QuickBooks POS Desktop Review
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- Phone Number
- 855-399-8990
- Date Established
- 1983
- Location
- Mountain View, CA
Pros
- Easy to use
- Built-in loyalty function
- iPad and iPhone integrated
Cons
- Pricey
- Lack of hardware options
- Lack of credit card processing options
- Poor customer service
Overview
When you’re a kid, one of the most gut-wrenching things a parent or authority figure can say to you is that they’re “not mad, they’re just disappointed” — implying that you have potential that you’re simply not living up to. That’s the way I feel about QuickBooks Desktop POS. While all of the basic features and functionality of a good point of sale system are there, along with the obvious built-in integration with QuickBooks accounting software, this app continues to lag behind many of its competitors in a number of ways. Despite some recent improvements, like lowered prices and a new pairing with the Microsoft Surface Pro tablet, QBPOS is simply not adapting fast enough in an increasingly competitive market. The product is still on the expensive side — and that’s before factoring in add-ons for gift cards and inexplicably poor customer service.
The main consideration for would-be owners of QBPOS v12.0 is whether or not it stands up when compared to many of the easier, cheaper cloud-based alternatives. Though there are some benefits to having a locally-installed point of sale system, they are few and far between (and growing thinner with each passing year). Equally, there’s the issue of cost, which — considering Intuit’s predilection to charge for updates — can become quite a burden for small-business owners, especially start-ups.
If, however, you are adamant about remaining fully in control of your back-end POS, then QBPOS may well provide the extensive, feature-rich solution you’re looking for. Intuit clearly put some thought into the software’s functionality and feature set, creating a suite of tools that has more in common with an Enterprise Resource Planning solution than a mere virtual cash register. This software handles inventory management (complete with auto-generated POs for low stock), tracks employee hours and commissions, keeps a master list of your customers and their contact info, manages customer credit accounts, and handles shipping, sales orders, and much more. Stack its robust feature matrix up against any competitor and QBPOS most assuredly holds its own.
The fault is in Intuit’s old-school mindset – -evident in the closed ecosystem of QBPOS — which doesn’t leverage the equalizing power of today’s technology. In 1983, when Quicken was released, the great innovation was that managing your personal finances could be done on a computer. In 2018, that’s not so impressive. And though the company has added some basic mobile functionality and backups over the Internet, it’s not the major leap forward in user experience that other modern—and much less expensive—POS systems offer.
Don’t have time to read an entire review? Take a look at our top-rated Point of Sale solutions for a few quick recommendations. Every option we present here offers excellent customer support, detailed user interfaces, and easy-to-use software, all for a reasonable price.
Our Top Picks for Point of Sale Software
| Lightspeed POS | ShopKeep POS | Square POS | Square For Retail | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lightspeed Retail | ShopKeep POS | Square POS | Square For Retail | Clover POS | Shopify POS | |
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Best for | Advanced retail features | Credit card processing options | Free POS | All-in-one service | Secure payments, reliable POS | Ease-of-use |
Monthly fee | $99+ | $0 | $60 | $29 | $9-$29 | |
eCommerce integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Free trial | None |
Table of Contents
- Pricing
- Cloud-Based Or Locally-Installed
- Specific Industry
- Specific Size Of Business
- Ease Of Use
- Hardware & Operating System Requirements
- Features
- Integrations & Add-Ons
- Compatible Credit Card Processors
- Customer Service & Technical Support
- Negative Reviews & Complaints
- Positive Reviews & Testimonials
- Final Verdict
Pricing
Here’s where we start to see the old guard still in action, with pricey license fees and costs to upgrade from one version to the next—the kinds of things you don’t normally see with the SaaS model. QBPOS offers a 30-day free trial, no credit card required, but after that you’re looking at the following prices to keep using:
Basic, $1,200 – Basic is geared for the smallest of Mom & Pop stores. It includes the following features:
- Inventory Tracking
- Vendor Managment
- Add discounts and gift receipts
- EMV Capable
Pro, $1,700 – Pro gets you every feature offered to Basic users, as well as the following:
- Employee Tracking
- Offer layaway and gift cards
- Loyalty Program
Multi-Store, $1,900 – This option will give you all the features offered to Pro users but the ability to use QBPOS at multiple stores. It also includes the following features:
- Multiple store management
- Inventory tracking for multiple stores
- Report generation
- Ship and track packages
These are floating, per-user licenses, meaning that if you need to have more than one computer/user accessing the back-end QBPOS database concurrently, you’ll need to buy a license for each one. So, for example, if you’ve got one front-end register and one computer in an office that you use just for reporting and the like, you could get away with having just one license, so long as both machines aren’t going to need simultaneous access. But in that same scenario, if your employee is running the register up front and you want to generate Purchase Orders and get your inventory in order in the back at the same time, that would require two licenses. If you would like to view a more detailed comparison of the three pricing options, visit the QuickBooks website or call 855-399-8990 to get started.
Cloud-Based Or Locally-Installed
QuickBooks Point of Sale is a locally-installed software package. This means you’ll need to maintain your own hardware and assume all the risk that comes with keeping your infrastructure working and secure. Installation isn’t necessarily difficult, but it does take a little time to download and set up. This is due primarily to the limitations of the Windows operating system and isn’t really the fault of Intuit’s programmers.
Specific Industry
QuickBooks POS is ideally suited for retail, but it seems robust enough to handle a few other service-oriented business types. Since there is no way to generate integrated scales for selling items by weight, grocery stores and other concerns selling bulk goods will find QuickBooks lacking. For restaurants or any other foodservice industry that needs functions beyond simply ringing up products, QuickBooks will be lacking, especially for the price.
Specific Size Of Business
QuickBooks POS can fill the needs of pretty much any sized business. Mid-sized retail shops might be best served with what this system has to offer while larger chains (with no more than 20 locations) could be easily served with the Multi-Store package.
Ease Of Use
Intuit hasn’t made billions for nothing; clearly, the company knows a thing or two about easy-to-use software. Once you’ve downloaded the software and installed it, getting going is pretty simple. If you’re familiar at all with Windows, the interface will make a lot of sense. Down the left side of the window is a list of buttons for quick access to commonly used tasks (Make a Sale, Receive Items, etc.), and the right side of the window displays graphically rendered sticky notes with automatic reminders of things that need to be addressed (low stock alerts, customer orders waiting to be fulfilled, that kind of thing). You can add your own custom notes as well.
In between these two columns is where the main action occurs. Click “Make A Sale” and the register screen appears. Click “Add New Item” and you’re in the Inventory Module. One of the best features of the software is that QuickBooks is committed to walking you through the set-up and providing help when needed. While those who have point of sale experience will likely not have much trouble accessing and utilizing its features, there are great help functions that can hold your hand and not in a condescending manner. The software itself guides you through each process, with every task easily accomplished.
The built-in customer rewards program is particularly easy to navigate and is one of the better implementations that I’ve seen. Setting up parameters is easy enough; just tell QB how much a customer has to spend before rewards are earned, and then define the reward amount. When you attach a customer to a sale, the main register screen displays some basic information about the person while you’re adding items, including how many rewards dollars they have available for retention. Then, when it’s time to pay and you’ve selected the tender type, QBPOS pops up a dialog box asking if you’d like to apply rewards dollars and updates the total accordingly.
Hardware & Operating System Requirements
QBPOS is Windows-only and it will run on Vista (inasmuch as anything runs on Vista), as well as Windows 7 (Service Pack 2 or later recommended), Windows 8 (Service Pack 1 or later “strongly recommended”), and Windows Server 12. Additionally, you’ll need to install the whole thing with the following hardware specs:
- Windows Vista or higher (most computers will fit this criterion).
- Multi-core processor for multi-user implementations
- A minimum of 4GB RAM for a single workstation installation, 8GB RAM for multi-user.
- 1 GB of disk space.
- 4 GHz processor for single users, 2.8 Ghz for multi-users.
- Importing and Exporting data and other Office integrations requires Microsoft Word and Excel 2000 or higher (excluding Starter Edit, Peripheral hardware pretty much has to be bought from Intuit if you want a guarantee that it will function (meaning they won’t support it you’ve gotten it elsewhere)). QuickBooks is also compatible with Microsoft Surface Pro tablet, giving businesses an option for more mobility. Intuit states:
…hardware such as PIN pads and physical inventory scanners purchased from other sources may not have the required programming to work with point of sale software and/or point of sale merchant services. Intuit does not provide hardware programming, and does not guarantee hardware purchased elsewhere will work with Intuit software and services.
