downloaded transactions into QuickBooks, there could be duplicate data. When you reconcile the bank account, you will be able to delete the duplicate entries, if appropriate.

Note that in order to merge, you may need to unlink Online Banking before you merge and then re-set it up.

QuickBooks: Quick Help for Reconciliation Issue

HELP! I reconciled the previous month and everything was OK. When I started this month’s reconciliation, the beginning balance does not match last month's ending balance! Is there a quick & easy way to sniff out the problem? Or do I need to just retrace my steps - or start over for the previous month!!

Here's a neat and different trick to isolate the differential:
• Go to your reconcile window. Refer to the previous month's paper statement and enter the previous statement END DATE and ENDING BALANCE.
• Click continue.
• You'll see the difference in the bottom right hand corner and should be able to find the problem quickly (assuming it's just one or two items).
• Check off the items so that your difference is zero, and click RECONCILE NOW.

Now the numbers will be accurate to proceed with the current month. This method enables you to get back on track without having to un-reconcile first.

For your information:It is important to first understand that there are only so many ways a reconciled previous ending balance is changed as identified below:
1. A cleared transaction is changed to uncleared status
2. The date of a cleared transaction is changed to a post reconciliation date
3. The amount of a cleared transaction is changed
4. A cleared transaction is deleted
5. A new transaction is entered with a date before the previous balance date

QuickBooks: Advice For Managing Backups In QB Professional

Question: I am a CPA and have several clients who run QB Pro 2010. I also have my own copy in my own office. Normally, I take a backup of work done on site per client and then restore it to my own PC. Any tips on making this process mistake proof? What’s the actual difference between a QBW, a QBB and a QBM file? Thanks for any advice

Answer: It is not uncommon for Accounting Professionals to need to work on a client data file. However, the question is what is actually being done? That is, are they going to make changes and then give the data back to the client? In that case, they may be better off using the Accountant's Copy feature - although it does depend on what exactly you are doing with the file.

Understanding the different file types:
A QBW file is the "native" file. Uncompressed, and just the QuickBooks company file by itself.

A QBB file is a backup. Compressed a bit, and it includes other files that may be a part of the client installation, such as logo/graphics for forms, loan manager files, etc.

A QBM file is a compressed file that is more portable, usually used if you are emailing a file. It is not as complete as a QBB.

If the accounting professional takes any file back to their office other than the Accountant's Copy, and make changes that need to get back to the client – the client then cannot do any work (other than just viewing the file) on their side while the accounting professional has it. If they do, those changes will be lost when the accounting professional restores the file that they had been working on.

The Accountant's Copy process gets around that BUT there are restrictions and limitations.

Alternately, the accounting professional can choose to not bring back the file, and instead log in to their computer remotely and do your work on the original file. Then there is only one copy of the file. But that requires a good Internet connection, and a computer at their office that remains on and not in use so you can access it.

Going beyond that are more involved solutions, like using a Hosted QuickBooks installation or switching to QuickBooks Online.

QuickBooks: Locking the File after It Has Been Officially Closed

We are in the throes of preparing the data files to be reviewed by the CPA. That means all the changes or corrections that need to be made for the year should be done. When you send your data file to the CPA, consider that file officially closed for the year.

Your CPA will then work on the information provided, and they don’t want you going back in and changing OR deleting anything that relates to that year. If you change an old invoice or delete a duplicate bill, you’ve done just that.

QuickBooks provides a way to “lock” the data file to avoid making changes to a closed period. It is a feature called the “Closing Date” and it is very easy to use.

To do this task
1. Open the accounting preferences.
2. Click the Company Preferences tab.
3. In the Closing Date section, click the Set Date/Password button.
4. In the Date section, select the date through which you want your books to be closed.
5. (Optional, but recommended) Enter a password in both the Password and Confirm Password fields to limit access to the closed accounting period.
6. Click OK.

TIP: You will need to change the date in the “Closing Date” field manually at the end of each closing period. QuickBooks does not do that automatically for you. Set a Reminder (Company > Reminders) to ensure you don’t forget to update this critical box!

QuickBooks: “Sunset” of ALL 2009 Versions

It’s that time of year again – Intuit’s annual “Sunset” of older versions of QuickBooks. If you are using QuickBooks 2009 then you won’t be able to use certain services and features after May 31 2012.

In a nutshell, you lose any kind of feature that uses an online service from Intuit. Any feature that is self contained in your computer will continue to work, but if it requires any sort of updates or services via the Internet, you have to upgrade to a currently supported version. This should include the following in the US Windows versions:

-- QuickBooks Assisted, Basic, Standard or Enhanced Payroll
-- Employee Organizer
-- QuickBooks Merchant Service and Billing Solutions
-- QuickBooks Email (using their server)
-- Bill Pay and Online Banking
-- Intuit Technical Support Plans and Services

This also means that you won’t be getting any more updates to your copy of QuickBooks. No more bug fixes, no more new features. Note that this should NOT affect most third-party products that integrate with QuickBooks, but you should check with your vendor to be sure. This is a key issue in some cases. If you want to reinstall your 2009 program on a new computer, that program will not be updated automatically. You may be installing the R1 release if you install from a CD. Sometimes that creates an issue where the new install cannot access your existing QuickBooks company data if it had been used with a later release.

What Should You Do?
If you are using QuickBooks, the standard answer is “now is the time to upgrade”. Upgrading should be relatively painless going from QB 2009 to 2012, although there can sometimes be problems that range from minor annoyances, to major concerns.

As a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, I will be able to help you and you should feel free to reach out.

GoldMine : Adding a Record to a Contact Group

As we all know, Contact Groups in GoldMine are just lists of Customers. The lists don't change unless we add to or remove from the Group.

The new GoldMine has a really handy dandy button right on the Contact Record toolbar, the "Add To" button. This allows you to very easily add single records to Contact Groups without having to actually go into the Groups window.

From the Contact Record you wish to add,

1. Click the "Add To" button located at the top of the Contact Record.
2. Select "Contact Group".
3. Choose the Group you want to add the Contact Record to.
4. If desired, type in a Reference (this is seen in the Groups window).
5. Hit OK.

It's just that easy. Try it!

GoldMine : Auto-populate Forecasted Sale amount based on Product

When Forecasting Sales in GoldMine, you can auto-populate the Amount field based on when Product you choose from the drop down.

To do this;

1. Select Schedule | Sale
2. Click on the PickList arrow for the Product field
3. To force a dollar amount for any Product in this list, click Edit and append a "//", then the dollar amount.

