LightSpeed POS for Apple Mac

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http://www.lightspeedretail.com/help/print/
LightSpeed POS for Apple Mac
1. Start Here!
Welcome to LightSpeed
Welcome to the User Guide for LightSpeed, the groundbreaking Point of Sale software for
Mac OS X and iOS! This guide will take you step by step through all the sections of
LightSpeed and the Web Store - through every feature, every setup, every workflow.
One-Page Format
For a printable, single-page format of the entire User Guide, click here. However, it is a large file
(~20mb) and may take a few minutes to load. (updated 1/6/12)
We recommend that you to go through each article chronologically - they're arranged to give you
information in the order we think you'll need it. The navigation buttons at the bottom of each article
should help with that. However, after going through the Getting Started articles and configuring
LightSpeed, which section you go to next really is up to you. And there's a search at the top of the
Training section that will show you results for the things you want to know. Please keep in mind that this
User Guide is new and we're still refining things. If you have any feedback on how we can improve the
User Guide, don't hesitate to email us at training@lightspeedretail.com.
The User Guide articles contain screenshots to help illustrate a workflow or a feature - click them to see
an enlarged version. There are also help notes throughout that spotlight a particular point of
importance. The User Guide is also full of links that look like this. Clicking one of these links will take
you to another article.
Getting Started
The Getting Started section is devoted to a complete explanation of the basics and essentials you
need to know for setup, configuration, navigation, and basic use. Read up on the three components of
LightSpeed (POS, Browser, and Web Store), the four sales documents (Quote, SRO, Order, and
Invoice), and all things related to setting up LightSpeed for maximum benefit.
The Configuration I article outlines the steps required for configuring LightSpeed to operate, including
the setup of taxes, products, and customers.
Configuration II is the next phase of setup, full of tips on how to get the most of LightSpeed's features,
with explanations of how to configure the powerful retail tools available to you.
Because the Configuration I and II articles reference all sections of the software, it is best if you open
them in one web browser window, and use another web browser window to access articles specific to
what you are in the process of configuring.
Navigating
There are three major components of LightSpeed:
The POS screen, a streamlined sales interface intended to process transactions on a retail
floor, provides a simple, rich, and efficient experience for both the salesperson and the customer.
The Browser normally accessed by logging into LightSpeed, by clicking the "Browser" icon in
the Tool Bar, or by leaving the POS screen, puts the majority of your business processes in one
window, giving you a clear overview of the activity for the day, the month, and the year,
streamlining and automating workflows.
The Web Store takes your existing Products and offers them for sale online, uploading them to
a web host, and downloading the orders your customers place. The Web Store must be
purchased and installed separately.
This guide is an overview of the basic requirements for configuring LightSpeed, and does not include
explanation of all features. For more complete explanations, please see the different articles outlining
the various features.
Keyboard Shortcuts
POINT OF SALE
KEY
FUNCTION
F1
Search Product Mode or Payment Method 1
F2
Search Customer Mode or Payment Method 2 (etc up to
8)
F3
Search Document Mode
F4
Jump to Search
F5
Cancel Search
F6
Toggle Walk-In/Customer
F7
Log Out
F8
Toggle Tax Codes
F13
Exit POS or Go Back
F14
Start POS Over or New
F15
Notes
F16
Check Out or Print
DOCUMENTS
Command-;
Spell Check
Command-=
Time and User Stamp
Command-'
Phrases
Command-Click (on
date)
Modify Document Date
LIGHTSPEED MENU
Command-,
Trackers Setup
Command-H
Hide LightSpeed
Command-Option-H
Hide Others
Command-Q
Quit
FILE MENU
Command-K
New Quote
Command-R
New SRO
Command-I
New Invoice
Command-Shift-C
New Customer
Command-Shift-P
New Product
Command-W
Close Window
Command-N
Log Into Point of Sale
Command-S
Save
Command-/
Open Cash Drawer
Command-P
Print
Command-Shift-Q
Change User
EDIT MENU
Command-X
Cut
Command-C
Copy
Command-V
Paste
Command-A
Select All
Command-Shift-L
Link This Document
Command-Shift-D
Apply Discount
Command-F
Find
Command-Shift-I
iStats Setup
TOOLS MENU
Command-Option-I
Intelligence
Command-Option-R
Reporting
Command-Shift-I
iStats
Command-Shift-W
Web Store
WINDOW MENU
Command-M
Minimize Window
Command-`
Cycle Through Windows
Command-T
Hide/Show Toolbar
Configuration and Setup
To get the full benefit of LightSpeed and its many features, there are several settings that must first be
configured, including information about your Company, your region's taxes, and the users who will be
using the software. The majority of these are found in the Tools menu, under the Setup option.
While LightSpeed has many features that can be configured, there are basic requirements you must
configure first for you to get started with the software. A step-by-step guideline on how to configure
these settings can be found in the Configuration I article of this section.
Configuration II outlines the settings that, while optional for some users, will maximize the daily
workflows of you and your staff. Please see the entire Getting Started section for a solid overview of the
entire setup process.
Workflow Basics
The sales and purchasing workflows of LightSpeed are at the heart of a retail business's daily
operations. Though more detail can be found in other articles, a general overview of the possible sales
and purchasing workflows is as follows:
Quote-to-Invoice: A Customer wants to purchase items they have been quoted on. An Invoice
is created from the Quote, and can be edited before completing the sale. More detail found here.
Quote-to-Order: You want to reserve existing available inventory for a Customer who does not
yet want to purchase the item(s), or create an Order Request that will eventually be compiled onto
a Purchase Order that will request the Product be ordered from a Supplier.
Order-to-Invoice: A Customer wants to purchase Product(s) they have reserved on an Order.
Invoice-to-Order: You need to backorder Product(s) that the Customer wants to purchase but
were not available to sell, and must be brought in from a Supplier on a Purchase Order.
Order-to-Purchase Order: A Product that is not reserved can be converted to a PO directly,
using the Purchase Order button on the Order itself, or it can be compiled, along with other
Products purchased at the same Supplier, using the purchasing workflow outlined in the
Purchasing article of the Inventory and Purchasing section.
Inventory
LightSpeed's inventory features allow you to create, count, and track your inventory in all the ways you
need to manage your stock levels and make intelligent decisions about what to buy, and when.
Purchasing
LightSpeed allows you to map your Suppliers and their Costs to each Product, making the Purchasing
process a one-click operation that saves you time every time you compile a PO. LightSpeed will also
prompt you to reorder Products that have reached a critical level, and compile Customer backorder
requests with existing stock orders for the most efficient stock management.
Accounting
LightSpeed integrates with QuickBooks for Mac and MYOB, as well as some versions of QuickBooks
for Windows, for an export of General Ledger summaries with accrual-based accounting, and for
payables owing to Suppliers.
Reporting
The Reporting modules of LightSpeed let you pull relevant data regarding sales, payments, inventory,
taxes, and more in a simple configurator that allows you to print, preview, or export your results.
Customer Management
LightSpeed's detailed AR workflows track oustanding credits and balances for Customers whose
purchase histories are brought together in a single place, the Customer card. This card stores all
relevant information about your Customers, giving you a source to track your correspondence, enter
credit and terms information, and more.
Web Store
Integrating LightSpeed's Web Store module brings your existing Products database online, and
downloads the Web Orders that your Customers have placed into LightSpeed for fulfillment.
