Shopify vs QuickBooks
Pick Shopify for a point of sale solution that comes loaded with a suite of modern features to help take your business to the next level.
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Compare Shopify POS vs QuickBooks POS
| Key features | QuickBooks POS | Shopify POS Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Unlimited sales | No | Yes |
| Unlimited registers per location | No | Yes |
| Manage multiple store locations | Yes | Yes |
| Local pickup | No | Yes |
| Local delivery | No | Yes |
| Exchange online purchases in store | No | Yes |
| Return online purchases in store | No | Yes |
| Integrated customer order history, online and in store | No | Yes |
| Redeem gift cards online and in store | No | Yes |
| Unlimited SKUs, online and in store | No | Yes |
| Custom staff permissions | Yes | Yes |
| Fully-synced inventory, in store and online | Through paid integration | Yes |
| First-party payments hardware | Yes | Yes |
| In-store and online payments | No | Yes |
| Unlimited sales channels | No | Yes |
| Ecommerce | Through paid integration | Yes |
| Website builder | No | Yes |
| Social media selling | Through paid integration | Yes |
| Online marketplace selling | Through paid integration | Yes |
| App integrations | No | Yes |
| Loyalty program integrations | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in marketing platform | No | Yes |
| 24/7 support | No | 24/7 in English |
Based on features available in the US as of January 2023
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10 Things Shopify Can Do vs QuickBooks
Get unlimited registers per location
Create as many registers as you need across your multiple retail locations. No additional costs or limitations on how you want to sell.
Run your business from one place
Your Shopify admin is your one-stop spot to access everything you need for your business. Manage orders, inventory, payments, staff, and more with automatic syncing across channels.
In-store and online payments
When considering Shopify or QuickBooks, both come with the ability to accept payments but only Shopify allows you to use the same payment processor for online and in-store sales. That means you can manage your money in one place.
Easy online and in-store gift cards
On QuickBooks you need to pay extra to sell gift cards—and they can only be redeemed at the location they were sold from. On Shopify, you can sell physical and digital gift cards, and customers can redeem them in store and online.
Local pickup
On Shopify, customers can check what’s in stock before they come to your store—and when they buy online they can select local pickup or delivery at checkout. QuickBooks doesn’t offer local selling features.
Unlimited sales channels
All Shopify plans come with unlimited access to sales channels, unlike QuickBooks which limits channels based on your plan. Sell on Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, TikTok, and more, all through your Shopify admin.
Ecommerce included
To integrate QuickBooks POS with ecommerce, you need to use a third-party platform. You also need to subscribe to an ecommerce plan, on top of what you’ve already paid for QuickBooks. With Shopify, ecommerce is included.
Unlimited online orders
QuickBooks’s ecommerce plans limit how many orders you can accept online based on your plan. All Shopify’s plans come with unlimited orders so when you get an unexpected surge in shoppers, you can simply enjoy it.
Powerful inventory
With Shopify, you’ve got the power of multiple store location management in a single system. In-store and online inventory are synced as soon as items are restocked, sold, transferred, or returned, giving you real-time data, so you’re never at risk of overselling at any location.
Built-in marketing
Unlike QuickBooks, Shopify comes with marketing tools and customer profiles that sync across online and in-store. You can create ads, build email campaigns tailored to your audience, and boost repeat purchases with loyalty and reward programs.
Why Business Owners Choose Shopify Over QuickBooks
You get support for your whole business
Shopify support is available 24/7, no matter which plan you’re on. You’ll also have access to help docs, webinars, blog posts, and online courses to guide you along the way.
You can offer better shopping experiences
Shopify syncs inventory and customer profiles across all your locations, in store and online. That means customers can buy online, pick up in store, or buy in store and have the item shipped to their home. You can also accept returns and exchanges of online purchases at any retail store.
You can sell anywhere, anytime
With Shopify, you can open a new retail store, turn Instagram followers into customers by selling on social, and list your products on marketplaces like Etsy. On QuickBooks, you need to be on the most expensive plan to have more than one location and the number of sales channels you can use is limited by your ecommerce plan.
You can build stronger customer relationships
No matter where your customers buy from you, you can associate all their purchases with one customer profile with Shopify POS. That means you can use their purchase history to make meaningful in-store recommendations. QuickBooks customer profiles are in-store only.
You get a commerce-first solution
Shopify was built for selling—QuickBooks was built for accounting. Shopify comes with the tools you need to run a business out of the box, from selling online and in store to managing all your inventory from a centralized admin, so you can skip the clunky integrations.