Features
You can see a full breakdown of each license’s features by looking on the QB webpage. What follows are some of the big-ticket features (with attention paid to any differences between the Basic and Pro/Multi-store versions):
- Fully-Functioning Multi-Tender POS: The POS adds inventory items to a sale easily by either barcode scanning, conducting a search by UPC, alternate lookup code (ALU), item number, or item keyword. You can also create and modify “Quick Pick” groups and buttons for a more click-y register experience. The “Sell Misc Item” button can be used to make a quick sale of something that may not be included in your inventory yet, though items can be added directly into inventory right in the POS interface, a handy feature. Custom discounts can be created and applied and you can set up a layaway. Lastly, all sales can be put on hold and returned to at a later point if need be. The system also allows you to select customers for your transactions or add a new customer within the POS interface. Customers can receive barcoded receipts (and gift receipts) for easy returns/exchanges, which can even be made without a receipt by retrieving sales information through the customer sales history. Pro version functions include the Document Designer, which allows users to create customizable price tags and receipts (e.g. with company logo, trademark), as well as tracking work orders and sales orders.
- Real-Time Inventory Management: QBPOS will keep all your inventory organized and up to date by adjusting with every sale or return. The inventory module stores item cost, description, department, color, size, quantity, sales price, tax status, vendor, UPC, ALU, and reorder point. The system will track what’s selling and what’s not so you can maintain stock. And when an item is running low, your preset reorder point will trigger the system to notify you that it’s time to purchase more—and generate the PO to boot (Pro/Multi-store only). Non-inventory items such as fees or services can also easily be added to the system. Additionally, sales prices can be set to automatically calculate based on a preset margin of the purchase cost (markdown prices can be set this way as well). The style matrix lets you enter multiple sizes and colors (or attributes) based on item department, vendor, and description (e.g. Shoes, Louboutin, 3-inch heels in black, red, and silver, sizes 5.5 thru 12). Every size and style combination is then automatically given a unique item number, so each can be easily edited if need be. The Pro version also allows for these additional inventory functions: assign pictures to items (that will print on sales receipts, POs, and receivers), view inventory turn statistics, track multiple vendors (or UPCs) per item, track serial numbers, track layaways, and view inventory items on-hand for any date specified.
- Purchase Order Management: QBPOS makes buying inventory easy with its integrated purchase order function. Item barcodes can be scanned to automatically populate PO fields, or POs can be manually filled in. POs can then be emailed or printed out. When your order arrives, if it’s totally complete and accurate, then it’s simply a matter of accepting the PO to update the new stock into inventory; otherwise, using the “select items received” button will give you the option of leaving the PO partially open (for incomplete orders). The Pro version will automatically generate and email POs based on your preset reorder levels, provide suggested reorder points based on sales, set reorder points by store, and ship/track packages with the Shipping Manager (UPS only).
- Customer Management: As previously stated, sales can be tracked by customer—just enter a name, address, phone, email, and business. Extra custom fields allow for additional info like birthdays, shoe size, or favorite sports team. Also, special discounts/coupons can be set for specific customers. Customer tracking allows you to see who’s buying the most and what they’re buying to devise specific marketing campaigns and special promotions based on the hottest items. Customer sales history allows you to view all purchase details. The Customer Center in the Pro version provides various communication tools to use the full potential of your customer list, including capturing customer addresses to create mailing lists for labels and mass marketing campaigns, email marketing campaigns, and tracking customer rewards program points to offer better recommendations, discounts, and freebies to your best customers.
- Employee Management: Only the Pro version will track employee hours and commissions, sending hours to other QuickBooks financial software (like Payroll or QuickBooks itself) for easy payroll management. Additionally, security functioning allows owners to customize access to certain functions based on employee status (e.g. owner, manager, assistant manager, or associate), with the ability to create new groups if necessary.
- Cash Management: Weirdly, there’s no function to Open a Shift and declare what’s in your till at the start of a day. When you run your end of day reports, you can declare what you’re leaving in the drawer and then use these end of day reports for reconciliation. This means that the first thing you’ll want to do with QBPOS, before you’ve ever run a sale, is to close the register and run an end of day report so you can have something to reconcile with at the real end of your day. From there, it gets easier.
- Reporting: Report options are extensive and detailed and include best/worst sellers, common returns, department summary, item summary, sales over time, payment method summaries, tax summaries, item cost/quantity summaries, purchase summaries, employee timesheets/sales/commissions, and busiest times. The reporting tab is also used to send merchant service batches to settle your debit/credit transactions, as well as to schedule backups of crucial data to a location of your choice. All reports have an easy drill down feature for more detail into each individual sale.
- Dashboard Feature: Provides a quick glance at your best and worst selling items, department sales summary, department sales graph, and sales over time.
- iPhone & iPad integration: A nice addition with version 12.0 is the introduction of an app which syncs fully with your back-end managed inventory and allows you to make sales and track stock from your mobile phone or tablet. While you are unable to download QBPOS onto these devices, you can integrate with them using a mobile sync feature. You’ll need a “Go Payments” card reader to use this.
Integrations & Add-Ons
The biggest selling point of QuickBooks Point of Sale is that it works seamlessly with its sister software QuickBooks, transferring inventory (cost of goods sold), sales (revenue), and customer data (accounts receivable) for quick and easy bookkeeping. Additionally, the Pro version will also transfer employee time punches into QuickBooks for simple payroll processing.
Intuit lists this as a feature, but gift card processing doesn’t work out of the box–the only way to create and accept gift cards is by signing up for Intuit’s Point of Sale Gift Card Service, which in my book makes this an add-on. This is an unfortunate issue and one that can be pricey on top of an already less-than-affordable system, but one that’s not entirely uncommon in the point of sale world. However, the good news is that gift card sales are automatically tracked separately, and card balances and customer purchases on cards are tracked as well. Unused amounts stay on cards to guarantee return business. Merchants can even issue refunds on cards as store credit and check card balances in the POS without making a sale. Card number and balance are always printed on receipts and cards can be redeemed at any store within your chain regardless of the issuing store.
Compatible Credit Card Processors
In order to take advantage of integrated payment processing, you must open an Intuit Payment Solutions merchant account. This account offers three pricing rates:
Furthermore, all credit card swipes or entries not meeting requirements (e.g. address verification) get the non-qualified rate of 3.94% as well as a per/authorization fee of $0.34. Additional network fees (based on network and MCC–merchant category code) have not been factored in. On the upside, funds are usually deposited within 2-3 business days and there is no cancellation fee. Of course, you can always keep your own merchant provider and credit card terminal, and manually complete credit card sales within the QuickBooks Point of Sale system.
Version 12.0 has also updated the software to be EMV card compatible when used with an Ingenico IPP 350 PIN Pad.
Customer Service & Technical Support
Support is not free:
- $89.95 per month (1st month free if you sign up before completing registration of software)
- $299.95 per year
Live chat and phone support are offered 7 days a week:
- 4 am – 8 pm on Monday through Friday
- 7 am – 4 pm Saturday and Sunday
Without purchasing a tech support contract, you’re left with Intuit’s online searchable help forum where people post their questions, and Intuit employees, outside consultants, and other users can answer them. Aside from that, Intuit also offers their Intuit Solution Provider (ISP) program to help you find a POS software expert/consultant in your area (rates vary per individual ISP).
Not only is support not free, making for another costly expenditure, the support you do get ranges from barely acceptable to dreadful according to many reviews. A big complaint is that support calls are redirected to a remote call center, and that representatives are often hard to understand and not very helpful. Some people claim that after purchasing the Basic version and running into an array of problems, they call customer service, only to be told to buy a support plan or upgrade to the Pro version. A large majority of negative reviews found are about Intuit’s customer service.
If you have any interest in following QuickBooks Desktop’s social media pages they have fairly active Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Youtube, and LinkedIn accounts. I will note that these accounts are not specifically for QuickBooks Desktop but rather its parent company, Intuit. As mentioned earlier, QuickBooks POS has a number of nice help features within the software that make it easy to troubleshoot issues. However, if you can’t figure out the problem on your own, prepare for an exercise in frustration.
