2019 Review of QuickBooks Desktop Point of Sale 18.0

QuickBooks Desktop Point of Sale’s Navigator offers point of sale, purchasing, and employee options, with users able to choose from a variety of sales options. The point of sale window user interface is clean and uncluttered, making it easy to process sales. To the left of the screen are customizable tabs that can be set up to suit the needs of the business, including options to Make a Sale, Receive Items, Item List, Reports, along with several others.  Users can also create separate tabs for tender types on the sales screen. Products and customers can be looked up from the sales screen, with the ability to add new data on the fly if necessary. Users can process sales by entering the product code during the sale or by using a barcode scanner, which is convenient for retailers with high-volume sales. New integration with Microsoft Surface Pro 4 allows users to process a sale from anywhere in the store and sync with the main application later.

Multiple user capability is only available in the Multi-Store version of the application. The easily navigated sales interface screen allows users to process a variety of transaction types, including the ability to add new products or customers, the ability to process a discount or return, and put an item on hold.  Both the Pro and the Multi-Store version can track inventory levels for each location, and then roll them up into a multi-store total, and the Multi-Store version allows users to transfer inventory levels between locations and track product by serial number if desired.

QuickBooks Point of Sale supports multiple tender types, including Cash, Checks, Debit and Credit Cards, Gift Cards, and Gift Certificates. In addition, all versions of QuickBooks Point of sale offer easy integration with QuickBooks Point of Sale Payments for easy credit card acceptance.

QuickBooks Point of Sale offers solid customer management capability, with users able to track a variety of detail for each customer, including a complete retail history.  A customer loyalty program can also be instituted for those that wish to track customer purchasing and reward customers for their business.

QuickBooks Point of Sale offers inventory management capability in all versions of the application, though the Pro and Multi-Store versions offer more extensive inventory functionality, including the ability to assign an automatic reorder point, processing a purchase order automatically when levels drop. Users can also add a product image, and create pricing updates and discounts across multiple products and departments.

QuickBooks Point of Sale offers a good selection of point of sale reports, with reports available for both Sales and Items (inventory).  Reports available include Best or Worst Sellers, Most Common Returns, a Department Summary, a Discount Summary, an Inventory Item list, a Summary report, and Inventory by Store. All reports offer limited customization capability within the application itself, though users can export reports to Microsoft Excel for further customization if desired. 

QuickBooks Point of Sale integrates with other QuickBooks Desktop applications, for complete front/back office capability. Both customer and vendor files can be imported into QuickBooks Point of Sale using either Microsoft Word or Excel. The Shipping Manager feature in the Pro and Multi-Store version offers integration with UPS, making it easy to manage shipped items.  Users can also choose to integrate numerous e-commerce products directly with the application. QuickBooks Point of Sale integrates with all common point of sale hardware peripherals including PIN Pads, receipt printers barcode scanners, cash drawers, pole displays, tag printers, and wireless barcode scanners. 

QuickBooks Point of Sale Help functionality is accessible throughout the application.  Technical support is available through extended business hours, with support available on Saturday and Sunday as well. The support center also provides access to a variety of frequently accessed topics, and FAQs are available as well. Downloadable user guides are also available from the support center. 

QuickBooks Desktop Point of Sale 18.0 is well-suited for small to mid-sized retail businesses that also utilize QuickBooks Desktop applications, though the product can also be used as a stand-alone point of sale solution if desired. Intuit is currently offering special pricing on QuickBooks Point of Sale, with the Basic edition currently $1,200; the Pro edition currently $1,700, and the Pro edition running $1,900. 

2019 Rating – 4.75 Stars