So, if our Product entry is "Widget", we want it to say "Widget //350.00".

Now, when you choose Widget from the Product list, an amount of $350.00 is automatically entered. Try it!

GoldMine : Keeping a Clean Inbox

This can be a huge deal; having a huge Inbox. I am one of the worst offenders. My Inbox right at this moment is at about 800. Which is actually fine, it's not until you get to 2500 or so that you start to run into problems. E-mail Center takes forever to come up, you can't see downloaded new e-mail, etc.

GoldMine wants us to deal with our Inbox. This happens in one of a few different ways;

1. When Replying to an E-mail, GoldMine automatically files the original in History, alongside your Reply.
2. When Deleting an E-mail, removes the item from the Inbox and puts it into Trash.
3. You can File e-mails manually from the E-mail center itself.

That third option is for all those e-mails that accumulate, you know, the stuff that you wanna keep, but doesn't require a reply. What to do about those?

The easiest way to deal with these is to Fast File them. This gets them out of your Inbox and into the associated Contacts History.

From your Inbox, right click on a single e-mail and select Fast File. It's just that easy. It's gone into History. You can also multiply select a range of e-mails using the SHIFT key, or add single e-mail to the list with a CTRL click. I highly recommend that if you cleaning out a bunch, do it in 100 record chunks. That way, your GoldMine isn't totally tied up.

You'll notice a snappier E-mail Center all around if you keep up with your Inbox from time to time.

GoldMine : Enabling Large Fonts

A lot of folks like to use "Large Fonts" in GoldMine. This can make a long day of pouring over Contact Records a little easier on the eyes...

1. Select Tools | Options
2. Click on the "Record" tab
3. Click the "Use Large Font" checkbox
4. Hit OK
5. Log back into GoldMine

You'll notice now that all the text in GoldMine is slightly larger. In some rare cases it may cause some general weirdness with Field Names being displayed properly, but this is purely cosmetic. I just switched mine to Large to prepare for this blog posting, and now I'm surprised to say I'll probably keep it this way. Kinda nice. Try it!

GoldMine : Storing Dates in GoldMine

This actually came up with a client today, when trying to run a Crystal Report on some date values they had been tracking in GoldMine. Most users like to track, say, a birthdate, or perhaps a Contract Signed date.

The important thing to know here is that when we need to report on these dates in the future, they will need to be Data Type Date. You may be tempted to simply use one of the default fields in GoldMine (the "Key" fields are notorious for this) and easily start inputting your dates (i.e. 01/01/2012, 04/20/92, etc.).

A better way to do it is to create a new field specifically meant to track the date.

Note: You MUST have exclusive rights to the database and a Master user account in GoldMine to do this.

1. On the Fields tab of your GoldMine, right click and select "New Field"
2. Click the "New Field" button
3. Give your new field a name (must start with the letter "U") like UCONTRACT
4. Give your new field a description, like "Contract Signed Date"
5. Select Field Type : Date
6. Hit OK.
7. You will now see your new field on the Contact Record. Move it to where you want it.
8. Click away from your new field. Hit OK in the "Field Properties" window.
9. You'll be warned that the Database needs to be rebuilt. Click Yes.
10. After GoldMine is done rebuilding, log back in.

Your new Date field should now be "open" and accepting data. You'll notice that when you bring up the picklist for this new field, it's a Calendar Control, allow the end user to easliy and consistently input date values.

And because it's being tracked as a Date Type, it's easy to (down the road) report on say, all contracts signed in 2011, etc. You'll love yourself later.

MSCRM 2011: How to change Icons for Custom Entities

MS Dynamics CRM 2011 provides the following feature that allows you to change the icons of a custom entity. This method is very simple and there is no coding required for this. The images need to be uploaded as web resources.
Following are the steps to upload an image file:

* Go to Settings, Customizations, Customize the System.
* Click New from the toolbar and select Web Resource from the list.

There are three types of icons to be assigned (Each should not be more than 10KB).
1. 16x16 pixels --This Icon will be placed in Web Application
2. 32x32 pixels --This Icon will be placed as the shortcut icon in the MS Office Outlook
3. 66x48 Pixels --This Icon will be placed on the entity form

The key advantage of MS Dynamics CRM 2011 is that it provides us the web resource utility to store all these Icons. So first we need to store all these Icons in the web resource so that we could reference them later. It is ideal to name each icon with some identifier. For instance to identify 16x16 pixels we could name it as myicon16.png. This will provide more readability. This is not mandatory but a suggestion.

* Enter the following Information in the New Web Resource Dialog:
* Name, Display Name and Type (PNG, JPG or GIF)
* Choose the file to be uploaded

Following are the steps to update a custom entity Icon:
* Navigate to Settings, Customizations, Customize the System.
* Expand the Entities node and then select a custom entity. You will notice the toolbar will show the Update Icons toolbar.
Note: You can only update the icons for custom entities. You cannot change the system entity icons.
* Click the Update Icons toolbar option.
* Within this window you can select the Web Resource of your uploaded icons. This window allows you to upload 3 different icons; 16×16, 32×32 and 66×48.
Note: Prerequisite with this window is that you have uploaded 3 different icons already to the Web Resource section.

There are only 2 icons that you can ACTUALLY change in CRM 2011 to custom entities. These are:
1. Icon in Web application (16×16, Less than 10kb, Programmatic Development Property = IconSmallName)
2. Icon for Entity Detail Forms (32×32, Less than 10kb, Programmatic Development Property = IconMediumName)

However the 3rd icon, the 66×48, is not used in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. The application incorrectly labels this as the Icon in Entity forms. Programmatic Development Property for this is IconLargeName.

The recommendation is that you use .PNG Web resources because they support transparency and good compression with a better color fidelity than GIF.
GIF, JPG, & ICO formats are supported for backwards compatibility when organizations upgrade from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

Following is a link to a solution that contains some free images in the correct sizes and formats. This link also describes how to upload the solution file.