Negative Reviews & Complaints
A common sentiment among QBPOS users is that they simply want to switch systems. But other negative comments include the following themes:
- Customer Service Issues: As I already mentioned, there are quite a few complaints about slow, useless, and heavily-accented customer support. Many customers are also displeased that they are forced to pay a large amount for access to this subpar service.
- Intuit Payment Solutions: There is an especially large disdain for Intuit Payment Solutions—customers complain about everything from misleading rates advertised to hidden termination fees, mandatory long-term contracts, and sudden account freezes.
- Sluggish, Glitches, Freezing: A common problem seems to be that this solution will constantly slow down, glitch out, and freeze altogether. There were multiple complaints about general bugs and problems with freezing or crashing on an almost daily basis which is obviously not ideal.
- Problems With Updates: Others complained that they had problems when they purchased the upgrades to the new systems.
- Limited Features: Customers commonly complain that QBPOS is lacking or weak when it comes to certain features, especially related to reporting and inventory.
Positive Reviews & Testimonials
There are a few very positive customer testimonials on the Intuit website, all from 2017. And a close look at Intuit’s BBB profile shows a company that, despite 1,632 complaints, has been BBB Accredited since 11/1/2010, holding a current A+ rating. The A+ rating comes from the fact that Intuit has been in business for such a long time and made an effort to resolve all complaints, and they do deserve credit for this. Here are some of the most common points of praise by current customers:
- Easy To Use: Quite a few customers cite that this POS system is easy to use and simple for training new employees.
- Integration With QuickBooks: The fact that QBPOS easily integrates with other Intuit software is a feature many customers really love.
- Customizable: Users enjoy the fact that QBPOS offers a lot of customization options.
- Easy To Track Multiple Stores: Reviewers who used the product across multiple locations appreciated how easy it was to track reports and inventory.
Final Verdict
QuickBooks Point of Sale is good in its own right, something that can handle the functions of transacting sales, managing your inventory, and keeping your books clean. But in the current era of cloud computing, the whole QBPOS experience is simply no substitute for the newer breed of POS. It represents a nearly bygone era of restrictive licensing, collateral costs, and IT headaches. Sure, it’s pretty easy to use, and can do an awful lot of tasks beyond just transacting sales, but there are too many other things you’ll need to worry about that don’t even involve the functionality of the software. For customers who have been using the product for a while and are set in their ways, or who simply love its integration with QuickBooks software, QBPOS will likely continue to be a fine product that will suit their needs. But, quite simply, there are better options available.
The dated architecture means you’ll need to cross your fingers and hope your hardware remains relevant after you’ve had to apply updates to each and every machine that’s running QBPOS—or that nobody finds yet another security flaw in the Windows operating system. POS software is supposed to represent a way to make a business owner’s life easier, and there was a time when something like QuickBooks Point of Sale would have done–and did do–just that. Compared to a cash register and a paper ledger of inventory, it is a step forward, but it lags ridiculously behind its competitors in so many other ways. If you’re looking to ease as many burdens as possible, it’s best to keep looking.
Our Top Picks for Point of Sale Software
| Lightspeed POS | ShopKeep POS | Square POS | Square For Retail | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lightspeed Retail | ShopKeep POS | Square POS | Square For Retail | Clover POS | Shopify POS | |
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Best for | Advanced retail features | Credit card processing options | Free POS | All-in-one service | Secure payments, reliable POS | Ease-of-use |
Monthly fee | $99+ | $0 | $60 | $29 | $9-$29 | |
eCommerce integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Free trial | None |
Matt Sherman
Point of sale writer at Merchant Maverick
Matt Sherman has been immersed in point of sale systems for over a year now. Previously, he spent 14 years in the newspaper industry, the majority of which was as the sports editor for a pair of weekly newspapers in suburban Portland, Oregon. He is a graduate of the University of Oregon where he majored in English because he knows where the money is. Matt is the father to a pair of energetic boys and can easily be distracted by Netflix, Amazon and HBO Go.
Latest posts by Matt Sherman (see all)
- Why You Should Consider A Self-Ordering Kiosk For Your Restaurant (Plus The 5 Best Kiosk POS Systems & How You Can Afford Them) - November 27, 2019
- The Best Free POS Systems For All Kinds Of Small Businesses - October 14, 2019
- Does Your Restaurant Need An Online Ordering System? - October 2, 2019
- What Is A POS? Understanding Point Of Sale Systems - September 5, 2019
- Merchant Maverick Interviews Clover CEO John Beatty - August 2, 2019
To learn more about how we score our reviews, see our Point Of Sale (POS) Software Rating Criteria.
Organization Name: To The Moon
I hate QB period..they force you upgrade and spend un necessary $$…I have a question…Im not sure if maybe I can get an answer here…we have QV POS v12 and recently were told we had to upgrade the QB pro accounting to 2019…now the POS and the financial will not communicate…I think it is because with POS V 12 the highest it will go with financial is 2015…can anyone tell me if my suspicions are correct I have tried to set up commuinication with the POS v 12 and financial 2019..it wont let me and as you know “tech support” is useless…thanks in advance for any help
Hi Michael,
Do you mean QB POS? From what I’ve seen online, QuickBooks POS is not yet compatible with QuickBooks Pro 2019. Here are the specifications for QuickBooks POS: . Now, I have no idea why that’s the case, but I hope this brings some light to your question.
Best wishes,
-Chelsea Krause
All I can say is we spent too much money having to upgrade to POS v 18 for multistores and got nothing from it except money spent, unproductive time getting the update working, having to upgrade the QODBC for POS, etc.
Organization Name: Wardrobe co.
Wow, where to begin. We have used this product since 2006 and had relatively good luck with it until we updated to V12. What a waist of money and time. Yes the older products had there issues but V12 was a down grade not an upgrade. Many of the problems that should have been addressed as updates never seemed to be changed. The merchant services was one of the major issues that i could write a book on.But now I received notice that a new V18 will replace the V12. With some excitement that may some improvements may have been made I down loaded a demo. I found the changes being so minor and none of them being of significance to to us that my first question was “why would I spend $3000.00 to get me nothing and that was with my discount for an upgrade. Intuit should pay me to upgrade for all the credit card fees they charge. Will I be upgrading? Not a chance after playing with the demo.
Organization Name: W&R menswear
all I can say is STAY AWAY from QB POS 12.0, the reporting is terrible, the UPC reader and the credit card processor work intermittently. Beware of anyone providing a postive review of this product they have to be getting compensated for their review. It is sheer stupidity that the QB pos doesn’t communicate with QB online or desktop. If you want to use gift cards that requires a monthly service charge plus you have to buy gift cards. I would say this product is a joke, but after spending a few thousand dollars I see that the joke is on me!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Chip,
Thank you for reaching out; that all sounds very frustrating, to say the least! I’m so sorry you’re having such a terrible experience.
To address your concern about the validity of our reviews, please read our post on negativity bias and how this site makes money to better understand how Merchant Maverick delivers real, unbiased reviews to our readers.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
You are all absolutely right in criticizing the dumpster fire that is Intuit’s POS “solution”. Incredibly frequent software and hardware problems (e.g. card processing errors that have no discernible cause other than…. well it must just be a POS in multiple way). Will say though that the integration with QB financial software can be handy, but even that’s annoying from the lack of cloud-based services. The only other pro is that you will relish giving scathing feedback when you’re asked for it. Be kind to yourself and employees and opt for one of Intuit’s competitors.
How can I track expiry dates, please send me the way
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I was hoping that the upgrade would remove the QBPOSShell problem. It did not. The program locks up with a white screen. Need to keep shutting program down via the task manager, then reopen it. Very time consuming.
