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Sep 18, 2023
Filed under: Accounting, Bookkeeping, Invoicing
Helcim POS Review
Helcim's free POS software offers an abundance of features suitable for retail, service, and subscription-based businesses in the US and Canada.
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WRITTEN & RESEARCHED BY
Senior Staff Writer
UPDATED
Advertiser Disclosure: Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity.
Helcim POS Review
| Total Rating | 4.5 |
|---|---|
| Pricing | Excellent |
| Features | Good |
| Customer Service | Excellent |
| Reviews | Excellent |
Pricing
$0Contract
MonthlyEquipment Cost
$109 - $349Helcim POS Review At A Glance
- Transparent interchange-plus payment processing that works best for midsize businesses (making $5,000+/month and at least $50/transaction)
- Excellent subscription management platform for physical and digital subscriptions
- Custom and intuitive invoice creator works well for service-based and custom order businesses
Pros
- Free in-person POS software that works on any device
- Free customizable online store builder
- Excellent B2B/wholesale customer manager
- Detailed physical and digital subscription manager
- Very customizable quote/estimate/invoice generator
- Transparent interchange-plus payment processing on every plan
- Impressively positive customer service reviews
Cons
- Not suited for complex inventory management
- No multilocation inventory or employee management
- No built-in loyalty program
- Few third-party software integrations
- Not suited for businesses making less than $5,000/month
Table of Contents
- What Is Helcim POS?
- Helcim POS Is Best Suited For…
- Helcim POS Pricing
- Helcim POS Features
- What’s New With Helcim POS?
- Customer Service & Support
- Payment Processing With Helcim
- Helcim Contract & Commitment
- Concerns About Helcim
- Helcim POS Reviews
- How Helcim Compares To Other POS Software Providers
- Final Verdict Of Helcim POS
- Helcim POS FAQs
What Is Helcim POS?
Helcim is a payment processor and point of sale (POS) system provider catering to small/midsize subscription, service-based, and B2B/B2G businesses in the US and Canada. Helcim POS is free and includes an invoice builder, customer manager, custom online store, and a POS register app that can be installed on unlimited devices.
Helcim POS Is Best Suited For…
US and Canadian retail, service, and subscription-based business owners looking for transparent interchange-plus payment processing and no monthly software fees. Helcim’s payment processing model is best for businesses that make over $5,000/month with an average transaction size of at least $50.
Helcim is also great for B2B and B2G businesses, as Helcim allows you to accept corporate and government spend cards with Level 3 card data. Including Level 3 card data will typically lower your payment processing fees.
Helcim POS Pricing
| Helcim POS Review Plans | Price | When To Use |
|---|---|---|
| Free Plan | $0 | If you need free in-person POS software, an online store builder, subscription manager, and/or customer account manager |
Helcim’s only recurring monthly fees are payment processing fees, which you must pay no matter which POS provider you choose to work with. There are no monthly fees for the POS app, online store builder, and customer account management tools.
You may be charged $15 for chargebacks, which Helcim will refund to you if you win a chargeback dispute.
Helcim POS Features
| Helcim POS Review Features | Availability |
|---|---|
| Multi-Store Support | |
| Contactless Payments | |
| Multi-Channel Selling | |
| Gift Cards | |
| Customer Loyalty | |
| Marketing Tools | |
| Online Ordering | |
| Inventory Management | |
| Reporting | |
| Menu Management | |
| Delivery Management | |
| EBT Acceptance | |
| Employee Management | |
| Text Messaging |
Helcim’s best features are its customer, invoice, and subscription management tools, as well as the flexible POS register setup and numerous online selling methods. You can manage your business from the Helcim dashboard on any device and install the Helcim POS app on any device.
