QuickBooks POS Review: Locally Installed POS for Retailers

QuickBooks Payments allows you to process payments of any kind, from ACH bank transfers to credit cards and touchless payments like Apple Pay. Rates differ depending on whether you pay as you go or purchase a monthly plan for lower rates. You can also then download QuickBooks GoPayment for POS on mobile for on-the-go payments and have it sync with your desktop version.

• Windows-based system
• Purchase hardware from Intuit or use recommended third-party hardware

Run QuickBooks POS on your desktop or tablet and pair it with QuickBooks hardware accessories
(Source: QuickBooks)

The most important hardware you need to start running your business with QuickBooks POS is the payment terminal. There are also stands available if you download the software on a tablet instead of a laptop. Barcode readers will help you to ring up sales and manage your inventory. Other accessories include cash registers, printers, and customer displays.

• Individual Hardware
• Bundled Hardware

PIN Pad $389	Barcode Scanner $199–$409	Tablet Stand $119	Receipt Printer $219

Hardware Bundle Cash drawer Receipt Printer Wired barcode PIN Pad

QuickBooks POS offers a complete suite of purchase order management tools—from managing vendor listings to receiving orders with the POS Pro account. It creates a list of product suggestions that need reordering based on your set reorder point level and automatically prepares a purchase order request per vendor. You can also track items that need returning to the vendor, and QuickBooks prepares a return voucher that you can send along when you ship the products.

The purchase order tools offer a number of automation options such as reorder point management, partial inventory receiving, and item cost tracking.
(Source: QuickBooks POS)

While the system only offers partial automation, I felt that being able to manually edit the quantity for partial receiving and returning of products is a welcome feature that gives you added control.

QuickBooks POS’ inventory management feature allows you to create and track a variety of products and services with variants, track cost per item, assign tax rates, and set reorder points, discounts, and markup levels. The system also automatically adjusts product quantity as you complete sales, receive orders, and process returns. You also have the option to choose which products will be made available for online and mobile sales.

Use open purchase orders to add inventory items to your item list.
(Source: QuickBooks POS)

There are a lot of customization features available for inventory; however, the system does not have an automatic kitting function. I spent some time looking for ways to associate one product with another while creating a new item category without success.

QuickBooks POS is designed to help you manage custom work orders as well as sales orders and layaways. In all three scenarios, the system lets you allocate available inventory, put them on hold, and assign them to a customer. Once the customer is ready to receive the orders, you can remove the products on hold by accepting payment and issuing a receipt. It also has a serialization function if you plan on selling products that require you to monitor warranty.

QuickBooks POS allows you to create special work orders and includes a serialization feature to track each sale.
(Source: QuickBooks POS)

What I loved about this feature are the possibilities that the system provides. You can choose between starting the work order from the customer’s profile or from an inventory item (for example: if your business sells customized apparel). Unfortunately, QuickBooks POS does not support ingredient level tracking—meaning you won’t be able to automatically assign a set of products to a custom order. You will need to manually list the items one at a time for every request.

You can process direct sales, installments, and refunds with QuickBooks. It is designed so you can easily ring up items using a barcode scanner or by looking them up in the inventory. You can accept payments from cash and check to credit cards and touchless payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. Upgraded versions of QuickBooks POS also allow invoicing, billing, and layaway for customers. You can also email receipts and add coupons to receipts to bring customers back.

The sales screen lacks product images, but it is otherwise intuitive. Photos are available in the Multi-Store version.
(Source: QuickBooks)

Overall, QuickBooks’ sales processing feature is simple and intuitive. It’s easy enough to use, and the register is well organized so tracking different types of sales transactions will not take up so much time. However, the ability to upload images is only available for multi store versions so you won’t be able to counter-check the actual product against what item is presented at checkout unless you pay extra for this feature.

The customer management feature allows you to create and manage your customer list, process sales and returns, and set up customer special orders. Each customer record will display the customer’s contact information, preferred shipping address, rewards status, and purchase history. You also have the option to set special discounts for each customer and track the customer as a company, which will then prompt you to specify a company name.

Create customer profiles, track purchase history, and enroll them in your rewards program at the checkout counter.
(Source: QuickBooks POS)

Users get a number of customization options for this feature, including the ability to print customer ID cards and create “letters” via Microsoft Word for selected customers. This seems slightly outdated, although easy to repurpose. The QuickBooks POS Pro account also gives you a rewards management functionality that is simple to set up and can prompt the cashier to ask the customer if they would like to be signed up for the rewards program during checkout. Unfortunately, you can only set up one rewards program at a time.