I would not buy. There has to be something better. NO stars
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I would actually give the them -10. We purchased 15 licenses to be used for 4 locations. This software has been a nightmare. We are very disappointed. After a year we are still having problems, the bar code UPC does not work, the mail bag intermittently gets corrupted and does not work. The offshore support is useless. I have contacted the local rep and she keeps referring me to one of their vendors who just keeps passing me off to others. I not recommend purchasing this software, anything would be better. Once they get your money they do not want to help you.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
My company just installed Qb v12 a few weeks ago. I’m incredibly disappointed. The reporting function may appear to have a wide variety of options, but seems horribly weak to me. For a given timeframe it is fairly easy to see how many of each of your items have sold. It is also fairly easy to see the $ amount your customers have purchased. But you can not get a report that can combine these things, so you can not get a report that lists your customers and then what and how many they purchased. Another reporting problem is when exporting the report from Excel. Many of our item numbers have the format xx-xxxx. Now completely randomly, it will export some of these to Excel in date format. Example, 06-2248 will show up in my Excel spreadsheet as Jun-48, and when you try to change the cell format to general or text it won’t revert to 06-2248, but some completely different number with out any hyphens.Since, I am in the first 30-days, I get “free” support from their 800 #. This has not helped me on either of these two issues. The wait time to get to an agent is not horrible, it has been less than 5-minutes, but once you get them it really slows down. The English is so so, but they constantly put you on hold for extended periods of time. My call today was over an hour with the actual communication time probably about 10-minutes. You ask a question get put on hold for 10-minutes, get answer that doesn’t really help, ask another question get put on hold again and repeat for as long as you can take it.We formerly used Retail Star which has a whole other list of what is wrong with it, but you could pretty much get the data out of the system any which way you wanted to slice it. I guess I just thought when my boss told me we were switching to a QuickBooks product, I just assumed it would be a vast improvement. What I have is trading one set of problems, to a whole new set of problems. I have to believe there is a much better POS system than QB.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I use Quickbooks Pro v12 in my liquor store. I have two main complaints about it.First, it won’t produce a report that tells me what items I sold alongside a list showing how many remain in stock and how many I sold of each item over the past three months. It will produce a report of sales, but not a consolidated list of what was sold, and I have to click over to another report and search to see how many were sold of each item over the past three months to know whether I should reorder. This may not be a big deal to a business that does only a few sales per day, like a car dealer, but for a store that has several hundred transactions per day it makes reordering unnecessarily tedious.The other problem is it loses or drops sales data. Every day when I count the till and try to reconcile I have more money and more credit card receipts than what I should have for what Quickbooks says I sold that day. There is no excuse for this, and apparently it can’t be fixed.Besides this, I hate the program for being so cumbersome. It takes about six mouse clicks and/or key strokes to complete a transaction. Also, it won’t let me update inventory or pricing data from the “Make a Sale” function. So, when I have new items to add and reprice in inventory I have to exit the “Make a Sale” function and then enter the “Item List” function, which takes several more mouse clicks. It’s hard to get much done this way during business hours when customers are coming in.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I can’t fix many of the inherent issues with QBPOS v12, but I found the report you were looking for..
It’s under Reports>Items>Summary With Activity
You set the time frame for sales and it gives a report with sales for that period as well as current inventory left. It’s not a great report but it is better than nothing.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I had the opportunity to first used this POS software as a 30 day trial. I was blown away by how customizable it is. The initial start up was a little time consuming as I had to enter in all my items I wished to have quick buttons for, but once in, ringing up a sale is a breeze and takes no time. When I decide to offer a new product it is a simple process and can be done right from the Sale Ring up screen.My only complaint that I have found is that the software does not allow for quantity discounts. I run a printing company, and with all the different quantities of prints that people wish to run, it does make it a little difficult to offer quantity breaks. In order to achieve this, I have to create a new button for each price break, creating one sub group dedicated to one product. It is a bit annoying, however it is an easy work around, and like I said it is my only complaint.The feature that I am most pleased with and excited about is that it has a seamless integration with my Quickbooks financial software. With one button I can transfer all my sales data directly to my financial software where I can then process invoices and track sales. This has been extremely important as much of my business requires invoicing of customers.We picked up the trial and got some great advice from http://blackrockbusiness.com those guys really know what they are talking about. I would encourage anyone with questions to ask there.Another great feature that this POS software has is the ability to begin ringing a customer up as their job is being processed. If another customer comes in and we need to ring them up in the middle of the first job, the first job is automatically saved to come back to at a later time with a quick access button on the main screen. As far as I can tell and have been able to find there is no limit as to how many saved transactions you can have.All around this has been a great POS for my company, and I look forward to the improvements that will be made on this software to make it even better! Hopefully they will add quantity discounting, and then this will be a truly amazing software!
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This system is probably okay for a single location. We have 4 stores and 15 users it has been a nightmare. The QuickBooks Software is weak and has many limitations, to many to list. QuickBooks POS has turned out to be a huge disappointment. I recommend that you do your homework before buying. The software was suggested by a previous employee, who is currently a manager for a company with 5 stores. After learning about several of the limitations during the initial training and implementation, we called the person who recommended the system to ask how they set their system up, he told me each store is run as a separate entity. They tried to network the stores and found it to be impossible. The system is not real-time, daily information is sent at night via a mail bag and the information is not always exchanged between locations.When you open up QB Software it asks if you would like to check for updates? If you click on it, it will update your PC and the QB POS software on your computer will no longer work. After the second time this happened, we were told we must up-date the server first, then run around to each location and up-date each computer individually. (all 16, the server and each computer). We have been told by other users once the software is installed to never do an update, now I know why. Our employees have clicked on the update twice by accident (15 users) and on both occasions we tried to upload the update to the server and the server gave us an error message. They needed to reload the software on the server. After they reloaded the software on the server, the stores could not communicate with each other and all of the inventory changes we made which did not come over correctly with the data conversion were lost so we had to re-enter the information again, this will be our third time reloading the same information. Sales information and time clock records will not update when they systems do not communicate. It takes the QB reseller several hours to get the system working again and I am billed for their time, each time this happens. I don’t blame everyone for not uploading updates, we are stopping today! We had many setbacks while trying to implement the new QB POS system starting with the data conversion. Because we wanted to network all of the locations QuickBooks sales department recommended we use one of their resellers. The reseller has been non-responsive and had delay after delay. The technical support staff at intuit are unable to help, and after the reseller has your money, you become very low on his priority list. Most of the resellers are accountants and their accounting practice is their priority. Intuit claims to have a 60 day return policy, however it takes well over the 60 days for their reseller to do the data conversion. The system is real weak and the platform is very fragile. We have had to reload the software several times. I am sure there are much better systems available. At this point we have decided to operate each store separately, and give up on networking them. I wish I never bought this software.
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We have been using QuickBooks Financial software (Premier) for 14 years. Three years ago we opened a retail outlet and purchased POS 2013 Pro level because it integrated with the QBFS…right??? It took a lot of time to get it to update using the Quickbooks RDS software. We ran it fine for 2 years. We keep up and pay for all updates. We updated to QBFS 2016 and now it does not integrate. We have spent over 18 hours with “Hagy” and still does not work. We let them remotely get on our system…big mistake. The tech said he could fix it finally but after a brief pause with the “Manager” they were told not to fix it and we were told that we have to buy another copy of QBFS and run it on the front end register. Basically the new version of of QBFS (2016) intentionally does not integrate with the POS software so that you have to buy more software. Paid for an upgrade that makes me pay for more software. Nice scam!The Intuit merchant services is expensive and with Quickbooks POS 13 you can only use Intuit. initially bought the 350 pin pads that work with the EMV cards prior to Intuit requiring it. Once they upgraded their software to work with the EMV chips guess what…..$800 per station to upgrade the software that saves Intuit $$$$ from fraud charges. Nice. The upgrades to there software now require me to get the clerks my Intuit username and password to my merchant account. It seems after hours on the support line that there is a glitch. I again let them remotely get on and try to fix it but they said I have to live with it. So at anytime randomly during the day the Intuit payment feature pops up and requires the clerk to put in the username and password to the company’s merchant account……no that is security. Right? After being a 15 year customer I am looking for a new system…..told this to the support staff but I do not think they understand!!
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I upgraded to new POS version 12 in February. It is THE WORST!!!! Who develops their “upgrades”???? I have spent countless hours on the phone with support, lost whole days of productive work, paid quick books experts and computers techs, and still have not been able to operate a whole week without glitches. First of all, the only “upgrade” is the screen which is senseless. If you need to look up a customer history, forget it!! It’s like looking for something in a tiny dark room!!
God forbid you need to take a payment on a sales order or layaway on a busy day….the program completely freezes and needs to be rebooted 9 times out of 10!!
I feel like intuit has us hostage…we use Quickbooks pro for financial and use QB POS for that reason!! And if you dare call in for support after you’ve had the program a month, they charge you!!!!…… For calling in on a problem on their own program!!! It’s like if I charged a customer for coming in to ask me how to repair a defective piece of jewelry I sold them a month ago!!! Don’t buy it, don’t upgrade it!!!! You’ll regret it! I’m about to take the $2800 loss and change to a completely different POS!
