QuickBooks Point of Sale

Get $600 back when you sign up for a new, approved Intuit QuickBooks Payments/Merchant account with the purchase of a new Point of Sale Revel hardware bundle.

An online iPad Point-of-Sale (POS) solution that works seamlessly within QuickBooks.

Contact us for all of the details and to see a product demonstration!

877-467-0451 | info@englishmgmt.com 

877-467-0451 | 858-467-0400

Adding a new employee as a user in QuickBooks Point of Sale (QBPOS) is a simple process. Once you add their information, you can set the user permissions.

• Sign in as Admin
• Go to the top tool bar and choose Employees
• New Employee

If you don't know how to sign into POS or have forgotten your password, follow this link to reset your Administrator password:
http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/PasswordRemoval.aspx

Christmas is here! The shopping frenzy has begun. Consumers are looking for deals and speedy service especially at the check-out. There are a couple of things we’d like to point out:

 

You don't want to upset customers! Do everything that you can to make it an enjoyable shopping experience!

1. We say this every year but it’s a message that retailers need to hear: Stock up on your Point of Sale supplies! Don’t wait until the last minute and have to pay for expedited shipping or worst, run out before your shipment arrives! Imagine the nightmare of running out of receipt paper while ringing up sales? Or your shipment of items arrives and you’re excited to get everything onto the sales floor but you run out of pricing labels or clothing hang tags?  You can still ring up sales but it will be much more inefficient and time consuming. Contact Us or you may contact our Preferred Supply Vendor directly.

2. Make sure your gift card program is in place before you get swamped. Gift cards are always a popular gift item. And make sure you don’t run out of those either. Contact your Merchant Service Provider to place an order.

3. Is your store ready for the new EMV credit and debit cards? Will wrote a great article explaining what EMV is and what it means to be compliant. Read it here.
For the Intuit Merchant Service/Payments customers: Intuit is extending the EMV liability shift by six months for its QuickBooks Payments customers. This means that Intuit will assume liability for the fraud until March 31, 2016 if you’re not EMV compliant. This “grace period” will allow you more time to upgrade your desktop software and purchase new card swipes/pin pads. Being a QuickBooks Payments customer, if you unknowingly accept a counterfeit EMV card using your magnetic stripe reader, Intuit will assume your liability for the fraud until March 31, 2016.  Intuit payments customers may contact us to purchase the EMV compliant Pin Pad Card Reader. If you are with another merchant provider, you need to contact them for a compliant device.

4. Maybe you’ve decided it's time to change the way you ring up sales today, or maybe you're a new retailer looking to select a system for the first time.  We’ve helped hundreds of companies select the appropriate QuickBooks software and services for their business needs. QuickBooks Point of Sale and QuickBooks Accounting software. In a recent blog article, William English outlines some key points to consider when selecting a Point of Sale (POS) system. Read it here.  It’s important to know ahead of time what to look for and what to expect when shopping around. You want to work with a trusted advisor and a reputable company.

How to select a POS system:
So you have decided it is time to change the way you ring up sales today, or maybe you are a new retailer looking to select a system for the first time.  We have helped hundreds of retailers select systems throughout the years and wanted to help point you in the right direction. Of course, we represent various systems and would be thrilled to make a sale, but at the end of the day, this is a large investment both in time and money and the system you choose has to fit your business and your budget.

The most important thing is to focus on your specific needs.  To do this, the sales consultant should ask questions about your business and your sales process.  If they want to skip to the demo without gaining an understanding of your business, be careful.  Anyone can make their software shine during a demo, but unless they understand what you truly need, you could end up disappointed in the outcome.

Examples of questions a consultant should ask you:
• Walk me thru the process of how are you ring up sale today
• Do you have orders or special orders in your business
• What do you like best about your current system
• What do you like the least (this is an important question)
• How do you want to track your inventory
• Are you selling off the web?  How do you get these orders into your current system?
• Are you using a loyalty program?

These questions are designed to help you think about your business.  Keep in mind that choosing off the shelf software is a balance between what you need, would like, can afford and what the software can do. Once you understand your needs then you can make an informed decision.

At the heart of any good POS system is inventory management, so fair amount of time should be spent on your inventory needs.  A lot of systems in the marketplace today fail to provide the inventory tracking required.  Whether you sell apparel with sizes or shoes with sizes and color and widths, make sure you understands your specific needs and if the system that you are looking at can handle it.  Of course, you may decide to choose software that is not as fully featured – just make sure you understand what you are giving up.

Next thing to consider is the POS hardware.   Whatever software under consideration will have its specific hardware requirements. Tablet and iDevice based solutions are becoming mainstream and there is a lot to be said for the clean look of those solutions.  It can present a very modern looking system that appeals to younger sales clerks who have grown up on smart phones.  But a slick look will not make up for a system that cannot process sales or track inventory the way you need.  It has been many a retailers’ experience that bad inventory information is worst that no information at all as it may cause you to overbuy or buy the wrong mix of product.

