QuickBooks came out with their Add/Edit Multiple List Entries in 2010, but POS has had a List Edit for Items for many years. It's a favorite feature of mine when clients are either first setting up their inventory or have a lot of changes to make to their inventory. The beauty of this feature is that you can go right down the line to edit without having to double-click on each individual item, select your tab and then enter. An edit I find many of my clients frequently make is entering the barcode/UPC. As you can imagine, this can save quite a bit of time!

If you are in any version of POS other than 10.0 (instructions for 10 are further down), go to your Items List. Click on the drop-down arrow to the right of the edit list then click on Turn List Edit On.

Now you can edit right inside this list without having to go into each individual item to make whatever changes are necessary. This way you can go down the list pretty quickly.

If you are in POS 10.0, it will take a few steps to get there, but it is well worth your time.

• Click on Reports, Items, Item List

• Double-click on any item in the report - it will take you to that item

• Click on View List

• Now you're in the "old" screen and you can turn on the List Edit as explained above.

When I'm in the Items List, I will almost always customize the columns that I am viewing - I find it can make editing lists go faster. Right-click on any of the column headings (like Department, Item name, Attribute, etc.) then select Customize Columns. If a column you want is not in the "chosen" side, simply click on it on the left, then click Add. Along those same lines, if a column appears on the chosen side you don't want, simply click on it then select Remove - it will move it over to the Available Columns List (it won't actually delete if from your POS).

To change the order in which they appear, simply click on the column you want to move, then select either Move Up or Move Down.

Once I'm back in the Items List, before I start editing, I also frequently change the sort.  If you click on any column heading, POS will sort by that column. However, frequently I find that's not enough. So, for versions prior to POS 10, click on View, Sort By, then select Multiple Columns. Pick the one(s) you want, in the order you want.

Those of you in POS 10.0 will need to create filters which are a topic for another day.