How do I enter a starting balance on a checking account (Q Mac)

Ginny Trueman

Moved from PC to Mac. Connected my checking accounts but I did not put in a starting balance. How do I do this. Does n't seem to be a place to edit the initial set up with this info.

jacobs

You can just enter a new transaction with a date prior to the first date in your account in Quicken, the amount of the starting balance, and a category of "Adjustment." The Adjustment category won't show up in reports as either income or expense.

Ginny Trueman

Thanks so much. This new Mac version is really hard not intuitive re the old PC one. I want to hold the list of accounts on the left window always and keep it there no mztter what account i am in it keeps taking it away and the only way to get back is to close the bank or credit card window which closes the whole s/w down and I have to start it up again. Very frustrating. Thanks though

jacobs

Ginny Trueman said:

I want to hold the list of accounts on the left window always and keep it there no mztter what account i am in it keeps taking it away and the only way to get back is to close the bank or credit card window which closes the whole s/w down and I have to start it up again. Very frustrating. 

Hmm, that's not the way the software should be working. It is, in fact, designed to keep the left sidebar visible at all time in the main Quicken window.

Does the left side of your screen look like this?

If so, your sidebar has been collapsed. Some people prefer this in order to have more space for their registers. Just click the icon at the top, and the sidebar will expand back to its normal width, with all your accounts visible.

Next: when you click on an account in the left sidebar, only click on it once. If you double-click on the account name, Quicken will open that account in its own window; these independent windows (which are also used for reports) do not show the left sidebar. This can be useful if you need to minimize the size of your window, or if you want to view more than one account at once. Otherwise, just make sure you single-click on the account name, so the register you want opens on the right side of the main window and the left sidebar remains visible on the left.

Another tip: if you close a window and all the windows are gone, you do not need to quit Quicken to relaunch it. Simple press Command-1, or select your file name on the Window menu (just below the grayed-out Bring All To Front). This will re-open the main window. The main window will always remain open, unless you close it.