QB Retail & POS Questions

Nov 27, 2005 4 Replies

My wife and I are planning on opening a retail shop in about 6-8 months. I have looked at the demos and information on the Quickbooks web site and still have a couple of questions:


1-I think I understand the differences between Quickbooks Premier Retail Edition (assuming that's the correct name) and Quickbooks POS. I definitely will go with the POS software, likely with the hardware package - bar code reader, cash drawer, etc. Does the POS software include Quickbooks Premier, or will I need to purchase both packages separately? The web site was unclear on this.


2-Our plan is to run the POS software at the checkout location. My wife will handle that. I am more "back room" and will handle the bookkeeping, inventory, etc. I will mostly do so from an on-site office. I have a brand new, high-end laptop computer to use when at the store, but can also take-with. My hope is to run the POS and the laptop, sharing the same data. Do I need a network with separate server for this? As you can imagine, my wife will need access to all that POS offers and, at the same time, I will need to run all other functions from that back room.



Note that there will be no other employees nor PCs accessing the data, other than the two of us from the 2 locations described.



Any advice and suggestions is greatly appreciated. Thanks.


Many industries (Auto parts, nurseries, books, etc.) have pecularities regarding how inventory is handled that QB simply cannot handle. For example, in the liquor industry when you buy 12 bottles you actually get 13. In auto parts, a part number has to be chased through as many as twenty reincarnations to arrive at the current replacement. Bookstores access industry standard databases and order electronically with specialized methodologies from publishers.

Investigate first POS solutions designed for your industry. You'll be way happier with something that works for your business.

And if you decide you can't find anything that suits and would like some customized software written especially for you then download and check out our Retail demo

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This provides a basic application framework that includes various functions (POS, general ledger & cashbook, and web server should you need to integrate with a website) on which we can easily build any customizations you require.

Alan

Are you in Australia? When you refer to the POS Hardware offer, it makes me think that you are. If you are not, what follows may make no sense at all!!

If you are, you have to buy both POS and a version of QuickBooks, but it can be any of Premier, Pro or Plus. For a small business with you and your wife, you may find the Plus option the best (about AUD899 I think, including the hardware. You get the POS Administrator, POS Terminal and QuickBooks Plus, all 2005/06 versions for that.

You can run the system on one computer if you wish, but it means that the terminal will be operating when you want to enter data into QuickBooks (purchases, orders etc). It works best with at least two networked computers, with QuickBooks and POS Administrator on the back room computer, the POS database and the POS terminal on the front counter computer so that it can run without the other computer being on. Many of my clients run a backroom laptop with an old (not too old!) computer for the terminal (running XP Pro if possible).

You will get the best out of your purchase if you pay a bit extra for a Quicken Accredited Trainer (see

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and go to the support tab and look for Find a Trainer) to help you set it up properly in the first place. We are forever being asked to help people who do it themselves - and it usually costs a lot more to fix after the event.

I hope this helps.

Bob Williams

What kind of shop? While I'm a computer geek at heart, computerizing your POS only makes sense if it serves some useful purpose. If you are a hardware store selling lots of repetative items that need to be reordered when stock gets low, then it makes sense. If you are an art gallery where everything you sell is one of a kind, and you have a couple of transactions a day, I would stick to a paper based system. This is not to say that you shouldn't get Quickbooks for your back office accounting.

Mike Schumann

P.S. Don't get into custom software unless it is absolutely imperative and you have very deep pockets.

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