2. Important Things to Consider
Introduction
As with any software, and when making decisions about workflows and best practises, there are some
important points to keep in mind when configuring and using LightSpeed. This is a brief overview of
some basic concepts, both general and specific to LightSpeed. It is recommended that you are aware
of these suggestions, and make up your own mind as to the degree you choose to implement them.
They cover the entire range of features of the software, and though their presentation here is cursory,
you may usually find more information in each section's individual articles.
THE NUMBER ONE RULE
The number one rule that you must incorporate into your daily routine is to perform both regular and
manual backups to your database. Anytime you make changes to your database that affect a large
number of items, you should be in the habit of doing a manual backup just prior. If an error is made, this
gives you, and Xsilva Support, the option to restore an earlier version of your database, and frequent
manual backups minimize the amount of data entry required to make your data current. Of course, it's
also essential to set LightSpeed to do automatic, periodic backups as well. For more information on
backing up LightSpeed, please see the Backing Up article.
Customers
It is recommended that you and your staff be very careful not to create multiple Customer cards
for the same company or individual. Doing so fractures their purchase history and provides an
incomplete picture of their outstanding balances and credits, which can create a confusing and
frustrating experience for the customer, the sales rep, the accountant, and the manager/owner.
Reconciling multiple Customer cards into one is possible with the Merge Customer feature, but it
is best to avoid creating duplicate Customer records from the beginning.
For more information, please see Customers.
Products
A Product's attributes are "fused" to a document when it's added. For this reason, it is
especially important that serialized Products have the "Serialized" checkbox checked before
they are added to a PO or an Invoice. Serializing a Product card after it's been received or sold
can create confusion in its history and on reports.
Products cannot be deleted once they are received on a PO or sold on an Invoice.
Products can be made "invisible" (unfound in searches) by deselecting the "Current" attribute
in the Product card. Non-current Products will appear in regular searches if they have quantities in
stock. Non-current Products can be searched in the Browser by choosing "Non-current" in the
Product search filter.
Only official UPC codes can be used in the UPC field of the Product card for label printing and
scanning to function; they cannot be auto-generated.
For more information, please see Products.
Costs
Products that do not have a Cost associated in the Product card will be received or sold with a
cost of zero, and 100% margin.
Products sold or received at zero Cost can be tracked and fixed in the Troubleshooting
section, found at Tools > Utilities > Troubleshooting, or by modifying the Cost on the Invoice or
Purchase Order. This should automatically update the Product's inventory history, found in the
Inventory tab of the Product card.
Inventory adjustments done with a Cost of zero cannot be modified, so a new adjustment must
be made to the value of a Product's existing stock.
Be very careful of any Products having a zero Cost.
Checking the Cost Always Equals Sell attribute in a Product card will automatically have the
Sell Price entered as the Cost on any sales document (Quote, Order, Invoice, SRO) it's attached
to.
For more information, please see Costs and Prices.
Returns, Exchanges & Refunds
Customers returning Products who want to retain a credit on account rather than take a refund
must have a Customer card to which this credit may be applied. The original Invoice may
be sold to a "Walk-In", but you must create a Customer card on the return Invoice in order to
access that credit at a later date.
For more information, please see Returns & Exchanges.
Shipping
Shipping charges are added to Customer Invoices or Supplier Invoices by creating a Shipping
Product, a non-inventoried, usually non-taxed Product that is priced and added to Customer or
Supplier Invoices in order to charge or pay shipping.
Credit Card Processing
American merchants using internal credit card processing to process payments must process
a void of the entire original transaction on a second, returning Invoice if the payment has not
yet settled (ie. same day or thereabouts), and then process a third Invoice from scratch, or may
do a partial refund on the second (returning) Invoice if the payment has settled.
Refunds require the copy and paste of the original transaction authorization.
Refunds of deposits processed on Quotes, Orders, or SROs should be processed as a
negative payment on an Invoice.
While it is the default setting of most payment gateways to settle at the end of each business
day, it is recommended that you confirm your payments have settled daily until you are satisfied
the process is complete.
In order for an internally processed credit card payment to be valid, you must receive an
authorization number once the payment is processed. If you are not notified of this number,
the payment was not processed.
Accounts arranged with payment gateways should be retail, card-present, live accounts.
Testing may be done, but it is necessary to modify the credit card setup panel in LightSpeed to
"sandbox", using a live (not test) account from the processor/gateway.
Deletions
While documents, including Invoices, can be deleted, it is recommended that Invoices are
voided rather than deleted, with a note attached explaining the situation. Invoices may only be
voided once all the Products are removed from it.
You cannot delete an Invoice that has a Payment applied to it.
You cannot delete a Product if it has been received on a Purchase Order or sold on an Invoice.
Rather than delete a Product, you can make it "non-current" and, provided it has no inventory, it
will not show up in Browser or POS searches (see: Tools > Setup > Basics > Company >
Searching)
It is not recommended that you delete Terms, Suppliers, Customers, Invoices,
Payments, Payment Methods, Users, Purchase Orders, or anything else in the software
that affects inventory, accounting exports, processed sales, etc.
Accounting Exports
Once a Payment, Invoice, Supplier Invoice, or Inventory Adjustment is posted and exported, no
alterations should be made that will affect any information in your accounting software.
If you must make a profound alteration, you must be sure that it is reflected in your accounting
software.
Transactions that are posted but not yet exported may be modified, but you must repost the
transaction in order for the export done on the appropriate date range to "see" the transaction
and include it in the export.
Once a transaction is posted, it is invisible to the posting processing. Once it is exported, it is
invisible to the exporting process.
Create a dummy Product and a dummy Customer, then process a sale, a payment, a
purchase, and an inventory adjustment. Practise an export/import with this data and then analyze
your Chart of Accounts to make sure you are aware of all numbers.
Do not import the same information into your accounting software twice.
If your accounting export involves files being saved to your hard drive, do not delete these files.
Create an organized storage system (usually by date) from which you can easily reference a
particular file if necessary.
Be sure that the date range of your export is the same date range as you've posted.
For more information, please see Accounting.
Importing
LightSpeed will import tab-separated and comma-separated text files.
Once you have alligned your source and target fields in Import Tools, save them as a preset in
case you must re-do the import.
It is recommended that if you have a large amount of data to import, you copy and paste the
first few lines of your spreadsheet into a new file, and import just a few records to begin with.
Confirm everything is placing where you expect, and then import your entire file.
The most recently imported/updated items may easily be found and deleted in the Browser
using the pop-up menu near the top.
Matrix Child Products can be imported and attributed to a Master.
For more information, please see Importing.
General
Be sure to back up regularly, at least once a day. Enable the live backups of
LightSpeed, and schedule regular backups of the backup onto a separate volume.
Perform a live backup before you attempt a large import, any upgrade to LightSpeed, or any
modification to significant amounts of data. (eg. using Set Selling Prices to modify all your prices,
or adjusting inventory levels using Count Inventory)
Having a large number of Trackers installed, or having Trackers with many items, can affect the
performance of any Browser-related functions.
Advanced features available in the Tax setup panel are not required for most LightSpeed
users. Contact Xsilva's Support department if you are unsure how to configure this panel, or see
the Configuration I or Taxes articles of this section of the User Guide.
