QuickBooks Premier Retail Edition is an industry-specific version of QuickBooks Premier desktop accounting software. It helps retail businesses manage accounting functions, such as sales, inventory, invoicing, and more. QuickBooks Retail includes all the features of QuickBooks Premier, plus additional inventory tools and industry-specific reports.
After purchasing QuickBooks Premier desktop software, you can specify the general business edition, or an industry-specific edition, such as retail, at no additional cost. You can purchase a QuickBooks Premier license, or subscribe to an annual plan, which includes unlimited support, yearly updates, and automatic data backups.
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What We Recommend QuickBooks Retail Edition For
QuickBooks Retail Edition is a great choice for small to medium-sized brick-and-mortar retailers that need specialized tools for inventory, pricing management, and industry-specific reporting. It features easy-to-use pricing management, sales order fulfillment, and tracking of sales and customer information, which are extremely essential to your retail business. If you need a single platform to track retail income and expenses, create and send invoices, track inventory and sales tax, then QuickBooks Retail Edition is for you.
QuickBooks Retail Edition Is Especially Good For
- Retail stores that use QuickBooks POS: QuickBooks POS is a great point-of-sale (POS) system that integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks Retail Edition to make tracking both sales and inventory easier.
- Retail stores that use a cash register: If you use a cash register to track and summarize sales, you can enter the day’s sales quickly using the Enter Daily Sales feature.
- Retail stores that track individual sales: You can record sales to individual customers as either sales receipts if paid immediately, or invoices if the customer will pay later.
- Retail stores that use average-cost to calculate cost of goods sold (COGS): You can track the total units on hand, units on sale orders, and units available, along with the average cost per unit.
QuickBooks Retail Edition Is Not a Good Fit For
- Business owners who want to manage their own books: QuickBooks Retail Edition presents a steep learning curve especially if you are new to accounting concepts. Also, since files aren’t stored in the cloud, you can’t share them with your accountant in real-time. QuickBooks Online is easier to use, and it allows your accountant to access important data in real-time.
- Retail businesses with multiple locations: If you are operating multiple retail stores and require access for multiple users, you might instead consider a cloud-based retail accounting software like QuickBooks Online Plus.
- Businesses needing last in, first out (LIFO) or first in, first out (FIFO) inventory costing: QuickBooks Retail Edition will only use the average cost method of calculating the cost of inventory sold. You can purchase third-party plug-ins that provide additional inventory options. QuickBooks Enterprise is a more powerful program with LIFO or FIFO inventory accounting.
Are you looking for something different? If you want to explore other comprehensive accounting software for business owners, check out our guide to the best small business accounting software.
QuickBooks Retail Edition Pros and Cons
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Integrates with QuickBooks Point of Sale | Requires installation and setup |
| Quickly record daily sales summaries from cash register | Can’t access data from the web |
| Can automate and customize product pricing | Requires a third-party add-on for FIFO accounting for inventory cost |
| Choice of desktop-only software or with cloud hosting (for a fee) | Must purchase an additional license for each simultaneous user (maximum 5) |
| Customized chart of accounts for retail | Can only access the program from the computer where it is installed unless you pay for cloud hosting |
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QuickBooks Retail Edition Pricing
The retail edition of QuickBooks Premier is available for the same price as the general business edition. You can purchase QuickBooks Premier for a one-time payment fee of $649.99 for one user, or as an annual subscription with prices that start at $499.99 for a single user.
Pricing & Features | License Fees | Annual Subscription ($/Year) |
|---|---|---|
1 User | $649.99 | $499.99 |
2 User | $999 | $799.99 |
3 User | $1,399 | $1,099.99 |
4 User | $1,749 | $1,399.99 |
5 User | $2,099 | $1,699.99 |
Unlimited Customer Support* | Additional $299 per year | ✔ |
Data Backups | N/A | ✔ |
Free Upgrade Every Year | N/A | ✔ |
QuickBooks Retail Edition supports up to five user seats. If you need more than five users, you will need to upgrade to QuickBooks Enterprise, which supports up to 40 users.
Pricing: QuickBooks Retail Edition vs QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Retail edition is affordable for a sole user. You get industry-specific bookkeeping software for $649.99 for a single user. You can even use the software for the bookkeeping of an unlimited number of companies. In contrast, QuickBooks Online Plus, which does not have a retail-specific edition, costs $80 per month. You must get a separate QuickBooks Online subscription for each company for which you are preparing the books.
The QuickBooks Online Plus subscription includes up to five simultaneous users while QuickBooks Retail Edition only allows one user unless you purchase additional licenses. Read QuickBooks Online vs Desktop for a complete comparison of the desktop and online products.