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We left QB POS and couldn’t be happier! Lightspeed has been awesome and the support is helpful and I can actually understand them. It has not been without glitches, but that is to be expected with any software. I love being able to manage my 3 locations from wherever I am and my laptop is now my best friend. MOVE< MOVE<MOVE
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Jordan
A great review and very helpful. We are a small retailer in PDX area (Vanc) that needs help understanding whether to upgrade to V12 or move away from Intuit merchant service. We only use QBooks v10.0 free level. We find Intuit very expensive in processing credit/debit cards. Any suggestion? Would love to visit with you in person if you’re in the area (info@fampetsupplies.com). Thanks again for your great work. JT
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Hello JT,
Thank you for your kind words. As a general rule, I wouldn’t recommend sticking with the QuickBooks POS. You can find a list of top-rated POS alternatives on our website. If you’d prefer a personal consultation, you can contact us directly and we’ll take a look at your options.
Best,
Jordan
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Do you know if the Desktop Version 12. integrates with QB online? A sales rep told me no that we would have to buy a whole new iPad POS system to integrate with the QB online, which really doesn’t make any sense to me. I have the hardware I just need the new Desktop software if it will integrate
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Hello Heather,
It is true that the QB Desktop POS will only integrate with the QB Desktop Accounting software. If you want to integrate with QB Online (which is cloud-based), you’ll need to use the cloud-based, iPad POS.
Best,
Jordan
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What none of the sales people tell you is you will not be able to accept Visa, MasterCard or other gift cards which is real problem. Nobody working there even knows that. But when you go to run your first gift card you will find out and spend hours on the phone cause nobody knows what is going on.
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Tom,
We are considering buying QuickBooks POS from a reputable dealer who also has unlimited support and training contract for one year for a fee, did you get that, or are you calling directly into QuickBooks? Foreign country reps? In this service agreement, we are assigned a representative to contact for any issues, they will remote in to fix issue, they are located in USA.
Are you using INTUIT as your merchant services company? If so, what do you think of them?
Thanks Deborah
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If I had to do it over I would look at others on both POS and Merchant services.
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This system and company are horrible. Last year over $4,200 wasn’t deposited into my bank. The POS would spit out an approved receipt but didn’t give you that little very needed reference number. This is a problem with Intuit POS and Intuit Merchant services. There fix is to have me go hrough each month copy the receipts that didn’t go through and submit it to them. There mistake and I have to do the extra work to hopefully get MY money. Trying to talk to support is terrible. If I wanted to speak another language I would move to another country. This is the good old USA why don’t you hire here and help America out and actually look out for your customers instead of bleeding us one dollar and minute at a time. If your share holders had to talk to support I think they would agree. So discusting how you treat your customers. There is so much more to type but getting more angry every word I type.
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Quickbooks POS multi store is what I have had for about 8 yrs. The program is okaymost of the time but there have been so many problems and the SUPPORT IS ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE!! Yet because of the program flaws you need support. I have spent 1-2 hrs many many times with support and came to realize pretty quickly that the support people do not know the program very well at all. I have learned not to trust them at all and to question and make sure I understand everything they plan to do etc or they can waste lots of time and/or screw things up more. I often figure it out myself when I am on hold (after an hour or so).my most recent experience they sent me a broken receipt printer and it took quite a while to figure that out in support session —then they sent me new one and said absolutely nothing about sending the broken one back — I thought they would send a return label though — and so I set aside and forgot about it. Later when i see a charge and call it takes 20 MINUTES FOR THEM TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THE CHARGE IT FOR (typical service level for them!) and then come to find out they are CHARGING ME FOR THE BROKEN RECEIPT PRINTER and will not reverse it!!I am so fed up with these guys I am truly and surely done with them and will not buy any more of there “updates”!
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Well, this is my first review after reading reviews on so many cloud based POS’s. I have been using QBPOS for almost 8 years. The support is terrible and although I have encountered many very nice people in India and the Philippines, I have a really hard time understanding them and they generally don’t really understand the entire system, maybe just parts and pieces.
We currently have 2 locations and will be adding a third this week, operating on Multi-store version 2013. I know you mentioned in the review that gift cards are able to be redeemed at any location regardless of the store they are purchased in, that is simply not true nor can you return an item to a different location than it was purchased. This is due to having separate merchant accounts at each location with multi-store. We also have used Gopayment for quite awhile with minimal problems until we upgraded our merchant number, now Gopayment does not sync items correctly. Nobody at intuit knows how to correct or even try to troubleshoot. I can’t even explain how many times we have had to be on 123 rescue with them. We had a major issue of over 4000 duplicate items generated in the system and nobody at intuit could figure out the issue. We figured it out that it happened due to mobile sync but still don’t know what triggered the entire episode. It also triggered duplicate financial transactions from 2 years back to dump into our QB Financial software when it was synced.
They can’t even help us get the email customer or email vendor function working. It is a nice button that looks really pretty although totally non-functional. I agree totally with the assessment of the old guy on the block image the QB POS demonstrates. We are currently evaluating cloud based POS’s. Funny that it appears that QB POS has now partnered with Revel……
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We updated from v9 to v12 the 1st of July and have had issues ever since. When taking deposit on account using a debit card, the system locks up and has to be rebooted, every time! So many issues, I’ll name a few…the system has reversed transactions on it’s own when taking credit/debit cards. I’ve had sales orders duplicated, deleted from system, system freezes up when trying to move between screens. My financials have been out of balance most days since we installed this update. I’ve spent TOO many hours on the phone with support, been moved to level 2 support and then was told this would have to be handled by engineer experts who would contact me in 7-10 business days. Never heard from anyone. Version 9 was so nice and why v12 is called an upgrade is beyond me. It’s the worst ever! We would love to go back to v9 but would that’s impossible. You only receive ‘free’ support for 30 days after upgrade unless you purchase their support package. I was told (after 30 days) that because I had not purchased their support plan, it would cost me for tech support. I explained that my issues were never resolved & I paid too much money to be their guinea pig! I would gladly give up the 7K we paid for this true pos upgrade (and I don’t mean point of sale) to find another POS avenue . I wouldn’t refer my worst enemy to them! They don’t care about customer loyalty OR customer service!
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This program has left me wondering many times if I would be better off with manually keeping track of everything instead of this POS. When it is working it is fine — is very helpful. However ———- there have been so many problems and support often does not seem to know how to help you and/or takes FOREVER to figure it out (I AM TALKING HOURS!!!). Right now someone helped me with something yesterday and that took half an hour and now what he worked on is being a huge problem at 5 of my remote stores and they say someone at remote stores (EACH OF THEM) will need to sit on the phone with them to handle (as I stated most of my cycles with them has lasted 1-2 hrs!!)There have been tons of headaches and problems and they require you buy their updates every 3 years (costly!!). Or they do not support and dont think you can xfer files. I have now decided I am done with this as far as ever buying an update.This program sucks and seems everything I have to do (install something new etc) has a problem that needs support. No manual telling you simply how to do something.MY ADVICE —-FIND ANOTHER SOLUTION!!!!!!
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We have been Intuit users since 2003. Our latest system hardware -wise is very reliable; now the POS software has been getting less and less reliable. V12, which we installed 2 weeks ago, has been a disaster for us. Between the EMV not working in V12, yet we were told we had to upgrade to V12 to get EMV. Add to that the Quickbooks Payments System problems in implementing EMV, the whole Intuit POS system has become very unreliable. Their technical support has gone from being about a 3 on a 1-10 scale is now -1.We are looking for a replacement, which allows us to migrate our current inventory. Any suggestions?
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I had installed the 2013 version of this software and written a bad review about (above) we ended up pulling it out two years ago and going back to Version 9 which was a great piece of software. Well after two years of running unsupported V9, they fixed a couple of things in V12 that tricked me into buying three upgrades for a big pile of money. What a mistake. V12 is the same “pig with lipstick”. It like they started to remodel a house and ran out of money. They fixed the receiving screen and put back sortable columns and item and SKU totals, they made the lists look better and (the final thing the claimed to fix) “Now it’s a multi-window program (again, like V9)”. Wrong, huge lie, not even close. If V9 would let you have 20 windows open this pig is hard pressed to let you have 2 windows open. V12 like its horrible predecessors is a combination of V9 screens and the redesigned screens that came with the awful interface rewrite in version 10 and 11. The only problem is 2/3’s of the program is still V9 and when you go to any of those great V9 screens there is no way to get back to the home page but closing the window. For a lot of back office tasks, this is a nightmare. You would think four years after screwing up this program Intuit would spend the time and money to finish what they started. But except for a couple of cosmetic changes, here and there, and some new marketing spin, at the end of the day they have not restored the programs glory that V9 had. I am dumping V12, getting my money back and going back to V9 again. I would rather run outboard CC machines than deal with a product that no one at Intuit cares about. There Accounting and Payroll products are great, but their POS/Payments unit is a study is customer neglect and corporate arrogance.Do yourself a favor. Keep looking.