3. Logging in
Introduction
After the installation of LightSpeed is complete (please see the Networking & Installation article for
more info), launch the application LightSpeed on the computer running LightSpeed Server, and log in
with the "Logging In: Server" instructions below. If you wish to connect to the computer running
LightSpeed Server from another computer on your network, drag the application LightSpeed from the
Applications folder of your LightSpeed Server computer to the Applications folder of the connecting, or
"client", computer, and follow the "Logging In: Client" instructions below.
IPs and Ports
After installation, LightSpeed Server is accessible on a port. The default port is 9630. However, if you
have installed a demo and a licensed copy on the server, the port of your licensed database may be
9630 or higher. If you are accessing your database by way of IP address on a server with multiple
databases installed, you will need to add a colon and the port number after the IP of the computer
running LightSpeed Server.
Example: 127.0.0.1:9631 (on server), 10.40.28.34:9631 (on client)
Logging In: Server
1. Launch LightSpeed.
2. Click the Servers button upon login.
3. If Bonjour is enabled, click Bonjour and select the appropriate LightSpeed Server. If Bonjour is
not enabled, or you prefer to specify your LightSpeed server by its IP, click Custom and enter
127.0.0.1 in the Address field. See the example note below if the specification of a particular port
is required.
4. Click Connect.
Logging In: Client
1. Launch LightSpeed.
2. Click the Servers button upon login.
3. If Bonjour is enabled, click Bonjour and select the appropriate LightSpeed Server on your LAN. If
Bonjour is not enabled, or you prefer to specify your LightSpeed server by its IP, click Custom
and enter the internal IP of the server computer in the Address field.
4. Click Connect.
Logging In: Remotely
Recent requirements by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council lead by VISA
and MasterCard have been put in place in order to promote enhanced payment card security
and decrease fraud for merchants that process credit and debit requirements. These
requirements (known as the PCI Data Security Standard, or PCI-DSS) also extend to software
vendors such as Xsilva, in the form of a Payment Application Data Security Standard, or PADSS.
In order to ensure data security in line with the requirements laid out by PCI-DSS requirements, Xsilva
recommends the use of a VPN with two-factor authentication in order to facilitate remote access to
LightSpeed. For further information regarding VPNs, please contact a network specialist in your area.
Unfortunately, PA-DSS requirements prohibit Xsilva from providing any assistance regarding network
configuration or remote access.
Setup Assistant
Installing LightSpeed for the first time includes an easy setup assistant that guides you through the
crucial first steps of your configuration.
The Setup Assistant appears immediately after the first time you launch LightSpeed and close the
Welcome screen. Go through the Setup Assistant, entering information such as your company name
and address, the Users you wish to set up, and more. Below is an outline of what you can enter using
the Setup Assistant.
All information set in the Setup Assistant can be modified using the Setup panel under the Tools menu
within LightSpeed.
Step 1 - Company Info
Includes your Company name, Contact info, and Billing/Shipping Addresses
Step 2 - Company Logo
Allows you to drop in a 192x192 pixel logo in .png or .jpg format that will appear on
your printed sales documents and receipts.
Step 3 - Tax Types
This is where you enter the names of the taxes you will charge on your sales
documents. For example, "AZ" or "City".
Step 4 - Tax Rates
Allows you to set rates for the taxes you have named in the previous step. For
example, 5.25 for "AZ".
Step 5 - POS Mode
Indicates which Mode - Scan or Button - the POS will use when launched. Scan Mode
is for larger Product databases which use barcode scanners to create Invoices;
Button Mode is for retailers with a smaller number of popular Products (10-200) that
wish to create Invoices using the nested, drill-down categories outlined in the POS
document.
Step 6 - POS Logo
Allows you to drop in a 255x140 pixel logo in .png or .jpg format that will appear in the
POS screen in the upper right corner.
Step 7 - Change Admin Password
Allows you to change the main Administrator password from the default (admin). DO
NOT FORGET YOUR ADMIN PASSWORD AS YOU WILL BE UNABLE TO LOG
INTO LIGHTSPEED, AND IT IS IRRETRIEVABLE.
Step 8 - Create New User Account
Allows you to set up a User account for login, including username and password.
4. The Browser
Introduction
Just as the POS screen is LightSpeed’s view to the front end processes of your business, the Browser
is an overview of the back end, including sales and administrative functions, as well as time and
customer management features. Products, Customers, Sales Documents, Jobs, Timesheets,
Trackers, and multi-store Transfers are all accessible in the Browser, as well as all of the Purchasing
functions, including Orders, POs, and Suppliers.
The Browser is accessed by the magnifying glass icon titled "Browser" in the Tool Bar, or by exiting the
Point of Sale screen. There are four main sections to the Browser:
the Source List, located along the left side, which provides access to your sales documents,
Products, and Customers.
the Main List section which lists the contents of the category chosen on the left
the Preview Pane, located at the top right, which shows the contents of a sales document,
Product, or Customer without having to open it
the Parking section, which acts as a clipboard for documents or profiles to which you want
repeated access
Source List
Almost anything you’re looking for in LightSpeed can be found by first choosing one of the sources
listed along the left side of the Browser. Selecting one of these sources will display its contents
according to the filter menus located at the top of the central Main List, and will determine which data is
displayed for that particular source.
The Source List is itself divided into several sections:
Profiles, which include Customers, Products, and Suppliers. Also known as "cards"
Sales Documents, including Quotes, Invoices, Orders, and SROs
Time-Billing, made up of Jobs and Timesheets
Purchasing, where you can access the Order Requests, Actions, POs, and Supplier Invoices
Transfers, made up of incoming and outgoing store transfers
Trackers, which list your installed Trackers as well as the number of documents each contain
Main List
As mentioned above, selecting a source will display different column headings in the central Main List.
These headings can be modified in length, and clicking them once will sort the list of data according to
that heading in ascending order. Clicking them a second time will sort in descending order.
As a source is displayed in the Main List, filter menus located at the top near the search field will
appear. Entering terms in the search field and selecting choices in the filter menus will allow you to
quickly find the relevant documents you need. A filter menu contains searchable data fields found in
that particular source.
When searching for a particular Product, this menu will allow you to search based on fields like Class or
Description. In some cases, only one filter menu is available. However, sales documents can also be
filtered based on when they were created or modified, within a pre-defined time period, or over a date
range you can specify.
Use these filters to quickly sort through your entire data set and find the particular documents or profiles
you’re searching. Double-click any result in this Main List section to open it.
Custom Fields you have created in the Setup panel are searchable using a filter menu. New sales
documents can be created by dragging one
or more Products over to the Source List and dropped on a source. For example, using your Apple
(Command) key to select an Agate bracelet and red DJ bag, you can drag and drop those over the
word "Quote" in the Source List to open a new, unsaved Quote with those Products populated in it.The
same can be done for Orders, Invoices, Purchase Orders, Supplier Invoices, and Transfers.
Cover Flow is a graphical layout that allows you browse through Products, Customers, and Suppliers
using the images saved in their profiles. You can double-click an image to open the profile. Cover Flow
can be disabled in Tools > Setup > Company > Searching.
Preview Pane
The Preview Pane of the Browser allows you to see basic information about an item, allowing you the
ability to look into a document or a profile without having to open it.
Customer information will include the name and image, as well as the billing, shipping, and
contact information;
Clicking on the image will enable your iSight camera to snap a photograph and store it in the
Customer’s profile, while dropping an image into the area will also store the image.
