If you are like me, you tend to forget things from time to time. That's when we need reminding.
There I was 'preaching to the choir' in some QuickBooks forum that you needed to buy some software to 'uncheck' the little 'To be emailed' (Send later) box on invoices or purchase orders. Then someone reminded me that Intuit had actually implemented a little feature a version or so back a way to do this.
As you know, Murph's little gray cells just aren't what they use to be. I had forgotten all about that feature until I was reminded. It was like 'turning the tables' on old Murph, or 'stumping the Data Detective' of all things.
Still the same I thought it could be the inspiration for some reader edification. So, here is a little reminder article just for those of you who thought that the mound of emails in your print queue would soon be the 'undoing' of you and your QuickBooks file.
By default QuickBooks desktop has a preference set under the Send Forms preferences to automatically check the Send Email preference on transactions when the preferred send method is set to email for customers. I've also notice that a lot of importer tools seem to always set the email checkbox on invoices, purchase orders, etc. to 'Send Later'.
Without knowing it you are building up a huge number of emails in your queue if you don't routinely send emails out in mass. Sooner or later this can actually slow down the performance of your QuickBooks file.
But unsent emails can be handled with ease, as long as you have a little patience, from the Send Forms feature. Click File on the QuickBooks menu bar. When the file menu opens, select Send Forms. Here is an example of the Send Forms window.
QuickBooks Desktop Send Form feature
Normally to send forms you would select one or all of the emails listed in the window on the left, then click the 'Send Now' button at the bottom of the right hand panel.
But in this case we want to use this feature to 'undo' the Send Email later button on the various transactions, thus removing them from the send email queue (which is what the left hand window represents).
Assuming you want to get rid of all of these emails, check the little Checkbox above the window (as shown in the red box below).
Check the checkbox at the top of Send Emails
When you do this, all the emails in the window will be checked, as shown below.
Select Forms to Remove from Send Forms
Confirm that you have made the appropriate selection, you can uncheck (and re-check, if needed) any transactions in doubt.
Now click the Remove button (shown in the red box above) just below the window on the left hand side.
QuickBooks will ask you to confirm that you really do want to remove these email forms using the verification box shown below.
Confirm Email Removals
Obviously you want to click the Remove Email button. They even let you know that if your file is filled with unwanted emails, this process could take some time.
As always, when doing 'mass updating' of QuickBooks data, I recommend that you perform a complete backup of QuickBooks prior to undertaking this process.
How I could have forgotten about this little feature is beyond me, especially since it was in my QuickBooks 2016 Favorite Newbies. Thanks to the Woodard Network (forum) for teaching me that 'an old dog can remember new tricks, if reminded.'