End-of-Day Tasks QBPOS

Submitted by Will on March 08, 2011

Q: How am I able to find out if the the end-of-day tasks are  over/under??

A: Run the z-out drawer count report.  It will allow you to count currency and give you an over short report.  Keep in mind that if you use QBFin, it will not post the over short amount for you. Q: I'd like to avoid having employees log into QBFin just to post the over short. Any suggestions on how to avoid this? A: By design, I would enter a suggestion to improve this as I agree.  Generally we have our clients make an entry once a week or so.

Print inventory tag , adjust type of paper , size ..

Submitted by Will on March 07, 2011

Q: How do I Print inventory tags using TSC printers model TTP-243e . paper size width 3.5 cm, heights 2.5 cm , type of paper roll . when i print its blank. How to adjust the paper size on inventory tags ? pls advise ..TQ A: POS is designed to either print avery labels on a sheet of labels or use the Zebra LP2824.  Your printer is not supported therefore the templates you need don't load.

V10 R5

Submitted by Will on November 19, 2010

Intuit released a patch for V10 that addresses a number of the usiblity issues that the program had.  With this patch, I am able to condtionally recommend V10, although there are still a number of issues that need to be addressed.   I appreciate Intuit's willingness to listen to the community to make POS a stronger product.  If you want to see what's fixed, you can review the release notes here. http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/Pages/KnowledgeBaseArticle/899370

More V 10 problems

Submitted by Will on October 20, 2010

No More Open Windows - One of the biggest flaws we have found in the new version is that you can't have multiple windows open.  That means you can't run a report and switch over to make a sale unless you close out of the report(s).  And it is not just limited to reports either.

Add-ons - Well, they are just gone.  This was really an up and coming feature that was allowing third party developers to create utilities that made a great deal of functional difference - Like integrating scales for example.  We hope it comes back soon.

Filters on Lists - The ability to create and save filters in V10 lists has been removed and in its place is a much less desirable search feature.  When working with key list elements it is almost a failure.  Let's say for instance that i want to review all my assembly items only, the search feature will not even search on the item type name.  There are ways to still get to some of this functionality, but it really looks like that is just a delay in what portions of the program have been revamped and will likely be patched into non-existence.

 Multi-sort and Zoom- From the view menu, which is now gone itself, the option to sort lists on multiple (up to three columns) as well as the Zoom feature for those that needed to make the text bigger have been removed.

 Tool Bar - The tool bar which had been customizable so that you could easily get to many of your favorite functions quickly and easily has been removed.  There is a somewhat customizable side bar that works fairly well.

 Select from List - This is no longer available on Receiving Vouchers or Sales Receipts.  This tool was extremely helpful.  It can still be found on things like Purchase Orders and Sales Orders; but for how long....

 No Customizable Sales or Receiving Voucher Screen Views - It is no longer possible to customize the view of the columns that are displayed.  Plus, to make a change to something like the associate, the item description or the qty/price/discount requires drilling down into many individual screens - you can no longer change all fields in one location by using the edit item option.

Customers and Sales Screen - While you can drill down to the customer from the sales screen, much of the information that was previously presented for you is no longer there.  Rewards status, account balance and even the option to enter a purchase order number for tracking as a company have been removed. Sales Screen and Transaction Date - The transaction date has been removed.  I foresee this as an issue for those that use a credit card processing system outside of the integrated payment solution from Intuit.  Many users that inadvertently fail to ring up a sale in POS that they ran through their external cc machine will now have difficulting posting it to the correct day.  I would imagine you could change the sytem date on the computer and then open POS to do it, but that is likely to mean people will forget to change it back as well.   Customer History Screen Hard To Read from Sales Screen -   Rather than the tabbed viewing we have been used to working with that would adequately display information by moving through the tabs, The information is now displayed on one page. In and of itself, this is a good thing, but the reality is that there is just not enough real estate - so things like history and rewards have to be scrolled not just up and down, but left to right as well. Oddly, if you are just looking at the split view on the customer list, it works fine. Keyboard Shortcuts - One of the many usefull navigation tools (like the tool and status bar have been removed from the application.  One of my particular favorites, F5 which was used for editing a line item on a sale or receiving vouhcer seems a big loss. Find Receipt - You can no longer search for a receipt while in a sales receipt, you will have to go to the sales history or search from the Home window. Custom Vendor Fields - These have been removed, they still exist in preferences, but the tab on the vendor record or any other way to get to the information seems to have been removed from the actual interface. Store Exchange Fee - For many years now those using the multi-store function have been able to exchange files for free using the Intuit service method.  There is now a fee.  This is no big deal, but those upgrading may get a surprise notification that they need to pay $20 for a three year period. Resend Files - For multi-store users, there was a utility that could be used to specify a resend of exchange files with date specific information and such.  Sometimes mailbags would get lost and doing the roundtrip exchange would not fix it, but this would.  Perhaps Intuit feels it is not needed any longer.  Of course, it is still in help. Reminders - The finger with the string is gone, but reminders do show up in the sticky notes field. Status Bar - Along the bottom of the screen had long been a bar that was filled with useful information, including that you had reminders to deal with, the logged in user, list count information (though that is displayed on the list screen now) what workstation you were on and more.  This is now gone Help - Clearly the in product Help updates are not complete, there are plenty of references to features and locations that simply no longer exist as the help is written.  This will make thing a bit more difficult on users. Practice Mode - This has been removed too.  It is just gone. Be carefull if copying a full version of your data to practice, check and make your merchant service and connection to QBFS are turned off. Training Videos - also known as the learning center have been removed.  These videos were great tutorial guides for learning the basics of how to do so many things in POS.  There loss will likely mean even more end user mistakes

