Choose the Right QBM ERP Edition
This QBM edition comparison helps businesses, consultants, and support teams understand the difference between Retail, POS, Standard, Professional, Premier, and Enterprise (ENT). Use it to compare sales, purchase, accounting, inventory, POS, reporting, multi-user, security, and advanced ERP feature availability before selecting an implementation scope.
For a final recommendation, Business Aim reviews users, branches, stores, inventory tracking, serial and lot requirements, POS counters, reports, integrations, compliance workflows, migration, training, and support needs.
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Important Notes
Current QBM editions: Retail, POS, Standard, Professional, Premier, and Enterprise (ENT).
QBM editions control which areas of the application are available. A feature can also be hidden by user security, company options, modules, or connection status. If a user cannot see a menu, check both the edition and the user's security group.
Customer-facing edition names: Use Retail and POS in customer documents and support communication. Retail is a single-user retail edition with POS included. POS is shown as one POS edition to customers.
| Term | Meaning For Users |
|---|---|
| Edition | The QBM package licensed for the client, such as Retail, POS, Standard, Professional, Premier, or Enterprise (ENT). |
| Feature | A functional area that may be available or hidden depending on the edition. |
| Multi-user | Allows QBM to work in a network/server setup when the edition, license, and company setup allow it. |
| POS | Point of Sale features such as sales receipts, counters, cash drawers, POS customer lists, POS item lists, batches, and POS reports. |
Common Features
The following areas form the common QBM foundation. The exact menu name can differ between Retail, POS, and full business editions, and user permissions can still hide screens for individual users.
| Common Area | What Users Can Normally Do |
|---|---|
| Company access | Open a company, close a company, work with company information, use help, and maintain application settings allowed by the edition. |
| Customers and sales | Maintain customers and perform the sales workflows included in the edition, such as invoices, receipts, orders, payments, refunds, or POS sales. |
| Vendors and purchases | Maintain vendors and perform purchase workflows included in the edition, such as bills, pay bills, purchase transactions, and vendor lists. |
| Items and inventory | Maintain item lists and stock-related information available to the edition. |
| Accounts and banking | Use chart of accounts, journals, expenses, deposits, withdrawals, transfers, and account reports where available. |
| Reports | Run operational, sales, purchase, inventory, accounting, and POS reports included in the edition. |
| Printing and output | Preview, print, and use document output features where enabled by edition and security. |
| Security | Use users and security groups to control what each person can open, create, edit, delete, print, or approve. |
Edition Summary
| Edition | Best For | Menu Style | Multi-User / Network | POS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail | Single-user retail businesses that need daily retail sales, stock, customers, vendors, accounts, and POS in one simplified edition. | Retail menu and Retail home screen. | No. Retail is single-user and should not be sold as a networked edition. | Yes, POS features are included. |
| POS | Cashier and counter environments where the workstation is focused on Point of Sale operations. | POS-specific menu. | Can use network/server setups when the license and implementation allow it. | Yes, dedicated POS workflow. |
| Standard | General business clients that need the main QBM business menu and standard sales, purchase, inventory, banking, accounting, and reporting workflows. | Main business menu. | Can use network/server setups when the license and implementation allow it. | No dedicated POS by edition. |
| Professional | Growing companies needing stronger inventory, currency, job, location, reporting, and business controls. | Main business menu. | Can use network/server setups when the license and implementation allow it. | No dedicated POS by edition. |
| Premier | Companies needing advanced operational features such as landed cost, assemblies, fixed assets, budgeting, approvals, integrations, and advanced HR. | Main business menu. | Can use network/server setups when the license and implementation allow it. | No dedicated POS by edition. |
| Enterprise | Clients needing the full QBM feature set, including advanced service, CRM, loyalty, gift card, consignment, promotions, and other enterprise controls. | Main business menu. | Can use network/server setups when the license and implementation allow it. | No dedicated POS by edition unless sold together with POS-specific licensing/modules. |
Feature Comparison Table
This table summarizes the main differences. "Setup dependent" means the edition allows the feature, but the client may still need the right user permissions, company option, module, or implementation setting.
| Feature Group | Retail | POS | Standard | Professional | Premier | Enterprise (ENT) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core sales, purchase, accounting, inventory, and reports | Retail-focused | POS-focused | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-user / network mode | No | Setup dependent | Setup dependent | Setup dependent | Setup dependent | Setup dependent |
| Dedicated POS menus and cashier workflow | Included | Primary workflow | No | No | No | No by default |
| Cash drawer / POS toolbar behavior | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No by default |
| Work offline for POS | No | Yes | No | No | No | No by default |
| Retail home screen | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Main business menu | Retail menu | POS menu | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Item extra details, brands, models, manufacturers | No | POS-focused | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Serial number tracking / serialization | Setup dependent | Setup dependent | Setup dependent | Yes, when serial tracking is enabled | Yes, when serial tracking is enabled | Yes, when serial tracking is enabled |
| Lot handling / product lots | Setup dependent | Setup dependent | Setup dependent | Setup dependent | Setup dependent | Setup dependent |
| Split payments for customers and vendors | No | POS payment workflow | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-currency, cost methods, multi-location, and price levels | No | No by default | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Data management, backup/restore, import/export, and document utilities | Retail utility set | POS utility set | Standard utility set | Expanded utility set | Advanced utility set | Full utility set |
| User-level location permissions | No | No by default | No | Yes, when multi-location is used | Yes, when multi-location is used | Yes, when multi-location is used |
| Job costing, kits, document reminders, scheduling, and advanced report analysis | No | No by default | No | Setup dependent | Setup dependent | Setup dependent |
| Assemblies, landed cost, containers, supplier prices, and purchase price comparison | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Fixed assets | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Budgeting, approvals, proforma, inventory aging, funds flow, and dated trial balance | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced security, account classes, and transaction classes | No | No by default | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced menu/UI security and role-based form control | No | No by default | No | Standard group security only | Yes | Yes |
| External application access controls | No by default | Setup dependent | Setup dependent | Setup dependent | Setup dependent | Setup dependent |
| Own contacts / own transaction filtering | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Integrations | No by default | No by default | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced HR | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| CRM, field services, loyalty, gift card, consignment, and promotions | No | No by default | No | No | No | Yes |
Retail Edition
Retail is a single-user retail edition. It uses a Retail menu and a Retail home screen instead of the full main business menu. The Retail home screen includes standard business panels and a POS panel.
