POS recently experienced a problem with new items not showing up at the remote stores and existing items being removed.  This bug came to light after December 16, 2009 as the problem was hidden before then.  The problem has been fixed in V6 through V9.  For versions earlier than V6, it is Intuit’s policy to Sunset software after 3 versions.  That means that they will not fix problems prior to V6.  In fact, V6 will sunset after May of this year.  To fix V7-V9, either select check for product updates under the help or go www.quickbooks.com/support.  Choose your version and then click on product updates.

While we understand the frustration, there are many reasons to update your software.  You get the benefits of all of the new features and there have been 100’s of improvements.  Also you get access to support and patchs from Intuit.  To ease your transition, we are offering special pricing for V9 upgrades.  Call or email for more info

We are excited to announce that we have been selected to be one of two Point of Sale trainers at Joe Woodard’s conference May 24-26th 2010  This conference is for Intuit Advisors looking to take their practice to the next level.  We will be teaching POS certification track.  Please see Joe’s site www.scalingnewheights.com for more information and to register.

POS V9 is out and there are some great new features.  Intuit is trying to create new features that will drive repeat business and there are a couple of tools in the new version to help with that.  V9 has the ability to create coupons.  These coupons can be emailed or added to the receipts.  Also in V9 is customer center.  Customer Center provides details about your customers purchases and allows you to create targeted mailing lists based on past purchases.  Anyone on version 6.0 and older, it is time to upgrade.  with V7 and V8, it can make sense to upgrade to get these new features.  To help you decide, we are offering an additional 10% off our already 20%  off discounted software on all POS software purchases from our web site through December 31,2009.  Use coupon code b196a715f8 at checkout

For some unknown reason, POS will lose its database connection. You know this has happened when you try to log in and POS goes into the connection wizard.  There are a couple of things to try.  You can go to control panel in windows and click on Administrative tools.  Double click on services and find the qbpos database manager.  Try stopping and starting it to see if that helps.  Another way I have fixed this problem is to just create a new company file.  After the connection wizard fails a couple of times, you get a change to create a new file.  Name it something very different that your file name.  (Bogus file, bad data, etc)  Then when it creates the connection to POS, you can go to file, company data and open.  It will list your company file.  Choose that and it should open.  In very limited cases, this doesn’t work.  If so, you may have a data corruption issue.

This is a one hour overview of using inventory in QuickBooks Point of Sale.  Here is the link:

https://intuit.webex.com/intuit/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=EC&rID=40352247&rKey=11ebe32dcb5596db

Enjoy

While POS is a great program, it really shines as a complete system when used with QuickBooks Financial Accounting Software (QBF).  Here is how the 2 talk to each other.  BTW, this assumes you are using summary posting, which is what we recommend.  Detail posting just clutters up  your item list and creates more work depositing funds.  The following assumes a standard set up.

Each time you send data over to QBF, it will update any vendor information you have changed in either program.  Additionally, if you are set to synch customers, it will update any changes between the two.

POS will create a single sales receipt for the total of the day’s cash and credit card sales.  It will also create a sales receipt for each check received.  The net cash that POS registered will be sent to an account called cash in drawer.  Even if you show a shortage in your Z-out drawer count, you still need to adjust QBF’s cash in drawer account.

Additionally, POS will create a journal entry increasing the cost of goods account and decreasing inventory.  This is why it is so important to receive merchandise correctly.  Speaking of that, any completed receiving vouchers will be sent over to POS as entire an Item receipt or a bill depending on preference settings.

POS working hand in hand with QBF is a thing of beauty, but as my wife tells me, I need to get out more.

I have come to the conclusion that you should never reverse a transaction.  The problem is that when you reverse a sales receipt and/or receiving voucher, it creates reversing transaction on the day that you reversed the transaction even though the original transaction maybe weeks ago. 

So what is the harm??  Let’s say you create a receiving voucher and then realize the following week that some of the items are the wrong price.  You go back and reverse the voucher, but some of those items have been sold.  POS has the wrong cost for those items and therefore your inventory value as well as Cost of Goods sold are now off.

So the proper way to fix this problem is to go back to the original transaction, copy it and then change all of the items to return items.  Change the date to the original date.  Record the transaction.  Then copy the original voucher and put the proper costs in.  Now inventory is correct.  You will need to manually adjust the costs accounts as it will not correct the balance automatically.  To do so find the Cost of Goods entry for the day of the sale and change the amount to match your new adjusted cost.

If you deal with a lot of cash sales, you will have to figure out a way to track when cash is pulled out of the drawer.  Create an other current asset account in QuickBooks Financial called Cash Drop.  When the cash is pulled from the drawer, code the amount to this account and in the comments put who pulled the cash.  During your z-out report, you will see a list of payouts that will include these amounts.  Count your cash from the drawer.  That plus the paid outs will equal the cash for the day.  In QuickBooks Financial, when you make your deposit of cash, it will have 2 parts.  The net cash from the transfer and then the amount from the Cash drop account will equal your deposit

Sorry, my life got a little crazy the past few months with a lot of personal drama.  But we are back.  I promise to update this blog as least once a week so hang in there.

In California, the sales tax is going up by 1 percent on April 1st.  To change your sales tax in POS V6 and above, go to the Edit menu, choose preference and then company.  In your company preferences, select the sales tax section and then click on the edit button on the relevant sales tax.  Click through till you get to the rate and change it.  Since you can’t schedule the change, you will need to do this after you close the 31st.