Customizing your company file’s appearance

You like it the way you like it. That’s cool. You can customize QuickBooks so that its default display shows what’s most important to you.

Changing the desktop

You can save your QuickBooks windows arrangement so that when you return to your company file, the same windows are open in the same positions.

In QuickBooks, arrange your desktop to look how you like it. For example, if you write a check every time you use QuickBooks, open the Write Checks window. Then choose Window > Workspace > Save Workspace. The next time you open QuickBooks, the desktop arrangement you saved appears.

Dark Mode

QuickBooks is now compatible with the Dark Mode user interface, offered in macOS Mojave (10.14). You can choose to view your company file in either Light Mode or Dark Mode.

No matter which appearance you choose, you will be able to customize colors, in places such as Registers and Reports, the same way. QuickBooks 2020 uses colors that will look good in both options.

Customizing the toolbar

So you don’t have employees but you use statements all the time. And there’s a report you view every day. Guess what? You can customize your toolbar with links to what you use the most. Simply select the Customize button on the far right (or bottom of, if your toolbar is vertical) of the toolbar to get started.

  • Change the icons on the toolbar. Drag any icon you want to add to the toolbar. Drag an icon off the toolbar to remove it. You can also drag icons around on the toolbar to rearrange them.
  • Change the color of the toolbar. Select the gear menu in the top right of the sheet. Hover your mouse over the “Colors” menu item to see the various colors you can choose from. You can also select the “Colors” menu item to open the color wheel. If you try another color then decide you would rather keep the original color, you go back to the gear menu and select “Restore Factory Defaults.”

Other things you can do with the toolbar:

  • Choose whether you would like your toolbar to be displayed horizontally or vertically. Choose QuickBooks > Preferences > Toolbar / Tabs and select your preferred option.
  • Resize the toolbar. Drag the lower right corner of the toolbar to the right to lengthen it, or to the left to shorten it.
  • Move the toolbar. Drag the toolbar’s title bar to a new position.
  • Hide the toolbar. Choose QuickBooks > Preferences > Toolbar / Tabs, and deselect “Display Toolbar.” To redisplay the hidden toolbar, reselect this checkbox.
  • Keep the toolbar expanded. If your toolbar is vertical, you may want to keep it extended so you can see the labels for each icon at all times. Choose QuickBooks > Preferences > Toolbar / Tabs and select Keep Toolbar Expanded. Select the checkbox again to minimize your toolbar.

Add links to the toolbar

You can add a link to a window, such as a report, to the toolbar. Open the window you want to link to the toolbar. Then, click the Customize button on the toolbar. Drag the window you want to add, from the bottom of the customize window, onto the toolbar. Type a description and pick an icon to use for the link.

So that’s how you can make QuickBooks look the way you want. Happy customizing!


You can also post your own question to the QuickBooks for Mac community.