8 Best POS Systems For QuickBooks Integration

Square has retail, restaurant, and service-based business sales solutions. Many of the software’s best features are free and work across all business types.

Our favorite niche Square features:

• Free POS and Square Online online store builder
• Free Square Appointments online appointment scheduler
• Free subscription management tool for subscription/membership programs
• Free digital gift card sales
• Unlimited POS devices (single-location businesses only)

Square’s QuickBooks POS integration:

• Uses Connect to Square app
• Free and easy to set up
• Integrations for multiple locations
• Detailed or summary records of every transaction
• Allows you to select previous transactions to import

Square POS with QuickBooks integration settings.

All it takes is a $49 card reader to start accepting in-person payments using Square POS.

Square can be adapted for any industry and used on a variety of devices, but the free Square POS plan is best for low-volume businesses that aren’t ready for a merchant account yet.

For more established businesses looking for an all-in-one system that includes payment processing and POS, check out our reviews on Square for Retail or Square for Restaurants for pricing, features, and more.

Square has a variety of strong hardware options including:

• Square Contactless + Chip Card Reader: $49 (1st generation) or $59 (2nd generation)
• Square Terminal: $299 or $27/month with financing
• Square Register: $799 or $39/month with financing

The complete guide to Square hardware can help you decide what options will work best for you and what you’ll pay for your equipment.

Square got its start as a groundbreaking payment processing company, and this payment processing is integrated into Square POS systems. Its rates are competitive and upfront.

Square processing fees are:

• 2.6% + $0.10 fee: In-person contactless, swiped, or inserted chip cards, and swiped magstripe cards
• 3.5% + $0.15 fee: Manually keyed in, card-on-file, or manually entered payments using the Square Virtual Terminal
• 2.9% + $0.30 fee: Online payments

Unlike some more predatory POS systems, Square does not tie you into any long-term contracts. You will be billed on a month-to-month basis and can cancel your plan at any time without incurring any early termination fees.

Like Square, Clover offers retail, restaurant, and service-based software plans. Clover further breaks down plans into counter-service and full-service plans, as well as personal and professional services plans.

Our favorite niche Clover features:

• Loyalty program
• Online ordering page
• Order With Google integration
• Sales by weight
• Itemized returns and exchanges
• Employee shift management

Its real power comes from the Clover app market, which contains hundreds of apps that you can easily use to add anything from perishable inventory management to EBT transaction capabilities (which is what makes Clover one of the best grocery store POS systems), to event ticket sales.

Unfortunately, Clover does not offer a free or direct QuickBooks integration. Through the app marketplace, however, you have multiple options that can integrate your POS system in a snap.

Clover by Commerce Sync is a highly rated app in the Clover app market.

Clover pricing can get complicated because of the Clover-authorized resellers you can purchase both your hardware and software from.

These resellers charge different rates for subscriptions, hardware, and payment processing. Be sure to do your research so you know you’re getting the best rates.

Clover offers a wide variety of hardware options. Pricing varies depending on whether or not you purchase from a reseller.

Clover direct purchase hardware costs:

• Clover Go Handheld Card Reader: $49
• Clover Flex Handheld POS: $599 or $35/month with financing
• Clover Mini Small Countertop POS: $799 or $45/month with financing
• Clover Station Solo All-In-One POS: $1,699 or $125/month with financing

To add extra POS software subscriptions to additional Clover POS devices, you’ll pay an extra $9.95/device/month if the devices are in the same location.

If, for example, you have two Clover devices in two different locations, you’ll pay the full software fee on each one rather than the full price for the first one and $9.95/month for the second.

Since Clover is sold by many different providers, you can get several payment processing rates.

If you purchase your Clover system directly from Clover, you’ll pay:

• 2.3% + $0.10: For card-present transactions
• 3.5% + $0.10: For card-not-present transactions including online transactions, invoice payments, and virtual terminal payments

If your sales come from mostly online sales, you have high sales volumes, a lot of sales with low ticket values, want flexible interchange-plus payment processing rather than flat-rate payment processing, or want better contract terms, we recommend working with a vetted and trusted Clover reseller.

Clover offers 36-month and 48-month contracts with early termination fees if you decide to cancel your contract. Clover sales reps may say they can waive the early termination fee, but if that isn’t written into your merchant agreement, it probably isn’t true.

If you work with a Clover reseller, you may have different contract lengths and requirements. In general, look for a Clover reseller with month-to-month contracts and flat-rate or interchange-plus payment processing fee structures.

Also, it will help you to research how to negotiate a merchant agreement to get the best contract terms possible.