| Retail Area | What Users See |
|---|---|
| Customers | Customer list, sales invoices, receive payment, sales receipts, and sales refunds. |
| Vendors | Bills, pay bills, purchase refunds, and vendor-related lists. |
| Accounts | Account list, journal entry, expenses, deposits, withdrawals, transfers, and registers. |
| Company | Company setup shortcuts, backup, user/security-related shortcuts, and company utilities available to the edition. |
| POS | POS cash sales, POS orders, customers, invoices, receipts, prepayments, counters, and POS reports. |
Do not position Retail as a network edition. Retail is single-user and cannot use QBM multi-user/network mode.
POS Edition
POS uses a POS-specific menu and is designed for counters and cashier workflows. It is not the same as the full Standard, Professional, Premier, or Enterprise (ENT) business menus.
| POS Area | What It Covers |
|---|---|
| POS menu | POS sales receipts, sales refunds, POS invoices, POS orders, payments, prepayments, POS customers, POS items, batches, and POS options. |
| Tools | POS tools, activation, connection, backup, print setup, and related utilities depending on connection and permissions. |
| Reports | POS and cashier-focused reporting, including counter and batch-style reports. |
| Offline mode | POS can show work-offline behavior where supported by setup and environment. |
| Cash drawer | POS shows POS cash drawer toolbar behavior. |
Advanced Feature Groups
The following summary helps sales and support explain upgrade differences without listing every internal feature flag.
| Upgrade Level | Feature Groups Added |
|---|---|
| Standard over Retail/POS | Main business menu and broader business workflows, with standard item details and split payment capability. |
| Professional over Standard | Multi-currency, multi-location, cost methods, item tracking, serialization, job costing, price levels, kits, month-wise aging reports, document reminders, scheduling, extra reports, advanced report analysis, service requests, and related controls. |
| Premier over Professional | Landed cost, assemblies, advanced security, role-based menu/user-interface control, letters of credit, custom fields, containers, supplier price, location costing, purchase price comparison, fixed assets, employee leave request, receive/deliver workflows, budgeting, approvals, inventory aging, proforma, funds flow, dated trial balance, classes, card identification, advanced HR, and integrations. |
| Enterprise (ENT) over Premier | Full edition feature allowance, including field services, CRM, loyalty, gift card, own-record filtering, consignment, and promotions. |
Security by Edition
All business editions use users and security groups, but the depth of control changes by edition. If support is comparing Professional with Premier, the key difference is advanced security.
| Edition Level | How Security Works | What Support Should Check |
|---|---|---|
| Professional | Professional supports user groups, group members, form permissions, transaction/entity permissions, and miscellaneous controls such as sales discount, selling below cost, changing document numbers/dates, POS permissions, reminders, and company restrictions. It does not enable the advanced security layer for menu/user-interface hiding. | Check the user's group, the Permissions tabs, and company options. If the client asks for advanced role-based menu control, compare with Premier or Enterprise. |
| Premier | Premier enables advanced security. In User Group Details, the User Interface security tab can be used to control menus and left-panel centers, and form-level controls are available as advanced role permissions. Premier also adds account classes, transaction classes, fixed assets, budgeting, approvals, and other advanced operational areas. | Use Premier when the client needs stricter role-based access, menu visibility control, advanced classes, or deeper management controls without the full Enterprise-only modules. |
| Enterprise (ENT) | Enterprise (ENT) includes the Premier security depth and adds full edition coverage. It also enables own-record filtering, such as own contacts and own sales transactions, where configured in security. | For Enterprise / ENT clients, if a user cannot see data, check both the feature setup and own-record/security filters before assuming data is missing. |
Applications tab: User Group Details can also control external/application access where applications are registered. The group can allow an application and decide whether it applies to all locations and all employees.
Serialization and lots: Serial numbers and product lots are inventory setup features. If Product Serials or Product Lots are missing, first check the inventory options, then the user's security group, and then the edition.
Support Checklist
When a client asks why a feature is missing, support should check the following in order:
- Confirm the client's QBM edition.
- Confirm whether the company is connected and whether the license is active.
- Confirm whether the feature is included in the edition table above.
- Check the user's security group and permissions.
- Check whether the related company option/module is enabled.
- For serial numbers and lots, confirm the inventory tracking option is enabled before treating the issue as an edition limitation.
- For Professional versus Premier security questions, remember that Premier enables advanced menu/user-interface security while Professional uses standard group security.
- For Retail, remember it is single-user and includes POS but is not a network edition.
- For POS, remember the user sees the POS menu, not the full business menu.
- For Enterprise / ENT, check security and setup first because the edition itself allows all edition features.
QBM Edition FAQ
Which QBM editions are compared here?
This guide compares QBM Retail, POS, Standard, Professional, Premier, and Enterprise (ENT).
Is Enterprise the same as ENT?
Yes. QBM may refer to the Enterprise edition as Enterprise or ENT.
Should buyers choose an edition from this guide only?
The guide is a helpful starting point. Final edition selection should be confirmed with Business Aim based on users, branches, modules, POS needs, reporting, inventory tracking, integrations, migration, training, and support scope.