"http://www.emtecinc.com/blog/crm-blog/2011/12/19/a-custom-entity-icons-solution-for-crm/"

MSCRM 2011: Creating Marketing Campaigns

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 allows you to track marketing program information on a Campaign record. You can track the offer, type, schedule, and financial information about the campaign. For instance, you might have a campaign that coordinates the advertising activities planned for the launch of a new product.
The following fields are tracked on campaigns and campaign templates:

* Name: This field contains the title of the campaign.
* Status Reason: This denotes the status of the campaign for reporting purposes. The default statuses are Proposed, Ready to Launch, Launched, Completed, Canceled and Suspended.
* Campaign Code: This can be either a user-entered or system-generated code for the campaign.
* Campaign Type: This provides a category for the campaign, such as Advertisement, Direct Marketing, Event or Co-branding. This field is useful in reporting.
* Expected Response: This allows you to record the expected response for a campaign as a percentage from 0 to 100.
* Total Cost of Campaign Activities: In this field, Microsoft Dynamics CRM automatically totals the cost of all campaign activities.
* Miscellaneous Costs: This field records miscellaneous costs associated with the campaign.
* Total Cost of Campaign: This field contains the sum of the total cost of campaign activities and miscellaneous costs.

Create a Campaign through the following steps:
1. On the site map, click Marketing and then click Campaigns.
2. On the Campaigns tab, in the Records group, click New.
3. In the General section of the form, enter the appropriate information. The most important fields include:

* Name: This is a required field.
* Currency: If you intend to associate a price list with the campaign you must select the same currency that is specified in the price list.
* Status Reason: Click on the stage that the campaign is in the
drop-down.
* Campaign Type: Select the campaign type in the drop-down.
* Price List: If you select a price list, any opportunities arising from this campaign will automatically get the same price list.
* Offer: Enter a description of the actual offer you are contacting
customers about.
* Proposed Begin Date, Proposed End Date
* Actual Begin Date, Actual End Date

4. In the Financials section of the form, enter the appropriate
information and observe any noted restrictions or requirements as
needed:

* Budget Allocated
* Expected Revenue
* Miscellaneous Costs: Enter the total for any known costs of the
campaign that are not entered in the actual campaign activity
records.

5. In the Notes section of the form, enter any information that might be
helpful to users who will view this campaign.
6. On the Campaign tab, in the Save group, click Save & Close.

* You are now able to add Planning Activities and Campaign Activities. You can also add a Marketing List at this time.

MSCRM 2011: Web Resources: Using JScript to Hide/Show Tabs

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, there are a number of Web Resources available.
They are:
*HTML Web Pages
*Style Sheets (CSS)
*Script (JScript)
*Data (XML)
*Images(PNG, JPG, GIF, or ICO)
*Silverlight (XAP)
*Style Sheets (XSL)

With the addition of the Jscript Web Resource, there is no longer a need to copy the Jscript to each of the Functions where the Jscript is needed.

In this example, we are going to create a simple JScript function which hides a tab on the Campaign Entity depending on a value in a picklist field – namely, Campaign Type. The Additional Information tab will only be show when the value in the Campaign type picklist field is set to Trade Show. (Note: Trade Show is a custom value that has been added to this picklist)

Following are the steps:

* Task 1 – Create a new JavaScript Library
* Go to Settings, Customizations, Customize the System.
* Click New from the toolbar and select Web Resource from the list.
* Enter the following Information in the New Web Resource Dialog:
* Name= “hideshowAddlInfoTabCampaign”
* Display Name= “Hide Show Addl Info Tab Campaigns”
* Type= “Script (Jscript)”
* Click the Text Editor button
* Paste the following script in to the source dialog.

Function hideshowaddlinfotabcampaigns (eventContext)
{
var option = Xrm.Page.getAttribute (“typecode”).getSelectedOption().text;
If (option == “Trade Show”)
{
Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get (“AdditionalInfo).setVisible(true);
}
Else
{
Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get (“AdditionalInfo).setVisible(false);
}
}

* Click OK
* Click Save and Close

* Task 2 - Attach JScript function to onLoad event handler
* Next we need to setup the event handlers on the Campaign form
* Click on the Entities
* Select Campaign in the entity list and then click OK.
* When the Campaign appears in the list of available entities in your solution, expand the Campaign node and then expand the Forms node.
* In the forms grid, double-click Information form type Main
* Now that you are in the form editor we need to attach the event handler to both the Form onLoad and the Campaign Type OnChange events.
* Click Form Properties in the ribbon to bring up the dialog.
* Click the Form Libraries Add button.
* In the lookup dialog select the “Hide Show Addl Info Tab Campaign” web resource and Click OK
* In the Event Handler section Click Add.
* In the Handler Properties dialog do the following: Function = ” hideshowaddltabcampaigns”, Check Enabled, Check Pass execution context as first parameter
* Click OK, to close the Handler Properties dialog
* Click OK, to close the Form Properties dialog

* Task 3 – Attach Jscript function to Campaign Type onChange event handler
* Next, we need to attach the event handler to the Campaign Type picklist.
* In the form editor click to select the “Campaign Type” field
* Click Change Properties button in the ribbon.
* In the Field Properties dialog, select the Events tab.
* Click the Add button in the Event Handlers grid.
* In the Handler Properties dialog do the following:
* Function = ” hideshowaddlinfotabcampaigns”, Check Enabled, Check Pass execution context as first parameter
* Click OK, to close the Handler Properties dialog
* Click OK, to close the Field Properties dialog
* Click Save and Close

* Task4 - Publish changes and see the results
* While still in the Customizations, Click Publish All Customizations in the top toolbar of the Solution Explorer.
* Close the Solutions explorer

Go the campaigns module and click the New button. The Campaign form loads and the Additional Information tab is hidden.

Enter the following items:

*Name = “Test Campaign”
*Campaign Type= “Trade Show”
*Once the Campaign Type is “Trade Show” you will see the Additional Information Tab.

This is a simple demonstration that shows how the Java script only needs to be written once and can then be included in multiple On_Load, On-Change etc functions.

Crystal Reports : Using the Currency symbol for Other Things

When formatting Number Objects in Crystal Reports, it's good to know what the currency field can be leveraged to do. The most common use of this is to easily provide a percentage sign, but can be used for explicit strings as well.

Keep in this is effective on a per-field basis.

1. Right-click on the Number field you wish to modify from within the Designer.
2. Select Format Field.
3. Check the "Display Currency Symbol" checkbox.
4. Click Customize.
5. Select the Currency Symbol tab.
6. Modify the Currency Symbol by clicking into it and typing whatever you wish. For starters try a %.
7. Change the Position of the Currency Symbol to be "-123%", meaning that it will appear on the right-hand side of the Number.
8. Ok your way out.

This eliminates the need to use a textbox for the %. Notice also that you can type in pretty much whatever you want into the Currency Symbol, so the sky's pretty much the limit.

Try it!