You get a website, and the tools to manage it
All Shopify’s plans come with ecommerce at no extra cost. That includes hosting, use of the drag-and-drop website builder, and access to a library of free and paid website templates. QuickBooks only offers ecommerce through a paid integration.
From the seamless checkout experience, to the ecommerce integration and apps, to the simple and powerful reporting, there’s no beating Shopify POS.
Ben Sehl, Kotn
Shopify has allowed me to seamlessly sell products on my website, in my brick and mortar store as well as on Facebook & Google. I load my products once and it's done… Once one realizes that the Shopify platform is a one stop shop for marketing and selling it is literally off to the races.
Curt, via G2 Reviews
Shopify, Shopify POS, and the back-end reporting has helped us to really analyze our business in a way that we couldn’t before. To have one system where every aspect of the store is put together has been really, really helpful.
Ale Tarver, Assembly New York
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FAQs
What’s the difference between Shopify and Shopify POS?
Shopify is a complete platform for running a business in person or online. It’s your central location for managing products and orders, accepting payments, and customer relationships. It gives you a unified back office, so you can sell from a retail store, pop-up, website, on social media channels, or online marketplaces, and keeps them all connected.
Shopify POS connects to that back office for in-person sales, ensuring that inventory, payments, and customer data are fully synced as you make sales from your retail store. It gives you full control over staff and multi-store management, and lets you tailor your POS to whatever your store needs, linking in-store and online sales to simplify inventory tasks, give you more control over cash flow, and incentivize in-store visitors with online marketing. The intuitive and mobile POS app also makes it easy to fly through checkout and assist customers anywhere, on the sales floor or on the go.
Do I have to purchase Shopify POS hardware?
Shopify POS is designed to work with the hardware you already have.
How do I know Shopify is right for my business?
Shopify provides every type of retailer with a complete solution for running their business and taking payments both in-store and online. An intuitive POS, powerful ecommerce features, and transparent pricing plans make Shopify a great fit for all businesses, whether they’re starting or scaling.
Page last updated January 2023
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FAQs
Do I need QuickBooks and Shopify? ›
Do I Need QuickBooks with Shopify? No, you can run a Shopify store without QuickBooks. But you'll still need an accounting system. Shopify provides store transaction data but doesn't offer a way for you to account for your other business expenses or sources of income.
Does Shopify work well with QuickBooks? ›If you're using QuickBooks Desktop accounting software, then you can integrate your QuickBooks Desktop app account with your Shopify POS. This action syncs all your business and accounting data, such as sales and purchases, to your accounting system.
Why integrate QuickBooks with Shopify? ›Allow QuickBooks to pull in up to 12 months of historical data based on Shopify Payouts. Minimize manual data entry, saving valuable time by automatically categorizing your payouts by sales, shipping, discounts, tax and fees to easily see across your Profit & Loss statement or Balance Sheet.
What is Shopify in QuickBooks? ›Shopify is an online platform that lets small businesses manage their stores and sell their products. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to connect Shopify to QuickBooks Online. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online account. Go to the Apps section, then find and install Shopify Connector by QuickBooks. Select Connect.
Can I do bookkeeping in Shopify? ›Bookkeeping for your Shopify store involves basic calculation and accounting, and the numbers you deal with depend on your type of business. You'll also be expected to settle accounts receivable and bank statements, record all financial transactions, prepare invoices, bill clients, and track payrolls.
Can Intuit be Shopify's biggest competitor? ›Intuit being the new competitor would have a double whammy on Shopify. Not only is it a powerful new competitor with deep pockets, it is also a market leader with almost 100% overlap with Shopify's target market; both companies target the first three segments of the e-commerce software platform market.
Can Shopify keep track of expenses? ›Hurdlr seamlessly tracks all of your Shopify earnings, expenses, and tax deductions in real-time, on the go–saving you valuable time and maximizing your profit. Simply link your Shopify account to Hurdlr and the app will do the rest in seconds.
Who is Shopify suitable for? ›Is Shopify good for small businesses? In a word: yes. Shopify's pricing and user-friendliness make it one of the best options for small businesses. Signing up for the basic Shopify plan gives you access to a store builder, free themes, payment gateways, unlimited products, and more.
How do I reconcile Shopify in QuickBooks? ›Under Tools, select Reconcile. Select the bank account you want to reconcile (i.e., the account where Shopify deposits payouts). Enter the statement's ending balance and ending date and select Start Reconciling. Go through each line item from Shopify on your statement and double-check that it's identical in QuickBooks.
Does Shopify come with accounting software? ›They don't have accounting built in as a feature. However, Shopify supports the integration of accounting software. You can also connect your bank account and credit cards to Shopify. It helps you better manage cash flow and finances.
