QuickBooks Point of Sale

One of Will’s business associate’s presented the following inquiry.  His response is below.

Q: I had a potential client call that was using Point of Sale in one business and was opening a second business. She wanted to know if she could use her single license to run both businesses.
Has anyone been able to do this? The training material says you can only access "One company file at a time" but it doesn't cover using one license to access two different companies at the same time. Is this possible?

A: You can create two separate files and switch between them, although it can be a pain if you are running a second workstation license as you can't be in one company on the server and another on the client workstation. Also, transferring to QuickBooks Financial can be a pain. It is clearly a violation of the licensing agreement. There is a difference between what is technically possible and what is allowed. My expectation is that she may receive a letter from Intuit's licensing because clearly that can be found out if a license is being used from multiple locations.

What is the quickest way to change the department for a group of items in v10?

Export the item list to excel and change it there. Then, re-import the information, overriding the existing. Keep in mind that changing departments will not change prior transactions so reports might be problematic.
 

Q: Is there any way to issue a "gift receipt" in QB POS? (A receipt issued for a retail item intended as a gift that doesn't show the price unless the item is returned by the receiver of the gift.)

A: You can enable the preference for gift receipts but keep in mind it is an all or nothing. When enabled, it will ask to print gift receipts for all transactions. The option is under Workstation Preference and Printer Setting.
 

Q&A with Will:

Q: I am looking for some help with the POS to Fin exchange. There is an error 3140 and the exchange log states status error with tax line, cannot be same as txn code? Where should I go to find fix?

A: Most likely the problem is how the accounts are mapped. Go into Company Preferences and under Financial Review the Account Mapping. Most likely you have listed an account in there that is creating the error. Examples are putting sales tax payable in the wrong box.
 

Things to consider when wanting to install QuickBooks Point of Sale (QBPOS) on a Network Server:
POS installs both the program and data on the C drive. Since most servers are set up so C drive is small and designed for only the operating system and then typically a D drive for data, POS can run the C drive if out of space. Other considerations are the fact that you can only do certain functions on the server and it’s not always the best idea to have employees accessing your server. I generally recommend against this set up.
 

So this time of year that we get a lot of people asking about cleanup and creating new files. It is our recommendation that you not create a new POS file unless you want to truly start over. If the financial file is a problem, you can always create a financial file and connect your company file to it. In POS, you can delete items, customers, etc. which you can't do in QBFS. You can also export and import items if you wish to change department structure (keep in mind that reports may include both old and new departments as transactions are not able to be changed). In general, it is better to maintain the old sales and receiving information than start POS over.

We have recently spoken with several winery owners and operators who are going to open a wine tasting room and gift shop. There are many questions on how to properly implement a POS system within the wine industry. There are aspects that differ from other retail establishments. That is why William English and Steve Green, owner of Steve D. Green Business Solutions, co-authored the QuickBooks Point of Sale Operations Handbook for Wineries. It is a quick and concise resource that explains how to post transactions and setup and manage winery related inventory and sales activities within QuickBooks Point of Sale (QBPOS).   The following is an excerpt from the book to give you an idea of the content:

Wine in Process (WIP) is a term we use to track the costs associated with making wine.  In essence, it is necessary to accumulate these costs so that you can determine what it costs you to make a single bottle of wine.  For example, you may need to track the purchase of grapes, bottles, corks, capsules, storage, labels, etc.  When the wine is eventually bottled and ready to be inventoried as finished goods, you can easily use the sum total of your costs/divided by the number of bottles created to determine the cost per bottle.
The next part in this section of the book includes: What Types of Costs Should You Include in WIP, Where is WIP Tracked, and How to track it in QBFS.
 

Have you considered implementing QuickBooks Point of Sale (QBPOS) but don't know as much about the product as you would like? Why not use a free trial to get an idea of what features are included. The free trial is downloadable by going to our Home Page and following the Download Free Trial Now link. Keep in mind that this free trial is a basic version of QBPOS. We also offer a No Cost product demonstration hosted by William English at which time he will walk you through many of the product features discussing the use, implementation, and costs involved to set-up this application at your company. This free one-on-one product demonstration and initial meeting offers you, the client, an opportunity to ask him as many questions as necessary as well as learn from one of the leading QBPOS experts! There is nothing required from you and there are no obligations; just that you learn about this great product! Most all of our clients took advantage of this service and wouldn't have purchased without it. William performs these product demonstrations onsite and virtually, depending on your location. Call us today!

Except from the QuickBooks POS Store Operations Handbook:

This is where Version 10 has made great improvements.  The new screen layout and payment functionality will help you to speed sales. To get to the sales screen, click on Make a Sale from the home screen.  You can also click on the Point of Sale menu and choose New Sales Receipt.  Once you are in the sales receipt screen it is a simple matter to scan the label that you created when you received the item.  If the label has fallen off, you can type anything about the item that you know. 

Clearly it is better to scan the item’s bar code into the system.  It will be faster and more accurate than trying to find something manually, but it is nice to know that there are different look up methods if needed.

Here is another excerpt from the QuickBooks Point of Sale Store Operations Handbook:

To create a Purchase order, you can click on the Purchasing menu and choose Make Purchase Order from the main screen or “make a Purchase Order from the Navigator screen.”

When the Purchase order is on the screen, click on the I want to… Menu and choose Select from Item List.  Once the item list is displayed, you will be able to add new items, copy items and use the style grid to create new items.  Please note that the Purchase order screen and the item list that displays is the old Interface and not in the V10 new interface.  This is a good and bad thing.  The old interface is generally more functional for data entry, but the difference between this inventory screen and the new inventory screens can be jarring.