Intuit Inc. — QuickBooks Point of Sale 8.0

From the September 2009 Review of Point-of-Sale Systems

QuickBooks Point of Sale software is part of Intuit’s extensive Industry Solutions software line. Available in four versions scaled to fit your business needs, Point of Sale Basic 8.0 is ideally suited for small to mid-sized retail businesses.

EASE OF USE:
The easy-to-use QuickBooks navigator provides quick access to POS transactions, inventory, purchasing, help and support, and the “quick-find” feature allows users to key in search terms to quickly find customers, sales and items. New QuickBooks users will appreciate options such as the hardware setup wizard that appears automatically after software installation. The setup interview guides users through entering relevant company information. ‘Understanding The Basics’ offers a set of brief tutorials that cover simple program navigation, how to save time when entering information and instructions on importing data from QuickBooks financial software along with other data sources.
As always, data-entry screens are easily navigated, with icons available to move from function to function quickly and easily. Lookup options are available in all appropriate fields, and customers, items and other data can be added on the fly.

MODULES/SCALABILITY:
QuickBooks Point of Sale version 8 offers complete POS functionality along with inventory, purchasing, employees, web store and a complete help and support function. Designed to work as a stand-alone product or in tandem with QuickBooks financial products, integration between the two offers users better front/back office capability and increased reporting options, which will be covered later in this review.

There are currently four versions of the QuickBooks retail POS product available: Cash Register Plus (if inventory capabilities aren’t needed), Basic, Pro and Pro Multi-Store. Each offers an increased level of features and options, making QuickBooks an ideal POS solution for businesses of all sizes.

FEATURES/FUNCTIONALITY:
New sales are begun by clicking on “Make a Sale,” allowing users to look up, enter or add item codes. Items can be entered by hand or scanned, obviously a better solution for high-volume stores.

While QuickBooks doesn’t offer the scope of detail offered by higher-end systems, users can easily enter custom pricing, attach multiple pricing levels to a single item and track orders and employee sales commissions. QuickBooks Point of Sale can also handle merchandise discounts, returns and store credits. It offers decent customer tracking capability to allow retailers to easily target a specific group of customers based on sales and purchase history. Reward programs can also be provided to customers.

New features in version 8 include the Web Store option, which syncs with the POS product to handle online sales, along with real-time inventory tracking and updates. Up to 20 stores can now be managed from one central location with the multi-store version (up from 10 in the previous version). QuickBooks now also works with a PIN Pad with Signature Capture, making credit card processing and security more efficient. A simple sales interface is now available, as well, allowing sales entry without the clutter.

INTEGRATION:
QuickBooks Point of Sale products easily integrate with QuickBooks financial software. The connection wizard helps complete the integration process, so users will only need to enter customer, product and sales data once, with transactions imported into the financial software. QuickBooks Point of Sale works with an extensive array of hardware peripherals including pole displays, receipt printers, credit card readers, the new signature capture, standard PIN pads and barcode scanners.