What If - QuickBooks Point-of-Sale
In having worked with QuickBooks POS for over 10 years now, we have discovered some issues in working with the POS data files. In general, POS is much less likely to have corruption issues. In fact, there is no rebuild utility inside of Point of Sale, but there can be some issues that need to be addressed. Here are a few tips to answer some of the most common 'What if" questions:
The file will not open:
Typically you get a screen that shows you the company file, but when you click on ‘Open existing file’, nothing happens or you get a screen that asks you to choose a file. What we do in this case is create a new company file and after POS has connected to that file, switch to the original file. Occasionally, we have seen where this doesn’t work in which case you most likely have a damaged file and will need to restore a backup. We have had some success with a few other techniques. If you run into this problem, contact us so that we may work with your client to resolve the issue.
I want to “Rebuild” the file:
While Point of Sale doesn’t have a rebuild utility, per se, we can do the following to cause the file to reindex. We do this when we are seeing any weird data issues such as wrong item and customer lookups (although the problem seems less prevalent). To “reindex” a file, create a backup of the file. Then, create a new company file and restore the backup into the new file “shell.” Make sure that when you restore the file you choose ‘Browse to alternative backup file’ and then browse to the folder containing the backup. Unlike QuickBooks, all POS databases are named the same; qbpos.db, and the only thing that makes it a different company is the folder that the qbpos.db is contacted. This folder also has a folder named backup. So if the old company file name was Joe’s Beauty Supply, the path to find the backup to restore will be c:\users\public\public documents\intuit\QuickBooks point of sale version XX\data\Joe’s beauty supply\backup.
My reports look wrong:
This is generally not a data thing, but I include it here as it can appear to be a problem with the data. QuickBooks Point of Sale holds on to report filters even if you think that you have cleared them. To ensure that all filters are removed, run the report, click the modify button and then the revert button at the lower right of the modify screen. This forces POS to rerun the report in its standard format.
I try to log in and Point of Sale tells me that I need administrative privileges:
This has cropped up recently and I figured out one approach to fix the problem. The problem is that the user qbposdbsrv doesn’t have enough rights to launch the QBPOS database server. Without the database service running, QBPOS will not launch. To fix this, go to the Control Panel, Administrative Tools and then Services. Find the QBPOS Database Manager VX (where X is the version) and right click. Choose Properties and then the Log On tab. Click the button that says Log on As Local System account. Click OK. Then click Start the Service. POS will now launch.
I hope I have given you some tools to more successfully support your POS clients. We are here to help you and your clients with any of these or other problems. As always, we welcome your input.
William S. English
President of English Management Solutions, Inc.
Editor’s Note: William "Will" English is considered by many (including myself) to be the leading expert on QuickBooks Point-of-Sale. He is the President of English Management Solutions, Inc., a Intuit Solution Provider (ISP) and an Advanced Certified ProAdvisor in both QuickBooks Financial and Point of Sale Software. Will is also author (or co-author) for two handbooks on QuickBooks Point-of-Sale.