While I’m certainly enjoying QuickBooks Online and its flurry of enhancements, I’ve had occasion to return to my Desktop roots lately. And I’m reminded of some longtime elements of Desktop that still delight my clients and me to this day.
One such element is that of the color schemes. In this article, I’ll be focusing on the overall color scheme as well as the color scheme for individual balance sheet account registers.
Both of these features are not just for aesthetics; they help prevent errors in using the wrong company file or the wrong account in a given company.
Overall color scheme
As many Desktop users recall, a brand new company often looks like this:
That navy blue is the default color scheme. While it’s pleasant enough, it can be confusing for companies with multiple entities, and for accounting professionals supporting multiple Desktop clients. All companies, at first glance, look alike. And this can lead to errors in which users enter transactions in the wrong entity.
Here’s the way to differentiate among them: create an overall color scheme. Access this by selecting Edit > Preferences > Desktop View. In the My Preferences tab, you can change the company file color scheme to something other than the default.
As soon as you select another color, the new color scheme is reflected immediately. Select OK to save the color scheme.
This is very useful if you’re using QuickBooks Accountant Desktop or Desktop Enterprise, which both allow you to open two companies at the same time. You’ll be able to see immediately which company is the correct one to use.
Bear in mind that the company file color scheme is a personal preference, so other users of this Desktop company file will not see your changed color choice; they’ll have to choose their own if they want a color different from the default.
Register color scheme
Within a given company, all bank accounts have the same pale green color scheme by default. (Other balance sheet accounts are assigned their own color schemes, but accounts of the same type all have the same color scheme as each other.) So you have to keep an eagle eye on the account name at the top to make sure that you’re using the right bank account.
In this company, both the Checking and Savings accounts have the same color scheme. (Personally, I find the two-line display hard on the eyes, so I often check the 1-Line checkbox at the bottom left to turn it into a solid color register with one line per transaction.)
And when you select Banking > Write Checks, the register’s color scheme is reflected in the border of the check:
But you can change the color scheme of an individual bank account.
With either the register or a check open citing that account, select Edit > Change Account Color.
This pops up a Change Color palette that allows you to choose from selected colors, or to define a custom color (usually a color that matches the checks you have in stock for this account).
If you select Define Custom Colors…
…the color spectrum pops open and you can select the color and shade of your choice and add it to the list of custom colors.
Once it’s in the list of custom colors, select that new color and choose OK.
So now the register for that account reflects the new color you chose:
And the check for that account reflects that color as well in the border:
Old versions of QuickBooks Desktop reflected the account color in the full onscreen check, not just the border, and I preferred that because it was more “in my face.” But life goes on. I decided that I have to use bolder colors, not pastels, for bank account colors so that even in the case of the border on onscreen checks, the color will be obvious.
Bear in mind that this color choice does not appear in the Pay Bills, Make Deposits, Make General Journal Entries, and Transfer Funds screens, so you’ll need to keep an eye on the bank account chosen in those screens.
The color scheme of any balance sheet account other than Retained Earnings (which has no register) can be changed.
For credit card accounts, the color scheme can also be changed so that the register and the border on Credit Card Charge reflect the color choice.
The account colors are a company-wide selection, so other users of the same Desktop company file will see the same account colors.
So the color scheme features have been in QuickBooks Desktop for eons. But they still deliver great value and help prevent errors.
Esther
Esther Friedberg Karp is an internationally-renowned trainer, writer and speaker from Toronto, where she runs her QuickBooks consulting practice, EFK CompuBooks Inc. Consistently in Insightful Accountant's Top 100 ProAdvisors, she has been named to the Top 10 twice.
With the unique distinction of holding ProAdvisor certifications in the US, Canadian, UK, and International versions of QuickBooks, she has traveled the world with Intuit. She has spoken at conferences such as "QuickBooks Connect," "Scaling New Heights," and "Future Forward," and has written countless articles for Intuit Global. In addition, she is author of "Multicurrency in QuickBooks Desktop: The Most In-Depth QuickBooks Multicurrency Training Available." The book, which is available on Amazon, is the only one of its kind that teaches how QuickBooks treats foreign currency transactions—all the tricks and the tips, and how to deal with foreign business as an expert.
Esther has been named one of the “Top 50 Women in Accounting,” a “Top 10 Influencer” in the Canadian Bookkeeping World, and is a repeat nominee for the “RBC Canadian Women’s Entrepreneur Awards.” She counts among her clients many international companies, as well as accounting professionals seeking her out on behalf of their own clients for her expertise in multi-currency and various countries’ editions of QuickBooks Desktop and Online.
She can be reached at esther@e-compubooks.com or 416-410-0750.
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