What does Shopify do for small businesses? ›
Shopify allows merchants to sell anywhere they want and unites all sales, customers, products and business data within a central platform. Many sellers build an online store on Shopify, then add other sales channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, a brick-and mortar store or in-person mobile sales.
What is Shopify basically? ›What is Shopify? Shopify is a fully-hosted, cloud-based E-commerce platform suitable for all sizes of businesses. Basically, Shopify provides users an online solution, which allows them to quickly build their own website to sell products without coding.
Do any big businesses use Shopify? ›Anheuser-Busch InBev, a Belgian beer company, is another one of popular Shopify stores. The company is one of the world's most valued alcohol producers. The company is the world's largest beer manufacturer in terms of volume and sales, with over $11 billion in sales on the Shopify platform.
What is the best alternative payment method for Shopify? ›- Shopify Payments. There is no better way to start this list than with Shopify Payments, a payment solution owned by Shopify. ...
- PayPal. PayPal is one of the most well-known Shopify payment providers in the world. ...
- Stripe. ...
- Authorize.net. ...
- Opayo. ...
- Verifone. ...
- WorldPay. ...
- Klarna.
Shopify is, arguably, the best software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for ecommerce.
How much is Shopify fee accounting? ›The fee is 2.0% for Basic, 1.0% for Shopify and 0.5% for Advanced Shopify. For reference, if you use PayPal, Square or Authorize.Net, you would pay a payment processing fee, generally 2.9% + 30¢ USD, as well as Shopify's transaction fee.
Do I need a business license for a Shopify account? ›There is no requirement for having a business license to sell on Shopify. However, there are certain circumstances where a license is essential. For example, you might need one if the country/city/state or type of your business requires one. Keep in mind that licenses are issued at the local, county, or state level.
Does Shopify count as a business? ›Online services used for business purposes, such as Shopify, accounting tools, inventory management software, and any other apps you use to run your business, are deductible as business expenses.
What are Shopify's weaknesses? ›Unfortunately, Shopify does not offer marketing automation tools as part of their plans. This means you'll have to find another provider or pay a monthly fee for a Shopify app if you want to automate your marketing tasks. Automation is one of the most important tools you can use to grow your business.
Do large companies use QuickBooks? ›Do big companies use QuickBooks? No, QuickBooks is typically reserved for small businesses without the need for advanced reporting or accounting. What size company is QuickBooks good for?
Does QuickBooks have any competition? ›
Quicken is a great alternative to QuickBooks if you're looking for a way to track spending. You won't find standard business management features such as payroll and time tracking, though.
Does Shopify report to IRS? ›Does Shopify report to the IRS? Yes, Shopify reports most account owners' business transactions to the IRS every year, in a form called the 1099-K.
Does Shopify take a cut of your earnings? ›The answer is yes. Shopify does take a percentage of the store's sales of products. However, it depends on the pricing plan you choose from the beginning.
How do I hide my inventory from customers on Shopify? ›You can use automated collections to hide out-of-stock products from your customers. You can do this manually on the Collections page of your Shopify admin, or use an inventory management app to do it for you. You might also want to hide products in your store's default Catalog collection.
How much does Shopify take per sale? ›Shopify charges 2.6% + $0.30 per transaction for the Shopify account. These are the charges for online credit card transactions. A 2.5% transaction fee applies to in-person card transactions. If you use any payment gateway other than Shopify Payments, there's an additional 1% fee per transaction.
What category sells the most on Shopify? ›- Pet products. ...
- Hobby and leisure. ...
- Home office equipment and consumer electronics. ...
- Smartphone Accessories. ...
- Digital products. ...
- Vegan products. ...
- Kids clothing. ...
- Car and bike accessories. The niche of car and bike accessories can be a good idea for starting a Shopify dropshipping business.
On average, the monthly Shopify income is around $3,897.
How do I unlink Shopify from QuickBooks? ›- Go to My Apps and select Shopify.
- Select Disconnect Shopify. A window opens and warns you that QuickBooks Commerce will pause sync with Shopify.
- Select Proceed.
- Click Banking.
- Choose Make Deposits.
- Select the transaction.
- Click OK.
- Click Save & Close.
Just like balancing your checkbook, you need to review your accounts in QuickBooks to make sure they match your real-life bank and credit card statements. This process is called reconciling. It's recommended to reconcile your checking, savings, and credit card accounts every month.
Does Shopify have a payment system? ›
Shopify Payments is the simplest way to accept payments online. It eliminates the hassle of setting up a third-party payment provider or merchant account and having to enter the credentials into Shopify.