Of course, Windows machines are still the #1 choice for retail POS.  Make sure you understands the minimum requirements for the software that is being presented and ask a quote for hardware that exceeds that. Depending on your environment you may want to consider investing in Retail Grade Equipment.  This is hardware that is designed to work in a more “hostile” environment.  There is a big difference between getting hardware that will run in a woman’s high end boutique and equipment that will operate in an outdoor retail space or warehouse.  Sun, dirt, dust, and water in a retail environment will affect the system.  Ruggedized hardware is more expensive, but generally comes with better warranties and support.  If you can’t ring up sales because the system you bought at a big box retailer failed, you will be hand writing tickets and losing sales, so don’t skimp on the hardware.

Lastly, but probably the most important and over looked component is who will be implementing the software.  Are you going to do it yourself?  What experience do you have?  Does the vendor have online videos that you can view?  Even if there is lots of on line training available, consider getting a POS expert to help you implement the system.  Avoid the mindset that says you can do it yourself.  Also be careful of the general purpose IT company that thinks that since it just software, they can install and train you.  Without a deep understanding of the software you are buying, you or an inexperienced consultant will setup the system up incorrectly, miss key features of the software and make decisions that have unintended consequences.  Consider your health care provider.  Do you really want your general practitioner doing your heart surgery or someone who does the procedure all of the time?  We have done our share of cleanup’s from the do it yourselfers or consultants who don’t have a retail focus.  This is a huge decision for your business, be sure to get it done right!!

Author: English, William S., President of English Management Solutions, Inc. September 2015

Will English co-authored a QuickBooks Point of Sale (POS) Store Operations Handbook, which is a step-by-step guide with screenshot tips for QuickBooks POS. Bookkeepers, retailers, accountants and consultants find it very helpful in performing many of the daily POS tasks.

A consumer who runs a stone and landscaping yard stated that their inventory was never properly set-up in QBPOS. She had the following questions after reading through the handbook.

Client wrote:
Mr. English,
I run a stone and landscaping yard and we use the POS and QBF software. Inventory was never set up correctly and I have purchased your book in assisting me in many areas which need attention. However, I have two issues I couldn’t find discussed in the book.
1. Tax Exempt sales leaving a penny or two in the QBFS to be deposited
2. Our Inventory consist of stone and soil and we have multiple units of measure’s in which we use. I use a 5 gallon bucket as the base unit for the soils (there are 34.8 – 5 gallon buckets to a cubic yard) and pounds for all stone sales. (Two thousand pounds per ton). Would you recommend assemblies for the blends and if so what would you recommend for waste? Also, do you think POS is the software in which I should be using or recommend?

Will’s reply: First of all, thanks for buying our book and glad you have found it a help. There is a problem with using the exempt category built in to the program and for this reason, we recommend creating a Sale Tax Location for each of your exempt categories and use those. That should correct that problem.

As for the assemblies, you can do assemblies but in this case a better solution would be to do a zero dollar receiving voucher. To do that, minus (-) each of the buckets that make up a blend and then plus (+) the blend item. In this way, you can handle the waste issue and as long as the dollar value of the voucher is zero, you have properly costed the blend. If you have any more questions, call the office and we can set an appointment to step you through it.

877-467-0451 or contact Anita, our Marketing and Sales Coordinator at achilton@englishmgmt.com

There is a new revolution in payment technology underway and all retailers need to be aware of how it will impact them and their customers.  We have come a long way from our local merchant extending credit over the barrel to those clients who they knew well.  In the 50’s Diner’s Club, American Express and Visa started issuing general purpose cards, meaning that the card holder could use the card at multiple stores. Next up was Bank of America issuing their card and licensing it to other banks, and finally in 1976, what we know as Visa came into existence.

Now you can mark Oct. 1, 2015 on your calendars. MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover expect that come October 2015, if a customer presents a retailer with an EMV chip-based card, they are supposed to be able to process it on an EMV device.

So, what is EMV?EMV stands for “EuroPay, MasterCard and Visa” — and it’s not new! The rest of the world has been using EMV cards for almost a decade.

An EMV card is different because of the small metallic square embedded into the card. That square is actually a computer chip, and that is what sets these cards apart. If you have gotten a new card within the last 6 months or so, you now have a chip card.

The way it works today is you swipe a magnetic strip on your credit card through a magnetic swipe reader to pay for a purchase via debit or credit. The information on the magnetic strip is sent to the processor who sends back an approval code assuming that you have enough credit on the card and it has not be reported as comprised. However, the information on the strip never changes and contains all of the data needed to clone a card. A cloned card can be used just like your card and can have anyone’s name on the front.  It is the data that is swiped that tells the credit processor who owns the card.

Each time an EMV card is used, it is inserted (called card dipping) and the small metallic computer chip is used to create a unique transaction code. That new code is written to a computer chip, changing the card every time you shop. So, unlike your magnetic stripe cards whose data never changes, every time an EMV card is used, the data on the card changes and can only be used once, never to be used again.