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Just learning the product and it seems that it will fit my needs I am giving it a 2 stars because of the customer support, the techs barely speck english ! They don’t understand me and I can’t understand them, they put you on hold every time you have a question which is obvious they don’t no what the answer is. They tell me things that are wrong and I have had to go to youtube to figure it out. YOuTUBE will be the best support ever! Intuit needs to hire some americans NOW
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Agree with all of the above. We have multistore but are told you can only input inventory at flagship store. It crashes a lot and drivers seem to go missing which causes us to have to contact support.
DAVE if we wer going to switch what is the best alternative?
Thanks Cynthia
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I had the unfortunate experience to work on QBPOS for clients. I am a POS technician and independent reseller. The software is function rich, with few truly good features. It reminds me of something designed by committee. The last client I worked with ran a small liquor store and was having trouble because the database became corrupted. Luckily I have enough experience with Intuit products to solve the problem.It is very basic POS software, even with the Pro version, that simply adds a few features normally included in most POS software. The price is at least double of my best selling software. I never recommend it, only work on existing installs. It is extremely limited software, and hardware must be certified by Intuit to work (hint buy it from them and more expensive). Its features are dated, and the really cool ones you must buy from them, at a very high cost.It seems to me that the anyone who would knowingly buy this software and expect it to work in a typical retail store is misinformed or hadn’t done any research on it. As a professional who occasionally has to deal with QBPOS I can categorically state that it is BAD software. It is too expensive. It is buggy. But easy to use. On a scale of 1-100 I give it .1 (point 1). I had one customer who went back to a legacy cash register rather than fight with it anymore. Caveat Emptor
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Hi there,
Thanks for all the great reviews and breaking down the options on your site! Have you by chance had any experience or testing with the Quickbooks POS cloud-based system that is powered by Revel? I just attended a webinar demo for it…and was surprisingly EXTREMELY impressed.
My main attraction to it is that it appears to be an very robost and user-friendly POS system that also has a feature rich inventory system rolled into one…but of course integrates seamlessly into QB Online. As I’ve been testing out several Inventory and POS systems the past 6 months for a new business we are preparing to launch, the biggest headache for me has been trying to find a complete set-up (Inventory, POS, CC processing, and eCommerce integration) that also integrates with QBO. This is the closest thing I’ve been able to find, but I’m waiting for the shoe to drop as I await response from the rep to find out about pricing.
The two big downfalls that I anticipate (I’ll discuss/inquire more when the rep contacts me) is that using a 3rd party credit card processor takes out a lot of the seamless intgration. Thanks to your site’s thorough, amazing reviews I’ll be going with CDGcommerce/Flint to start, and then switch to either Dharma or Payment Depot once we grow…but I have a feeling QB POS’ non-interchange plus rates won’t be very attractive.
The other downfall is that they don’t currently integrate with eCommerce sites out there. They have an add-on where you can have a basic shopping cart tab/link on your existing website to sell your products, but nothing that I saw that super developed yet…and no integration with the big eCommerce shopping cart players out there.
Thanks again for your wonderful research and reviews – was hoping that maybe you could post an update if you ever have a chance to demo the cloud based Quickbooks POS powered by Revel.
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Please buy something else. I’ve been a Quickbooks POS customer sine 2003. I’ve purchased several updates. It actually gets worse and worse. The original software I had in 2003 was faster and more responsive than the 2013 I currently own. The newer software is so slow it gets frustrating. It’s like it lags or something. Forget calling support. It is totally useless and even when you upgrade to a newer version and pay over a grand for it, they still won’t fix bugs without charging you a fee. This will be my last upgrade. I like the layout and functions but I’ve spent way too much time trying to fix little things here and there. Got to be something better.
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I have been using QBPOS for a long time now. Also, for a long time now, I have been dreaming of the day that Intuit would put the damn thing in the cloud, not by some hokey third party pay per month service. What crap. We, as users of QB POS have paid a premium for this system. Annually they screw the system up, charge more and the technology requires more that they don’t tend to. WTF??? How could I possibly integrate my QB POS with a website? Well, I’ll tell you, buy paying another party for a hub. Been there, done that. I agree with those of you who have claimed that Intuit’s development team have no clue what the retailers need. It is so sad that they might be the best option for us. I wish 18 years ago when I started, I had started writing my own code. At least I know I would have included website integration. Remeber, back in V8, I think, when they bought Homestead and were going to integrate. I believe they lost $2 Billion. Can we vote in a new CEO, that has been a retailer???
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We have been using quick books pos for over 10 years and have had many different versions. We are considering switching to their cloud based pos. Does any one have any reviews of this?
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Whatever you do, don’t use this! We tried to start this for our business in 2013. We were on the phone with QB’s for hours trying to get it set up. We never could get it to work. We called to cancel it back in early 2014. I just found out they’ve been charging my bank account for over a year. We didn’t realize it was this service that was charging us because we also use Quick Books for bookkeeping. I called today and was told that even though I’ve never used the service and was unable to figure out how to use the service, they are still going to charge me for over a year with them. They only have records of our first two phone calls with them, even though we called numerous times and did call to cancel. Terrible customer service, terrible product. Got Square instead and got that up and running in a matter of minutes. We’ve never had one issue with it.
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I have a physical store and also sell on Amazon, Ebay and our website, and have been looking into multichannel software to integrate those three platforms and my store POS.
In the store, I have used Microsoft RMS POS for ten years and am extremely happy with it. Great reporting, excellent user interface for both management and salespeople. Very flexible if you set it up right and have someone tweak the reports a bit for you (maybe 50 bucks/report). There are numerous reasonably priced add ons. This system works well and grows smoothly to multiple register and stores. It’s also cheaper than QB. Yeah, it runs on Windows and you have to install it, but I’m running a business here, and what I care about is resilient quick software, I prefer having it on-premises rather than in the cloud.
However, I am finding that many multi-channel software companies are integrating with Quickbooks POS, probably due to their size and their marketing team. The multichannel companies don’t really know/understand the retail store experience, so they are focused on how many copies are out there, rather than whether it’s a good product or not. Really sad, as it locks people into an overpriced product from an abusive company.
I was considering biting the bullet and getting QB POS just for smooth integration, but after reading these reviews, I’ll commission custom programming to integrate RMS. I use QB accounting and agree with previous poster: I used to be their biggest fan, but now I hate them. Extractive, arrogant, every support call is a pitch to upgrade (in barely understandable English) and they disable your software if you don’t upgrade every three years (“sorry, we no longer support that version”. Intuit is a study in the effects of near monopoly power.
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My only complaint that I have found is that the software does not allow for quantity discounts. I run a printing company, and with all the different quantities of prints that people wish to run, it does make it a little difficult to offer quantity breaks. In order to achieve this, I have to create a new button for each price break, creating one sub group dedicated to one product. It is a bit annoying, however it is an easy work around, and like I said it is my only complaint.The feature that I am most pleased with and excited about is that it has a seamless integration with my Quickbooks financial software. With one button I can transfer all my sales data directly to my financial software where I can then process invoices and track sales. This has been extremely important as much of my business requires invoicing of customers.I looked around for quite some time before making my purchase of QuickBooks Point of Sale. One of my biggest stalling points was the price. It is hard to fork out such a payment for a piece of software, but someone kinda explained to me something that made sense: “Have you ever bought any other software that will be making you money every day?” Hmmm… You have a point there. I suppose it is worth it to put a money investment into such software. Ha ha ha. Anyway, after looking around for quite a while, I found much better than average pricing at http://www.cheapquickbooks.com Even better than the pricing above in this article. So, I saved a dime and got the software I was after.
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Quickbooks is the absolute worst product in the world. their support is terrible. everything about this company is terrible. I’ve never in my life been so frustrated with a lack of support from a company. Maybe if you are one small store it will work so so. But for large stores and for multiple store locations it is the worst product you can buy. ever.