What is the difference between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Commerce? ›QuickBooks Online is a SaaS version of the QuickBooks product. It contains all of the features found in the local version. Higher-priced plans include greater automation, payment management, inventory and time tracking, and analytics features.
How do I enter cash sales on Shopify? ›- From the Cart screen, tap Checkout.
- From the Select payment option screen, tap Cash. ...
- If the customer is not paying with exact cash, then you can enter the amount that you're receiving in one of two ways: ...
- When you're ready to complete the order, tap Accept cash.
The short answer is: no. You don't need an LLC to start a Shopify store; however, there are two major benefits of having an LLC that you should consider. The first is personal liability protection and the other is tax reduction–if you're the sole owner of your business, an LLC can provide personal liability protection.
How good is Shopify for beginners? ›Shopify has a clean, clear, and simple interface that makes setting up your store a breeze, even for total beginners. Don't get us wrong – you won't have your site live in five minutes, because Shopify still packs a serious amount of power into its backend.
Does Shopify let you sell anything? ›Frequently asked questions about things to sell on Shopify
You can sell both products (digital and physical) and services (virtual and in-person) on Shopify. Intangible things to sell on Shopify include memberships, consultations, font, installations, event tickets, and digital gift cards. But don't stop there!
Shopify is a popular platform for dropshipping due to its intuitive user interface, robust feature set, and comprehensive support. It offers a wide range of features and integrations, such as product and inventory management, payment processing, and fulfillment.
Is it a good idea to use Shopify? ›The quick verdict
Shopify is a best-in-class online store builder. It lets you sell in more ways than just about any competing solution you can think of, and it's a particularly good option for dropshipping, point-of-sale and multi-currency selling.
With Shopify, merchants can build and customize an online store and sell in multiple places, including web, mobile, in person, brick-and-mortar locations, and pop-up shops and across multiple channels from social media to online marketplaces.
Do I need a business bank account with Shopify? ›While you technically do not need a business bank account to use Shopify, it is generally recommended having a business bank account when starting or growing your ecommerce business.
Do you need your own inventory for Shopify? ›
One of the most popular ways to sell on Shopify without holding any inventory is through dropshipping. Shopify stores that use this business model don't need to have their own product inventory, warehouse, or shipping capabilities.
Do I need a business account for my Shopify store? ›The answer is yes—a Shopify store is considered a business, so you'll need a business bank account to manage your finances and accept payments. Fortunately, opening a business bank account is easy to do, and there are many options available to choose from.
Does Shopify require you to have an LLC? ›Do you need an LLC for Shopify? No. There is no requirement for having a business license to sell on Shopify.
Can I sell on Shopify without a business license? ›Do You Need A Business License to Sell on Shopify? The short answer is no, and you don't need a business license for your Shopify store or Shopify Business. However, specific rules must be followed to operate a Shopify store legally, including maintaining proper inventory levels and taxes owed.
Can you sell on Shopify without LLC? ›The short answer is: no. You don't need an LLC to start a Shopify store; however, there are two major benefits of having an LLC that you should consider. The first is personal liability protection and the other is tax reduction–if you're the sole owner of your business, an LLC can provide personal liability protection.
Do I need to register my business before selling on Shopify? ›Yes. At the very least, your online business will need a seller's permit if you operate in an area that is subject to sales-tax licensing (usually states, counties, or cities).
Do you have to pay to sell things on Shopify? ›Unlike selling on a marketplace like Amazon or eBay, Shopify does not charge you any selling fees — just payment processing fees. This means you get to keep more of the profit from each sale for yourself. Shopify offers a 3-day free trial with a $1/month for 2 months promotion on any selling plan you choose from.
Can I sell my own products with Shopify? ›Can you sell your own items on Shopify? Yes, you can make and sell crafts and other handmade items on Shopify. If you're a maker, you can set up a store to sell your goods directly to your fans. Also consider selling across multiple sales channels, like online craft marketplaces, to extend your reach.
Does Shopify provide financial statements? ›View the Finances summary page
From your Shopify admin, go to Analytics > Reports. Click Categories. Select Finances to filter the reports to show only finances reports.
There are three main Shopify pricing plans to choose from. You have Basic Shopify at $29 per month, Shopify at $79 per month, and Advanced Shopify at $299 per month.
Does Shopify collect sales tax? ›
Shopify doesn't file or remit your sales taxes for you.
You might need to register your business with your local or federal tax authority to handle your sales tax. The calculations and reports that Shopify provides should help make things easier when it's time to file and pay your taxes.
Shopify is widely regarded as the best ecommerce platform for small businesses. Our comprehensive site builder comes with free tools and features that allow you to sell both online and in person, as well as via social commerce, third-party marketplaces, and dropshippers.