Pricing: Other QuickBooks Desktop Editions
QuickBooks Premier is available in five industry-specific editions: nonprofit, contractors, manufacturing and wholesaling, professional services, and retailing. All these industry-specific editions are also available in QuickBooks Enterprise. The other desktop products range from QuickBooks Pro for $399.99―one-time fee―to QuickBooks Enterprise for $1,275 per year for one user. Explore our QuickBooks desktop comparison guide to learn more about the different QuickBooks desktop products.
QuickBooks Retail Edition Features
QuickBooks Retail Edition offers industry-specific functionality in addition to the standard features discussed in our QuickBooks Desktop Premier review. These features help retail businesses manage and keep track of their inventory, sales, customers, and pricing.
Check Out the Industry-specific Functionality of QuickBooks Retail Edition
- Set up and track inventory by item: You can set up each of your products as a separate inventory item. You can set a standard cost and sales price per item that will populate purchase orders (POs) and invoices automatically, but you can still make changes on those forms if the price varies. The inventory item screen also tracks the units on hand, on POs, and on sales orders. You can even enter a reorder point, so you’re reminded when inventory is low and needs to be replenished. The average cost per unit given at the bottom of the screen is recalculated with every inventory purchase and is used to determine the cost when a unit is sold:
QuickBooks Retail Edition inventory item.
- Specify price levels: You can set special price levels for individual inventory items, or set a special price level rule that will be applied to all inventory items. For instance, you might set a special Friends and Family price level that reduces the sales price of all inventory items by 10%. After you create a custom price level, you can choose to apply the standard price or custom price level when creating invoices and sales receipts:
QuickBooks Retail Edition create price level
- Create POs: You can create a PO when ordering inventory. The units on POs will show in the inventory item screen so you know there are more units on the way.
- Adjust inventory for shrinkage: Shrinkage is an inevitable part of retail sales. You can record shrinkage by entering either the amount of the adjustment―for instance, when you know an item was broken―or by entering the actual units of inventory on hand. QuickBooks will make an adjustment to record the shrinkage expense based on the average cost per unit.
- Create sales orders: Creating sales orders will help QuickBooks make sure you have sufficient inventory. Inventory needed to fulfill open sales orders is subtracted from units on hand in determining units available. When units available drop below the minimum you specify, QuickBooks will notify you that it is time to reorder.
- Convert sales order to an invoice: Once an order is fulfilled, you can convert the sales order into an invoice that can be printed or emailed to the customer.
- Create customer groups: QuickBooks Retail Edition lets you create rule-based customer groups using certain metrics like customer type, location, status, and balance. By creating customer groups, you can reduce the time you spend on sending emails to your customers and updating customer lists.
- Add barcodes to sale prices: With QuickBooks Retail, you can now include sales prices on your product bar codes aside from product name and description. This allows you to communicate your pricing better to your team and customers.
- Customize payment receipts: QuickBooks Retail now allows you to edit and customize payment receipts to include your logo and other necessary fields that will reflect your brand.
Reports
In addition to all the usual accounting reports and financial statements like the balance sheet and statement of profit and loss (P&L), retailers will find these useful reports in QuickBooks Retail:
- Gross Margin by Inventory Item: This report breaks down the sales of inventory by inventory item and reports the quantity sold, average sales price, COGS, gross margin (or profit), and gross profit percentage. This is very helpful in determining which of your products are the most profitable and deserving of the prime floor space, or web placement for online stores.
- Inventory valuation summary: This report not only shows you the quantity of inventory you have on hand, but also the total cost and total retail value.
- Inventory Stock Status by Item: This is very helpful in determining when to reorder inventory. It provides, by inventory item, not only the units on hand, on sales orders, and on POs, but also the average weekly units sold.
Customer Service and Ease of Use
Although not as easy to set up and use as cloud-based accounting programs, QuickBooks Retail Edition has comprehensive navigation centers to help new users find their way around the system. The QuickBooks Retail screen includes a menu bar and dropdowns under each menu, allowing you to easily access the features you need. You can access help from a variety of support options, including its in-software help center, live chat support, an online knowledge base of helpful articles, and a community forum. QuickBooks Premier Plus annual subscribers have access to unlimited customer support over the phone.
QuickBooks Retail Edition Alternatives
Best for: Business owners who want to keep their own books | Best for: Businesses that need more than five users | Best for: Businesses that need LIFO or FIFO inventory costing |
Software from: $80 per month | Software from: $180 per month | Software from: $1,275 per year |
Bottom Line
QuickBooks Retail Edition is a powerful, industry-specific version of QuickBooks Premier. It can help you manage your inventory better and adjust product prices and price levels easily, allowing you to leverage promotional pricing for your business. However, since QuickBooks Retail Edition is a powerful desktop software, it’s best that you have a dedicated bookkeeper.
Once you install QuickBooks Premier, you can choose QuickBooks Retail Edition and start using its industry-specific features.
