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.
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
We hope your holiday season is filled with hope, joy and fun!
Our Holiday Office Closures:
Nov. 26th: closed for Thanksgiving
Dec. 24th: close at 3pmPST for Christmas Eve
Dec. 25th: closed for Christmas
Dec. 31: close at 3pmPST for New Year's Eve
Jan.1: closed for New Year's Day
Customer Service Requests: QuickBooks customers who require technical assistance or have an emergency during our office closures may do one of the following:
CONTACT US: by emailing us at info@englishmgmt.com, call our office at 858-467-0400 and press 5, or complete the Contact Us form here. Our billable rate will apply.
*For non-emergencies, we will reply the following business day.
CONTACT INTUIT SUPPORT: Fees may apply:
* Point of Sale: 1-800-4INTUIT (800-446-8848)
* Enterprise Solutions: 866-340-7237
* Merchant Services: 800-558-9558
Will attended the 2nd annual Intuit QuickBooks Connect Conference and here are his impressions of the week:
What an amazing week! QuickBooks (QB) Connect is an Intuit sponsored event that brings accountants, business owners and software developers together in a mashup of training, inspirational speakers and just plain fun. Last year was the first year and while it was a great event, this year was even better and I can’t wait for next year.
First of all, we brought Sofia, our Ace bookkeeper for advanced training in QuickBooks Online (QBO), Intuit’s cloud based accounting package. I sat in on a number of the classes as well as being invited to help with the concierge desk. The desk was designed to help the attendees maximize their time at the trade show. We got to speak to attendees, learn about their business needs and direct them to vendors that might be a good fit for their needs. While I knew a number of vendors there, I was excited to meet new vendors and find out all of the great things that are happening to make QBO the platform of the future for small businesses as well as helping accounting firms become firms of the future.
In addition, there was a great line up of speakers in the main hall. In the morning we heard from Jessica Alba who talked about the challenges of a celebrity trying to build a worthwhile company that made a difference. The highlight was when she said that everyone told her that she just should do a perfume like all of the others, but her vision was to create a company (The Honest Company) in which she could be proud of the products she sold as well as making a difference in her customer’s lives. Afterwards, Robert Herjavec of Shark Tank fame spoke about the importance of not just being good enough. As he was getting started, he heard from a prospect that their current provider was “Good enough” which caused Robert to pivot and change his offering to differentiate himself from the rest. There were some juicy tidbits from the set of Shark Tank, and he closed with a touching story about his dad with the thought that in spite of all of the money and fame he has acquired, he does it to take care of the ones he loves, a thought that resonated with me. To close out the event was Oprah, yes Oprah. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to be moved as much as I was. She talked about intention acts as well how she never wanted to be used by any guests, using as an example of having a skinhead use her show to espouse their hate. It was inspiring and moved me.
Next up was the Reseller Connect, our reseller trade show. I received advanced training in QuickBooks Point of Sale Powered by Revel. I have now mastered the setup of the Quick Serve and table service restaurants. Server based POS systems are so last century. I have spoken to several people who have many years in this industry and they see the huge shift in the industry. Aloha and Micro are so limited with their back office hardware requirements and large upfront and ongoing costs. QBPOS Revel gives you the ease of operation on the front end and all of the features needed as well as integration with QuickBooks Accounting. Very compelling value proposition for the customer.
At the conference, we (English Management Solutions, Inc.) were also recognized for our sales achievement. We were one of 39 out of 240 Premier Resellers who were in the 100k club, meaning they sold at least 100k in Intuit Product and Service Revenue in their fiscal year. While we were honored to be among this select group, it is our customers who deserve the honor. By placing your trust and faith in us, we are humbled to be your reseller of choice and I thank you and look forward to many more years of faithful service.
We're excited to announce that Will English has been chosen to teach at the March 2015 Independent Retailer Conference taking place at ASD Market Week.
Will's speaking topics are QuickBooks Point of Sale (POS): Gain an Overview, Managing the Physical Inventory Process, 60 Minutes with a QuickBooks Expert: Get All of Your QuickBooks POS and Financial Questions Answered, and Retail Terminology 101.
A quote from the Conference Co-Founder:
"The Independent Retailer Conference is excited to have the EMS team join us in helping merchants gain trusted insight that they can apply to their businesses. In particular, with QuickBooks being such a popular retailer solution, we are looking forward to sharing this unique learning experience to the attendees of ASD Market Week,” shares Nicole Leinbach Reyhle, Independent Retailer Conference Co-Founder.
The Independent Retailer Conference is dedicated entirely to the unique lifestyle and responsibilities of indie store owners with a focus on delivering in-store and e-commerce operational insight and expertise that can help independent merchants further succeed in their retail goals.The Independent Retailer Conference is the nation’s only retail conference dedicated entirely to the unique lifestyle and responsibilities of independent store owners...Read More
Attendees of ASD Market Week can expect an interactive experience that leaves them better educated and more inspired – with takeaway tools to bring back to their stores. ASD MARKETWeek brings the world’s widest variety of merchandise together in one efficient consumer-goods trade show that’s as easy to shop as it is to love. ASD Market Week brings together 40,000+ attendees and 2,800 sellers in the wholesale merchandise industry...Read More
We hope you are enjoying the new year so far! We want to remind you about our QuickBooks (QB) Webinars and training opportunities. See the calendar and details here.
