Business Management Software and Recommendations

[3282868]

A friend left her job to start her own business as a cosmetic laser specialist. She decided to establish a private, professional spa and hired estheticians and LMT's. She owns iPhones and iPads, and purchased a 24" iMac (her first Mac). She uses "Square" for payment transactions and plans on purchasing the new "Square Stand POS" paired with a USB cash drawer and scanner with an unused iPad 4.

I helped determine her short and long term needs, recommended ISP services and discussed options. I configured a new Airport Extreme Base Station with 2.4/5GHz/Guest networks and clean installed 10.9. I recommended a 2-bay Synology NAS for site hosting, business database, security system and OS X "Time Machine" wireless backups (Synology systems are reasonably priced with a plethora of great apps/services).

The challenge is finding the right OS X business management software. All three need access to a single database for client information, appointments, individual business accounts, inventory tracking and sales, POS integration, off-site access via mobile devices/VPN's, etc. My first thought was "FileMaker Pro 12 Advanced" as it is a fully customizable system for tracking inventory, appointments/schedules, clientele database, invoices, reports, etc. The free iOS apps seem to allow quick access to the shared database. POS integration is also important in order to sync product sales and services between "Square" and "FileMaker Pro 12 Advanced" or another management system.

If anyone has any advice and/or recommendations, I'd greatly appreciate the help. Thanks!

 

[GGJstudios]

I'm very pleased to see recent developments in POS solutions. We've come a long way from the big iron cash registers I remember! I recently had my car washed at a business that uses a POS system from Intuit, using an iPad. I made note of it, but haven't had time to research its capabilities. It might be worth a look, even though you already have the Square system. I would expect at least one of these POS systems would come already integrated with a built-in database, for a "business in a can" turnkey system. I'll be researching this further when I have more time, as I'm sure many small businesses are looking for such a solution.

 

[3282868]

Thanks for the advice, I'll look into Intuit's GoPayment, check out their interest rates and ease of use. Quicken is almost always a necessary factor in tracking personal to business expenses so it'd be a no brainer. I'm not very familiar with the "Square" backend, I've been meaning to call for her and ask if it possible to sync "Square" records/purchases with other management software.

Thanks again for the tips.

 

[kwijbo]

Take a look at Shopify POS as well - http://www.shopify.com/pos

Integrates with a website in addition to taking in person POS transactions, might be useful for online bookings. They also may have a lower rate than Square depending on the plan purchased, but of course its merit then becomes dependent on volume (flat % or % + monthly).