The rewards manager functionality allows you to set up and customize a rewards program and automatically track the status of customers enrolled in the program.
(Source: QuickBooks)

QuickBooks provides templated reports with the basic QuickBooks POS account. You will need a higher version if you want purchase order, employee performance, and customized report templates. All QuickBooks POS versions can run reports and modify them by setting filters, choosing which rows and columns to display, and even limit access based on employee permission.

QuickBooks POS reporting is easy to use and seamlessly integrates with QuickBooks accounting and payroll software.
(Source: QuickBooks POS)

The interface seems a little clunky, although I find small features such as launching a separate tab to view the sales history per product quite useful and easy to understand. It also allows you to customize the look of your report (headers, footers, displayed browns and columns) before exporting it to a spreadsheet.

QuickBooks also offers a mobile payments option with QuickBooks GoPayment. This feature allows you to ring sales using your mobile device, and both your inventory and sales records are updated in real time. It’s an efficient solution for reducing long queues in your store, offering curbside pickup, or making a sale during offsite events like trade shows, pop-up shops, and street market fairs.

Automatic sync of your Go Payments transactions makes sure that your sales and inventory records are always up to date.
(Source: QuickBooks)

QuickBooks POS’ ecommerce integration is an add-on that will sync your online store with QuickBooks POS Desktop, so you can manage inventory, sales, and customer information from either source. Powered by Webgility, the integration works with many popular marketplaces and shopping cart programs, from Amazon to WooCommerce (ecommerce integration starts at $39 per month). If you need a mobile app, download the QuickBooks GoPayment app and sync it through Intuit’s payment program.

QuickBooks POS offers integrations with many online marketplaces such as Amazon and Etsy.
(Source: QuickBooks)

Employee management is found in the POS Pro and Multi-Store versions. You can set permissions and track commissions for your employees. It also has a time clock for tracking hours, so you can make sure you’re paying employees for time worked. Overall, this feature is easy and simple to use.

Set detailed user permissions for all employees with access to your POS.
(Source: QuickBooks POS)

The control function could be improved if the system can prevent employees from logging in before or beyond their shift, on top of having the ability to override and log them out of the system. And while QuickBooks POS has a built-in timeclock function, you will need a third-party shift management application.

Add employees on your list and assign user roles depending on their tasks. You can also opt to track their daily log-in and log-out times with the built-in timeclock.
(Source: QuickBooks POS)

QuickBooks is easy to set up, but you will have to do it yourself. You can find the user guide online to walk you through the process of adding items, customers, taxes, and more. You can import much of the data from QuickBooks Desktop or import it from an Excel spreadsheet or text file.

Even though it’s standalone software, you don’t need to worry about it getting outdated. Intuit offers updates, which you can either manually download or set up to have done automatically as they become available.

Unless you have the multistore version, QuickBooks POS does not have photo menus of items. Rather, you can use a barcode scanner or key an item description into the search bar. Unfortunately, this makes the interface more dated and less intuitive than many POS systems. It’s easy to process payments, however, and everything integrates with your QuickBooks accounting software.

The administrative section uses icons and workflow to make finding functions easy.
(Source: QuickBooks)

That said, there are a number of features that I particularly liked. The buttons at the left can be customized and are intuitive enough to adapt as you move from one management tab to another. There’s also an end-of-day function which you can set to automatically run or remind employees to reconcile their registers, back up data, and integrate with QuickBooks Accounting.

Best of all is the messaging section that automatically reminds you of pending tasks and processes that require attention. You and your employees can even leave your own messages there for the next user to find.

QuickBooks offers a wide range of support options. Online, you can access the support portal to find how-to articles, view instructional videos (for QuickBooks accounting), attend webinars, or ask questions via the forum. Even though there is a separate page for QuickBooks POS, clicking or searching nonetheless results in articles that apply to other products as well. We, at times, found it easier to use Google and follow the results to the QuickBooks help page. Further, several times, links to additional information were circular or led to Page Not Found.

Support resources for QuickBooks POS covers everything from FAQs to finding local experts for assistance.
(Source: QuickBooks)

You can access chat support Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific time. To get phone support, you need to purchase a plan. The support plans come with online backup of your data, however, so factor that in when deciding whether it’s worth the price. The expert assistance is only available Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pacific time.