Register Features
Helcim has a simple, flexible POS register app that you can download on Apple, Android, and PC desktop devices. Helcim users can log onto devices using their unique login, search for and create new items on the spot on the register, create and update invoices, add transaction notes to orders (great for taking custom orders), and save orders for later (great for keeping lines moving if someone forgets a credit card, needs to check the price on an item, etc.). You can also accept tips, add discount codes, and add custom discounts during checkout for things like reduced pricing on damaged items.
You can add a cash drawer, barcode scanner, and receipt printer to your POS setup. Helcim has a custom receipt designer so you can add all the information you want and your own logo to receipts, plus allow customers to choose whether to have their receipt emailed or printed.
Inventory Management
Helcim offers a lot of preset options when it comes to entering products and services. You can enter a product name, brand, cost, price (in multiple currencies), create item variants, include add-ons, add products to a catalog, create tiered pricing structures, add wholesale pricing, and add advanced product details. Advanced product details include features like weight and dimensions, plus Level 3 data like unit of measure and commodity codes.
Wholesale products are only available to designated wholesale customers, and you can set wholesale products to require a customer to log in to view wholesale pricing information.
You can track inventory, easily modify inventory, and set low-stock alerts. If you use QuickBooks Online or another spreadsheet-based inventory/finance management tool, you can import and export product and service information.
Customer Database
Helcim makes it easy to set up B2B customer accounts and includes information such as:
- Business information and contact name setup
- Wholesale customer designation and tax-exempt status
- Card and/or bank account on file with pre-authorization agreements
- Customer card vault for secure transactions
- Customer account portal with payment information
- Card expiration warning emails
- Custom catalogs for wholesale customers
- Customer self-registration or require a representative to create a customer account
- Allow custom permissions for individual account holders such as the ability to modify card information
Invoicing
Helcim offers excellent invoicing features, including:
- Document Conversion: Convert invoices to quotes, estimates, orders, purchase orders, statements, registrations, or credits when needed.
- Autofill Invoices: You can autofill customer contact, billing, and shipping info by searching for existing customers in your database. You can also autofill line items by searching existing products and services, update pricing with preset discount codes, and add tax information manually or search your tax presets.
- Payment Terms: Customers can make partial payments, pay in full, or get billed on a recurring basis. You can choose repayment terms such as how many days customers have to pay you, payment increments, deposit requirements, and due dates.
- Payment Method: You can choose whether clients pay via credit/debit or bank account, or allow clients to choose. With Helcim’s new fee saver tool, customers can choose between using a credit/debit card and paying a “convenience fee” or using a bank account to avoid that fee.
- Template Customization: Change the font, colors, and logo on your invoices. Add custom messaging, move information around using the template editor, send custom files with your invoices, and add custom discounts, tips, fees, and taxes.
- Client Communication: You can send a “pay now” email or a deposit request email. You and your customer will get reminders about upcoming due dates and overdue bills. You can update overdue invoices to include a late fee when applicable.
Subscription Management
There’s an entire subscription management tool in Helcim, which allows you to create custom subscription plans with these features:
- Custom free trial with the ability to auto-enroll customers after trial is completed
- Initial setup fee billed upon signup or on the first billing cycle after the free trial
- Bill on a cycle, pro rata (billed depending on usage, not for entire billing cycles), or subscription basis
- Bill for a predetermined number of cycles or until a plan is canceled
- Allow customers to edit and cancel plans in the customer portal
- Send automated emails when a customer’s payment failed and request updated payment information
- Send a “heads up” email before your customer is automatically billed
- Create custom add-ons that clients can add to their current plan
- View churn analysis reports for any given month
Customers can sign up for subscriptions using hosted payment pages, adding a subscription plan to an online shopping cart, at in-person POS terminals, and through emailed invoices.
Is Helcim POS User Friendly?
Helcim’s POS software is very easy to use, with a very simple store management dashboard and POS register functions. Many features come with highly customizable templates, so you never have to start from scratch but can make changes to your inventory, customer database, subscriptions, invoices, employee permissions, and more with ease.
