If there’s one thing that just about everyone who uses QuickBooks can agree we’re not fond of, it’s probably repetitive data entry. The tedious task of manually entering yet another transaction that’s almost or entirely the same as one we’ve already entered can be frustrating, time consuming, and opens avenues for mistakes and differences to crop up. Thankfully, there’s a way we may be able to avoid a lot of these problems, in the form of the Memorized Transaction feature.
Memorized Transactions are a built-in solution to the repetitive data entry process, and used with some careful thought, they may save you a lot of time and effort. They’re great for situations where you’d be entering the same or a very similar transaction on a regular basis. Things like your business’ phone and internet bill, which is probably the same amount every month and doesn’t change much, are great candidates for memorization. Other examples might be invoicing a customer who has a standing order for the same items every week/2 weeks/month/etc., or if you have a bank transfer or journal entry that you enter into QuickBooks over and over.
How Do I Enter Memorized Transactions in QuickBooks Desktop?
Memorized transactions are sort of like using an existing transaction to create a mold for new ones. All the memorized information will be filled into a new transaction, with its own number and the appropriate date. Therefore, after entering the initial transaction, you’ll be able to use it to create new ones based off it, either on a schedule or when you choose.
Start by creating a transaction you’d like to memorize. After entering all the relevant transaction information, click Memorize in the transaction toolbar, and you’ll see the following window for memorized transaction options.
Give the memorized transaction a unique name that will help you identify it, then choose one of the options for what QuickBooks will do with this memorized transaction. You can either have it added to your reminders list, tell QuickBooks not to remind you (in this case you’d have to specifically tell QuickBooks to create a copy of the memorized transaction), or to automate the entry of the memorized transactions entirely. There is also the option of adding the memorized transaction to a group, where its action will be set by the group it’s in. More on that below.
If you’ve selected reminder or automated entry, you’ll also set how often and the date of the next action, to the right. For automated entry, you’ll also choose how many more times the transaction should be entered, and how many days in advance of that date (if any) QuickBooks should enter the transaction.
How to Edit or Delete Memorized Transactions in QuickBooks
Once you’ve finished that, you’re done setting up the memorized transaction. If you need to edit information about the schedule or action in the future, you can go to the memorized transaction list and edit the memorized transaction. If you need to change the actual transaction information that’s memorized, you’ll need to create a transaction from the memorized one, edit it, and click the memorize button again. At that point you’ll get a pop-up like this, asking if you’d like to replace the existing memorized transaction, or create a new one:
Let’s take a quick look at using memorized transactions now that we’ve created one. The easiest way is to go to the memorized transaction list and double click the transaction you want to create. The appropriate transaction screen will open, with all the memorized info pre-filled, ready to edit if needed and save.
Using Memorized Transactions and Transaction Groups
If you want to use memorized transaction groups, go to the memorized transaction list and choose New Group from the pop-up menu. Enter a name and choose the action and date options for this group. Now all memorized transactions in this group will run the same way at the same times. To add memorized transaction to the group, edit them and select “Add to Group,” choosing the group you want them in from the drop-down.
If you’ve selected the option for reminders, you’ll want to make sure your preferences are set to see those reminders. In the Edit > Preferences menu, you’ll see options in the “Reminders” area, “Company Preferences” tab for “Memorized Transactions Due.” You can choose to see a summary, a list, or no reminders. You’ll also choose how many days early you want to see notifications about these transactions.
This is nice to enter transactions without typing everything in again, but it can still take a while if you have a lot of memorized transactions. The last way to use memorized transactions is the option for automated entry. With this, if you open QuickBooks and there are memorized transactions due for entry, you’ll see the following window:
Other Options
Memorized transactions aren’t the only way to avoid manually entering transaction data over and over. There’s another option in-product that may help if you need to duplicate a transaction but won’t need to repeat this one regularly. On most common transaction types, in the transaction toolbar there is an option to Copy Transaction. This does exactly what it says, creating a new copy of the transaction in question with today’s date and the next number in sequence, just as though you’d memorized it.
There are also options in terms of third-party platforms that connect to QuickBooks, such as the incredible Recur360. While even getting a handle on QuickBooks’ regular memorized transactions will help boost your productivity, they do have some limitations, such as not being able to memorize and repeat customer payments.
With Recur360, there’s no such limitation, and you’ll be able to easily create and organize recurring billing and payment receipt from your customers, as well as batch email your invoices with the press of a button. That’s more time and more energy that you have free to dedicate to the parts of running your business that are important to you.
This should give you some stable footing to get started with memorized transactions in QuickBooks Desktop. If you need assistance getting a hang of them, reach out and our specialists will be glad to help in getting you the memorized transactions you need. If you want to cut through even more of the clutter with a streamlined automation option like Recur360, reach out to our fantastic sales team. They’ll help you evaluate what’s right for your business and get you the tools you need.
