In an unexpected move by the accounting software giant Intuit and the leader of the mobile payment processing Square, the two companies have forged an alliance to bring more control and functionality to their popular platforms. While Intuit has their own credit card readers that work with smartphones and tablets called GoPayment, the vast majority of people using mobile payment technology for POS systems prefer these ease of Square Register over any other software. The firm hold that Square has on the mobile credit card processing market has led to the willingness for Intuit to open up their software for integration with one of its major competitors.The full details of the deal have yet to be disclosed, including what features will be integrated and what the profit sharing numbers for each company will be. Also, while Square does not officially offer a universal API for third party software integrations, Intuit has specifically said that such an API exists and is the basis for the integration with QuickBooks. Beyond these vague details, very little is going to be released about the details of this new partnership or the functionalities it will feature.
There is speculation that the QuickBooks will be lackluster in its integration with Square because of GoPayment; Intuit’s version of a mobile credit card reader. However, a spokesperson with the company has assured potential users that the two companies are moving in different directions as far as payment platforms and that each sale will flow directly into your QuickBooks software as if it was part of the system from the get-go.
While this news excites many small business owners who use the very popular QuickBooks platform to keep their books in order, there are still plenty of lingering doubts. The lack of transparency that the companies have about how it will work and what features it will provide have left many questioning the partnerships viability. Rumors of features like inventory management being left on the wayside along with some of the core features available in the Square dashboard have many potential users on edge and running for time-tested solutions like Shopventory to handle tracking their inventory and sales data for Square Register as the technology continues to change and adapt.