You can get a merchant account, build an online store and customer account portal, download the Helcim app on any device to take in-person payments, add employees, add inventory, and configure any business settings within a day or two. In fact, Helcim accounts take only a few minutes to sign up for, and card readers come within 2-3 business days.
What’s New With Helcim POS?
Helcim started as a payment processing company and only seriously started expanding its POS software offering in 2021. Since then, it has created a POS app that works for all device types, launched its own card reader, and configured both credit/debit and ACH bank account payments. In late 2022, the company raised $16 million in funding with the intention to hire over 150 customer service, developer, and sales representatives by the end of 2024.
In June 2023, the company launched its own handheld POS system that, like the Square Terminal and Clover Flex, includes an integrated POS register, card and mobile wallet reader, and receipt printer.
Coming soon, the company will start offering a cash discount program with merchant accounts for business owners that would like to pass their credit/debit card processing fees to customers. The company will uniquely allow business owners to give customers the choice to pay a “convenience fee” if they choose to pay with a card, or pay through a bank account, which has lower fees for business owners than card payments.
Customer Service & Support
| Helcim POS Review Support | Availability |
|---|---|
| Phone Support | |
| Email Support | |
| Support Tickets | |
| Live Chat | |
| Dedicated Support Representative | |
| Knowledge Base or Help Center | |
| Videos & Tutorials | |
| Company Blog | |
| Social Media |
Helcim offers fast, high-quality customer support for US and Canadian merchants. Business owners can call customer support Monday – Friday from 9AM – 9PM EST, submit a support ticket from their Helcim dashboard, or send a help email and get a response within one business day.
Business owners can also check out Helcim’s learning center or YouTube videos to learn more about configuring their POS software.
Customers really highlight the excellent customer support they receive when reviewing Helcim, and the company continues to show its commitment to providing transparent, attentive merchant services.
Payment Processing With Helcim
Helcim offers merchant accounts with transparent interchange-plus payment processing for all business owners, without any minimum amount of revenue or time in business. Helcim has a tiered interchange-plus pricing model, which means that the more money your company makes and the higher your average transaction size, the lower your payment processing rates are.
It’s important to note that companies with low monthly sales ($5,000 or less) and/or low average transaction sizes ($15 – $25) will not benefit from Helcim’s payment processing fee model.
Your payment processing rates will update automatically based on your sales volumes over an average of three months. This means that if your business performs really well in the summer, you’ll have lower payment processing rates at the end of it. If your business has a rough few months, though, you may see your processing rates increase by some measure.
Helcim is a great option for accepting premium, corporate, and government spend cards because you can enter Level 3 transaction data to any product or service.
Adding Level 3 data allows you to minimize payment processing risks and reduce payment processing fees when other businesses and government organizations use credit cards to make larger purchases. Examples of Level 3 data include invoice and order numbers, product and commodity codes, item description and quantity with the unit of measure, freight information, and duty information.
Business owners can estimate their payment processing rates on the company’s pricing page based on their monthly sales volume, average transaction size, card type, percentage of in-person and online/keyed-in transactions, and industry.
Helcim Contract & Commitment
Is Helcim Honest & Transparent About Its Merchant Agreement?
Helcim is extremely honest about its merchant agreement, with a detailed breakdown of merchant fees on the company website and a copy of Helcim’s merchant agreement available online for anyone to view.
What Are The Commitments When You Use Helcim?
Helcim contracts are month-to-month and you are only charged when you process transactions. It’s easy to sign up for a merchant account online, with most merchants being approved within 1-2 business days.
How Easily Can You Terminate Your Agreement With Helcim?
You can easily terminate your agreement with Helcim at any time by emailing [email protected] and following the instructions you are provided. There is no early cancellation fee associated with canceling your account.
