m-POS Rivals Intuit and Square Announce QuickBooks Integration (Sept. 26, 2013)
Capitalizing on explosive growth in the m-POS arena, Square this week announced an integration with Intuit Inc.’s popular QuickBooks business and financial management software, enabling users of Square’s m-POS solutions to automatically import transactions directly into QuickBooks to streamline their operations. The service, available only in the U.S., goes live Nov. 19. The companies did not disclose financial terms of the deal, but Intuit said it will continue to market GoPayment, its proprietary m-POS service launched in 2011. Intuit recently rebuilt QuickBooks as an open platform, making it easier for small businesses to use its business management tools alongside third-party services like Square, according to Dan Wernikoff, senior vice president and general manager for Intuit’s small business financial solutions group. Intuit has long offered credit card processing services to QuickBooks users through various providers.
The move is not surprising to m-POS experts. Intuit’s primary mission is to push its core QuickBooks product and open its platform to many integrations, Todd Ablowitz, president, Double Diamond Group, tells Paybefore. “Intuit already has dozens of integrations with payments players who ostensibly compete with GoPayment, so this is no change. Square obviously wants to integrate their product with any accounting system they can, as it makes the product much more functional for customers,” he says.
Some observers note that while GoPayment competes with Square, the two offerings may not directly overlap, as the majority of QuickBooks customers are service-oriented businesses and Square has a plethora of small-business retailers. But both companies are eager to net a larger share of healthy small and midsize businesses. QuickBooks is available in 100 countries and GoPayment is available in Europe.
