MicroBiz POS Review - Free POS for Retailers

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Introduction

MicroBiz is a cloud-based point-of-sale system that manages register transactions, customer orders and back-office operations for small to mid-sized retail businesses.  MicroBiz focuses on retailers that both ring up transactions at a register and also manage customer orders (work orders, deliveries, phone orders, etc).  MicroBiz has a lot of capabilities in inventory and order management, but does not have as many integrations as other POS systems reviewed.  However, MicroBiz has a lower cost of ownership.

MicroBiz is a good choice for retailers that have a lot repeat business with their customers or a mix of retail and wholesale customers – as MicroBiz supports credit accounts, customer orders, work orders, deliveries and special orders.

MicroBiz is our top recommendation for retail businesses that manage both register sales and customer orders.

Ratings by Feature

Value: 9 of 10

Functionality: 9 of 10

Add-ons and integrations: 6 of 10

Ease-of-use: 9 of 10

Customer support: 9 of 10

 

OVERALL:  9 of 10

Positives

  • Strong order management
  • Highly rated support
  • Integrated payments with transparent flat-rate plan
  • Integrations with popular apps - QuickBooks Online and WooCommerce
  • Easy to set-up and start processing.
  • Multi-store management
  • Good management of special orders and credit accounts

Drawbacks

  • Limited integrations with 3rd party apps.
  • Does not have an iOS app for use on an iPhone
  • No loyalty program
  • No offline mode.
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Pricing

MicroBiz offers a free 21 day trial to allow you to test out the POS system.

Standard Plan – $60/mo.

Basic plan includes POS, order management, work orders, purchasing/receiving, credit accounts, store transfers, reporting.

Enterprise Plan $90/mo.

Includes all features of the Standard plan plus integrations to QuickBooks Online and WooCommerce.

Multi-Store

Additional stores are $60/mo for both Standard and Enterprise plans

Extra Registers

The Standard and Enterprise plans include one register license. which is classified as a computer logged into the register screens.  Extra register licenses are $30/mo.  MicroBiz does not charge for computers accessing the backend features (inventory management, purchasing/receiving).

MicroBiz POS Features

MicroBiz POS software has a long list of features, including a number around inventory and order management.  All of these features are included in the Standard Plan except the WooCommerce and QuickBooks Integrations

  • Order Management – Management of customer orders
  • Customer & Product File Imports – Import and update products and customers via CSV files
  • Credit Accounts/AR Statements – Charge transactions to an Account, send and collect on A/R statements
  • WooCommerce Integration – Sync products, inventory and sales with the WooCommerce ecommerce platform
  • QuickBooks Online Integration – Published register batch financial data to QuickBooks Online with one touch
  • Work Orders/Service Dept – Manage a services and repair department
  • Special Orders – Management of the sale of items not in stock that need to be special ordered from vendor
  • Layaways – Place an item on layaway for customer purchase at a later date
  • Quotes, Estimates & Invoices – Generate estimates and quotes that can be converted into invoices.
  • Serialized Products – Track the serial number of products purchased and sold
  • Customer-based Pricing Tiers – Set up different price levels or tiers for different types of customers
  • Matrix/Configurable Products – Manage sale of product that come in size/color/other variants
  • Kit/Bundled Products – Build and sell kits or bundles made of other products and services
  • Purchasing & Receiving – Create and receive POS and vendor shipments to manage inventory
  • Store Transfers – For multi-store customers – transfer items between stores
  • Barcode Scanning – Print and scan barcodes from multiple places within the application
  • Gift Cards – Free internal gift card manager – issue and redeem gift cards
  • Apply/Assign Salesperson – Assign salesperson to transaction or line items and generate commission reports
  • Reorder Level/Quantities – Streamline ordering with
  • Promotional Pricing – Create time-based promotional prices or prices based on quantity purchased
  • Employee Roles – Restrict employees from different parts of the application
  • Flexible Tax Settings - Supports various tax set ups for tax exempt products and customers

Ease of Use

The MicroBiz user interface is modern, intuitive and clean.  This makes the system very easy to navigate.

User-friendliness is commonly mentioned in the online reviews.

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Payment Processing

MicroBiz offers a few options for integrated payments (Global Payments, WorldPay, BlockChyp).  MicroBiz does not lock you into a single payment processor.

The integration with the BlockChyp processing service offers the most payment-related features.  The integration with BlockChyp offers a group of value added payment services:

  • Integrated Payments
  • Simple Flat Rate Pricing (1)
  • Card on File/Card Vault
  • Credit Card Surcharge
  • Email Invoices with Payment Links
  • eSignature Capture on Terminal
  • Logos and Branding on Terminal
  • Mobile Payments
  • Online Virtual Terminal
  • Tips and Gratuity
  • Pre-Authorizations

Standard pricing from BlockChyp by transaction type is as follows:

Card present: 2.0% – 2.5% plus 10 cents/trans, depending on mix of debit/credit cards.

Card not present: 3.0% - 3.1% plus 20-30 cents/trans depending on card mix.