Helcim may require a reserve of funding to cover any debt for transactions (chargeback fees, late fees, fees related to court decisions) initiated prior to terminating your agreement. The company will release any funding held after any debt is paid or after six months of termination, whichever comes first. This is a rare occurrence, and as long as your business operates above board, you won’t run into this situation.
Concerns About Helcim
The main concerns about Helcim are ensuring that your business type is supported before signing up for an account, making sure your business is verified by a Helcim representative, and making sure that Helcim has enough functionalities for your business type.
Helcim users have reported account cancellations due to their businesses being considered high-risk. The company provides an acceptable use policy online explicitly detailing what types of businesses it will not work with. If you’re not sure whether your business can work with Helcim, contact a Helcim representative before signing up for a merchant account.
Helcim POS Reviews
Helcim has great reviews on all software review sites, earning the following scores from popular user review platforms:
- Trustpilot: 4.3/5 stars based on 269 reviews
- G2: 4.2/5 stars based on 15 reviews
- GetApp: 4.3/5 stars based on 22 reviews
Note: Helcim’s POS app is relatively new, which explains the lower number of software reviews on G2 and GetApp.
Negative Helcim POS Reviews & Complaints
- Account Cancellations: A few customers complained that their accounts were quickly canceled after signup or after a few transactions. However, the majority of these reviews are because the businesses are considered high-risk.
- Higher Payment Processing Fees: Businesses with smaller transaction volumes note that they did not get the lower payment processing rates that Helcim promised. Additionally, businesses that accept mostly premium credit cards were also subject to higher payment processing fees than expected.
- App Instability: Some users report that the Helcim POS app occasionally crashes.
Positive Helcim POS Reviews & Testimonials
- Excellent Customer Service: The majority of Helcim reviews mention the company’s quick responsiveness, politeness, diligence, and amount of knowledge displayed by Helcim customer representatives. The company also personally responds to every negative customer review, finding and getting in contact with users who had a poor experience to help remedy the situation.
- Lower Payment Processing Fees: Many companies, especially midsize companies, express their happiness about getting lower payment processing fees than competitors that offer flat-rate payment processing.
- Intuitive User Interface: The Helcim user interface is simple and straightforward for most users. Those who had any difficulties contacted Helcim for assistance, and representatives helped them find a solution that worked for their business.
How Helcim Compares To Other POS Software Providers
Unlike many POS providers, Helcim offers merchant accounts and interchange-plus payment processing to all business owners, making Helcim a great option for midsize businesses. However, Helcim does not have as many software integrations or built-in tools as providers like Square or Shopify.
However, while Helcim’s POS is relatively new and lacks some advanced features such as advanced inventory management, Helcim POS software works well for subscription-based sales, service businesses, and single-location retail businesses with simple inventory management requirements.
Final Verdict Of Helcim POS
| Helcim POS Review Review Summary | |
|---|---|
| Pricing | $0 |
| Choose If You Need |
|
We believe that Helcim is one of the best POS systems for businesses in the retail, subscription, and/or service industry, especially B2B and B2G businesses, with higher average transaction sizes and higher monthly sales volumes. This is because larger businesses will be charged lower per-transaction payment processing fees under Helcim’s interchange-plus payment processing model.
We appreciate Helcim’s transparent pricing structure, month-to-month contracts, free POS and online store builder, invoicing features, and B2B/subscription customer management portals. We also appreciate a free POS system, especially one that works on any device, and believe that Helcim is one of the best free POS systems available.
We do not recommend Helcim for restaurants or businesses with a lot of small transactions. If you own a restaurant, look into our best restaurant POS systems. For businesses with small transactions, explore the best POS systems for small business.
Helcim POS FAQs
Nicolette Kier
Senior Staff Writer
Nicolette began writing on small business topics in 2020. After hundreds of hours researching, testing, and assisting small business owners with web building and point of sale software, she is now an expert on all things eCommerce and point of sale. She has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Pittsburgh and resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
View Nicolette Kier's professional experience on LinkedIn.
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