Common versions are 12.0, 18.0, and 19.0. Intuit ended sales of QuickBooks POS in May 2023 and ended payments support in October 2023, but the desktop software still runs offline. The export workflow described below works on all supported versions.
What Orchid Does With This File
Orchid uses your inventory export to map your products to Orchid's Master Catalog of ~230,000 normalized firearms-industry products. Wherever your UPC matches one of ours, we use our perfected data (taxonomy, manufacturer, caliber, attributes, images) and only carry your pricing, cost, and quantity forward. Where UPCs are missing or unique to your store, we research and normalize them so your new Orchid POS launches with clean, complete data.
Before You Start
- Run the export from the Server workstation if you have a multi-store setup.
- Make sure no one is doing inventory adjustments while the export runs.
- Allow about 5-15 minutes for a typical store, longer for stores with >25,000 SKUs.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Open QuickBooks POS and sign in as Admin.
- From the top menu, click File > Utilities > Export.
- In the Export Wizard, choose Inventory Items as the data type (only one type per export session). Click Next.
- Select the Default Template (or click Manage Templates to customize which fields export). Always include "Item Number" and "Item Name."
- Click Browse to choose a destination folder and filename.
- Set "Write records to (sheet):" to Sheet 1 and "Begin exporting data to row:" to 1.
- Click Export. QuickBooks creates an Excel workbook (.xls format) with headers in row 1 and data starting row 2.
- To export customers or vendors, repeat the entire wizard — it handles only one data type per pass.
- If File > Utilities > Export errors out (common on stores with very large catalogs), use this alternate path: Reports > Report Center > Item List Report. On the Modify a Report screen, click Add or Remove Columns and check all fields. Then click the Excel button at the top of the report viewer to export.
Expected File Format
Excel workbook (.xls format, Excel 97-2003) with data on Sheet 1. Headers in row 1, data starting row 2.
Expected Columns
- Item Number
- Item Name
- Department
- UPC
- ALU (Alternate Lookup)
- Manufacturer
- Vendor
- Vendor Code
- Cost
- Regular Price
- MSRP
- On-Hand Quantity
- Order Cost
- Tax Code
- Size
- Attribute
- Description 1
- Description 2
- Item Type
- Custom Field 1-5
- Serial Number (for serialized items including firearms)
Watch Out For
- The export wizard is limited to 65,536 rows (the Excel 97-2003 .xls row cap). If your catalog is larger, use the Reports > Report Center > Item List Report > Excel path instead, or chunk the export by Department.
- The QuickBooks POS export sometimes leaves Vendor and Department fields blank on the inventory sheet, even when those values exist in the system. If you see this, also export the Vendor List and Department List separately and Orchid will rejoin them.
- If you have multi-store, the Server workstation (Store 01) exports for all stores; satellite workstations only export their local subset. Quantities appear as Qty 1 through Qty 20 (one column per store).
- EAN-13 (13-digit) barcodes have historically been handled inconsistently in QBPOS. If you find a UPC field looks truncated, check the ALU (Alternate Lookup) column where the full barcode is often stored.
- QuickBooks Desktop POS was discontinued October 3, 2023. The software still runs offline but receives no updates or support.
- The official import/export template uses .xls format. Do NOT include currency symbols, dashes, formulas, or special characters (@, #, $, %, &, *) in data fields.
This file may contain sensitive information (customer addresses, pricing, costs). Send it to Orchid using the secure upload link your consultant provided. Do not email exports as unencrypted attachments.
Questions about this export? Reach out to your Orchid implementation consultant, or email implementations@joinorchid.com with the subject line "[Migration] [Your Store Name] - [Legacy System] [File Type] export."