Lightspeed’s best pos retail features are in its inventory management, customer management, and multi-location support, and include the following:

• Ability to create a catalog of suppliers and quickly generate purchase orders, receive items, perform stock takes, and more
• Highly customizable loyalty program
• B2B customer accounts, account credits, and quote system
• B2B and B2C sales without creating different websites or sections in your POS dashboard
• Master purchase orders and stock transfers for multi-location business owners

Lightspeed QuickBooks integration through Amaka:

• Amaka is a highly-rated accounting integration provider
• Free or paid plans
• Map sales, payments, taxes, purchase orders, tips, and refunds
• Syncing can originate from Lightspeed or QuickBooks
• Some Amaka plans allow you to create custom mapping rules
• Amaka plans offer the ability to sync multiple stores to multiple QuickBooks accounts, if needed

Lightspeed POS system with QuickBooks dashboard.

Lightspeed offers three different levels of plans for its retail POS systems.

Lightspeed also has three different plan levels for its restaurant POS systems.

Like the enterprise options, Lightspeed Golf is a completely custom-priced POS solution for golf courses. You’ll need to contact Lightspeed for a quote.

All Lightspeed plans come with one POS register. Extra devices cost $59/device/month.

Lightspeed also offers a 14-day free trial to test out the software.

Lightspeed offers à la carte hardware on its website, as well as iPad packages, including cash drawers, printers, and stands, but you must contact the company for a quote.

Note: Lightspeed Retail now requires all new qualified merchants in the US and Canada to use Lightspeed Payments, Lightspeed’s payment processor. If you currently use a card reader from a third-party payment processor, you can’t use it anymore. Since you can’t use any existing payment terminals (card readers) with Lightspeed Payments, Lightspeed is currently running a free terminal replacement promotion for eligible merchants that includes two free Lightspeed POS terminals (card readers) per qualified merchant.

Eligible merchants include business owners who process a minimum of $100/day in credit card payments, as measured by a monthly average. Apple products are not included in this promotion, so you’ll still need to source an iPad to take sales.

Lightspeed Payments, Lightspeed’s in-house payment processor, offers reasonable fees for US and Canadian customers who are required to use the platform.

• 2.6% + $0.10: Card-present transactions
• 2.9% + $0.30: Card-not-present transactions

Note: If you are a current Lightspeed Retail user in the US or Canada and use a third-party payment processor, and you qualify for Lightspeed Payments, you must switch to Lightspeed Payments within 30 days of receiving an email notifying you about the switch.

Also, Lightspeed will buy out payment processing contracts for eligible merchants. The company will pay off your early termination fees if you process a minimum of $25,000 in card sales and submit documentation of your previous payment processing contract that states your early termination fee within six months of meeting this minimum processing amount.

It’s important to note that the “paying off” comes in the form of discounted payment processing fees, not a chunk of cash that goes towards your termination fees when you decide to switch to Lightspeed Payments.

Lightspeed offers billing on either a monthly or annual basis. There is an early termination fee for canceling a Lightspeed plan. Consider starting with a monthly contract and switching to an annual one after you’re sure Lightspeed is right for your business.

If you order Lightspeed hardware, you have five business days to confirm that you have received it. If you don’t, the hardware will not be covered under Lightspeed’s 30-day warranty (14 days for Apple products.)

TouchBistro full-service restaurant features:

• Excellent waitlist and reservation system with online reservation portal for customers and SMS updates to reduce no-shows
• Integrated floor planning and table management
• Card pre-authorizations and liquid inventory management (great for bars)
• Product pairings for several upselling opportunities
• Menu coursing and order prioritization so everything comes out at the same time and temperature

TouchBistro catering features:

• Customer quotes and deposits for catering orders
• Set multiple delivery parameters, charge more, and require a higher minimum order for delivery depending on delivery zone
• Set up event start and end times and charge service fees
• Complete offline mode so you can sell on-premise and make catering notes before/during/after events
• Custom menu creation and nutritional information for standard catering packages and one-time special events

TouchBistro connects to QuickBooks via MarginEdge and Shogo. Both are simple integrations that sync your sales with your QuickBooks Online account.

MarginEdge allows users to automate the flow of daily sales data directly to QuickBooks. MarginEdge also offers sales automation, automated invoice processing, food pricing, a digital recipe builder, online ordering, and more.

Shogo is another option but is not TouchBistro’s most popular choice for QuickBooks integration.

TouchBistro starts at $69/month.