DO NOT BUY MULTI-STORE. You will be sad you did.
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Dave, I’m new with Retail and have read this and your review of Lightspeed. Which POS do you think is the best overall, not just out of these two? Lightspeed seems to have some tax calculation issues and support issues, while Intuit appears to be an old dog! I use QuickBooks for accounting, have been using the Cloud based product, QuickBooks on line and am very happy with that. Both Lightspeed and Intuit require that I purchase the hard copy of QuickBooks and must have it installed on the same PC that I use for POS, very inconvenient for someone that likes to do their books from home, although I suppose I could use Go to My PC or whatever. Can you help?
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Software itself (referring to our older POS 7.0 version) – Overall the software functions as it should. Inventory management, which is critical for our single location retail store, works well enough for our needs and we’ve experienced few issues there. The transaction flow and tracking gets a positive review from us, as does purchase order management, employee access and tracking, and other necessary core retail store tools. Opposed to the reviewer, I have no problem with Windows based systems and found using a full PC setup to revolve our POS system in and around worked to our advantage in terms of being able to multi-task. Over the years the software has been a bit buggy, throwing up strange error codes, uncoupling with QB, and even failing to settle the daily batch numerous times (took awhile to find out a process had to be shut down and restarted in task manager specific to POS). Some persistent errors event just sorted themselves out with time, which is a bit unsettling. Where we believe Intuit’s largest failing is its refusal to integrate with other software and other processors other than their own. They require full vertical of Intuit products and partners and it locks the business into an inflexible system that prevents a business owner from exercising any competitive shopping. Intuit’s processor partner, Innovative Merchant Solutions, sponsored by Chase, also just updated a list of restricted business types it WILL NOT process (despite their legality). We were one of them (we sell sexually related items), and after 6 years of processing terminated our relationship. The reviewer is correct. In a room full of hungry, creative, and tech savvy competitors, Intuit needs to figure out how to hold their own with a fantastic product offering, without holding their customers hostage with QB and one approved processor. We are now in the market for a new POS system. Software = 3.5, company 1.0
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It is working as well as can be expected with a group of volunteers with very different backgrounds.My issue is the terrible reporting. I want to be able to pull better reports from it and there report interface is pretty limited. I have been looking into a 3rd party software to pull the data and do the reporting I need, but it is all terribly – we are a non-profit.Does anyone have suggestions for the report module? An inexpensive way to pull the sales data I want?thanks!
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Alix,
It takes some skill with Excel (or similar data sheet programs, database skills not necessary but a plus), and the time and patience to export sales detail reports for specific time frames or other parameters. Then it takes manipulation of the data from there, pivot tables, pivot charts, etc… Not fun, but can be done. I’ve analyzed specific item trends, department trends, percentages over time (items/departments), and more with this method.
Good luck!
Jake
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Another really good example………
Try looking up a customer’s history in the new system. One that has 16 past invoices.
And they want to buy another widget like they bought before………
Unless the customer can point you a specific date, you end up going thru all their past history. Because the new system doesn’t show you enough of the receipt details like the V9 version did. What use to take a couple of minutes now is a 20 minute ordeal while other customers wait.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I started with Intuit’s POS on Version 6.Paid a $1000 and then again three more times until now I’m at V11 (2013 release).I’ll look at some of your suggestions.Intuit is a dinosaur. No understanding of retail accounting.Ineffective software development. Only cares about the potential customer. Current customers get nothing but headaches. Like many others I went with their POS because I love and trust there accounting software. One one advantage they have is that they have more features that any of the other POS systems I’ve looked at. The big disadvantage is that all those features are incomplete or have bugs that require workarounds. But you can’t see that until you are in trying to make it work.Let me give you a few examples of their lack software development skills (or program/project management skills)In Version 10 & 11 they implemented the Case Register function with the fancy buttons on the side. A lot of the secondary functions like Sales Orders and Purchase Orders they simply wrapped the old software in a sub window. Essentially three years and they have not finished migrating to the new software structure. Which is ok in many ways as the old software V9 was better. But the way the user interface functions is different depending on what function you are using.Try this.Go to Make a Sale, entering a lengthy sale with multiple types of inventory.Then pretend your customer would like the receipt sorted by inventory code to make it easier to find a particular item. Can’t do it. You have to enter it using the Sales Order which still has the old code.Try this.Enter a product with a price of 1.543.Buy two of them….Receipt shows price of 1.54 ea and extended total of $3.08.Buy three of them. Receipt shows price of 1.54 ea and extended total of $4.63 not $4.62.They multiple the price 1.543 x 3 = $4.629 or $4.63It not a huge amount. Penny differences. But it shows a basis lack of understanding of accounting. And how uncomfortable it makes customers when there receipt doesn’t add up.Try this.Go to Make a Sale.Count the number of key strokes it takes to change the description.In the old system you just double click on the description to change.Now imagine if you have to add details to the description of a thirty item receipt.Still works to old way in Sales Order.Lots more……..I’ve figured out how to work around them. But should have to if Intuit cared.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
What brought me to this review was a search on several questions I had regarding my existing QB Point of Sale v10, which I’ve used for 3 years. I have long rued the fact that the only merchant services integrated into Quickbooks POS is Intuit’s, especially since there are other quality providers that charge as much as 1% less by category for most card sales. If someone is on the fence because of cash, and they process, say, $200,000 in card sales in a year, they might save $1-$2k PER YEAR. That is one important reason why I am considering jumping ship.There are also nuances to the software that do not make any sense, some of which were covered here:- Need 2+ licenses to use on 2 computers, as you note, if, for example, I want to run the register while I receive inventory or change pricing. Dumb.- Can import many things into POS from Excel, but not inventory counts (e.g. physical inventory). Perhaps a nit, but this seems arbitrary, and cost me many hours of work.- transaction input from POS to Quickbooks is faulty. More instances of missing transactions than not.Appreciate the review, and will be researching alternatives ASAP.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I have used QB POS for my MC clothing and accessory store for almost 7 years. So have 25 other licensed stores that operate under the Renegade Classics name. Is actually pretty good software or at least it was until version 9. Remember the original code for QB POS was purchased from Retail Pro and at one point Intuit bought all of Retail Pro to get all the code. They made it a multi-window program, something the new Retail Pro (at 10K workstation) somehow can’t figure out. The guy who sold the original Retail Pro code to Intuit waited out his non-compete and now has a company called Team Work POS. TeamWork is great software, but cost $500 a month for a couple workstations. It’s Mall store only pricing and too much for any small retailer to pay.What at Intuit did to their POS software with the version 10 and 11 defies all reason and common sense. They took out dozens of small by import and features and turned a multi-window program to a single window program in many on the wings of the program which were poorly revised. But what they did to the “receiving module” was a total travesty. The new window for that function can turn a simple half hour operation into total nightmare that can ruin your day. We put Version11 in a year ago for a week and it was so bad at receiving, we pulled it an spent another week had entering over 300 transactions back into Version 9. Every one of our stores that has had to upgrade from version 9 or earlier to 10 or 11 has the same complaints.The most frustrating thing about Intuit’s QB POS division is they have no clue how a retail store operates, not do they care. You realize this when your talk to smaller POS companies that must survive by keeping their customers satisfied. Intuit’s POS development employees are so far away from their customers it beyond laughable. This is where totally modern marketing driven company can take a software product. They have a feature to meet every well-researched retail need that comes up in the sale process, but where the rubber hits the road the program is a big disappointment. Further evidence of Intuit’s callousness, this there is no link anywhere in the program to report a bug or make a suggestion and there has not been on over two years. Why they don’t care.I have taken a deep dive in to at least 20 POS programs trying to find a replacement for QB POS and am still looking. I would rather not change at all and its really sad I have to, because of Intuit’s malfeasance as a software developer.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Allan
I am preparing to go from single store to multi store.
I am on the verge of buying QBPOS Multi store as an upgrade, but have reservations.
Your review speaks to my fears.
I am nervous about a cloud-based system though since my item list is pretty large, and I don’t want it to get gunky in transfering data.