Whether you're a seasond QB user or brand new to the software, we provide the level of training that you need. Our webinars are topical but we also offer personalized, one-on-one training for you and your staff. We provide a variety of QuickBooks support options because you want and expect to get the most out of your QuickBooks Point of Sale (QBPOS) and QuickBooks Financial (QBF) system.
In yesterday's post, we provided the first part of an article that explains 4 tips to help retailers help more customers, faster during the holidays. We hope you enjoyed learning the first 2 tips. Today we provide the final 2.
If available in your POS system (and most have this feature), implement Touchscreens. Why does this make a difference? Two factors: first, POS clerks learn faster and can process tickets more quickly on a Touchscreen. The days of a keyboard driven system that requires you to remember Alt+F2 as a command on a POS system should be long gone. Shorter training times and higher retention of information means more productive time in the store stocking the shelves and focusing on customer service. A touchscreen should also allow you to set up “buttons” for items in inventory that can’t be barcoded. Services and items sold in bulk (neither can be barcoded) are two examples of how a “button” can help speed up the customer’s experience.
The last item is, unfortunately, the most often overlooked one and that is employee training. No matter how long your POS system has been deployed, you will have new clerks working during the holidays. Make sure they have a “sample” or “play” company set up in your system and they are comfortable with all the common things they are going to be asked to do.
These may seem obvious, but new clerks (and sometimes old ones) need to be “refreshed” on all the basics. Don’t lose a sale because a clerk is asked to do something that they’ve simply forgotten how to do quickly.
Most retailers will make at least 40% of their overall revenue in 60 days. The holidays will be determine if your bottom line is green or red. Don’t lose a single dollar of sales because your check out was slow. Here’s to a happy, healthy and check out fast holiday season.
Author: Lombardi, J., Contessa of CounterPoint, Soft Intelligence, Inc. October 2014.
Contributing Author: English, William S., President of English Management Solutions, Inc. October 2014.
As a retailer, wouldn't you like to help more customers, faster during the holidays? Well, we have 4 tips to help you out. Today's post includes the first 2 and tomorrow's post will include the final 2 tips.
News flash!! Americans are impatient!!! We don’t want to wait 30 seconds for our computers to boot up or take 5 minutes to get out of our cars to get our Big Macs. We want everything fast and that includes checking out at our favorite retail establishments. So how do you make that need for speed work in your favor as you gear up for the busy shopping season?
The #1 recommendation is barcoding your inventory. Any and everything that can hold a barcode label should have one. When your customers come to check out, the POS clerk should be able to scan the barcodes, take their payment, package their purchases, and help the next customer. Barcoding your inventory has an important second win (some would say first): Barcoding not only speeds check out, but has the added bonus of keeping your inventory accurate. Barcoding assures you that the right items are being paid for and taken out of inventory. Barcoding is the #1 business process that will truly impact every portion of your business and your bottom line.
After Barcoding, the next would be to have an integrated credit card system. Integrated credit card processing means the credit card is swiped directly into your POS register, not swiped in a system outside of your 
register (called a Zon Machine). Why is this so important? To process a credit card on a Zon machine, the clerk first has to ring the ticket up in the POS system. They then stop, turn (or take a few steps), and swipe the customers card into the Zon. They have to manually type in the amount (correctly, I hope), and then wait for the machine to return with an authorization code, and then print two receipts. The clerk then turns (or takes a few steps) and hands the slip to the customer for their signature, finishes the transaction in the POS system, prints off the POS receipts, and staples the credit card receipt to the POS receipts, and hands both to the customer. What’s the extra time needed for this process? Between 60 and 90 seconds. That doesn’t sound all that bad until you understand the overall productivity loss from this procedure.
Let’s say you are doing $1M in sales with an average ticket of $ 62.50 and 75% of all your sales are credit card transactions. That means you are handling 12,000 credit card transactions each year, which, at a scant 60 sections per credit card slip, represents 200 hours a year!! Doubt the math? Time a credit card transaction on a Zon machine, and you will find that 60 seconds is conservative. It is a huge time suck! And, during the holidays, three people in line means that the last person is waiting 3 extra minutes for just your credit card processing. If I’m the fourth, I may not wait. Every retailer knows that during the holidays, many people will walk in, look at the lines, and walk out. Don’t add minutes to your customers’ shopping experience with a separate credit card machine.
Author: Lombardi, J., Contessa of CounterPoint, Soft Intelligence, Inc. October 2014.
Contributing Author: English, William S., President of English Management Solutions, Inc. October 2014.
Like most industries, retail has its share of buzz words. It's important to know the common retail industry words so you are properly managing your inventory and finances. Will wrote an article talking about some of the most common ones and how to use them in your business.