Your subscription cost will go up if you choose to add on any of the following features:

• Kitchen Display System: $19/month
• Profit Management: $330/month
• Online Ordering: $50/month
• Reservations: $229/month
• Loyalty: $99/month
• Gift Cards: $25/month
• Marketing: $99/month

While these add-ons are admittedly a little expensive, they are high-quality, sales-focused features that will pay for themselves (and then some).

TouchBistro has various hardware options that can be tailor-made for your business. Call for a quote and to have TouchBistro create an optimized package for you.

TouchBistro has its own payment processor, but you have to call to get a customized quote. You are not locked into the service, however, as the POS does integrate with a handful of other processors.

You can purchase TouchBistro’s software on a month-to-month basis. However, one thing to watch out for is that some of TouchBistro’s features are additional add-ons, and those costs can add up quickly.

Toast’s handheld POS system is very user-friendly, and the backend menu and inventory management are incredibly detailed. However, Toast’s most unique features include its loyalty program, kitchen display systems, and multi-location capabilities.

Toast’s loyalty program is next-to-none in the restaurant industry and includes:

• Automated loyalty program enrollment prompts during/after orders
• Enrollment via text or email with loyalty program marketing messages
• Automated point collection by using a linked card; manual point collection by entering phone number, email, or scanning loyalty QR code
• Automated point redemption prompts

You can create identical restaurants with ease or custom menus for each location, and give others access to make their own decisions about things like pricing, making Toast great for franchises, too.

Toast’s QuickBooks POS integration:

• Uses xtraCHEF app
• Syncs xtraCHEF invoices as bills
• Saves vendor deposits and vendor credits
• Turns your Toast sales data into a journal entry
• Includes integration with Toast Payroll

Toast POS system with QuickBooks integration through xtraCHEF.

Most of Toast’s best features, including its kitchen display systems and xtraCHEF integration (required to integrate Toast with QuickBooks) cost extra. Toast often gives discounts for restaurants that purchase multiple features at once.

Toast recently underwent some pricing/fee changes, so your best bet for accurate pricing with all of the features you need is to contact Toast directly.

Toast has a variety of hardware options, including countertop POS systems, self-serve kiosks, kitchen display systems, and the Toast Go 2, one of the best mobile POS systems on the market.

Most restaurants will need to get a custom quote on a hardware setup.

Individuals on the Starter and Standard plans can purchase a starter kit, which includes a maximum of two POS terminals.

If you’re on the $69/month standard plan, you are required to purchase your starter kit upfront. The Toast Go 2 costs $609 and the countertop POS costs $799.

If you’re on the Starter plan, there are no upfront costs for your hardware. The costs are made up for in higher payment processing fees which, at some point, will add up to more than the cost of your hardware and a monthly software plan.

In general, we recommend purchasing your POS hardware upfront and getting a monthly software plan if possible. You may need to get a short-term business loan to buy your equipment upfront, but it will most likely be worth it to pay off a loan and then pay higher processing fees for the foreseeable future.

Toast has its own payment processing service that you are locked into.

Toast has changed to a customized quote-based system for payment processing fees but still boasts clear, competitive, and transparent pricing.

Toast has started locking customers into long-term contracts, sometimes for as long as three years, and charges a substantial termination fee if you cancel, which is certainly a concern.

Consider negotiating a shorter contract or a free trial to make sure the system is right for you before taking the plunge. Many midsize to large multi-section and multi-location restaurants love Toast and want to stick with this POS in the long run, but you should make sure this POS is right for your particular business first.

You may also want to be on the lookout for fee increases in the future. While the CEO pulled the poorly executed mandatory $0.99 fee for “software improvements”, there was also a caveat given that fees will most likely increase in the near future.

Revel offers in-store, self-serve kiosk, tableside orders and payments, and food delivery via third-party delivery platforms like GrubHub. It includes online ordering with curbside pickup and delivery options, as well as delivery driver monitoring and route optimization.

Revel is also one of the best POS systems for drive-thrus because it has dedicated drive-through hardware and drive-through order routing.

Hybrid business owners can manage fresh ingredients, retail items, appointments, service invoices, and more, all within Revel’s self-contained POS ecosystem. You can create an online ordering website for both retail and fresh food items.

Revel has its own direct QuickBooks integration which allows you to sync Revel inventory receipts, purchase orders, employee payroll, customer accounts and invoices, and reconciled payments. You may also use class mapping to split sales by department, location, and income accounts.

Revel POS QuickBooks integration setup.

Revel monthly packages come with a  two-terminal minimum and a three-year contract. However, if you don’t want to commit for that long and/or you want advanced features, such as a customer display system, online ordering, kiosk mode, customer loyalty, etc., the price point can be much higher.