Previewing a Product displays its code, description, image, and its total quantity;
Clicking the inventory total will expand the view to include all statuses, including access to multistore inventory levels.
The contents of sales documents will be visible when they are previewed, including quantities,
prices, codes, descriptions, statuses, and, in the case of SROs, problem description and work
performed.
Jobs and Timesheets will preview the time spent on them.
Parking
The Parking section of the Browser can be thought of as a clipboard for LightSpeed documents,
allowing you drag-and-drop functionality for profiles or documents you need to reference frequently. To
“park” a document, drag it from the Main List to an available space. Clicking a parked item will display
it in the Preview Pane; open it by double-clicking.
Sales documents in Parking can be edited simply by dragging a Customer or Product(s) from the Main
List and dropped over the document – a dialog will appear asking if you want to edit the document in
question. If you answer OK, the document will open with the additions ready to be saved. Documents
or profiles can be removed from Parking by clicking the “x” icon that appears on its Parking bar.
Smart Finds
At the bottom of the Browser, there is a button labeled Smart Find. This feature allows you to configure
an advanced search for Products, Customers, or documents that meet a set of criteria that you define
using a series of pop-up menus. You can perform the search immediately and only once, or you can
save it for repeated access to avoid having to reconfigure the search to get fresh results.
Once you have settled on your criteria, including any Custom Fields you have created, you have three
choices – clicking the Find button will produce the results in the Browser; clicking the Export button will
export the results of your find to a tab-delimited file; and clicking the Save button will allow you to save
the criteria as a Smart Find you can name, and will be accessible in the Source List for fresh results
produced each time the Smart Find is accessed below the source. Saving a Smart Find personally will
display it only to you, and publicly displays it to all users.
Example: A Smart Find for Invoices based on the criteria of the status being “Owing”. Saving this
Smart Find will produce an arrow icon in the Source List beside Invoices; clicking this arrow will display
the Smart Find, and clicking the Smart Find will produce a list in the central Main List of all the Invoices
with an “Owing” status. As soon as an Invoice is paid, its status will change and it will drop off the
results of this particular Smart Find. Double-clicking the Smart Find will display how it was built, and
allow for editing.
Clicking the “+” icon at the bottom of the Source List will call up a similar window, but one that will only
export or save a Smart Find. To delete a Smart Find, select it in the Source List and click the “-“ icon
located at the bottom of the Source List.
Clicking the spinning arrow Refresh icon will prompt the Browser to display any changes that have
been made but are not yet visible.
In addition to the Smart Find and Refresh buttons in the Browser, there are many more, each having
useful functions as you navigate through the software.
Located at the bottom of the Browser are the buttons that create and delete documents and
profiles. To delete a profile or sales document, select it by clicking it once in the Main List, and
then click the Delete button.
Clicking the Open button will open the profile or sales document that is selected in the Main
List.
Clicking the New button when a source is selected will create a new sales document, Job,
Customer, Product, or Timesheet.
The Log Out button, also at the bottom of the Browser, will log the current User out of
LightSpeed and default to the log-in screen, ready for another User to log in.
To enter the front-end POS screen, click the "barcode scanner" icon located just above the
Preview Pane.
Similar to the Mac OS X Spotlight feature, the Search All feature, accessed in a search field located
above the Preview Pane, searches through all documents, notes fields, profiles, and time-billing, and
produces a list in the Main List of all items that match the search string.
If you have difficulty remembering when a particular Invoice was created or what Products it sold, but
you only remember the Customer’s last name, you can search on the name to immediately produce a
list of everywhere that name exists in LightSpeed, including the Invoice you were searching.
Trackers
Trackers are a system of communication and information tracking in LightSpeed which allow you to
“install” particular headings which, when accessed, display the relevant documents in the Browser.
Trackers are User-specific; that is, each User has a set of Trackers unique to them, and only sees their
Trackers when they are logged in.
For more information on using Trackers, please see the Tracking & Searching article in this section of
the User Guide.
Transfers
When other stores are added to yours in the Multi Store feature of LightSpeed, you will see two icons
appear in the Browser tagged Transfers In and Transfers Out, allowing you to transfer stock easily
from one location to another. For more information on inter-store transfers, please see the MultiStore article in the Sales & Workflows section of the User Guide.
Purchasing
The Source List contains a section dedicated to Purchasing, including the ability to look at all
outstanding Order Requests, Purchase Orders, and Supplier Invoices. In fact, clicking the Order
Requests or Actions tabs will produce two new buttons at the bottom of the Browser: Cancel Request
and Generate PO.
For more information on ordering, purchasing, and Suppliers, please see the Purchasing article in
the Inventory and Purchasing section of the User Guide.
Browser Exports
A powerful feature available in the Browser is the ability to export any results that can be produced in
the Main List as a tab-separated text file, including the results from simple searches, or Smart Finds.
Once you have produced a list of results in the Main List that you wish to export, click the Export button
at the bottom of the Browser. A dialog box will appear asking you to save the file to your hard drive. For
more information, please see the Exporting article in the Administration section of the User Guide.
5. Point of Sale
Invoicing - POS
LightSpeed features an intuitive Point of Sale interface that streamlines and secures front counter retail
checkout.
LightSpeed POS is the first Point of Sale interface that truly harnesses the power of Mac OS X and
showcases its advanced graphics capabilities. It’s also the first POS on OS X to operate in the context
of a full multi-user sales workflow, powered by a high-performance SQL database, and the only POS
software to integrate Cover Flow technology, allowing you to browse Customers and Products by their
images.
There are 2 different modes in the POS screen for finding and invoicing Products, Scan Mode and
Button Mode. Each mode maximizes the POS for different retail environments, whether you have a
high volume with a limited number of popular products, or carry a much larger set of items. Once your
Invoice has been created using one of these modes, you enter the Payments screen to apply payment
methods against the balance owing.
To enter the POS, click the POS icon at the top right of the Browser.
Overview
Scan Mode
Scan Mode is the preferred choice if you have many Product skus and are using a barcode scanner to
create your Invoices.
In Scan Mode, your Products appear in list view, and are searched using text entry to produce a list of
results from which you choose the Product to add to your Invoice.
Scan Mode in the POS screen is made up of several different areas. The very top section is dedicated
to searches for Products, Customers, and Invoices. Click the icon that reflects the item you are looking
for, and enter a search term to produce a list of results in the sales register.
The main POS sales register, in the middle section, serves several purposes, displaying Invoice
information as well as the list views of Product info, Customers, and serial numbers. This main section
can display Customers and Products in a graphical interface known as Cover Flow. Cover Flow allows
you to browse images and add Products and Customers to the Invoice by clicking these images.
The left of the POS screen displays Customer information, the on-screen numeric keypad for numeric
input, and transactions placed on hold. To the right, Product information is displayed, including price
and availability, as well as Related Products that have been assigned to currently selected Product.
The color coded inventory statuses displayed for Products reflect the following states:
Available -Qty available to sell-Green
Reserved -Reserved on Order(s)-Orange
Warehouses -In a Warehouse-Orange
Coming for Customers-On a pending PO-Gold
Coming for Stock-On a pending PO-Gold
Total-All existing quantities-Varies
Button Mode
Button Mode displays Products graphically, allowing you to click buttons to drill down through
categories to find and invoice Products.