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
This is not specifically a retail term, but is useful to understand so the rest of these terms make sense. A number of clients think that their COGS is what they paid for inventory during any given period of time. This is not correct. COGS is the cost of the items that were SOLD during a period of time. The easiest way to explain this is to think about what happens when you buy inventory. You are exchanging one asset for another. You use your cash (an asset) to buy inventory (another asset) there is nothing that should show up on your Profit and Loss. Then when we SELL our inventory, we reduce our inventory asset and increase our COGS. One of the biggest mistakes we see bookkeepers make is to code all purchases to COGS. Your POS or accounting software should make these entries for you automatically if you are receiving the inventory correctly.
Inventory Turnover Ratio
Also called Inventory Turns. This ratio gives you a number that measures how effectively you are managing inventory. It is determined by comparing the Cost of Goods Sold against the Average amount of inventory held for the same period. The higher the number is the better. For example, If your average inventory over the last 90 days was $100,000 and your COGS was $500,000, you are turning your inventory 5 times. The best way to look at turns is either by item or by department/categories. For example, in the Garden Center, we would expect that seasonal items to turn faster that perhaps hardscape, etc. But in our seasonal items, what is “turning over” faster and should be reordered.
Sell Through Rate
This measure the amount of inventory received from a specific vendor versus what is sold to the customer. Often vendors will offer special incentives to induce you to order product. That is great if the item has a high sell through rate. Otherwise if the items just sit on the shelf, it doesn’t really matter how great a deal the vendor gave you, the items are taking up valuable shelf space.
Gross Margin Return on Investment (GMROI)
This allows the retailer to determine of the products they are buying are earning enough margin to justify the investment in inventory to earn that margin. To calculate the GMROI, divide the gross margin of an item or department/category against the average inventory at cost. Another way to look at this is for every dollar that is spend on inventory, how much is that dollar earning. Of course the harder your dollars are working, the better for you.
I hope that this helps to explain some of the jargon that you sometimes hear. Any good POS or accounting software should help you to determine the amounts to plus into the various formula. In many cases, the software has an actual report that will do the math for you. The important thing is to consider what to do with those numbers. All of these formulas should help you to formula a buying plan which tells you what to buy when and how much.
While assemblies will do a great job of kitting multiple items into a new product when the contents of the kits remain the same or rarely change, there are certain times when you will you want to have an item in your data file that is made up of one or more items where the contents may vary. The variation may have to do with weight or size or some other component(s). In many cases, creating new assemblies for these items may be more work that it is worth. Therefore, in some cases it may be better to perform what we refer to as a Product Conversion.
A Product Conversion will allow you to create a new product from one more other products, while maintaining the proper inventory values and quantities on hand.
Our fictional company, Landscape Makers Demonstration Company (LSMDC), sells potted flowers, the pots they might go in, and the planting mix their customers would need to create their own flower pot arrangements as individual items. Recently, they have decided to create their own flower pot arrangements and sell those direct to the public.
They have decided to use two different flower pots with varying mixtures of flowers in each. One will be sold for 39.99, while the other will be sold for $44.99. Because the pots, flowers and soil used will vary for each arrangement, assemblies will not work well for them. After all, they really don’t want individual products for each group of kitted items. What they want is for the product to be sold to be more generic in nature and something they can easily use over and over again. As such, they have decided to use our product conversion process.
To begin, you will want to create the new items in the database that represent the products you want to sell. Here you can see we have created our two new inventory items setting the sales prices referenced above.
The general concept here is that we will use a single Receiving Voucher in QBPOS to list the products that will be included in one of the arrangements and then add the quantity of the newly created items.
To do so:
· Create a vendor to track these entries – we will use the name Product Conversion as our vendor
· From the main menu, choose Purchasing>Receive Items
· Using the drop down for the item selection, choose the List Select button
· Customize the list to display the Cost column (you need to know the average unit cost of each item that you will include in the build.
· Select the items you want to include in the arrangement by highlighting them and hitting the + icon (we will adjust the qty used later)
· Click on Put Items to Voucher
· Change the Qty for each line item to the total number of items you will use in the build – not for each new flower arrangement, but the total that will be used in making several – be sure to make the quantity negative as you are going to be removing these items from inventory
· Most importantly, make absolutely sure that the Voucher Cost for each product is set to the average unit cost – by default it will pull the order cost and if they are different the result will be wrong
· Before going forward, make note of the Total negative value. This will be the value of the new items you are creating – in our example it is <$156.40>
· On the next available line, add the item you created for the completed arrangement
· Set the Quantity to match the positive number of finished units you are creating and update the extended cost to match to the negative value being relieved from inventory
· Check the Receiving Voucher - the Total should now be zero – if it is not, you have definitely done something wrong
· Click on the Save option that meets your needs
In reviewing our item list, we can see that the products that went into our build have decreased by negative values in our Receiving Voucher. We can also see that our new product has the correct quantity on-hand to sell and that the value of our inventory is still intact.
Is there a way in QuickBooks Point of Sale (QBPOS) to manage rental equipment? If so, what is the process? Let’s take a look.