Revel offers everything from iPads, stands, and receipt printers to scanners and scales on its website. You can contact Revel for a custom package or get written consent from Revel to purchase your own Revel-compatible hardware.

Revel has built-in processing through Revel Advantage and boasts competitive fees, but you’ll have to contact the company directly to get a quote that best suits your business.

You may also integrate your POS with a Revel-compatible third-party payment processor, but you might end up paying an extra monthly fee to do so.

To get Revel’s lowest pricing, you have to sign up for a three-year contract which isn’t great, especially if yours is a new business. You can avoid a long-term contract if you wish, but it will drive Revel’s already high price up further.

KORONA offers both retail and restaurant features on all plans. The platform also offers franchise, multi-location, and ticketing/event management features.

High-risk businesses, specifically convenience, cannabis, vape, and liquor stores, will appreciate these unique KORONA POS features:

• Loss Prevention: Restrictions on cashier actions such as returns and voids; integrations with security cameras; blind balancing
• Restricted Product Sales: Integrated ID scanner, tax, and sales reporting settings for restricted product sales
• Regulated Item Integrations: Integrations with regulated item marketing, loyalty, and inventory management software
• High-Risk Inventory Management: Inventory bundling and breakdowns for regulated items such as alcohol and cigarettes; mobile inventory management app with free barcode scanner; item par levels and reordering when stock dips below par

Like Revel Systems, KORONA directly integrates with QuickBooks. You’ll be able to sync your sales, inventory groups, services, payments, shortages, discounts, stock receipts, and asset values between the two platforms.

KORONA QuickBooks integration.

KORONA also offers a custom-quoted Enterprise Plan that includes ticketing, event management, and other helpful pre-built integrations.

You get one free month if you sign up for a yearly plan.

KORONA offers tablets and a variety of POS hardware options through its website. It also has leasing options for its more expensive equipment, although it’s usually better to buy your hardware outright.

KORONA integrates with numerous card processors, including high-risk payment processors, allowing you to choose the one that best suits your business and gives you the best rate.

There are no long-term contracts with KORONA, although you do get a free month if you sign up to be billed annually, so there’s no reason to be worried about early termination fees.

Shopify’s best features are its retail inventory management capabilities, eCommerce functionalities, and add-ons.

You can sell retail items, services, and subscriptions on several platforms with Shopify, including:

• In-Person: Sell items in-store and get items sent to customers’ homes; sell items on the go with the affordable Shopify card reader
• Online Store: Sell items online for in-store pickup, local delivery, and national/international shipping; add pre-orders, wish lists, layaway, gift card sales, and more ways to sell
• Social Media: Sell on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and more, for free; provides streamlined checkout experience for customer
• Marketplaces: Sell on marketplaces like Etsy, Amazon, and Walmart Marketplace

You may integrate Shopify and QuickBooks through one of several Shopify apps or using the Shopify Connector in your QuickBooks Online dashboard. A dedicated Shopify app will integrate with more sales channels, increase automation capabilities, and better reflect your business’s cash flow.

We’ve researched a few QuickBooks apps on the Shopify app market and have found that the A2X QuickBooks Online Sync app is a great choice.

A2X has excellent reviews and allows for more automation rules, syncs with different payment gateways like PayPal and BNPL (buy now pay later) apps like Klarna, more profits/fee breakdowns, and helps with taxes. Users also comment on how great A2X customer service has been.

Shopify POS A2X app QuickBooks integration.

Note: Shopify offers a three-day free trial, no credit card required.

Shopify offers bundles that you can purchase online and individual point of sale hardware options to fit your needs. At the very least, you’ll need the $49 Shopify card reader to take sales with an iPad or smartphone.

A complete retail kit, which includes an iPad stand and card reader, retails for $219, while cash drawers retail at $139.

The complete guide to Shopify POS hardware offers more information about your options as a business owner, the best product bundles, and what you might pay for your POS hardware.

Shopify offers its own in-house payment processor, Shopify Payments. Shopify also integrates with more than 100 payment processors, although you will be subject to transaction fees if you opt out of Shopify Payments.

Shopify’s card-present rates range between 2.4% and 2.7%, depending on your software plan. Online purchase payment processing rates range from 2.4% to 2.9%, plus a $0.30 flat fee per transaction.

The more you pay for your monthly subscription, the lower your payment processing fees will be.

With Shopify, you can sign up month-to-month, but to get the lowest rates on your software, you will have to choose to be billed annually or bi-annually.