If you're just getting started with a checkbook program like Quicken, incorporating the program into your record-keeping routines can be a little awkward. To ease this process, here is a handful of helpful ideas:

Batch your transactions

Batch your payment and deposits together so that you can enter them as a group. Starting Quicken and displaying an account register isnt difficult, but doing it several times a day for every transaction is time-consuming. Youll find it works best to sit down, say, once a week and enter the previous weeks transactions. This should work fine for both individuals doing personal record keeping and business owners and bookkeepers doing business accounting. Even large businesses dont pay bills every day.

They batch them and then process them together once or twice a week.

Keep the documentation

Keep documentation of the checks you write by hand so that you can remember, for example, what you paid with check 1245. (Duplicate checks are handy because you always create a record of the checks you write by hand.)

Be sure to keep the documentationdeposit slips, ATM receipts, and so forththat describe the other transactions youll want to enter into your register. Again, because you wont be carrying your computer around with you everywhere you go, youll want some paper documentation you can review whenever you do sit down at your computer to do financial record keeping.

Print an Account Register

Its a good idea to print an account register at the end of the month. This paper record provides a hard copy of the transactions youve entered and acts as a permanent backup copy of your financial records. You can keep this copy with the bank account statement you receive. (You probably wont need the register unless you someday need to restore your financial records from a backup copy.) To print an account register, first display the account in the register such as clicking the Banking Center QuickTab and then clicking the account name in the Banking Center window. Then follow these steps:

1. Choose File, Print Register to display the Print Register dialog box.

2. If you want to enter a title for the register, use the Title text box. If you dont enter a title, Quicken uses Account Register for the title.

3. Click the Print command button when youre ready to print.

4. Click OK. Quicken passes the register information to Windows, and it prints your register.