Crystal Reports : Getting New Fields to Show in the Designer

A pretty basic problem, but worth our time. If Management is always creating new Fields and brainstorming new ways to use them, you will need to know how to "see" these new fields in existing reports.

This is as easy as selecting Database | Verify Database.

Crystal will then poll the Database for columns and indexes (among other things). After the "Database is up to Date" message appears, you should be able to see any new fields or new tables that have been added to the Database.

You will also notice that there is a "Verify on Every Print" option. There is no harm in enabling this, but this is usually considered overkill as even the most zealous Management can only add so many new fields.

ProTip: Certain versions of Crystal will "detect" that something has changed in the Database (i.e. a new field), and will prompt you on opening if you'd like to "Fix up the Report". Selecting Yes to this dialog is equivalent to Verifying the Database.

Crystal Reports : Turning Off Snap to Grid

This is something that occasionally drives me nuts. It is very typical to have a report that mimics the look of a spreadsheet (you actually just format each field to have a Border around it like cells in Excel). However, arranging precise items like individual rows and columns may not be the easiest thing in the world. What you usually get is one or two items that for whatever reason don't want to play nice and line up perfectly.

The first thing I learned to do was move Report items by using my arrow keys, not the mouse. Select any Crystal object and try it. You'll feel a lot more control over how things line up this way.

The second thing I learned to do was occasionally turn off my Snap. Simply right-click within the designer and select (de-select, actually) "Snap to Grid". When Snap is turned off, you'll find that you can now move your objects with the finest precision. Don't forget to turn Snap back on before you add any new objects to the Layout; they will behave erratically once Snap is turned back on. A good rule of thumb is to Design with Snap On, Fix with Snap Off.

These two tips can save you a lot of grief and aggravation, especially when modifying cosmetically complex reports. (Adding a column in to stack of columns, etc.)

Crystal Reports : Dealing with (and testing for) NULLS

NULLS are a pain. Because they are functionally equivalent to blanks. A NULL field and a "blank" field return the same thing; nothing. But they are technically different values and as a Crystal Reporter, you will need to know how to deal with them.

Let us consider the field {CONTACT2.USTATUS}, which tracks a customers' Service Status.

For those records with an explicit value (i.e. No Service), this is returned normally as a string.

For those records that HAD a value at some point in the past, but have since been "blanked out", these blank values are also returned normally as a blank string.

For those records where USTATUS has NEVER been written to, this will return a NULL. A NULL is "less than" a blank.

So when you propose the following Selection Criteria on USTATUS like this (selecting for anyone who doesn't have a Status);

{CONTACT2.USTATUS} = ""

This is only half of the battle. We must also test for NULL values as well, like this;

{CONTACT2.USTATUS} = "" AND ISNULL({CONTACT2.USTATUS}) = TRUE

Unlike a SQL statement, which can simply use USTATUS IS NULL, we must use the special ISNULL() Crystal function. This function returns a BOOLEAN, which is either TRUE or FALSE.

Where your particular NULLS spring up will be determined by how well-written your front end software is. For example, they are more often found in so called "legacy" systems than newer, more modern ones.

Crystal Reports : Forcing a Page Break for Each Group

When using Groups in Crystal Reports (Insert | Group), you may wish to have each group appear on it's own page. Or at the very lest force a new page before the "next" Group prints.

This is easily accomplished through the Section Expert window.

1. Right-click in the "Sections" area to left hand side of your Designer.
2. Select "Format Section".

The Section Expert window will let you modify how each Report Section behaves.
In our case, we want to create a new page after each Group is printed.

1. On the left hand side of the Section Expert, select your Group Footer.
2. Then, on the right hand side, select "New Page After".

This will force the beginning of each Group to start on it's own Page. Another way to do it would be to use the "New Page Before" setting; you may find yourself trying each to get a feel for how they behave.

This can make the difference between a "messy" to read report and a nice, organized looking report. Try it!

QuickBooks: Pop-Up Messages - On or Off?

QuickBooks 2012 has both good and bad pop-up messages. However, it is very annoying for a pop-up ad to happen when you are working in QuickBooks, so you must decide how to handle them..... on or off?

There are actually some good pop-up messages in QuickBooks – for example:

• those that prompt or remind you to add a class to a transaction when you’ve forgotten and you’ve turned on the class tracking feature


• the one that warns you when you are posting a transaction directly to Retained Earnings – which is something that you really do NOT want to do


• the warnings that appear when you accidentally select a date that is 90 days in the past or 30 days in the future


• the warning that will appear if you enter duplicate bill numbers for the same vendor


• the warning that will appear if you enter a check number, invoice number, estimate number, etc. that has previously been used

For the most part messages & pop-ups can be controlled through settings in the Preferences section {Edit menu -> Preferences}; where you will find both personal and company preference settings. Only the QuickBooks Administrator can make changes to the settings in the Company Preferences tab when they are logged into QuickBooks in single-user mode.

Individual users also have some control over what messages appear. Take time to look at each option - there are many! For example, experienced users often choose:

Desktop View -> My Preferences tab and uncheck the Show Getting Started Window
General -> My Preferences tab and uncheck the Bring back all one-time messages
Turn off pop-up messages for products and services, and Show ToolTips for clipped textselect

Sales & Customers -> My Preferences and uncheck the Show Payment toolbar on Receive Payments and Sales Receipts forms if your company does not wish to add Intuit credit card or eCheck processing

Service Connections -> My Preferences and uncheck Give me the option of saving a file whenever I download Web Connect data and If QuickBooks is run by my browser, don’t close it after Web Connect is done – if you do not use Online banking

Many pop-up windows and messages have a “Don’t show this again” checkbox option, checking this option instead of just clicking the OK button will rid you of the annoying box for good; so taking a minute or so each time a window pops up can help you to make informed decisions and rid you of wasted mouse clicks later. While it is “easier” at the moment to click the OK button just to get rid of the window – it is a bad habit to get into.

Some advertising messages, you just can’t get rid of, for example the Do More with QuickBooks block on the Home page, but you can close it.

In QuickBooks 2012, Intuit has added a new “advertising” message to printed Employee Pay Stubs – you’ll now find a Powered by Intuit logo on each pay stub that you print for your employees. Only the QuickBooks Administrator can remove this logo by going to the Edit menu -> Preferences-> Payroll & Employees -> Company Preferences -> Pay Stub & Voucher Printing -> and uncheck the Print Intuit logo option.

