List damage: Symptoms and cures

QuickBooks for Mac keeps all the individual records for your customer jobs, vendors, employees, other names, accounts, and items in lists—the master Name list, the chart of accounts, and the item list. Occasionally, a list may become damaged. If you notice any of the symptoms listed below, your company file may have list damage.

• A list appears out of order or list elements are missing.
• Reports appear out of order.
• You can’t enable account numbers.
• In the Customer Center or Vendor Center, balances are incorrect or no transactions appear when you highlight a record.
• In the Find window, the Name filter’s drop-down menu doesn’t auto-fill when you start entering an existing name.
• In other windows, drop-down menus for Name fields are blank.

Fixing damaged lists is usually easy. Here are the steps for the 2010, 2009, and 2007 versions of QuickBooks for Mac.

QuickBooks 2010 for Mac and QuickBooks 2009 for Mac

Master name list

1. Choose Edit > Find (or just press Command‑F).
2. Click the Name filter and then click the arrow for the Name field.
3. Without selecting a name from the drop‑down menu, press Command‑L to open the master Name List.
4. From the View drop‑down menu at the bottom, choose All Names.
5. Choose Edit > Re‑sort List.
6. Click OK.

Chart of accounts or item list

1. Open your Chart of Accounts or Item list.
2. From the View drop‑down menu at the bottom, choose All Accounts or All Items.
3. Choose Edit > Re‑sort List.
4. Click OK.

A final note about QuickBooks 2010 for Mac: If you’ve fixed all your lists but still find that new additions don’t move into alphabetical order automatically, uncheck Enable Custom Ordering on the Action menu () in the master Name List, Chart of Accounts, and/or Item List. Redo the re‑sorts if necessary.

QuickBooks 2007 for Mac

Master name list

1. Choose Edit > Find (or just press Command‑F).
2. Click the Name filter and then click the arrow for the Name field.
3. Without selecting a name from the drop‑down menu, press Command‑L to open the master Name List.
4. Choose Edit > Re-sort List. (If the command is grayed out, first drag a customer name out of order—without changing its hierarchical level—and then try the command again.)
5. Click OK.

Chart of accounts or item list

1. Open your Chart of Accounts or Item List.
2. If Include Inactive is not checked, check it.
3. If Show Sorted List is checked on the Action menu (), uncheck it.
4. Choose Edit > Re-sort List. (If the command is grayed out, first drag an account name or item out of order—without changing its hierarchical level—and then use the command.)
5. Click OK.