Point of Sale V10

Submitted by Will on October 11, 2010

On September 27th, Intuit released version 10 of Point of Sale.  This version represents a huge change in the interface.  Intuit is attempting to make the user interface better for a touchscreen user as well as try to simpify the sales process.  Since Intuit releases a new version every year and had to make so many changes, I beleive they ran out of time to get everything done properly.  We have been told they are planning an agressive patch schedule and in fact, they have just released R3 which fixes a number of problems and R4 is on its way.  First of all, here is what I like: The new GUI is very clean for taking sales.  The ability to select payment directly from the sales screen can speed a standard sale.  The fully indexed search including help is cool.  The look and feel is something very different than any other QuickBooks product and more in line with POS systems.  The notes feature is pretty slick. Now for the bad news: This product is NOT complete.  Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, etc are still in the old interface.  You can't customize the sales screen nor change sales dates, etc.  The item list has no way to filter except what is out of stock nor is there anyway to save a filter.  This is core functionality that has been left out.  List edit is sort of gone.  If you go to the item list report and click on any item, you are back in the old interface.  Receiving without a purchase order is very time consuming as  you can't select from the item list.  I will continue to blog as I find more stuff.  BTW, as we give you work arounds like the item list report, keep in mind that Intuit considers these things that need to be fixed.  Hopefully they will fix the new interface before taking away our work arounds.  Intuit has allowed us to continue to sell V9 until they have a major patch sometime next year.  Please call us for a free on line demo and comparsion between the products.

POS Multi-store store exchange problems missing items

Submitted by Will on January 12, 2010

POS recently experienced a problem with new items not showing up at the remote stores and existing items being removed.  This bug came to light after December 16, 2009 as the problem was hidden before then.  The problem has been fixed in V6 through V9.  For versions earlier than V6, it is Intuit's policy to Sunset software after 3 versions.  That means that they will not fix problems prior to V6.  In fact, V6 will sunset after May of this year.  To fix V7-V9, either select check for product updates under the help or go www.quickbooks.com/support.  Choose your version and then click on product updates. While we understand the frustration, there are many reasons to update your software.  You get the benefits of all of the new features and there have been 100's of improvements.  Also you get access to support and patchs from Intuit.  To ease your transition, we are offering special pricing for V9 upgrades.  Call or email for more info

POS V9

Submitted by Will on December 04, 2009

POS V9 is out and there are some great new features.  Intuit is trying to create new features that will drive repeat business and there are a couple of tools in the new version to help with that.  V9 has the ability to create coupons.  These coupons can be emailed or added to the receipts.  Also in V9 is customer center.  Customer Center provides details about your customers purchases and allows you to create targeted mailing lists based on past purchases.  Anyone on version 6.0 and older, it is time to upgrade.  with V7 and V8, it can make sense to upgrade to get these new features.  To help you decide, we are offering an additional 10% off our already 20%  off discounted software on all POS software purchases from our web site through December 31,2009.  Use coupon code b196a715f8 at checkout

I'm back, sorry for the long delay

Submitted by Will on November 19, 2008

So version 8 of Point of sale has been out for a few months.  Here are my comments.  The web component is not quite ready for prime time.  It has very limited functionality and NOT a good fit for clothing store at this time as there is only 1 view available for each style and the styles display kind of weird.  We have been promised fixes early next year.  The simple cashier screen is great improvement for touchscreen use.  Please note however that not all of the data entry fields are on the simple cashier view. For example, to enter a customer you need to go back to the old screen. The good news is it is pretty simple toggle.  The currency buttons when taking cash are LONG overdue and really cool.