What's Happening to QuickBooks Point of Sale?

QuickBooks Point of Sale still holds a special place in my heart. I was one of the first 12 representatives to support the desktop software when version 1.0 was released in 2002. I've seen it grow into the robust feature set that it has become. It has impressive features to track Sales Orders and deposits that are rare. I've written training material for the Intuit support team, traveled to India to facilitate training for those who would ultimately replace me, and trained state-side support agents when it came back to the states. I've seen the ebbs and flows of this software. It has been working, but is it going away? 

The power of this software is the financial exchange. It is robust and powerful—More-so than any other Point of Sale integration with QuickBooks. You can send summary data, detailed data, or a mixture of both. I have not run across any other POS integration with these options. The problem with investing in this software today is that it is designed to synchronize with QuickBooks desktop software, and the cloud is the future.

Yeah...But

The challenge with QuickBooks Point of Sale software is that it requires a Windows operating system in order to run, and it only synchronizes with QuickBooks Desktop. Today's retailers are seeing other Point of Sale software that is sleek, cloud-based, and able to be run on a tablet, creating flexibility for brick-and-mortar stores. If you want o a tablet-like system, you are pretty much stuck with using a Surface as your "tablet." If you want to send the data to QuickBooks Online, there are other challenges in the setup, but you would also be required to pay a monthly subscription for an additional app.

Intuit recognized the limitations of the QuickBooks Point of Sale product early in 2010. As a result, Intuit partnered with Revel in 2014. Intuit then halted the development of its QuickBooks Point of Sale product. The partnership with Revel was later abandoned, so Intuit resumed the development of QuickBooks Point of Sale. As a result, Intuit had to catch up with advances in technology. However, the product needed to be updated because of the passage of time and advancements made by other vendors. 

As a result, it was no surprise We realized last year QuickBooks Point of Sale was rotting on the vine, so wasn't a surprise when we received this notice:

"As part of an ongoing transition to cloud-based products, we've teamed up with Shopify to offer a customized Point of Sale (“POS”) solution that integrates with QuickBooks Desktop Financial Software. The new offering gives customers a modern POS system and payments to meet the dynamic needs of retailers today. With this new Shopify offering, we will no longer sell QuickBooks Desktop Point of Sale as of February 7, 2023."

Meeting customer needs
Retailers have been asking for more from their POS solution including remote access, robust multi-store functionality, enhanced reporting and fully integrated e-commerce. We determined the best course of action was to work with a POS industry leader who already offers those capabilities and can meet customer needs right now.

Shopify offers a best-in-class comprehensive POS solution and Shopify will provide a migration path for existing QuickBooks POS customers including data transfer and premium onboarding.

More details will be available in the coming weeks and we will share them with you as soon as possible.

Key dates of transition

As of February 7, 2023:

• Shopify POS and Shopify Payments will be available for sale.
• Orders for QuickBooks Desktop POS 19.0 software and hardware for new customers will be discontinued..

From now until October 3, 2023:

• Support for existing Intuit POS 19.0 customers will remain unchanged until September 30, 2023.
• Existing Intuit POS 19.0 customers can purchase additional seats and hardware. 

 
So what does this mean?

If you use QB POS and don't use the integrated Payment processor, you can continue using QB POS. It will not cease to work on October 3, 2023.

If you do use integrated payments, then you have 2 choices:

1. Find another payment processor
2. Find another POS solution

The partnership with Shopify POS makes sense. From what we've experienced, there have been learnings from Revel that are being avoided with Shopify. The theory seems to looks good:

• Current Customers will have a migration path to Shopify POS
• They will continue to be able to synchronize with QB Desktop so they don't have to update and learn multiple software

So What's the Catch?

There are a few issues with this transition process:

• We haven't seen the migration process
• We haven't seen the financial exchange tool
• Not all of the current Hardware isn't compatible with Shopify POS

If history is any indicator of the future, we aren't holding our breath that this will be a smooth process. We are not confident that Intuit's new partnership with Shopify Point of Sale will endure the test of time. Ultimately, Intuit might get its act together. However, the impact on customers in the process will likely be a bumpy road.

On February 27, 2023, Intuit began communicating this change to customers. 

Here is the highlights:

• POS software is discounted for the first year only (50% with payments, 20% without) otherwise it's $89/mo - That's $
• 50% discount on additional Hardware
• 3 year subscription to Shopify Basic e-Commerce included (Lowest tier @ $39 monthly)
• Free Card reader

To help you navigate this information, you can schedule a free 30 minute consultation here 

What Other Options are There?

There are a lot of other cloud-based Point of Sale software out there. We began searching for a POS replacement to recommend early last year and revisited with the folks at Lightspeed. I first heard of Lightspeed when I was at Scaling New Heights working the booth for Intuit. They had a shared space inside the Intuit booth. Based on my history, I struck up a conversation and liked what I saw, but thought nothing more since we still had a Point of Sale option in QuickBooks Point of Sale, until now.

We began working with Lightspeed through our QSP partner, Complete Business Group, and we are pleased in how the relationship is evolving. They natively synchronize with QB Online, the feature set is on par with QB POS, and also have incorporated their own e-commerce platform, so all the things that a traditional Brick-and-mortar store needs with additional e-commerce integration. Also all of the current hardware in the QuickBooks Point of Sale hard bundle is supported in Lightspeed. Lightspeed is a one stop cloud-based Point of Sale for the retail location, e-commerce sales, and payment processing. They also integrate with other online shopping carts and marketplaces.

Their on-boarding is great and you will have the option to bring in your customers, vendors, and products as part of the setup process. They have also extended that through our relationship they hare offering on-boarding services included to ensure a smooth transition.

FUN FACT: Lightspeed has had an integration with Shopify e-commerce, longer than Shopify Point of Sale.

So if you are using QuickBooks Point of Sale or have a client using QuickBooks Point of Sale, You don't have to abandon QB Point of Sale if you aren't using the integrated payments. However, it is one of the nicest features in QuickBooks Point of Sale, and there are several options to move to other platforms and move your data with you.. So if you are open to a change, it makes sense to do this sooner rather than later.

If you want to see a demo or find out more about Lightspeed and get an exclusive discount of 20% off the software, click here. If you want a more hands-on approach with us helping you make the migration, schedule time here.