Button Mode is a good choice for retail environments with a higher volume that require shorter
transaction times, and where primarily a limited number of Products (approximately 10-100) are sold
on a regular basis. For instance, a small cafe that sells a variety of coffees and pastries. Button Mode
uses a series of nested categories that let you drill down to access popular Products quickly.
For a Product to appear in Button Mode, you must create POS Categories and assign them to
Products in a nested fashion that allows you to drill down through Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary
levels. For example, to sell a pair of capri pants, you might choose to create a path of Clothing
(Primary) > Women’s (Secondary) > Pants (Tertiary).
Creating POS Categories
To create your POS Categories, go to Tools > Setup > POS Categories. Create your
first Primary Category by clicking the + icon under the first column. Enter its name
and click Save. Then, select the Primary Category you've just created, and click the +
icon beneath the second column to create a Secondary Category. Name and save
your Secondary Category, and again for the Tertiary Category.
Assigning POS Categories
To assign these categories to your Product, open the Product card and click the
Options tab. Choose your Primary Category. Now, when you click the pop-up menu
for the Secondary Category, you will only see the choices available for the Secondary
Categories you had created within the Primary Category you've just chosen. Likewise
for the Tertiary Category.
Payment Screen
After you have created an Invoice with Products and Customer information, and you click Check Out,
you are taken to the Payments screen, where you may apply payments in various combinations to pay
off the balance owing. Payment Methods are customizable, and can be categorized by types, which
are used on the End of Day report.
If you are using a credit card processing gateway, selecting a Payment Method categorized with type
"Credit Card" produces a payment window in which you may swipe or enter a credit card number that
will result in the payment being processed over the internet.
Setup
There are two setup windows for establishing the settings for the POS screen - Station Setup and POS
Setup.
Station Setup
Station Setup (File > Station Setup) is where an administrator will choose settings for a particular
station’s POS hardware, printing configuration, and various defaults for the POS screen, including tax
configuration, search settings, and customer type.
1. Station Name - This field allows you to set the name for this POS station. This name appears on
receipts and can be reported on with LightSpeed’s Reporting tools.
2. Card Swipe - The Card Swipe setting is a pull-down menu which allows you to choose the
supported card swipe device for credit card transactions, either ID Tech or ID Tech Omni 3237.
3. Printing - You have the choice to set your printing format to be standard, letter-sized paper,
suitable for regular laser printers, or to a receipt printer. Formatting will automatically be adjusted
for each size.
You may also choose to disable the print dialog box when printing. By entering a positive value in
the Print Copies field, that number of invoices will be printed without a dialog box. Again, this is
only applicable to Invoices – a print dialog will appear for other documents. If the value is set to
zero, a dialog box will appear for Invoices, as well.
4. Cash Drawer and Pole Display - If you are configuring a cash drawer or pole display, select the
method of connection in the pop-up menu, and the port you’re using. For more information, see
the POS Hardware chapter.
5. Defaults
Start New POS after Printing - If you have a high volume of invoices, you may wish to
have LightSpeed automatically create a new invoice when the last one has been printed. To
do so, check this box.
Turn Sound Off – This checkbox disables the sounds associated with various functions
in POS.
Default Search – This pull-down menu allows you to set which of the four search criteria
– UPC, Product Code, Description, or Document ID - to use as the default in the main POS
window.
Default Customer Type – With this pull-down menu, you can choose the default for the
Customer type – either Walk-In or an existing Customer. If you do not wish to track
information on your customers, choosing ‘Walk In will allow you to accelerate the speed with
which you can perform a transaction.
Default Tax Code – This pull-down menu allows you to choose the Tax Code that will be
used on new sales documents from the list you have already set up in your Taxes Setup
window. However, you can still choose another tax code for any particular Invoice
regardless of this default setting.
VoIP – This menu allows you to choose your VoIP service, whether it’s Skype or
Webfones.
Scheduling – This menu allows you to choose between using iCal or Now Up to Date for
your scheduling
POS Setup
Go to Tools > Setup > POS Setup, opening the window which allows you to add your logo to the POS
screen, as well as configure other settings for POS features.
1. Logo - This window allows an administrator, or another user set up with the appropriate
privileges, to insert a logo which will appear on the POS screen. Drag a jpeg file with the
maximum resolution of 255x140 dpi over the window, and it will be automatically added to your
POS screen.
2. Enter Quantity Key - This setting allows you to select a key (= or *) that places the cursor in the
Quantity column of the active line item on a POS Invoice.
3. Play Sounds - Enables POS sounds when actions are taken in the POS.
4. Show Cover Flow - Enables Products and Customer images to be displayed using Cover Flow
technology in the POS Scan Mode. Disabling Cover Flow displays Products and Customers in
list view.
5. Show Keyboard Shortcuts - Shows the key combinations used to "jump" to various sections of
the POS screen
6. Start in Button Mode - If you are a high volume retail environment with a limited number of
popular Products, you may choose to use Button Mode to create Invoices in the POS. Enabling
this checkbox displays Button Mode automatically when you enter the POS screen, bypassing the
dialog that asks which mode to use when logging into the POS.
7. Auto-Logout After Finishing Sale - Automatically logs out a LightSpeed user after clicking the
"Finish" button in the POS.
Sales Register
The central POS sales register has several functions, accessible with the icons located in the Search
Bar located at the top.
Using the Search Bar, you can quickly locate info in your database, even if your database contains
thousands of items.
Selecting the Product icon allows you to scan the UPC code of a product, calling it up from the
Products database and entering it into the Invoice. You are also able to manually enter the Product
Code or description of a Product, including partial strings, calling it up from the Products database and
entering it into the Invoice. As you type in a search term, the list of results will automatically be filtered
to reflect the appropriate matches to the entered text. When you find the Product you’re searching for,
click it once to preview its availability info, or double-click it to add it to the Invoice. Clicking the All icon
at the right (the circle containing 3 horizontal lines) will list all Products.
Customer
Selecting the Customer icon allows you to manually enter a customer’s name, address, or telephone
number, including partial strings, calling it up from the Customers database. When you find the
Customer, click it to enter it into the Invoice, displayed in detail to the left. Clicking the All icon at the
right (the circle containing 3 horizontal lines) will list all Customers.
Invoice
Invoice allows you to scan or manually enter the reference number of an existing Invoice. Enter an
Invoice ID to process a return of Products from that Invoice.
Double-clicking one of the items in the list view will add it to the appropriate part of the Invoice: if it is a
Customer, the Invoice will be assigned to them; if it is a Product, it will be added to the Invoice as a line
item.
In the Scan Mode’s line item (or Invoice) view, the headings include the Product Code, the Description,
the Quantity, the Sell Price, any Discount, and the Total Sell price per item (ie extended price). Under
the Description, you will also see any serial numbers attached to the Invoice under their Product’s
description.
Creating an Invoice
Choosing or Editing a Customer
To begin with, assign a Customer to the Invoice. If you don’t wish to track this Customer’s history,
choose Walk In in the left area of the POS screen. This will not use a Customer ID and will disable the
ability to add this Invoice to the Customer’s history. Enter as much or as little information about the
Customer as you wish; this information will be searchable so you may find the Invoice in the future.
Important: You will not be able to track a Customer’s purchase history, or their outstanding balances or
credits, if they are a Walk-In.