QuickBooks: VOID A CHECK WRITTEN IN A PRIOR PERIOD

Clients often need to void checks that were written in a prior period. However, prior period income and expenses should not be changed for various reasons such as tax returns having been prepared.

The usual option is Void Check under the Edit menu. However, this takes the original transaction and changes the amount to $0. The date of the transaction is the date the change of the dollar amount of the transaction will be effective.

To prevent a change to the prior year accounting data, the voiding of a prior period check in the current period requires the entry of a deposit for the check that is to be voided.

During the bank reconciliation process, the check to be voided and the deposit are both cleared. The memo field on both the check and the deposit should reference the voided check. This will successfully void the check in the subsequent period. Differing From Accounts may want to be used on the Deposit depending on the reason for the voided check.

QuickBooks: Are There "Others"?

As you look at the informaiton posted during the past year, I hope you are not surprised to see "OTHER" as an account.

The reason is that when a chart of account has subaccounts, posting should only be made to the subaccount. You can always tell which accounts are sub accounts, because they are located under the Parent account, and are always indented.

Fix the entry:
When you see the "- Other" on a report, double click on the amount until you trace it back to the original transaction. Reclassify it to a correct sub account.

QuickBooks: It's 1099 Time Again

A year has passed, and it will soon be time to send out 1099’s to the vendors and a 1096 to the IRS. So many users hope it is a simple process in QuickBooks.

Actually, the printing is the easy part, once all the accounts are properly reviewed and mapped.

Verify your 1099 vendors
1. Go to the Reports menu, choose Vendors & Payables, and then click Vendor Phone List.
2. Click Modify Report at the top of the report.
3. In the Modify Report window, on the Display tab, select Eligible for 1099.
4. Click OK.
5. Review the report on the screen for vendors marked as "No" in the Eligible for 1099 column.

If you need to send Form 1099-MISC to any of these vendors, you must set them up as 1099 Vendors.
== If you found any missing 1099 vendors, open the vendor's record, and on the Additional Info tab, select Vendor eligible for 1099 and enter the vendor's tax ID number.

== On the Address Info tab, make sure the vendor's name and address follow postal guidelines.

Verify your 1099 accounts
1. Go to the Reports menu, choose Vendors & Payables, and then click 1099 Detail.
You see the vendors you designated as eligible for 1099-related payments and the accounts you selected for tracking 1099-related payments.
2. Click Print for a paper copy of the report in its current form.
You'll need this for comparisons.
3. Click the second 1099 Options drop-down list at the top of the report and choose All allowed accounts.
4. On your computer screen, look for accounts that are missing from the paper copy of the report.
5. If an account is missing from the paper copy of the report, and you have been using the account to track 1099-related payments, set up the account as a 1099 account.

QuickBooks: Great COA Security Trick!

RESTRICTING CHANGES TO THE CHART OF ACCOUNTS BY USING THE 1099 SETUP

Why is this trick needed? Any user with security authorization to create or modify "sensitive accounting activities" can make changes to the Chart of Accounts. Although these changes are made with the best of intentions, the results are not always optimal.

The Strategy Behind the Trick: You can prevent unapproved changes to the Chart of Accounts by using the 1099 Company Preference. Users with full rights or the administrator rights can still make changes. By following this 1099 setup, users will be unable to delete an account or change the type of account for any accounts you choose. Likewise, they will be unable to merge accounts. When trouble-shooting this issue, you can reverse a change in account type, however, merging accounts is permanent.

The Closing Date does not stop changes, and if charges are made, the affect all previous years.

Use the 1099 setup feature by selecting the Edit menu, selecting Preferences, selecting Tax:1099, and then selecting the Company tab. QuickBooks displays the list of possible 1099 categories. Select a 1099 Category that you will not be using in the normal course of business. For instance, if you never use box 13 - Excess Golden Parachute, then that is a great option for this trick.

Select the middle column, with the heading titled Account. Click on the drop-down arrow next to the category you have chosen (Box 13), QuickBooks displays the Chart of Accounts. Select Multiple Accounts and then manually select all the accounts you would like to protect.

NOTE: You may only assign an account to one 1099 Box. If an account has already been added in your 1099 setup, then that account is already protected.

Inactive Accounts do not show up in this selection window. You do not need to select Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable as these accounts do not allow changes of types and/or merging. If a new account is added that we want to protect, then it has to also be added to the multiple accounts selected in the 1099 Preferences.

NOTE: If you would ever like to merge an account that is protected using this method, you can simply return to this preference screen and deselect those specific accounts prior to making any changes.

GoldMine : Changing the number of Recently Viewed Contacts

One of the nicest things about the new GoldMine is the list of Recently Used Contacts along the upper left hand side.

By default only five are shown, to increase the number of records in this list;

1. Select Tools | Options | System tab

2. Change the number in the "Recent Items Shown" box (the max is 99)

3. Restart GoldMine

I find this invaluable when I need a sense of who I've been working for recently for followups.

GoldMine : Removing Menu Items

It may sound a little strange; why would we ever want to remove Menu Items from GoldMine? If anything, we are usually looking to add items, have it "do more" for us.

Sometimes, however, less is more. Especially if we are now talking about a new user. Especially if we have put into place a good data model with supporting standards and practices. Certainly, at the least we need to "lock up" the sharp tools to prevent catastrophic mistakes from happening.

Here's how it works; one a per-user basis, you may remove specific menu items.

1. Select Tools | Users Settings

2. Select the user you'd like to Edit, select Properties

3. Select the Menu Tab

4. Use the Menu Tree to Enable or Disable single menu items for the User

5. You may save this Menu "Template" by clicking Save. This makes it easy to create one "end user" Template and then apply it to other users.

GoldMine : Sending Texts with GoldMine

Did you know you can send an SMS Text message to a phone with GoldMine? I have a client that uses this to send driving directions to field service technicians.

1. Select Actions | Call Contact | Send SMS/Text Message

2. Select the appropriate phone number from the drop down (lists all the available numbers from the Current Contact record)

3. Select the mobile Carrier (AT&T, Verizon, etc)

4. Type in the Text message you wish to send

5. Click Send

Note that the SMS now appears in the Contact Record history.

GoldMine : Dealing with your Tabs

We recently did a fairly large upgrade for a client from GoldMine 6.7 to 9.0, and I was reminded of how much I struggled with the new "tabbed" interface. Here are a few things I learned while getting acclimated to the "new style".

- I use a lot of GoldMine e-mail, and usually end up with a ton of E-mail tabs. Selecting Window | Close all will close all Tabs except the Current Contact Record.

