What retail accounting software has to do.
Every sale in a shop is three entries at once: revenue to the store, the cost of the goods out of that store’s stock, and the tender to the drawer or a card clearing account. Retail accounting software either records those itself or receives them from the POS. On top of that a store needs stock per location with transfers between shops, cashier shifts that close with a count, card payouts that reconcile net of fees, and a profit and loss for each store.
Where the POS and the books are separate products, the daily sync carries sales totals across; the cost of each sale and the stock movement often stay in the POS. That is workable for one shop and gets harder with each store you add.
- Sales, cost of goods and tender posted for every sale
- Stock per store, with transfers between shops
- Cashier shifts that close with a count
- Card clearing reconciled against processor payouts
- A profit and loss for each store
The seven options at a glance.
Prices are US list prices, or the figures shown on public software directories, in October 2026, before card processing and hardware. POS systems price per location or register; accounting tools price per company.
1. QuickBooks Online with a POS: the familiar US stack.
Most US shops run QuickBooks Online with a separate POS (Square, Shopify, Lightspeed, Clover) syncing daily sales into it. QuickBooks tracks inventory from its Plus plan and tags transactions by location, and most accountants know it.
US list prices after Intuit’s August 2026 increase run from $38 to $340 a month, plus the POS. Best for: a single store whose accountant works in QuickBooks. Watch out for: location tags do not give each store its own stock and drawer, so per-store cost and transfers usually live in the POS, and the stack costs more than either headline price.
2. Xero with a POS: clean accounting, unlimited users.
Xero pairs with POS systems such as Lightspeed and Square through its app marketplace, with unlimited users on every plan and basic tracked inventory at average cost.
US plans run about $25–$90 a month, plus the POS. Best for: shops in the UK, Australia and New Zealand whose accountant uses Xero. Watch out for: several stores are tracking categories inside one set of books, and stock per store sits in the POS.
3. Lightspeed Retail: specialty retail POS with deep inventory.
Lightspeed Retail is a POS built around inventory: matrix items (size and colour), purchase orders, multi-store stock and customer profiles, with an accounting integration that sends sales and cost to QuickBooks or Xero.
Published plans run about $89, $149 and $289 per location a month, with multi-location and larger setups quoted. Best for: specialty retailers with big catalogues of variants. Watch out for: per-location pricing as you grow, and the books still live in a second system.
4. Square for Retail: the low-cost way to start.
Square for Retail runs on a free plan (you pay card processing) or Plus at about $49 per location a month, with inventory, staff and reporting that suit a single shop well. Sales sync to QuickBooks or Xero through integrations.
Best for: a single small shop that wants to start selling today at the lowest software cost. Watch out for: deeper multi-store stock, purchasing and accounting need other tools, and card processing runs through Square.
5. Shopify POS: one catalogue for online and in-store.
Shopify POS sells from the same catalogue and stock as your Shopify store, which is the reason to choose it. POS Lite comes with Shopify plans; POS Pro, for staff roles and deeper store features, is about $89 per location a month ($79 on annual billing), on top of the Shopify plan.
Best for: retailers whose online store is as important as the shop. Watch out for: accounting comes from an app or a sync to QuickBooks or Xero, so payouts, fees and cost of goods need reconciling in the ledger.
6. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: ERP for chains.
Business Central is Microsoft’s mid-market ERP; retail chains usually add a retail extension (LS Central is the best known) for POS, store operations and replenishment, implemented by a partner.
Licences start around $80 per user per month for Essentials, plus the retail add-on and implementation. Best for: chains with many stores and an IT partner. Watch out for: project-sized implementation and per-user cost.
7. Nonari: the till and the books on one ledger. (Full disclosure: ours.)
Nonari is our product, so weigh this section accordingly. The POS posts every sale straight to the ledger as one entry: revenue to the store, the cost of the items out of that store’s stock, and the tender to the drawer or a card clearing account. It has barcode scanning, split tender, hold and resume, discounts with reasons, loyalty points, and receipts by WhatsApp or SMS. Each store is a branch with its own stock, cost and profit and loss; transfers between stores are posted documents; cashier shifts close with a denomination count and a counted cash handover; and card clearing reconciles against the processor’s payout when the bank statement is imported. More on retail in Nonari.
It costs $29 a month for one store and $70 for up to 3, then $32 for each additional store, with unlimited users and a 15-day free trial. Best for: shops and small chains that want the till, stock and the books to agree every day. Watch out for: it runs in the browser on your own devices, and its app marketplace is smaller than QuickBooks or Xero.
What two stores cost at list price.
Software only, October 2026 list prices, for two stores. QuickBooks Online Plus ($140, which adds inventory and location tracking) with Lightspeed Retail Core in each store (2 × $149) comes to about $438 a month. Xero at the top US plan (about $90) with Square for Retail Plus in each store (2 × $49) comes to about $188, or less on Square’s free plan with fewer features. Nonari is $70 for both stores, with the POS included.
Card processing and hardware come on top of every option, and the POS systems include features (variant matrices, e-commerce) a shop may or may not need. Price the whole stack for the number of stores you plan to have in two years, not just today.
How to choose.
One small shop: Square’s free plan with an accounting package is the cheapest start, and a combined POS and ledger saves the nightly sync and month-end reconciliation. Two to ten stores: insist on stock per store, transfers that post, shifts that close with a count and a profit and loss per store, wherever they live. Many stores with heavy replenishment and an IT partner: Business Central with a retail add-on, at ERP prices.
Whatever you shortlist, run one busy day through it: ring sales with mixed tenders, move stock between two stores, close two shifts, import the card payout. Then check that the store P&L, the stock report and the bank all agree.