Top 5 Features of QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise for Retail Businesses

QuickBooks Enterprise Retail is a special edition of Enterprise designed to support the needs of retailers. In addition to the general accounting functionality in QuickBooks Enterprise, the Retail edition offers industry-specific features such as inventory management, advanced pricing, and customized retail reports. These features help streamline retail and eCommerce operations to help take control of inventory, customer pricing, cash, and order management. 

Let’s check out the top 5 most useful features of QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise for retail businesses.

Customized Chart of Accounts for Retail

With other accounting software, you have to manually create a chart of accounts from scratch. That’s not the case with QuickBooks Enterprise. The program comes preloaded with a customizable chart of accounts specially designed for retailers. You can further customize the chart of accounts based on your needs and preference. A customized and proper chart of accounts is essential for tracking where your money is going and coming from.

Advanced Inventory

QuickBooks Desktop already has a strong inventory accounting system, but Enterprise takes it one step further by providing advanced features, such as the ability to:

• Track inventory by bin, rack, or shelf to minimize incorrect inventory counts and prevent order fulfillment errors
• Track inventory across multi[ple locations and warehouses and transfer items from one location to another
• Switch between the average cost or the First-in, First-Out (FIFO) method to track your inventory, helping you accurately track your cost of goods sold (COGS)
• Track stock by serial or lot number (depending on your needs)
• Streamline the receiving and order-picking process
• Reduce data errors with mobile barcode scanning
• Manage and track your pick, pack, and ship process from one place
• Print barcode labels with prices to help you easily locate product prices

These features are discussed in greater detail in our QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise inventory management review.

Advanced Reporting

QuickBooks Enterprise Advanced Reporting (QBAR) is one of QuickBooks’ most powerful accounting features. QuickBooks Enterprise Retail lets you create highly customizable reports that will give you more insight into the financial performance of your retail business. Some of the many reports retailers find useful include gross margin by Item, purchase volume by vendor, and monthly sales by customer. 

Additionally, Enterprise has an Advanced Reporting Training Center that helps you get up to speed with the software’s powerful reporting system. It provides helpful instructional videos and tutorials to help you learn how to create basic and advanced reports in QuickBooks Enterprise Retail.

Learn more about Advanced Reporting in QuickBooks Enterprise and how it benefits your business.

Advanced Pricing

Advanced Pricing in QuickBooks Enterprise Platinum and Diamond gives retailers more flexibility to automate and gain increased control over their pricing. With this feature, you can set up and automate quantity discounts at whatever breakpoints to entice customers, create manufacturer-specific markdowns, and set up prices based on customer, vendor, location, or other classes relevant to your business. Enterprise also tracks sales tax rates to apply to an invoice based on the location of the customer. This means even if you’re selling products from state to state, then Enterprise will automatically track sales taxes, saving you time. 

Payroll

If you have employees, then you will greatly benefit from QuickBooks Enterprise Enhanced or Assisted Payroll. Enhanced Payroll, available in Gold and Platinum subscriptions, allows you to pay unlimited employees through direct deposit for free or by checks. It also helps you prepare your payroll tax reports, but you have to file them yourself. Assisted Payroll (available in Diamond), takes it one step further by filing your state and federal taxes on your behalf. This feature also allows you to issue a paycheck in as fast as three minutes and any payroll penalties are covered by Intuit up to $25,000.

Learn more about the differences between Enhanced and Assisted Payroll.

Salesforce Integration

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise’s integration with Salesforce CRM gives you more opportunities to understand the needs of your customer and nurture relationships with them. The integration not only helps you get valuable insights into your sales pipeline, but it also automates various accounting tasks. For instance, payments made in QuickBooks are automatically recorded in Salesforce so that you can easily view which invoices have been paid.