QuickBooks POS shuts down: where do retailers go from here?

Why does this article matter?

We normally aim to write about general best practices for paint and hardware stores (such as accounting, EDI, or outside sales). However, this article is a bit different because some unfortunate tech news landed this week: Intuit’s Quickbooks POS will be discontinued on 10/3/2023.

We have already received calls from a number of concerned retailers about this announcement, so we wanted to dedicate a post to addressing options for Quickbooks users: Can you keep using QuickBooks POS after October? Which alternatives exist? What happens to your existing products, customers, vendors, and historical sales if you migrate to a new POS? Without further ado, let’s get into it.

What options do dealers currently on QuickBooks POS have?

• ❌ Option A: stay on QuickBooks POS — some dealers wonder if they can stay on QuickBooks POS even after the October discontinuation. Unfortunately, this comes with a whole host of downsides:

  • All connected services, including payments and vendor lookup, will be discontinued alongside the POS software itself — these features will stop working on Oct. 3rd

  • Support will not be available after discontinuation

  • There will not be any further product updates, including security fixes: according to Intuit, there will be no more “important security patches to help protect your information from cyberattacks and data theft”

• ❌ Option B: transition to Shopify’s POS — this is the option that Quickbooks recommends. For the majority of Quickbooks’s customers, Shopify’s POS will be a great solution! Unfortunately though, Shopify’s POS is built for B2C businesses and does not include several key features that are critical for paint and hardware stores that also service B2B customers. Shopify’s POS:

  • Does not allow charge accounts

  • Does not have pricing tiers for different customer types (e.g., retailer, contractor)

  • Cannot import sales history from QuickBooks POS

• ✅ Option C: switch to a new system built for paint and hardware — there are multiple solutions on the market and everyone should do their due diligence to find the solution that works best for them and their business. Of course, I think Rundoo is a great option: I wouldn’t be writing this (and I wouldn’t have joined Rundoo) if I didn’t think it was the best solution out there!

How does Rundoo compare to QuickBooks?

Rundoo has the features that dealers have come to rely on in Intuit’s QuickBooks POS, as well as a bunch more! To name a few, just like QuickBooks POS, Rundoo has:

• Fast, modern search — quickly search sales history, customers, products, vendors just like you’d search Google. In Rundoo, this includes the ability to search sales by PO or job name

• Integration with QuickBooks Financial — Rundoo syncs with QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop via bank feed, allowing you to save time by setting up auto-categorization rules to sort transactions by GL code. You can learn more about how we set this up in another article I wrote

In my experience, clients that come to Rundoo from Quickbooks have really loved the below three features:

1. Searchable color catalogs — we have complete catalogs for Benjamin Moore, PPG, Sherwin Williams, Behr, Dunn Edwards, Kelly Moore and C2 built-in, as well as the ability to store custom color formulas right in the POS

   

2. EDI ordering — we can set you up with EDI for any vendor that supports it. You can learn more about the perks of EDI ordering in this article

3. Apps + eCommerce — in addition to the POS, Rundoo also includes mobile apps and integrated eCommerce. This is a big topic, so we plan to write more about this in a dedicated article soon!

   

   …and more:

   • Record job names and POs on sales

   • Apply bill payments to specific invoices

   • Save credit cards in a PCI-compliant manner

   • Auto-submit invoices to Contractor Rewards

   • Integrate with Ben Moore’s CCP program

   • Match prices across SKUs

   • Use anywhere on any operating system — Rundoo is web-based

What are the next steps here?

If you want to learn more about migrating from QuickBooks POS (or any other POS!) to Rundoo, book a time here or shoot me an email at max@getrundoo.com — I’m happy to chat!

Thank you to Justin from Billings Paint Center for sharing his experience with Quickbooks and Rundoo. Feel free to reach out to him at (406) 656-6008 with any questions.