- You can switch between the Tabbed Interface and the "Old Style" by clicking on the little tab with four boxes (upper left hand area of GoldMine). To re-enable the Tabbed interface, simply maximize any GoldMine "child" window.

To be honest, I learned to love my GoldMine tabs; it just takes awhile.

GoldMine : Tagging Records

Did you know that you can "tag" Contact Records within your Search Center, making them a "pseudo-group"?

When viewing results in your Search Center, you can check the box on the left of each row to Tag the record in question. Once one or more records are Tagged, this becomes an "Active Filter", which means it can work with all the Filter-aware function of GoldMine. These include Building a Group, Merging an Template, Global Replace, etc.

Keep in mind that once you Tag records, they will remain Tagged (and therefore the Active Filter) until you Un-Tag them (right click within the Search Center, select Release All) or restart GoldMine.

Couple this functionality with the ability to conduct multi-level Searches (click the plus sign button in the top right of the Search Center, and you've got a very powerful tool.

MSCRM 2011: Quick Campaigns

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2011, there are two types of campaigns – marketing campaigns and Quick campaigns. A full marketing campaign allows you to track the activities, costs, lists, planning, responses, and schedules of your marketing efforts.

There are some cases however, that simply require you to distribute a campaign activity, such as a letter, phone call, or e-mail, to an impromptu list without the overhead and tracking of a full campaign. With CRM Online, you can distribute a single campaign activity to a group of accounts, contacts, leads, or marketing lists through a Quick Campaign.

Creating a Quick campaign:

* In the Marketing module, click Leads in the left navigation pane. Select the records you wish to include in this quick campaign. In the Add tab of the ribbon, click the Quick Campaign button. Choose For Selected Records from the drop-down menu, which will then open the Create Quick Campaign Wizard form.
* The first page of the Create Quick Campaign Wizard outlines the steps you are about to take. Click Next to proceed.
* The next page of the wizard appears. Enter a name for this quick campaign. For the purposes of this walkthrough, we will name it “Sample Leads Quick Campaign”, and then click Next to continue.
* The next page of the wizard appears where we select the activity type and decide who will own the activities. There are a few choices, but for this campaign, we are designating a phone campaign to ourselves. In order to do this, select Phone Call in the Activity Type box. For the Assign these activities to option, select Me. Once we are done, click Next.
* Since we chose Phone Call as the activity type in the previous step, we are presented with the Phone Call form. Fill out the Subject and Description fields, and then click Next. Note that only the Subject field requires data entry, as specified by the red asterisk.
* The final step of the wizard summarizes the specifications of the quick campaign. If everything is correct, click Create to complete the wizard.
* After completion, you can verify that you have successfully created your new quick campaign by clicking Quick Campaigns in the left navigation pane in the Marketing module and seeing it listed in the view.
* The final step would be to follow up on the phone call activities generated by the quick campaign, and make the calls. The user to whom the phone calls were assigned can find them in the Workplace module, under Activities.

MSCRM 2011: Dynamic Marketing Lists

One of the new features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is Dynamic Marketing Lists.

A marketing list can consist of one of the following kinds of records: Leads, Accounts, or Contacts. Additionally, getting the records on a list is a manual process. Advanced Find can be used to create and modify this list but in the past we needed to manually re-evaluate or manually remove records from the respective lists.

In some scenarios, the marketing list should be static (for example, the guest list for your sixteen year old’s birthday party) but there are even more scenarios where the people on the list you want to target is growing and in some cases shrinking.

To create a new Dynamic Marketing List:
* Navigate to Marketing->Marketing Lists->New
* From there, you’ll notice a radio button group in the middle of the window where the user has the option to select either static or dynamic. Once we provide a Name and Member Type, we will select Dynamic and save the record. Once saved, you’ll notice that you’ll have the option to add members or convert the list to a static list if you choose.
* The next step involves creating the query which will populate the dynamic list. To do this, click on the Manage Members button. This will open an Advanced Find window where you can enter a query. In this example, let’s find those contacts from Pennsylvania (PA).
* Next, click on Use Query. This results in our marketing list being automatically updated!
* So, what happens when a new Account from Pennsylvania and a Contact at that Account is added to the system? The new contact is automatically added to the list.

This list can now be used in your marketing campaigns. This new feature is a great addition to the latest version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and certainly creates a more flexible and easily managed environment for marketing managers and users alike.

MSCRM 2011: Conditional Formatting in Views in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for Outlook

One of the new features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for Outlook is the ability to apply conditional formatting to records in a view. In Conditional Formatting, you specify certain criteria for those records that should be displayed differently in a view. You can set the color and font of these so that the records that match the criteria setup are then displayed in a special way. Conditional formatting is only available with Microsoft Outlook 2010.

Conditional formatting is useful because the data is then shown in a way that makes it stand out. The ability to see important data in a different style allows users to see which records in the system take priority over others. Note: The formatting you apply is applied per view.

Below are the steps for configuring the Open Opportunities view in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for Outlook with Estimated Revenue greater than $5000 in red bold text:

* In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for Outlook, navigate to Open Opportunities. On the ribbon, click on the View tab and click on View Settings.
* Click on Conditional Formatting and then click on Add and give the conditional formatting rule a name.
* Click on the Font button to select the conditional formatting font style. Click on Condition to define the condition to use in the rule.
* In the Filter window, click on Advanced and then select the Field drop-down-list.
* In the list of options, select User-defined fields in folder. This will allow you to select fields from the Opportunity record. Select Estimated Revenue {number} as the conditional field, is more than as the condition, and enter 5000 into the value field. After we have configured our criteria, click on Add to List. Note: You can add multiple criteria to the conditional formatting rule.
* Click on OK in all windows. The conditional formatting will now be applied to the Open Opportunities view.

Crystal Reports : Using a specific Group Sort Order

This is an oldy but a goody;

When Inserting a Group in a Crystal Report, the report then becomes automatically sorted by the highest level Group. This is usually no big deal, but sometimes, you just want a little control over "what comes first", by which I mean "what is printed on the first page".

Let us consider my father's management report for Hill's Heating. In his accounting software, Hill's Heating appears as a normal company alongside customers, so it would always appear on the sixth or seventh page of the Report, alongside the rest of the "H's".

So what I did was instead of Sorting the report on {CONTACT.NAME}, I created a Group on it instead. Then went into my Group Expert (Report | Change Group Expert from the top level menu) to enable the Specified Sort Order under Options. You'll be able to select it from the "in ascending order" drop down list.

