So you´re a small retailer who wants to enter and print price quotes at your point-of-sale terminal and convert them to standard orders with a minimum fuss when the customer is ready to commit? Or you want to track customer data in preparation for an e-mail marketing campaign? Or you want to display real-time stock levels at alternate warehouses?

Middle-market accounting software vendors are making it easier for retailers as diverse as corner grocery stores and discount chains to do all of these things by introducing POS modules, developed either in-house or, more likely, by independent software partners. By integrating individual store purchases with the back-end accounting system, users are finding they can run their businesses more smoothly because they have access to the most current sales, inventory, and customer data. And they don´t need to re-key all of that information, to boot.

An integrated POS/accounting solution "really makes a difference" during an economic downturn, observes Larry Schiff, president of Business Management International, a Navision reseller headquartered in New York, with seven additional locations. It can facilitate business analysis, reduce personnel training, and eliminate the need for an IT department to maintain multiple systems, among other benefits.

An integrated solution also helps with customer retention. It can track a customer purchase regardless of which location they shop at, which means better oversight of customer reward/loyalty programs and easier development of targeted marketing campaigns, notes BMI channel development director David Campiglia.

"Even the smallest companies are looking for complete [POS/accounting] integration," says Tammy Horning, sales and marketing vice president for Cadillac, Mich.-based Compass Technologies, developer of the Retail Point of Sale module for Great Plains Dynamics and eEnterprise. "Real-time inventory depletion and allocation are important to them." Additionally, "They can get their financials out quicker."

Small wonder, then, that David Bassiri, president of Boise, Idaho-based Cougar Mountain Software, whose Point of Sale for Windows solution is one of the few such modules developed internally by a mid-market accounting software publisher, says POS "should never have been separated from accounting."

Make Room for QuickBooks

The market for POS modules is going to become a little more crowded in the near future with the planned introduction of QuickBooks Point of Sale in the spring of next year.

Intuit is keeping mum on details, except to say the module will be a PC-based electronic cash register designed for small retailers. It will offer real-time inventory tracking and customer purchase history. The product is expected to be priced at less than $1,000.

Intuit is developing the product with Sacramento, Calif.-based Retail Technologies International, developer of Retail Pro, a 32-bit Windows application offering POS, inventory control, e-commerce, and business analytics. Running on the NT 2000 platform, Retail Pro features touch-screen navigation and a user-definable graphical interface.

Best-of-Breed Approach

The retail sector is "very important" to Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions, which has opted to pursue a "best-of-breed model for POS," according to Deb Hoage, business development manager for the vendor´s network of Solution Developers.

There are "a couple of dozen" POS add-ons developed specifically for the Great Plains product line, and they cover the gamut of retail stores, food service, and hospitality. "We are encouraging our partners to become more verticalized," says Hoage.

Accordingly, Compass Technologies recently introduced Matrix Inventory, which creates style grids for inventory items. Matrixes can be of one or two dimensions, such as size/color and width/length. This capability is suited for soft-goods retailing, such as clothing, or even plumbing or hardware outlets where feature size comes into play.

Horning estimates a "bare-bones" Pervasive-based Retail Point of Sale implementation would start at about $2,500. "I encourage [Great Plains VAR] partners to use us for the implementation," whether in assisting with the needs analysis or jointly conducting a demo, she notes.

SpectrumRetail, headquartered in Fort Smith, Ariz., offers ProphetLine for Windows for use in conjunction with Dynamics and eEnterprise, with plans to include the entry-level Small Business Manager as well. PLW features specialized inventory modules for specific retailers, multi-store support, and inter-store communications. There´s also an enterprise-class SQL version, Visual ProphetLine.

According to executive vice president Tom Kirkham, POS software saves on double posting, more effectively monitors inventory levels, and can even function as an employee time clock by identifying who´s operating which register. With integrated POS/accounting, "All one has to do is review the [register] data and it automatically shoots into Payroll." Also, walk-in customers with a store account can immediately receive a printed invoice.

Kirkham estimates a two-to-three-terminal store could automate its POS functionality for as little as $7,000 to $15,000, which would include software, hardware, and services.

SpectrumRetail is seeing mounting demand from retailers seeking "click and brick" unification between their physical outlets and Web storefront. There are even "a handful of customers" for the vendor´s application hosting service.

Kirkham acknowledges the Application Service Provider option "hasn´t taken off as fast as we thought," primarily because of bandwidth availability issues, but for those retailers who have gone that route, "It does provide a tremendous ROI." Retailers can realize sizable savings in time and/or money on database maintenance, software and hardware upgrades, system backups, security, and network administration.

SpectrumRetail is intent on providing ASP-based solutions to small and medium-sized retailers, not just the major chains. A case in point: The vendor recently contracted with Medea´s Grove, a single-store Fort Smith neighbor, to provide an integrated, ASP-based POS/inventory management system that would accommodate the store´s wide-ranging inventory that includes many one-of-a-kind items. The store was able to get a more sophisticated system at an affordable monthly subscription rate, and expects to be able to expand its geographic sales reach.

Real-time Transactions

Toronto-based AGS Software, an Accpac International solution partner, offers ePOS. It allow