Hosted & PoS

Hamilton Christian School
Hamilton Christian School Member Posts: 13
edited September 2018 in Point of Sale
We are a NZ school using RA Enterprise and have three terminals with PoS Professional. We are keen to move to a cloud-based financial system and remain disappointed that RA Hosted doesn't (seem to) integrate with PoS. Any suggestions?

Comments

  • Hamilton Christian School
    Hamilton Christian School Member Posts: 13
    edited May 2016

    Thanks, Andrew.  It would great to at least have a timeline so we can fully consider the options.

    Is QB Online different from Reckon Hosted/is it a 'NZ' product (ie GST etc)?  I am aware the QB became Reckon Accounts.

    Do you know if Reckon Hosted is compatible with any PoS product?

    So much to think through in terms of lost familiarity with a product and the cost (time & money) of migrating to another product.

    What are you using?  Do you use Reckon Payroll (another option I haven't explored yet)?

    Regards

    Gavin

  • Chris McGregor
    Chris McGregor Member Posts: 140
    edited December 2016
    There is a way to get pos to work with accounts hosted. Theses is a little know. Fact that entitles you to a desktop licence of reckon accounts enterprise with the purchase or Reckon Accounts Hosted. So what you do is : 1)request and install your desktop licence 2)backup your hosted accounting file and download to desktop 3)restore your recently created backup to accounts desktop. 4)install pos and sync as usual 5)start trading with pos 6)perform end of day as normal each day - now comes the choice A) backup online and restore locally either daily or at a set weekly interval then post and transfer then backup locally and restore online. B) copy your end of day ".pos" files to the hosted service but rename the extension ".pos" to ".iif". Then in hosted use file, import iif files and browse to your upload folder location. -Chris
  • cosmic
    cosmic Reckon Developer Partner Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭
    edited September 2018
    Hi Chris , i was waiting for your response, as your knowledge on POS  as usual is great.
    i love to discuss some thing on this POS integration , over email. pls let me know

    Cosmic Accounting Group

    Accountants and Tax Agents 22397009

  • Chris McGregor
    Chris McGregor Member Posts: 140
    edited May 2016
    Andrew is correct, it all comes down to how competent you are at sticking to a process. If your the kind of person that believes Facebook is the Internet then this solution is not for you and just try to raise enough public interest for your online pos suggestion for reckon to see a good profit potential and they will place more resources to that department. They are just a business after all and if there's not a market for a solution then there not going to focus on it. Good news is though that the code and maintenance is prodominantly based here in Australia unlike its competitors so more interest means more Australian jobs :)
  • Chris McGregor
    Chris McGregor Member Posts: 140
    edited May 2016
    Hi chandra, sorry but my new job keeps me a little more busy they I expected and as a result I don't really get much time for this kind of stuff so I'll have to give it a miss. In relation to pos integration Simon at reckon would be the best to run your idea though but just remember there is no pos sdk and as such reckon would be unable to support it however it would be nice to see a middleware developed using the accounts hosted sdk and then to pos. Chris
  • cosmic
    cosmic Reckon Developer Partner Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭
    edited December 2016
    Yes Chris thks i talk to Simon and Jason nearly every week . Great guys . They are helping us in releasing new Invapp for RAH almost there now

    Cosmic Accounting Group

    Accountants and Tax Agents 22397009

  • Hamilton Christian School
    Hamilton Christian School Member Posts: 13
    edited May 2016

    Thanks, Andrew & Chris... There are two main reasons for considering a move to a cloud based system: (1) I (and others) could then work from home with fewer interruptions, especially on project work like annual budgets and annual accounts; (2) a multitude of stake-holders should be able (with RESTRICTED READ-ONLY access) to generate their own reports as required (teachers, debtors, board members). 

    It would also be nice to avoid the fall-out that seems to occur with every upgrade - printers, server and client issues, &c.  On the other hand, I'm a bit old-school and nervous re 'who owns the data' and other issues if you ever migrate elsewhere.

    After almost ten years of accounts, including data from 3 PoS terminals, our company file is quite large.

  • Chris McGregor
    Chris McGregor Member Posts: 140
    edited May 2016
    Well the good news is that reckon unlike other companies believe that the data you put in there hosted system is your and your property and that they are just the custodians, so that's not too bad oh not to mention that reckons online files and info are held in Australia and not susceptible to foreign laws such as americas patriot act. If any online isn't your style you could always host your own data I house and remote to it. Lookup the following for info: Rdp Remote Desktop Terminal services Citrix server Also if doing it on the cheap could use 64bit Windows xp and the registry mod to allow more then one remode desktop user. Look on google for xp terminal server. One key thing to remember is pos won't work in a terminal services environment , well not for more then 1 user at a time anyway unlike all the Microsoft products and reckon accounts desktop which are designed for multiple users. -Chris
  • Chris McGregor
    Chris McGregor Member Posts: 140
    edited May 2016
    Ps: workaround for pos all on one server for people to remote into is to have multiple virtual PCs on the one physical box, one virtual for each pos install. That wold work and even let you use Apple devices or android for pos terminal, you would just need network receipt printers.