Once you select Specified Order, the "Specified Order" tab becomes available. Here you can explicitly add the values you'd like to appear first in your "sorted" list (by selecting the items from the "Named Group" drop down list).

You will also NEED to go into the "Others" tab and select "Leave in their own Groups", otherwise any Group not defined the in the Specified Order is resigned to this "Others" category.

This way, I could force Hill's Heating to the top of my report, then resume normal sorting after that first entry was out of the way. Try it.

Crystal Reports : Using Multiple Sections

Did you know you can create more Sections within your Reports?

Select Insert | Section from the top level menu.

Here, within the Section Expert, you can create multiple Detail Sections, for instance. This can be very handy when using Suppress and/or Reveal to troubleshoot a report; the idea being to "split" complex or dense areas of the report into separate Sections, making it easier to deal with them as a whole.

I actually find it most helpful to create extra Report Footers, which can sometimes help when dealing with strange subtotals and Groupings. The idea there being that I can have two "sets" of footers, each with their own summaries and fields that can then be Suppressed and/or Revealed, even by a User Parameter.

HEAT – SETTING ASSIGNMENT DEFAULTS

These defaults allow you to set specifications for how assignments operate in Call Logging (and also in Web-based Call Logging).


To Set Assignment Defaults:

1. In the Administrator main window, select Defaults>System>Assignment Defaults from the menu bar >> The Assignment Options dialog box opens.
2. Select the default settings you want for assignments:

• Require assignments to be resolved before call can be closed - Requires that the call be marked as resolved before the assignment can be closed. 
• Require an assignment before allowing call to be saved 
• Only allow one non-resolved assignment at a time 
• Enforce Acknowledge Required - Requires all acknowledge-required fields to be filled before assignments can be acknowledged. 
• Enforce Resolve Required - Requires all resolve-required fields to be filled before assignments can be resolved.
  
  Note: The system administrator determines which fields in the Asgnmnt table are acknowledge-required and resolve-required by setting these flags when creating the fields.

Click OK.

HEAT - CHANGING THE DEFAULT CALL STATUS VALUES IN CALL LOGGING

Call Status Values defaults allow you to change the default Call Status Values in your system, which will be reflected in Call Logging (and also in Web-based Call Logging). Default statuses are Open, Closed, and Reopened.


Note: Before you change the default values, be sure to manually add the values to your Status table.

To Set Call Status Value Defaults:

1. In the Administrator main window, select Defaults>Call Status Values from the menu bar. The Call Status Values dialog box opens. |
2. In the Select a value for "Open" field, type the status you want to replace Open (for example: Active). 
3. In the Select a value for "Closed" field, type the status you want to replace Closed (for example: Complete). 
4. In the Select a value for "Reopened" field, type the status you want to replace Reopened. (for example: Reactivated). 
5. Click OK.

HEAT – CREATING COUNTERS

Create and define counters for use in Call Logging. Counters can be used to automatically generate PO numbers, RMA numbers, etc.
Counters are used in AutoTask actions in Call Logging (and also in Web-based Call Logging) to automatically generate numbers. The counters available are defined in the Administrator module (although users can change some counter parameters). For example, you can set up counters for PO numbers and RMA numbers. This automates the process and saves valuable time when logging a call. A maximum of 10 counters can be defined.

To Set Counter Defaults:

In the Administrator, select Defaults>Counter Setup from the menu bar. The Counters dialog box opens.

Note: For existing counters, you can select a counter and click Edit to make changes. Select a counter and click Delete to delete the counter. Editing or deleting counters affects AutoTask actions using those counters.

1. Click Add. The Counter Definition dialog box opens.
2. In the Name field, type a name for the counter.
3. In the Current Value field, type a starting value for the counter. 
4. In the Increment field, type or select an increment value for the counter.
5. If you want the counter to automatically reset, select the Should the counter automatically reset itself check box. Then choose a time frame (daily, monthly or yearly) and type a reset value. 
6. Click OK.
7. Click Close to close the Counters dialog box

HEAT – SETTING THE ACTIVITY LOG PREFERENCES

Activity Log preferences allow you to define which items and fields (called Watch Fields) the Activity Log records.


To Set Activity Log Preferences:

1. Log into HEAT Administrator, select Defaults>Activity Log>Preferences from the menu bar. The Activity Log Preferences dialog box opens.

2. Select the item(s) you want the Activity Log to record:

• Auto logging-Call Logging - Enables Call Logging to automatically generate entries in the Activity Log.
  
• Auto logging-Auto Ticket Generator - Enables the Auto Ticket Generator to automatically generate entries in the Activity Log.
  
• Auto logging- Auto Escalation - Enables Auto Escalation to automatically generate entries in the Activity Log.
  
• Log unsaved activities - Tracks abandoned activities from the Call Log, Detail, Assignment or Journal forms.
  
• Confirmation on Call Close - Tracks closed Call Records.
  
• Allow Log Changes to Closed Calls - Tracks changes made to closed Call Records.

3.  Select the field(s) you want to track. Tracked fields are called Watch Fields.

4. Type a label for each Watch Field (reports refer to fields by Watch Field number). The label appears in Call Logging>View>Activity Log as well as on the Edit Activity Log Record dialog box.

5. Click OK..

QuickBooks: Alerts

Alerts are important messages about QuickBooks or your business that appear in your Reminders list. For example, you might receive an alert that there is an update to QuickBooks that you need to download.

TAKE ACTION ON AN ALERT
-Go to the Company menu and click Reminders.

-Click the alert you want to take action on.

-If you click an alert with a lightning bolt next to it, QuickBooks connects to the Internet for the information you need.

You can only dismiss an alert from the Reminders list window.

DISMISS AN ALERT
-Go to the Company menu and click Reminders.

-Right-click on the alert you want to remove and choose Mark As Done.

VIEWING ALL ALERTS

-Go to the Company menu and click Alerts Manager.

-You'll see a list of all alerts that have appeared on the Reminders list. This list includes all alerts that you've dismissed.

-In rare instances, this list will not display an alert because the alert was a time-sensitive one that has expired. Also, alerts may not display on the list because they're no longer relevant.

Crystal Reports : Using formulas to count

Using simple Summaries (Insert | Summary) in Crystal is great, don't get me wrong, but they are inflexible. For instance, when summarizing (trying to get a count) on {INVOICE.INVNUM}, ALL invoice numbers are evaluated, including duplicates (unless a Distinct Count is being used).