Less Fraud, But There Is A Cost

Credit card fraud rates in countries that have adopted EMV are a fraction of what the U.S. is currently experiencing. In fact, half of all credit card fraud in the world now occurs in the U.S. That, along with the massive breaches that have occurred in the last few years, has prompted the credit card companies to draw a line in the sand.

Think about what happened at Target. Data from 70 million magnetic strips was stolen. If, instead, EMV cards had been used, the thieves might have still broken into the system, but the stolen information would not have done them any good. The information they were stealing could not be used. The only transaction numbers to which they would have had access would have been unusable, and any attempted fraudulent transactions would simply be declined.

Credit card fraud is how we got here. So, what is it going to cost?

The cost is going to vary greatly by retailer. At a minimum, retailers will need the EMV terminal or device for every POS station, including if they have mobile devices.  Intuit is currently in the process of switching out older terminals for the IPP350 which is EMV compliant.  Lastly, they are also switching Merchant Service Platforms; therefore, a retailer will need the IPP350 that is programmed for the new platform. They may also need to upgrade their computers. Are they still running XP? XP is a big NO NO as those computers are not PCI compliant.

The bigger issue is that retailers may need to upgrade their version of POS. Lots of retailers do not stay on the current version of POS and while the merchant service processing will work on the older versions, it most likely will not be made EMV compliant, especially the non-supported version (V10 and earlier). 

How to Know If You, as a Retailer, Are Ready?

Educate yourself on the new requirements and know your options.  You should also know that if you call September 30^th and want to upgrade, it will take time to get the software, install it, etc.  If you are on a very old version, your installer may need to stair step the file to get it to V12.

What happens if a retailer can’t take an EMV card on Oct. 1, 2015? Nothing. They can still use the magnetic strip to verify the card, get an approval code and get paid. But — and this “but” is big — if the consumer presented a chip card and the retailer didn’t process it on an EMV device, and it is a fraudulent transaction, the merchant is totally responsible for the losses, not the bank!

The burden of credit card fraud is, in essence, being moved from the banks to the retailers. It’s a titanic shift, and every retailer needs to be prepared. To protect themselves and their customers, every retailer needs to become EMV compliant as quickly as possible. Of course, they could always skip EMV and stop taking credit cards and go back to managing accounts over the cracker barrel… NOT!

Old Cards Will Still Work

On a positive note, magnetic strip cards will continue to be used for quite a while. EMV chip-based cards will have both the chip and a magnetic strip so customers can use their cards everywhere. The credit card companies want to insure your ability to use their product, but retailers will need to be prepared to know what to do when presented with an EMV card so that they don’t swipe when they should dip.

Author: English, William S., President of English Management Solutions, Inc. August 2015

It’s time for the annual RetailNOW trade show hosted by RSPA. As an expert in the Point of Sale industry, Will English is looking forward to attending for the education and networking.
  
RSPA stands for Retail Solutions Providers Association and they’ve been in existence for over 60 years. RetailNOW® 2015 is the premier trade show event for the retail technology and point of sale industry. Through educational sessions, valuable networking opportunities, and access to the resources of RSPA and its industry partners, attendees will walk away with a fresh new perspective that will pay dividends for them and their business.

“We are the only association connecting the Point of Sale technology ecosystem. Our members include resellers, distributors, hardware manufacturers, software developers, consultants and service providers who bring retail technology solutions to the marketplace. Our mission is to accelerate the success of our members by providing knowledge and connections.” Learn more.

Will English was invited to the Cultivate conference again! This is a U.S. premier convention and marketplace where those who work in horticulture, those interested in a career in horticulture, looking to buy horticultural products or services for their business, and business owners looking to sell to horticulture companies connect in one place for education and networking.

With Will being an exhibitor, it allows us to represent the QuickBooks (QB) product and our support services to potential and existing QB customers. At our booth, we were excited to raffle off copies of the QuickBooks Point of Sale and QuickBooks Financial Pro desktop software. Many conference attendees spoke with Will about the products, our services, and they entered to win with great expectancy. We appreciate everyone who stopped by and look forward to assisting them!

From the Cultivate website “At Cultivate'15, you'll find educational sessions to give you the tools and strategies you need to tackle your challenges triumphantly. You'll find the latest innovations and technologies to keep you competitive and your skills razor sharp. You'll find your cohorts, colleagues, and business partners from across the industry and within the supply chain, ready to get to work, strategize resources, and create win-win situations so that the industry as a whole can come out ahead... At Cultivate, we offer more than 120 sessions full of innovative ideas and easy-to-implement solutions guaranteed to help you stay competitive. From classroom sessions to hands-on learning, idea exchanges to rapid-fire Q&A, we enable you to learn in the ways that suit you best.

For more information on the education program visit Cultivate: Knowledge or one of the segment-specific pages listed under the "I am a..." section on the right side of the page.” Read more http://cultivate15.org/

Contact Us if you are looking to implement a POS and Accounting software system or if you already have one in place but need assistance!