What should we use for a POS and Ticket Tracker for Computer Shop / Retail Store?

We use three lol

Seems strange that we use 3 different ones, but it works great for us!
We use:
MerchantOS for our front end POS system. (very easy to use)
Freshbooks for invoicing.
Quickbooks for backend accounting.

Quickbooks will certainly do what freshbooks does (regular invoicing), but Freshbooks is VERY handy and easy for initial invoicing. If our secretary is tied up we can use our smartphone app to quickly invoice the client right after the service call.

Also this may seem funny but... I swear we get paid much faster when invoices are emailed thru Freshbooks lol

Terry
 
Another thing not to like about QB POS... The other day at my day job where we use QB POS. A customer a month or so ago wrote us a bad check. We called, wrote, sent certified (ignored) letters, never heard from him. We serve him with papers, and he pays us. Anyways, he was ****** that we didn't make more of an effort. Even said he came into the store since then and we never said a word to him. We looked, he didn't. However, I don't like how you cannot flag a customer in QB. You can edit their fields, say something like CASH ONLY CUSTOMER in their address line. But that's it. This is something that is probably minor most of the time, but is still a pain in the rear. Customer flagging is VERY important. A pop up. Something you can't miss.
 
So, here is an update on our current dilemma. mhelpdesk is limited on what POS features they can add to their web application due to browser security and other hardware limitations. What I have proposed is that MH write a small native program to run on Windows or OSX that will interface with MH's web application in order to perform POS tasks like card swiping (with card present setting), bar code scanner support and cash drawer support. The program would sync up with MH online and upload payments received, inventory scanned in, etc. Here is the catch

Quote from MH on their forum
We would certainly write a native desktop app to interface with Mhelpdesk. But there would first need to be a strong demand for it.
Click to expand...

So, for those who are using MH and need or will need these features, please show your support. If you are one of those who is undecided because of the lack of these features, please show your support. If these features would be enough to cause you to switch, please show your support.

I may even make a poll for this if that is ok with MH and TN.


I would also like to note that with the additional logins we have purchased, we have seen a significant decrease in lost information. At this point, I think it is safe to say that the problems were most likely on our side due to using one account on multiple computers. Thank you MH for working with us to clear up this issue.
 
Thanks kindly for the link! The UI...uh, wow.

I'm still chugging along great with mHelpdesk as I have no retail needs, but RepairShopr may fit the bill eventually. If either Troy or Vincent really wants to differentiate themselves with their competing products, I think that would be a great place to focus (HINT HINT).

Unrelated note: If anybody knows of affordable POS software for a cell phone retail outfit, please do let me know.
 
TechLady said:
Thanks kindly for the link! The UI...uh, wow.

I'm still chugging along great with mHelpdesk as I have no retail needs, but RepairShopr may fit the bill eventually. If either Troy or Vincent really wants to differentiate themselves with their competing products, I think that would be a great place to focus (HINT HINT).

Unrelated note: If anybody knows of affordable POS software for a cell phone retail outfit, please do let me know.
Click to expand...

Thats our challenge.... we have cellular, repair, onsite, print and more.... ugh
 
ComputerPro said:
MerchantOS is worth a look. Works great for us.
Click to expand...

The problem is that its only a POS system. My goal is to find a ticket tracking system that also serves as a POS or to convince MH to streamline and provide a ticket tracking system as well as a simple POS system.
 
MerchantOS does work orders also. We do 90% service and 10% sales.
What do you need that it doesn't have?
Since I've been posting videos lately, I'll record how we use ours lol. Just not sure about blurring out names and numbers. I prob should find a way to edit that.
 
ComputerPro said:
MerchantOS does work orders also. We do 90% service and 10% sales.
What do you need that it doesn't have?
Since I've been posting videos lately, I'll record how we use ours lol. Just not sure about blurring out names and numbers. I prob should find a way to edit that.
Click to expand...

That would be great. If it can provide what we need on both sides, then perhaps it would be a viable replacement.
 
ComputerPro said:
MerchantOS does work orders also. We do 90% service and 10% sales.
What do you need that it doesn't have?
Since I've been posting videos lately, I'll record how we use ours lol. Just not sure about blurring out names and numbers. I prob should find a way to edit that.
Click to expand...

So, I am messing around with MerchantOS right now. Not the prettiest thing in the world and I am not sure how well it will work as a ticket tracker in the real world, but I think I am going to give it a try. The most disappointing things so far is the dashboard for the work orders. I suppose it may be an acceptable trade off, but you can tell that that they really did not have service related businesses with stores in mind.

Anyways, I would still love to see a video of how you use it in your shop if you get the time.
 
MerchantOS

Your right its not the prettiest lol.
I did do a quick vid. Not the greatest as it was a long day today so if I sound tired...
I would be curious to see others post videos with how they use their system, be it PCRT, mHelpdesk etc. My only gripe is when I tried all of them, this was the only one that did things as quickly as we needed for our shop.
The others were very cool and had awesome features, but our benchmark was simple: If a customer walks in, how long does it take to either check in a system or ring up a sale? We really wanted to like some of the other ones but they just took way to long to be considered an actual 'pos'. Helpdesk.. to us would be great if we ran an actual helpdesk per se, but we ring up sales etc and sell a few things also. Here is the video, and I hope others post how they use their system. I would really like to see them in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0ukdIaRz5Y
 
Thanks Terry. That was very helpful. As you all ready know, its not easy to switch systems when you already have a busy shop with an established way of doing things, but I think the switch may be worth the trouble and your video helps me to make that move. As for making a video, honestly, mhelpdesk does a pretty good job of showing you how it works and how you would use it on a regular basis. Unfortunately, there are quite a few impractical features that are just weird or make no sense like signatures using a mouse (as originally suggested --later suggested to use a signature pin mouse) instead of a traditional signature pad or swiping cards with "no card present" which actually requires you to input address information for each customer and card swipe, which makes the card swiping feature useless.

Anyways, another question for you. I am assuming that you can swipe cards with the "card present" setting on MerchantOS, meaning that you can simply swipe a customers card without inputing all their information? MH says that there is no way to do this via browser, at least not without writing an active x script for Internet explorer, but it seems like you are using this on Firefox.
 
We have a separate CC terminal. When we swipe thru that its just like any store. The only thing we do in MerchantOS is select CC as pmt method. So you could for example have a customer called 'walk in' with no name or address, then ring up a sale and choose CC as type. MerchantOS doesn't care, it just prints the receipt and shows CC as pmt type. Card is them swiped thru our CC terminal. And they sign slip. Not sure of that's what you meant but that's how we do it.

Ps. If anyone signs up for MerchantOS please mention us. I think they have a referral system. Our email with them is terry@computerpro1.com.
Also if anyone has questions on how to do something in MOS feel free to ask and we'll at least show how we do it.
 
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I am currently working on a program that will be web based so work anywhere and can manage / access it anywhere. Its also wordpress based so can be templated and added to (plugins). Betas should be avail for testing by mid to end january 2013. Right now only have jobs and customers done. Next is invoicing and printables, then inventory, computer tracking, etc.
 
This was a good thread. We use Auto task and QuickBooks not easy as we want. I'm looking at Shockley Monkey and QuickBooks.

That mhelpdesk looks good
 
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