Other Fees: None.  There are no other annual, security or monthly fees charged.

Note that these rates are subject to change.  Please see MicroBiz website for current pricing.

MicroBiz does not support connections with other processors.  There is no flexibility to use MicroBiz as integrated with another processor.  However, MicroBiz can be used with stand alone terminals and MicroBiz does not charge a fee if the MicroBiz system is used with standalone payment terminals.

We liked how MicroBiz provides some options for processing, rather than locking into their payment service.  The BlockChyp fees are consistent with the market – and BlockChyp has some great value added payment services.  In particular the support of invoices with payment links and a credit card surcharge plan.  We wish that MicroBiz allowed connections to other processors – but the market seems to be moving away from this model.

Hardware Requirements

Unlike some of its competitors, MicroBiz dos not require or sell proprietary POS software and accessories.  As a result, its customers can often reuse their existing POS hardware and accessories.  Or uses can take the hardware used with MicroBiz and re-use it with a different vendor.

MicroBiz recommends and supports the following:

Register: PCs, Macs, laptops, Windows tablets

Receipt Printers – Star Micronics or Epson printers

Label Printers – Zebra ZD series printers

Barcode Scanners -Any Windows-compatible device

MicroBiz partners with a value-added reseller named POS Guys for POS hardware that can be used with MicroBiz POS Guys offers a few hardware bundles with different options for all-in-one computers, device stands, receipt printers, label printers, barcode scanners and cash drawers.

Note: Hardware bundles and pricing are subject to change.  Please see POS Guys website for current offerings.

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Integrations

MicroBiz has very limited integrations.  The integrations currently listed on MicroBiz’s website include:

  • QuickBooks Online - Automatically import register batch financial data and receipt of vendor shipments into QuickBooks Online.
  • WooCommerce – Publish products from MicroBiz to WooCommerce with one click. MicroBiz then keeps inventory in sync between MicroBiz and WooCommerce.
  • Integrated Payments (Global, WorldPay and BlockChyp)

We assigned a negative score because MicroBiz has far fewer integrations as other free or paid POS systems evaluated.  However, it its integration includes two of the most popular applications used by retailers (WooCommerce for ecommerce and QuickBooks for financial reporting).

Limitations

When considering MicroBiz, there are some limitations that should be considered.

  • MicroBiz offers a limited number of app integrations (<5). This will also limit your ability to expand your business.
  • MicroBiz does not have an internal loyalty program.  The customer-based pricing feature can be used to reward recurring customers, but MicroBiz does not have an internal points-based loyalty program.
  • There is no integration with and email marketing software.
  • MicroBiz does not have an iOS app that allows the system to be used on a smart phone.

Set Up and Implementation

Set-up of MicroBiz is easy.  The screens are organized logically and its easy to figure out how the different functions work.

MicroBiz includes free onboarding services, including configurations, training and import of products and customers.

You can buy supported hardware from the MicroBiz website through POS Guys and sign up for payment processing via one of MicroBiz’s integrated payment partners.

The initial ordering is not as seamless as other providers, who offer their own proprietary  hardware equipment and bundlers.  However, the upside is that with MicroBiz, you buy popular value hardware such as Star and Zebra, and are not requires to buy proprietary hardware that cannot be used with other POS systems.  This is a key advantage of MicroBiz in our opinion.

Support

MicroBiz offers many support options. There is an online help center on its website which includes s a number of set-up guides, user manuals, and answers to frequently asked questions. MicroBiz  also offers email and phone support.  Plus, there is a help button in app where users can create a support ticket directly from the screen they are working on in MicroBiz.

In our review of Online Reviews, we generally found that customers were happy with MicroBiz’s support on the software and hardware.  MicroBiz had less reviews than other retail POS systems reviews, but we did not see any very negative reviews from customers that had a terrible experience with the software.  The negative reviews tended to be focused on a specific feature that was not supported by MicroBiz rather than a poor implementation or support experience.

Online Reviews

When reviewing reviews on third party review sites, MicroBiz had generally positive reviews.  On one poplar online review site, MicroBiz received an overall rate of 4.6 of 5.0 stars.  Almost all reviews were 4 of 5 stars.  Reviewers complained about:

  • Lack of iOS or Android app for mobile phone
  • Lack of offline mode
  • Missing time clock for employees
  • Occasional sluggish performance

Recommendations for Retailers

MicroBiz is recommended for …

  • Retailers looking for a lower cost POS/inventory management solution
  • Retailers that have both register sales and customer orders (quotes, phone orders, deliveries, special orders)
  • Retailers that want to extend credit to customers via credit accounts and send monthly statements.
  • Retailers that carefully track inventory
  • Retailers with repair and services departments
  • Retailers that sell and track items with serial numbers

MicroBiz not recommended for …

  • Retailers that want to process sales and run their business on an iPhone or Android phone.
  • Retailers looking for a wide variety of 3rd party integrations.
  • Restaurants, salons, spas, and other appointment-based businesses.
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