- Introduction
- Using the Account Bar and Activity Centers
- Getting the Big Picture
- Selecting Accounts to Include in Your Net Worth
- Using Alerts
- Using Bills and Scheduled Transactions
- Taking the Next Steps with Your Financial Goals
- Using Online Updates
- Using Tips and Services
- Creating Links to Your Favorite Financial Websites
Using the Account Bar and Activity Centers
The account bar contains the activity centers and is located on the left side of the Home page (unless you changed the position to the right side in Chapter 2, “Learning Quicken Basics,” when we covered setting Quicken preferences). The activity centers include the Cash Flow Center, which contains all your banking and credit card accounts; the Investing Center, which contains all your investment and retirement information; and the Property & Debt center, which contains account information for your property, assets, and liabilities. Each of these centers provides access to all your accounts, where you can review, change, or remove account information. The following task provides an overview of the activity centers and shows you how to quickly access your accounts and customize the account bar. We’ll get into more of the specifics of using each activity center in Chapters 4, “Managing Your Spending and Savings Accounts,” through 9, “Managing Your Property and Debt.”
Use the Account Bar and Activity Centers
To access your bank and credit card account information, in the account bar, click Cash Flow Center. You can also click an account name to go directly to the register for that account.
To access your investments, securities, or retirement account(s), click Investing Center.
To view property and debt accounts, such as your home, car, property loans, and so on, click Property & Debt.
Click the arrows at the bottom or top of the activity center to scroll down or up. The arrows appear darker when there is information hiding and lighter when there is no information hiding.
Right-click in any area of the account bar to view a menu of actions you can perform. For example, you can hide the account bar completely, move it, or choose to view more or less information about each account.
Your total net worth appears at the bottom of the account bar. To view a detailed breakdown of your net worth, click Financial Overview.
Hide account balances by clicking the Hide Amounts button.
Click Show Amt. to show account balances.
To change the accounts that appear and the order in which they appear on the account bar, click Customize.
Click the boxes in the Remove from Bar column for the accounts you do not want to appear on the account bar or click a box that has a check mark to add an account to the account bar.
Accounts automatically appear in alphabetical order. To move an account up or down on the list, select the account and click Move Up to move it up the list or Move Down to move it down the list. Repeat the move until the account appears where you want it on the list.
To move an account to a different category (for example, to move a savings account to a spending account), select the account and click Change Group.
Select the new category for the account and click OK.
To return to the Quicken Home page, click Close.