If it is a new Customer whom you wish to add to the database, click New near the bottom of the
Customer area. You can then add the information in the new Customer profile that appears, and once
you click Save, you will be returned to the adjusted Invoice. If the Customer is already in the Customer
database, you can simply type a few letters of the Customer name (or a few numbers from their
telephone number or address ) into the search field of the POS window and choose it from the list of
possible choices that will appear by clicking the name once, or click their image from the Cover Flow
layout. If you need to edit the information, click the expansion indicator to display the contact info, then
click the Edit icon, make your changes in the Customer window, and click Save to return to the POS
screen. The modified information will appear on the Invoice.
To add a new Customer’s photo to their profile, click the Image button in the Customer card. Then,
click the photo area in the Customer Detail area of the POS screen and it will automatically take their
photo with your iSight camera. You can also drag an image to this area to store a photo. Click Save
and the Customer info, along with their image, will appear on the Invoice.
Adding Products
To add a Product to your Invoice in Scan mode, click the Products icon, and scan its barcode. If it is in
the Products database, it will be called up and added to your Invoice. Another way to find a Product is
by typing a few letters from its Product Code or Description. You may also choose your Product from
the list view by clicking the All icon when in Products mode.
Single-click a Product in list view to preview its availability information. Double-click its description or
image to add it to your Invoice. If the Product you have chosen requires a serial number, you will be
required to add the serial number(s) prior to clicking Check Out. You may then scan the serial number
from the Product, or enter it manually. You may also add a Product to your Invoice by clicking Add at the
bottom of the POS screen.
Single-clicking a Product in either list or Invoice view will call up its details in the Product detail section
at the right, including its image, color-coded inventory statuses, and Related Products. Click any of
these Related Products to add it to the Invoice.
Since the availability quantities displayed in LightSpeed should reflect what is actually in stock, it is
unlikely that you will try to invoice a Product that isn’t showing as being available to sell. However, there
may be exceptions, and these will appear with a red warning triangle on the Invoice, and before
Checking Out, you will be asked to confirm whether or not you wish to continue.
To toggle between Invoice view and list view, click the small icon inside the search field at the top. (see
images)
In Button mode, you add Products by clicking their image after drilling down through the POS
Categories you had created and assigned to your Products. If an image has a black drawer covering
it, it is a Category that contains either more Categories, or Products. Clicking a Product will add it to
your Invoice. In Button mode, your Invoice items are displayed to the right side of the screen, rather
than the middle.
Discounting
There are several ways to discount Products in the POS screen. Customer Categories (set up in the
Browser) can be assigned to your Customers, and automatically apply a percentage discount or default
to a specified Pricing Level - a method that discounts the entire Invoice.
A second way to apply a document-wide discount is to click the Discount icon found at the bottom of
the POS screen, indicated by two circles with the % and $ characters. Discounts done in this way can
be applied as a percentage or dollar discount. To apply a dollar discount, enter a value and click
Return. To enter a percentage discount, enter a value followed by the % sign.
Finally, discounts may also be applied on a line-item basis by clicking in the Discount field of the lineitem you wish to discount. Entering a number will discount the item by dollars; adding a percentage
sign will adjust the discount to a percentage.
Making Payments
Methods of Payment
Once you have finished adding your Customer and Product information to your Invoice, click Check
Out, and you will be taken to the Payments screen. There, you will see a button for every method of
payment you have set up in the Setup Tool (Tools > Setup > Payment Methods). Pressing a button
will bring up the details for that payment. The amount tendered will automatically show the balance
owing on the Invoice, but this can be edited for partial payments.
LightSpeed integrates with several payment gateways for fast, simple, accurate online processing of
credit card transactions. At time of purchase, you are able to enter the Customer’s credit card
information, and click Process to send the encrypted information over the internet. If the transaction
fails, you will be notified immediately. Likewise, if it is successful, a confirmation number will be logged
in the Invoice, and the payment will be registered to the Invoice. LightSpeed will automatically access
your credit card processor for any method of payment specified as Credit Card in the Tools > Setup
> Payment Methods menu option. If you are not processing credit cards within LightSpeed, you may
continue to use your external terminal, and simply enter your credit and debit card payments into
LightSpeed manually.
If the Customer is using more than one method of payment, you are able to modify the amount tendered
to reflect the division of payment. Save the payment and click another button for the next payment
method. In some cases, the customer may choose to use the same method of payment, but from a
different source – a different credit card, for example, even though they are both Visas. All of these
different payment methods will be laid out separately on the printed Invoice and will be saved as
separate payments.
Cash payments require the entry of two fields – Amount Tendered, and Payment Amount. Amount
Tendered refers to how much cash the Customer is physically handing over before you return their
change. Payment Amount refers to how much of that cash the Customer wants to apply to this Invoice. If
the amount they want to apply is different than what is pre-populated, you must click in this field to
change the amount being applied.
Pressing the Process button for a payment saves it to the Invoice and it is irreversible except by
authorization by an Administrator.
Credits
If the Customer has a credit from a previous Invoice, and has a Customer profile, the credit can be
applied as a method of payment. Pressing the Store Credit button will call up a list of all the
Customer’s available credits. Choose one and specify how much of it you wish to apply. If a Customer
has more than one credit you need to apply, you must choose each one separately and save it as its
own method of payment. Click OK to return to the Payments view of the POS screen.
To create a credit for a Customer, make sure that the Invoice returning the Product has the Customer
as an official Customer and not as a Walk-in. Return the Product(s) by clicking the Documents icon
and entering the original Invoice ID, or by creating a standard Invoice and using negative quantities,
leaving the prices as they are. Save the Invoice as you would normally, but do not apply any payments.
This will leave a credit on the Customer’s account which can then be applied to another Invoice using
the method described in the paragraph above. (For more info, see the article on Returns &
Exchanges)
Refunds
If a Customer requires a refund, complete the return Invoice as described above, and click the Payment
Method button with which you’re reimbursing your Customer. Use a negative value for the dollar
amount, and click Save. This will indicate that you have given the Customer money, rather than the
other way around. (For more info, see the article on Returns & Exchanges)
Sales on Hold
If you are interrupted during your POS transaction before it is completed, you may put it on hold so that
you may come back to it later without losing your work, even after other Invoices have been processed
in the meantime.
To put a transaction on hold, click the Hold button in either Scan or Button Modes. Any Product or
Customer information you have added to your incomplete Invoice will be captured and accessible in the
future with a small market that appears in the Sales on Hold section of the POS. Click any of these
markers to re-activate the transaction and complete the sale.
If you are in the middle of a transaction when a held sale is re-activated, you have the option to discard
the current Invoice or to hold it, as well. If you leave the POS screen, held sales are discarded and must
be re-entered.
Document Attributes
At the bottom of the POS screen, there are three icons that allow you to set various attributes for the
Invoice.
Salesperson - sets the salesperson(s) attached to the sale
There are several ways Users can be attached to a POS Invoice. If the Customer is a
Walk-In, or a Customer with no Salesperson assigned in their Customer card, the
sole User attached to the sale is the User processing the Invoice. If the Customer has
a profile with another User assigned as their Salesperson, the User processing the
sale can split the Invoice into a primary and assisting. This combination of Users is
split out in Commission reports as its own User to simplify split-sale commissions.
Discounts - sets a document-wide discount
POS Invoices can be discounted here by a percentage or integer amount. To enter a
percentage discount, enter the value followed by the % sign, discounting all Products
by that percentage. Entering a whole value will discount all Product prices by that
amount.
