Using ‘Leading Periods’ to Organize Sales Orders

Question: I use QuickBooks Premier. I have orders where copy or instructions are frequently the same. When I create these sales orders, is there a way to get these words onto the order without retyping them every time?

Answer: Yes. You can save and reuse words or phrases that you use often by creating a new item labeled with a “leading period.”

Here’s how:

Create a non-taxable item (non-inventory, like the rest of your items) with a name you will recognize. For example, “.Instructions Postcards with Magnets” or “.Copy for ABC Company Orders”

You then can type in the copy you want to reuse exactly, or leave it blank if the instructions are going to change with each order.

Then, with each sales order, you can add one or more of these new “leading period” items as needed.

Notice the “leading period” in front of each non-taxable item’s name.

By adding the period, these items will be first in the list of items. You can find them easily. If you don’t add the period in front, the item will be alphabetized along with your other hundreds of items, and you’ll find yourself wondering what in the world you called that generic item. This puts them front and center for repeated use.

QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise can be modified to better serve ad specialty distributors. Harriet Gatter is a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, a former accounting professor and a former ad specialty distributor. She advises ad specialty distributors to use QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise, often in conjunction with other industry-specific software, to manage the complexities of the ad specialty business, with the results being time saved, errors eliminated and an overall accurate accounting of your business. Contact her at [email protected]

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