This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Using the Account Bar
The account bar contains the activity centers and is located on the left side of the home page (unless you changed the position or removed it 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, and 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 Accounts,” through 6, “Managing Your Bills and Transactions.”
Navigate the Account Bar
If you’re in another area of Quicken and want to return to the Home page, click Quicken Home.
To access your bank and credit card account information, 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 lighter when there is
information hiding and darker when there is no information hiding.
To change the width of the account bar, hover your mouse over the border between the account bar and the Home page until
you see the double arrows. Then click, hold down your left mouse button, and drag to the right to expand it or drag to the
left to reduce it.
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Use the Activity Center
- 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.
- Create new accounts by clicking the Add Account button.
- Your total net worth appears at the bottom of the account bar. To view a detailed breakdown of your net worth, click Financial Overview.
TIMESAVER If there is a red flag next to one of your accounts, you can hover your mouse pointer (point, but don’t click) over the account name to view the special message. Balances that appear in red and negative balances represent debt. Use the flags to help you keep up with your accounts. In the time it takes to take a quick glance at the activity bar, you’ll know which accounts need your attention. This saves you the time and the effort of going into each account to review it.
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Add or Remove Accounts on the Account Bar
- To change the accounts that appear and the order in which they appear on the account bar, click Customize.
- To remove an account from the account bar, select the appropriate box for that account in the Hide in Navigation column. A check indicates that the account does not appear in the account bar.
- To add an account to the account bar, remove the check mark in the Hide in Navigation column check box.
- Accounts automatically appear in alphabetic 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.
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