Taxes - sets the Invoice’s Tax Code
If you have multiple Tax Codes that are to be applied depending on the Customer,
you may choose which Tax Code to apply by clicking the pull-down menu. Not
clicking this menu will result in the default Tax Code being applied to the document.
LightSpeed Mobile
If an Invoice has been initiated on LightSpeed Mobile, it can be paid by processing a credit card
payment right from the handheld device, provided LightSpeed is configured to process credit card
payments with a payment gateway. However, if the Customer is paying by an alternative payment
method that requires access to the cash drawer, such as cash or cheque, or if the user is using an
external transaction terminal, LightSpeed Mobile is able to relay or dispatch the Invoice to all
LightSpeed sales stations logged into the POS screen.
Once the LightSpeed Mobile user choose "Use Other Payment Method", they will be given an Invoice
ID, and a marker with this Invoice ID will appear in the "Hold" section of the POS screen, signified by an
orange LightSpeed Mobile icon. To access this Invoice, click the marker, and continue to process the
payment on the payment screen as you would any other POS invoice. Once the Invoice is activated
from one station's POS screen, it will disappear from all others.
Logging In and Out
In sales environments there are often more than one sales person using the same POS station, and it is
important to be able to track the sales representatives assigned to an Invoice for reasons of
commissions, accountability, and coverage. When a sales person finishes an Invoice and leaves the
POS station, they are able to log out quickly so that the next sales person is able to log in.
To log out, click the Action menu at the top right corner of the POS screen, and choose Log Out (Your
User Name). Once you click OK, you will be taken to the login screen, and the POS will be ready for the
next User to log in.
Information that had been on the POS screen will be lost when a User logs out.
Navigation
The navigation buttons are laid out along the bottom of the POS screen, located underneath the
Customer and Product Detail sections. These buttons change function between the Sales Register
and the Payment screens.
Sales Register Screen
Exit - This button will take you back to the LightSpeed browser.
Start Over - Pressing this button clears your unsaved POS screen, discards the information,
and creates a new Invoice.
Hold - Once you have added a Product to your Invoice, you can access the Hold feature, which
allows you to capture the Customer and Product information on your transaction in a small marker
displayed in the Sales on Hold area, placing it on hold and beginning a new transaction. Clicking
this marker will redisplay and reactivate the original transaction.
Notes - The Notes button allows you to enter notes in two fields – Printed Notes, which will be
printed on the Invoice, and Internal Notes, which will be only visible to Users. Printed Notes are
useful for terms and conditions specific to that sale, while Internal Notes can be a useful reference
in the future, particularly for other sales representatives and administrators requiring further
information about the invoice.
Check Out - When you have finished entering Product onto the Invoice, and you are ready to
register its payment, you press this button to save the Invoice and advance to the Payment
screen.
Payment Screen
Go Back - This button takes you back to the Invoice view of the POS screen, allowing you to
edit your Invoice..
Notes - This button remains the same.
Print - When all changes have been made to the Invoice, and you are ready to print, click the
Print button.
When you are ready to print, you can select which types of receipts to print, including a gift receipt that
lists all Products but does not show the prices. Click Finish.
At the top right of the printed Invoice, the Invoice number, as well as its barcode equivalent, will appear.
Underneath you will find the date the Invoice was created, and the date any modifications were made.
Any notes you have entered in the Printed Notes field will appear after the Products, and underneath
that will be the details on Payment Methods. At the bottom left of the Invoice, you will see any terms or
conditions you have set up in Tools > Setup > Company in the Invoices field.
Email Receipt
You can also choose to email the receipt to a Customer from the POS. Select Email Receipt, and
enter their email address if it is not auto-populated from the Customer card. Your customer will receive
an HTML-formatted copy of the receipt immediately.
To set up your Mail Server, go to Tools > Setup > Advanced > Mail Server. For information on what
data to enter into each field, access the account information of your email server. For example, in OS X
Mail, go to the Preferences panel and click "Accounts". Select the Account you wish to integrate with
LightSpeed, and follow the steps outlined below to gather the necessary info.
Username - User Name (if applicable)
Password - Account Password (if applicable)
Host - Outgoing Mail SMTP Server
Port - Default Port
Use SSL - Enable/Disable SSL Encryption
Use Transport Layer Security - Enable/Disable TLS
Use Authentication - Enabled if you use a Username/Password
The basic steps to configure the Mail Server setup panel are:
1. Write down the Outgoing SMTP Mail Server (Host) name.
2. Click the pop-up menu and select Edit Server List.
3. Write down your User Name and Password, if they are entered.
4. Note whether your SSL is enabled.
5. Write down the first default port listed.
6. Enter this information into the Mail Server Setup panel.
If you are unsure about whether you should enable your Transport Layer Security, or if you have any
questions about these fields, contact your mail server administrator.
Action Menu
The top right corner of the POS screen features the POS Action menu, allowing you access to several
extra features designed to give your salesperson and front counter staff extra tools.
Timesheet - calls up a new Timesheet for the logged-in User (see Jobs and Timesheets
document for more info)
Open Cash Drawer - kicks open the Cash Drawer without printing an Invoice
End of Day Report - accesses the End of Day report window and allowing the User to print
End of Day report on receipt or full page layout (see Tills and End of Day document for more info)
Tills - opens Tills, allowing User to join, leave or reconcile Till (see Tills and End of Day
document for more info)
Log Out... - logs out current User
Exit to LightSpeed - exits POS and brings User to the Browser, discarding any Invoice
information
6. Documents
Introduction
The four types of sales documents each perform different functions, but can be related (or "linked") to
each other as part of LightSpeed's workflows (see the Getting Started Overview article for a list of
workflow options).
Quote
The Quote is used to provide basic information about a set of Products that is associated with a
Customer name. While the Quote in LightSpeed will contain both the costs and prices of each Product,
the printed document will only show the prices. Quotes can be converted into Invoices or Orders.
Order
An Order in LightSpeed performs two functions: to reserve available inventory for a Customer so it no
longer shows as available, or to request Product be brought in from a Supplier on a Purchase Order.
An Order can be converted into an Invoice, which will release any reserved inventory, or directly into a
Purchase Order, which will be required to receive the Product into inventory. If the Order is saved, any
unreserved Product becomes an Order Request, which is then compiled onto a Purchase Orders with
other Order Requests for Products that are purchased at the same Supplier. Please see the
Purchasing article of the Inventory & Purchasing section of the User Guide.
Service Repair Order (SRO)
The SRO is used to book in equipment in need of repair, and enter work performed by a technician.
Products may be added to the SRO, but the SRO must be converted to an Invoice in order for the
Products to be removed from stock, or to show in a Customer's purchase history.
Invoice
Available Products saved on an Invoice will have the listed quantity removed from inventory. Products
that are unavailable may be backordered, but require the conversion of the Invoice to an Order in order
to convert that Product to an Order Request. Products may also be returned on an Invoice, which
will add quantities to stock. Please see the Returns & Exchanges article in the Sales & Workflows
section for more information.
Common Features
These sales documents have features and behaviour common to each other, as well as those that are
unique to each type. The following section outlines these common features, followed by sections
explaining the differences between each.
Assigning Customers
All sales documents have search tools to select Customers and Products.