Have you made a decision in which POS system you will go with? I’d appreciate your sharing that info.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Look at Lightspeed. Lots of functionality, lots of inventory management tools.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Having been a POS reseller for many years as well as a business oriented IT tech with a focus on small and medium sized businesses; I can state categorically that Intuit hates its customers. We have a saying about Quickbooks and Intuit products in general, “it is cheap software that is expensive to use”.Just about any commercial POS package on the market is superior and more reliable than QBPOS. I have been reselling PC America’s little package Restauraunt pro Express and Cash Register Express for years now and I can tell you that feature for feature they have them beat. We can interface with scales, scanners, printers, coin dispensers, label makers, caller id, most major pinpads and pinpad terminals. PCA is SQL based so the database is rock solid and reliable with as many users as you want. We can do merchant processing with all major processors. It has Crystal Reports built in as a reporting engine (That is the industries best report engine for databases). The software itself is very robust for the price. It is not the most expensive (QBPOS fits that category), it uses industry standard database (QBPOS uses their own proprietary and tempermental database). It also uses industry standard reporting tools with 80 or more reports capable of export into Excel, Word, PDF or RTF.With industry standard core modules, you have the added advantage of getting 3rd party programmers to help you. We have made several changes to our database with SQL programmers without having to call support.I have a client right now that wants to install QBPOS. I am going to install the 30 day trial then sell them PCA for half the money with twice the reliability and useability.If you have QBPOS don’t upgrade, ever. Start planning to migrate to some decent software. I think a few of the most important questions you can ask are “Does it use an industry proven database engine, e.g. SQL, or Oracle for larger systems). Does it use an industry proven report engine that can be customized to generate specific reports, e.g. Crystal Reports. If they answer no to those questions, run away from the software because it will be too expensive to maintain, or you could be orphaned with no support when they stop making it or go to a newer version.The thing that gets me about Intuit is they have a new release every year. The sad fact is the principals of accounting haven’t changed in 100 years to any appreciable degree. I use Quickbooks 2010 for invoicing, and luckily know how to fix it when it breaks. Would I upgrade it? Not on your life. Why put yourself through an agonizing and sketchy upgrade, that might damage data, for just more whistles and bells and constant marketing reminders to buy their overpriced supplies and support. No they are not a good company, they are greedy and like I said earlier, hate their customers except when paying them massive amounts of money for their buggy bloatware.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I want to throw it away and find something that consistently Works, long waits on hold to speak with someone I don’t understand and the to hear it could be several hours before the bug in Their Sysem is fixed..help me, this is embarrassing and cost me time, money and sales
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I have the POS version 10. Nothing but problems! Bar code printer does not print on the small jewelry tags, freezes constantly, reports don’t work properly and on and on. Spent hours on the phone with them, reloaded the software numerous times and still does not work. Recently called about a special which included adding other computers. Talked to the rep about how many people complain about version 10 and all the bad comments online. He actually admitted to me that they had problems with that version, but are now fixed. I asked about up grading to two computers with the special only if they would give me a better version of the software, one with less issues. He said he would do what he could and call me back, that was 45 days ago and I still have yet to hear from him. Absolutely no customer service with this company. They actually wanted to charge me for tech support to fix their software issues. I do trade shows and sell to retail stores, every time a customer asks me if I like the system, I tell them ” whatever you do, do not buy this system”. Big investment for me with the receipt printer, bar code scanner, label maker, cash drawer and software. “DO NOT BUY THIS”
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I have been a user of your POS software for over 4 years and I have been very pleased with its performance and ease of use up until now.
I was invited to upgrade to Intuit 2013 V11.0 POS and much to my disappointment I find that it isn’t backward compatible with my current hardware.
The real problem I have here is, as a small business, going out to purchase new hardware is really not feasible and really unnecessary when it works just fine, it’s very expensive for a small business. This product is meant to be used by small business. I would venture a guess that we are the largest demographic that uses the product.
I totally understand the need for ‘end of life’ cycles and the need to upgrade both your software and hardware requirements, but, it seems unnecessary to obsolete all systems we have been using for a few years just for expedience. The real thorn in my side of this is all the drivers we, as a small business need, are available on Version 10.0.
I’m really disappointed in Intuit.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I’m visiting Merchant Maverick today because I’ve been using QBPOS for four years and I’ve been trying to find the right replacement for a while. We used to use Intuit to process payments when we were first stating out, but they were constantly increasing and tacking on more fees. We’ve saved a ton of money by processing cards separate from the application, but this process leaves a lot of room for employee error. We also have to use a separate app to track gift cards, which again can cause mistakes. The all the other features of my four-year-old software work fine enough, but it’s old technology and the time has come to be more efficient and move to the cloud.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Intuit makes their software so specific and inflexible that you are unable to use it with any other brands of merchant services or gift card services. Which means you are unable to shop around for the best deals for your business. Since they force you to use their other products by making it impossible to work with others, they can charge higher prices, thus making the small business owner spend more on the basic POS services necessary for running their business. It is hard enough to survive the first couple years without Intuit making things even more difficult. The Pro level POS software works good enough however the fact that my merchant services doesn’t connect to it (I have another merchant service company because they had way better prices than intuit) and that I cannot get any other gift card services because it will not function, makes me want to immediately get rid of Intuit POS. I’d rather pay slightly more for a POS system and be able to shop around for all the additional services to ensure I am getting the best prices. It makes me so frustrated that Intuit values me as a customer SO LITTLE that they can’t even work with me and my budget in order for me to be able to afford their Gift Card Services. PLUS they have NO customer service!! What technology company doesn’t have customer service? Ridiculous. Intuit, you make me sick and I have totally lost respect for you as a company and would not recommend ANYONE to buy your products from here forward. You’ve lost my future business and my future recommendations.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
After over 25 years of working with Intuit software and three businesses, I am getting to the breaking point and may just jump ship. I was one of Intuit’s biggest fan and sang its praises to all, but this company keeps squeezing its loyal customers for all they can, push unnecessary version upgrades on them, a locked payment system (which want to dictate what you can or cannot sell) , useless support (unless you pay through the nose), and much more. All adds up like the proverbial straws and the camel’s back. If you are thinking long term investment and growth, stay away. I will find my way out of it as soon as possible.
Had it!!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
One of the worst POS systems out there. So surprised that intuit would put out such an outdated product. Does very very little of what one would expect. Stay far far away
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
After selling this product for Intuit for five years (Versions 1-7) and now building and running a very successful Motorcycle Clothing and Accessory Store with for five years (running three POS workstations), I will share a few comments. When I was on the phone selling this product, I used to hear a lot of negatives. Often they made me have negative feelings about the product. “It won’t do this, it won’t do thatâ€, “Support is too expensiveâ€, “It’s too much workâ€, etc. But, when I opened my first of two stores, my focus became all about what POS can do, and it does a lot.
It is a very deep and powerful program, mostly due to original design of the software by Retail Pro, whom Intuit bought the original code from in 2001. Intuit made in a multi-window program, and made it “prettierâ€, and added a bunch of half-baked “frill†features that regrettably they never went back and improved (rewards, suggested PO’s, customer manager). At the end of the day, when I pull down all the menus and look at what’s in POS, it’s all Retail Pro and Retail Pro had a much better connection with retailer needs that Intuit ever has. Also, Retail Pro cost five times a much ad QuickBooks POS, which makes the program a bargain.
Should you buy it? I would say only if you pretty computer literate, a decent Excel user and know you own email address. It is really not a product for business beginners. Learning two programs while opening a business (QuickBooks Financial and POS) is a huge burden, which many new retailers never master without professional help.
As for the people that complain having to use Intuit Merchant Service Provider, I would counter that is one of the programs major advantages. They are completive, provide great customer service, improve employee security and operationally, turn one of retail’s great nightmares (reconciling the CC statement) into a task that takes less than an hour.
As for tech support costs, it cost a lot on money to provide and Intuit never made any money on it. And after five years, I still pay for an annual tech support plan and I probably know move about the program than 99% of the user base.
QuickBooks POS, combined with QuickBooks Pro is a major Business system that if used correctly can run your competitors into the ground. But if you are not going to buy the Pro Version and run it with their accounting software and MAS, run a front and back office work station, uses if for customer database marketing, use the reports to buy better and keep you racks full and monitor employees to prevent theft and discounting, you should join the “I am always going to be small club†and buy a cash register.
To finish QuickBooks POS is as affordable business program for serious, computer and accounting literate retailers. It is really a mid-market product, that Intuit spends too much time marketing unsophisticated micro retailers. Just because you new and small does not put you I that category, but being business and computer illiterate does. For small less sophisticated users, starting with Intuit’s Cash Register Plus or Go Payment might be a better option.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.