Amid strong competition to become the go-to point-of-sale provider for small- to medium-sized businesses, Intuit has introduced a solution that allows QuickBooks Online users to accept payments directly on their iPhone.
While tap-to-pay tech isn’t new, Intuit’s offering integrates is that it seamlessly with its QuickBooks suite, allowing small business owners to reconcile payments and manage their finances in one place.
According to data from QuickBooks, nearly half of U.S. small businesses report that cash flow is a significant challenge. Intuit believes its solution can help optimize cash flow while giving customers a convenient payment option—without the need for a traditional point-of-sale (POS) system.
“Intuit used to have a POS that worked with QuickBooks, but when I went to research for our recent Small Business POS Scorecard, I discovered that Intuit announced the end of life (EOL) on the POS platform,” said Don Apgar, Director of Merchant Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research. “It looks like from this announcement that the POS is being replaced by an app that includes tap-to-phone payment acceptance and some basic features like invoicing.”
“In putting together our scorecard, I saw how super-competitive the POS market has become for small business,” he said. “It makes sense that QuickBooks would pull back from trying to keep up in that space, and switch to offering a mobile app that includes basic functions like the ability to accept card payments.”
Tap-to-Phone Traction
Mobile devices have been able to accept payments through add-on devices, like Square’s dongles, for some time. However, after Apple unlocked its NFC technology to third-party developers last year, many solutions have emerged that can turn iPhones into payment terminals.
Also known as tap-to-phone, these solutions have quickly gained traction with small businesses because they allow merchants to accept multiple payment types without the need for expensive hardware.
According to Visa, nearly 30% of tap-to-phone users are new small businesses. These solutions are especially powerful for gig economy workers, creators, and side hustlers, who can use their existing device to accept card payments anywhere.
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