Set Up Accounts (Win)

Let's set up your accounts in Quicken for Windows, including your main checking account, savings account (if you have one), and a credit card account (ditto). If you have them, get the last paper statements from each of these accounts. If you don't have them, that's OK; you can make changes later.

Let's add your main checking account. In the Spending & Savings Accounts section, click Add Account. The Quicken Account Setup window appears, asking you to enter the financial institution for the account (in other words, the bank where you have your checking account).

As you type the name , a pop-up list appears with choices. Keep typing until you find your bank. If your bank isn't in the list ( unlikely , but possible), just type in the bank name.

When your bank is selected, click Next. Quicken asks if you want to set up your account online or manually. Click Manual, and then click Next . (We'll cover setting up accounts for online access in Chapter 5.)

We're setting up a checking account, so click Checking on the next screen, then click Next. Give the account a name. If it's going to be the only checking account, then the default name of Checking is fine. Otherwise, give it a more descriptive name, so you can tell the different checking accounts apart. Click Next. On the next screen, enter the ending date from the last paper statement for the checking account and the ending balance, then click Done.

Quicken displays the register for your new account, with the opening balance filled in.

Repeat this process for the rest of the checking and savings accounts you want to set up.

To set up the credit card account, click the Add Account button in the Credit Card Accounts section of the Cash Flow Center. Follow the prompts to add the account information; it's much like adding the checking account.

As you finish setting up each account, it appears in the Account Bar and the Cash Flow Center. You also get handy totals of the amounts in your accounts, and for the credit cards, the amount of credit you have available.