Which usually is fine, but there is always some sort of exclusion to be made; we only want invoices that DON'T begin with "000150" because it a House Account, etc. And you could handle this within your Selection Criteria handily enough; but let's imagine that it screws up other parts of the report; excluding House Accounts impacts other Subtotals, etc.

So to accomodate this little pickle, we will use a formula to count, one record at a time. This is actually a very popular Crystal Technique and you see it a lot in older, more "veteran" reports.

Create a formula called
{@InvoiceCount}
IF MID({INVOICE.INVNUM}, 1, 6) <> 000150 THEN 1 ELSE 0

So what the formula is doing is evaluating the first six digits of the Invoice, and if it ISN'T a House Account, it returns 1 (we want to count it), otherwise it returns 0 (we want to exclude it).

Now, create a simple Summary on {@InvoiceCount} and make it a SUM operation, this way you get a count of only the records you want (for the particular task at hand), without sacrificing any existing Selection Formulas or Summary operations.

Crystal Reports : Grouping records by the Date, ignoring time precision

Here is something very handy when you start to deal with databases that track both a date and time precision for records.

Let us imagine we are trying to group call records based on {CALLLOG.CREATEDATE}, but when we create a simple Crystal Group on this field, we end up with a bazillion little groups, like this; (may look different depending on your database back end)

01/01/2011 13:45:015
01/01/2011 13:47:001

...so on and so forth. What we are really after is "calls per day", so instead of Grouping on the raw database field, let us Group based upon a formula;

{@frmCreateDate}
DateValue({CALLLOG.CREATEDATE})

The DateValue function returns only the date portion of the field, so now you'll only have one group for each unique "day" in your database.

I've always been a huge fan of grouping on formulas, it allows you total control over what values are being "grouped on", essential when dealing with less than pristine data sources; here you could even choose to exclude certain values, or build in any logic you'd like. Try it.

QuickBooks: Customer Total Balance Invoice

Q: How do I carry a balance forward to a future invoice and show payments made?

A: Open the invoice (or the form you want to change), click customize (on the tan menu), click customize data layout, on the footer tab click payments/credits, balance, then click layout designer and get things positioned.

This is a question I see/get often. Don't forget you can customize invoices as freely as you want. When you have time, create a few "practice" invoice templates and try colors, moving the logo, adding/subtracting columns.

Now is the time to consider re-branding your image for the new year.

QuickBooks: Returned Goods

As the Holiday season approaches, I see a great deal of impulse purchasing. This is good for my clients that sell product. However, I can anticipate the question I get often..... "How do I properly return items into inventory after it is has been sold and invoiced if the customer returns something?"

The answer is - use the credit memo. I liken the credit memo as the opposite of an invoice -- the invoice sends the product out and collects the money, the credit memo brings the item back and refunds the money and returns the item to inventory.

Crystal Reports : Offloading Selection Logic into a Formula

Here is a nice technique to use when your selection criteria starts to get out of control; offload the "heavy lifting" to a formula, then just reference that formula within the Selection Expert.

For instance, let us imagine our Selection Criteria needs to test for multiple things; {CONTACT.STATE} should be either NY, PA or NJ, AND {CONTACT.SOURCE} should be "XMAS 2011" AND {CONTACT.LASTESTIMATE} is at least $100 but no more then $500.

Now, the Selection Criteria for that would look something like this;
{CONTACT.STATE} IN ['PA', 'NY'] AND {CONTACT.SOURCE} LIKE "*XMAS 2011*"
AND
({CONTACT.LASTESTIMATE} >= 100 AND {CONTACT.LASTESTIMATE} <= 500)

Note the use of enclosing parenthesis around the last two conditions; we want the LASTESTIMATE to be BOTH greater than 100 and less than 500.

But you are a Crystal Reporter, and know deep in your heart that someday, someone will need you to change this report. Here is how I would handle the same situation; I would create a separate formula for each condition, thusly;

{@frmState}
IF {CONTACT.STATE} IN ['PA', 'NY'] THEN TRUE ELSE FALSE

{@frmSource}
IF {CONTACT.SOURCE} LIKE "*XMAS 2011*" THEN TRUE ELSE FALSE

{@frmEstimate}
IF {CONTACT.LASTESTIMATE} >= 100 AND {CONTACT.LASTESTIMATE} <= 500 THEN TRUE ELSE FALSE

Now, once those formulas are created (and can be viewed right within the report itself, making troubleshooting very easy), you can use them in the Selection Criteria like this;

{@frmState} = TRUE AND {@frmSource} = TRUE AND {@frmEstimate} = TRUE

This leaves lots of room for compounding, making changes, and plugging in the eventual Parameters. Try it!

QuickBooks: Send Letters Through QuickBooks

Many people do not consider QuickBooks anything more than their financial software. However, you can use it for other things as well, such as sending letters via Microsoft Word.

To get you started, QuickBooks includes a set of prewritten letters that you can send to customers, vendors, employees, and others. You can modify the letters to suit the needs of your business, and even create new letters.

QuickBooks lets you select the letter recipients and pick the type of letter you want to send. Each letter type corresponds to a template (created in Microsoft Word) that combines text with QuickBooks fields.

QuickBooks creates a Word document containing the letters, each one starting on a new page, and fills the fields with data pertinent to each recipient. For instance, a collection letter includes the customer's name, outstanding balance, and list of overdue invoices.

With the holidays arriving, why not consider sending holiday greetings to all your customers, vendors, employees, and names on the Other List. Here is how to create a letter from scratch:

- Company menu -> Prepare Letters with Envelopes.
- Click Customize Letter Templates
- Choose what you want to do. * Create a new letter template from scratch.

- Click the type of letter template you're creating.

Your choice affects where your letter template will be available. For example, when you prepare a collection letter, you can choose from the list of collection letters that come with QuickBooks as well as any that you created.

- Name the template.

Note: Remember to make the name unique so that you don't overwrite an existing letter template you might want to use later.

A blank letter template opens in Microsoft Word.

- Write and format the letter template in Microsoft Word.

- While you're working in Word, use the QuickBooks toolbar to insert fields into your letters.

If you don't see the QuickBooks toolbar you can reopen it. In Word 2000, 2002, and 2003, go to View > Toolbars. In Word 2007 go to Add-Ins.

- Save the document in Word using the document name you entered in QuickBooks.

To use this template immediately, return to the Letters and Envelopes wizard and click Use Template, then follow the onscreen instructions to prepare your letters.