Why You Should Be Avoiding Clover, HarborTouch & QuickBooks Point of Sale

As I am now receiving near daily calls and emails from folks considering the Clover point of sale solution, I wanted to explain why you should not be considering point of sale systems like Square, Clover, HarborTouch, and QuickBooks point of sale.

The only assumptions I am making is that your business is generating at least $60,000 in annual gross sales and 90% of payment is made using debit or credit cards.

When you purchase a point of sale system that requires you to use one specific company for merchant services, you are at the mercy of that company when it comes to the rates that they charge you for merchant services. What I have seen happen time and time again is that these companies will raise your rates every 90 days or so.

While paying 1/2% more in merchant service fees (which is what seems to be the norm with these companies) may not seem like much - lets see how that adds up over 5 years.

If your business processes $200,000 in debit and credit card transactions annually the 1/2% is $1000/year so you could easily end up paying $4000+ in excessive merchant services fees over the course of 5 years.

I don't know about you but I would rather have that money as profit!

Are you  in the US and in need of no cost retail point of sale advice?  I'm happy to help and can be reached on my cell at 208-340-5632 (I am on Mountain Time) or via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com. There is also a contact form to the right that can be used to reach me.

Demo Videos and Downloads

A quick reminder that several companies offer 30 day free trial periods and/or demo versions of the software.  If you are interested here are the various solutions that I have access to for demo purposes:

• NCR CounterPoint
• Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management Systems Store Operations (RMS)
• QuickBooks Point of Sale
• Aldelo 
• NCR Silver (back office only - POS pending)
• Bindo POS

I am also working on some demo videos that show some of the high level aspects of each point of sale solution. that should be ready yet this week. Since there isn't a lot of point of sale news (normally) during the summer, I figured that now would be a great time to upload some video demos of point of sale solutions.  Note that a video can only cover the general highlights unless you really want a 45 minute long video (have some popcorn ready).

Same goes for my workshop presentation videos - the actual workshop scales from 45 minutes to three hours depending on the audience. I doubt that any of you want to watch that long of a video!  Let me know if I am wrong tho!

Visit my contact page for information on how to reach me.

Video Review and Demo of QuickBooks Point of Sale

One of the point of sale software solutions that I have worked with over the years is the QuickBooks Point of Sale solution. This video covers some of the basic highlights as well as what is good and not so good about QuickBooks point of sale.

The highlights:

• Very easy to learn and use
• Great interface to QuickBooks Accounting
• Affordable for small boutique style retail stores or museums
• Limited Hardware/Peripheral Options
• Not the quickest program on the market
• Extra costs (easily $1000/year) related to having to use Intuit for merchant services (credit and debit card processing)

Summary:
 One of the easiest to use point of sale systems that I have every worked with but the forced use of Intuit for merchant services means QuickBooks Point of Sale should be crossed off your list of potential point of sale solution.

Are you  in the US and in need of no cost retail point of sale advice?  I'm happy to help and can be reached on my cell at 208-340-5632 (I am on Mountain Time) or via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com. There is also a contact form to the right that can be used to reach me.

Updates to NCR Silver

A few updates related to the NCR Silver point of sale solution for retail stores and restaurants that want a tablet/smartphone/mobile point of sale solution:

1. NCR Silver now has the ability to include color, style and size options for inventory items
2. There is a QuickBooks Accounting interface available for NCR Silver - my understanding is that the interface costs an additional $30/month - I will try to confirm that price and obtain more details about what the interface can and can't do.

Have questions? Want some free point of sale advice?  You can reach me at kevinantosh@gmail.com or 208-340-5632.