Volume Number: 26
Issue Number: 09
Column Tag: Kool Tools

Kool Tools: Checkout

A must-have point-of-sale application

by Dennis Sellers

Checkout

Checkout (http://checkoutapp.com/) is a point-of-sale app for the Mac that's a must-have for those who need web store integration. The software is designed to help retailers manage their point-of-sale processes, order entry, inventory management, customers and vendors.

Checkout was recently revved to version 3.0. The new version adds support for barcode label printing, a revamped Product Manager, and an overall speed boost. Version 3.0 also coincided with the launch of a new Checkout web store, Enstore.

Enstore is a pay-as-you-go web store that integrates with Checkout. Products can be managed in Checkout and then synced with Enstore. Online orders and customers are then tracked directly in Checkout. 

Enstore comes with the flexibility to customize your store, automatic shipping and tax rate lookup (in the US and Canada), payment processing through major payment providers and a set of templates created by the designers behind Checkout.

Enstore, currently in beta, comes with no setup fee, free hosting, and unlimited bandwidth and storage. It's powered by Google App Engine.

Checkout 3 also has a new interface to set up product variations like sizes and colors. The number of definable product properties is practically limitless. Rebuilt from the ground up, the software's new product manager offers better search functions and allows for editing and deletion of multiple products at the same time.

You can add barcodes to items, then print them on Avery or Dymo labels. Checkout 3 also lets you accept down payments and deposits on orders.

With Checkout 3, you can connect up to 20 workstations to one store — but only when the store is hosted on an Intel-based Mac.

Checkout 3 also boasts: multi-region sales tax support; support for multiple suppliers per product; the ability to scan in or enter serial numbers for your products; the ability to edit properties of multiple products at once; support for manually configured connections in the Login window; and support for shipping addresses and shipping cost on orders.

Every document in Checkout offers access to a History and Notes interface. You can view a complete list of changes to the document, when they were made and by whom. You can add notes for yourself and your coworkers for later referral. The contents of your notes can be used to search through all documents.

You can, of course, record cash, credit card and other payments. Checkout calculates due change and prints complete product, payment and sales tax details on your customer receipts.

Checkout 3 also plays well with others. If you already have a customer database, the software imports customer records from TSV, CSV and vCard files. Whether your contacts are stored in FileMaker, Address Book, Entourage or an Excel file, you can take them with you. Products can be imported from CSV and TSV files.

Checkout also integrates with both AccountEdge and Intuit QuickBooks. It supports current US and Canadian versions of AccountEdge. Note that it only supports current US Quickbooks versions. Other versions might not be compatible.

Additionally, Acclivity, exclusive distributors of MYOB software in the US, and Sofa, developers of Mac point of sale software Checkout, have created Werck BV, a joint venture. Werck will develop, market and support Checkout for Mac small businesses around the world.

Acclivity, which does business as MYOB US (http://www.myob-us.com), will distribute Checkout in the US and Canada under the MYOB brand, while Checkout will be sold under the newly formed Werck brand in all other international markets. Pricing starts at US$399.

Dennis Sellers is a long time journalist. He started in the newspaper business, but has been in the online journalism business for the past 15 years. He's the editor/publisher of Macsimum News (http://www.macsimumnews.com)