Does cs-cart use Quick Books for credit card processing?
[quote name=‘mpjbay’]Does cs-cart use Quick Books for credit card processing?[/QUOTE]Doesn’t QB process credit cards from withing their application? As far as I’m aware, QB doesn’t have an API. I guess you could export customer information from CS-Cart and import into QB for processing. Why not use PayPal Pro or other online processor?
QuickBooks isn’t a Payment Gateway or a Merchant Account, it is an accounting software. QuickBooks does have the ability to process payments IF you have a merchant account with the company they have an agreement with (depends on the version you have as to who that company is, but there really isn’t a choice as to who … only one is available). Agreed, you have to download customer and transaction info via the QB integration (IIF export) that is available in 1.3.4 to process w/in QB.
Why use it rather than an online gateway / merchant account? I think there is some justification for doing so if you use QB to manage your banking and your inventory. It gives you a lot more control over how you manage orders, and keeps all financials local and in one place only. At this time (and I haven’t installed the newest RC yet so this may have changed), CS-Cart has some limits on managing orders. If for instance you have all items in stock but one, I don’t think it’s possible to fill and ship a partial order and put the non-filled portion of the order on backorder status … you have to put the entire order on backorder status … correct me if I’m wrong. I do have this need on occasion. QB is also very integrated w/ UPS & FedEx, one click from w/in the receipt screen, add package info (weight, size & value), and the UPS shipping label is automatically printed … the tracking number can also be automatically added to the receipt prior to printing. Much easier than using UPS online.
I’m not a huge fan of QB but currently use it. It keeps my inventory levels, notifies me when I need to order new stock, allows me to generate a PO, e-mail that to my vendor and track status, etc. It automatically updates all of the appropriate accounts in QB when orders are processed and ensures my books remain balanced. I think keeping CS-Cart & QB sync’d (i.e. inventory qty’s) will probably prove to be a pain, but I hope not. If it is, then I’ll not track inventory in CS-Cart but instead only track it in QB. If at some point CS-Cart inventory and order management gets a few more features, I may consider changing, but I don’t think it’s sophisticated enough right now to do what I need, so I process payments in QB.