To begin, assign a Customer to the document, either by choosing one from your existing
Customers, by creating a new Customer, or by specifying the Customer as a Walk-In.
It is recommended that you create a Customer card for any Customer whose history you want to track,
or for whom you may wish to apply or retrieve outstanding credits. Walk-In information is only saved to
the Invoice to which it’s attached, and is recommended for those customers for whom you do not need
to track outstanding credits and balances.
To choose an existing Customer, you may type a few letters from their name, a few numbers
from their telephone number or address, or by clicking All, and then double-clicking their name
from the resulting list.
To create a new Customer, click the “+” icon, enter their information in a new Customer
window (see the articles on Customers for more info), and click Save.
When asked if you wish to reload the new information into the document, click OK. If you do not want to
add your client to the Customer database, or be able to track their outstanding balances and purchase
history, click Walk-In and include as much or as little information as you want, remembering that at least
some identification makes later reference of their sales documents easier.
Adding Products
Among sales documents, the addition of Products is handled in a similar fashion. You can scan a
Product’s UPC code to have it added automatically, provided it exists in your database and the UPC
has been scanned into the UPC field of the Product card. If you do not have the Product in hand, you
may type part of its description or Product Code, or click All, and select it from the resulting list by
double-clicking. If there are Related Products (Products designated as potential add-ons for a primary
Product) assigned to this Product, they will also appear in a pop-up menu, and you may add Products
by double-clicking them. Use the “x” icon to close the Related Products window.
Once the Product has been added to the sales document, you may add another, or edit the item’s
Quantity or Sell Price. You may also add Products to sales documents by dragging them from the Main
List in the Browser and dropping them in the Product section of the document.
Pricing and Discounts
There are four ways of selling a Product to a Customer for less than its standard Selling Price.
1. Edit the sell price on the sales document itself. If the Product has the Editable Selling Price
option checked in its profile, you can click the Sell Price field and alter the price by entering a
different value.
2. You can also click in the Discount column and discount the Product by dollar amount or by a
percentage (using a “%” sign after the value you enter), or by choosing the Apply Discount option
from the document’s Action menu to discount all Products on the document.
3. If the Product has at least one value entered in the Pricing Levels table in the Options tab of the
Product file. By having values entered here, an indicator icon will appear beside the Product
when it is added to a Quote or an Invoice, and you may then use the pull-down menu to choose
the Pricing Level for the Product. If there are no values in this grid, the indicator icon will not
appear.
4. Set a Customer Category for your Customer and indicate an across-the-board discount for this
Customer’s purchases. To do this, go to Tools > Setup > Customer Categories, and choose
an existing category, or create a new one, and categorize the Customer in their profile.
More detail can be found in the Costs & Prices article in the Products section of the user Guide.
Status
At the bottom of every sales document, there is a Status indicator, which varies depending on the
document. A Quote can be appointed with an Urgent status; a saved Invoice shows a status of Owing,
Paid, or Credit, depending on the Payments made to it, and cannot be changed manually.
Quote statuses may be customized at Tools > Setup > Quote Status. Customizing Quote statuses
will add to the list of available Trackers you can install.
Linked Documents
Each sales document also has a section that lists linked documents, found at the bottom of the window.
For example, if an Invoice is created from an Order, each will cross-reference the other. The
documents listed as related can be called up by clicking on their icon. Document links can be forced
from the Action menu (see section on Action Menu below).
Tax Codes
A Tax Code in LightSpeed is the configuration of taxes applied to a sales document. You can configure
multiple Tax Codes to apply in particular situations. Tax Codes are how taxes are applied document wide, and are configured at Tools > Setup > Taxes. Information on how to configure Tax Codes can be
found in the Getting Started Guide.
At the bottom of each document, the Tax Codes are also listed, and these can be changed to charge
the appropriate taxes for the region you are selling to. For more information on Tax Codes, please see
the Configuration I article of this section.
Example: If you are a company located in Vermont, and you have several shipments to Canadian
customers, you can create an alternate Tax Code in the Setup menu and change the taxes charged on
an individual Invoice. You will see the Subtotal and Total amounts change when the Tax Code is
changed.
Options
Several choices are available on each sales document that relate to its destination, usually as an
Invoice, or just as a printed copy. These settings can be found in the Options tab.
Drop Shipment
By clicking this checkbox, you indicate the Product will be delivered to your Customer, either from your
Supplier, a Shipper, or by an employee such as a technician.
Shipping Method
This drop-down menu allows you to choose from a customized set of shipping options, or to add a
method on-the-fly.
Currency
If your Customer is paying in a currency other than what you have set as your default, choose it from the
pull-down menu. It should then appear in parentheses behind the word “Total” at the bottom of the
document, signifying that your prices are now assumed to be in the new currency for this
document. To see the amount converted to the default currency, using the exchange rate you’ve
entered in Setup, you can click on Total once and the amount will appear in the default currency.
If the current exchange rate is different than the default, you can adjust it on the sales document to
reflect the new rate. This does not affect the rate entered in the Currencies Setup.
Print Language
This is a pull-down menu that allows you to set the language the sales document will be printed in, using
the terms defined in the Field Translations setup.
Print Images
One of LightSpeed’s most effective features is the ability to print Product images on sales documents.
This setting allows you to control the size of the image which is printed, as well as the option of whether
or not you prefer to only have the image of the first Product to be printed, and its size.
Print Discounts
Clicking this checkbox will enable your Invoices to show which Products were discounted, and for how
much, listed as a dollar amount or a percentage. If this checkbox is not selected, discounted Products
will only appear with the discounted price, and will not show the original price as well.
Using a combination of the Command and the “=” keys, a timestamp can be entered in every Notes
field in Lightspeed which includes the time, date, and the currently logged in User.
Custom Fields
Sales documents can have up to ten Custom Fields added for expanded functionality, to collect
information particular to your workflow but not already part of LightSpeed. For more information on
Custom Fields, please Configuration II article.
The Action Menu is signified by the small "gear" icon located at the bottom of all sales documents, and
includes features unique to each type. Each document's Action menu contains unique features, listed
below.
Notes
Using the Notes tab gives you the option to include Notes that will be printed on the Invoice, Quote, or
Order, intended for the Customer, or to attach internal Notes intended for Users for later reference.
Notes can be searched using the Search All feature, by Browser searches, or by Smart Finds.
Cost Layout
Quotes and Invoices, like Orders and SROs, have a costing and margin layout that is hidden from the
standard layout when a document is created or opened, and is accessed by clicking the left-pointed
detail arrow located in the center-right section of the document. This layout will become visible, and
includes the cost of goods sold, the taxes being applied to each Product, and the percentage of margin
on the document and on each Product. Clicking the total margin percentage will also display the profit
in dollars for the document and for each Product.
Deposits and Payments
Quotes, Orders, and SROs can have deposits applied to them that creates a credit for the Customer
assigned to the sales document, which may later be applied as a payment to any Invoice assigned to
the same Customer. Deposits do not affect a Customer's AR balance, but can be viewed in the
Accounts Receivable window for an overview of a Customer's outstanding balances and credits.
Payments are only applied to Invoices, and do affect a Customer's AR balance.
Printing and Emailing
Each sales document can be emailed as a PDF by clicking the Email button at the bottom of the
window - a PDF of the document will automatically be pasted into a new email and addressed to the
Customer's email if it's present. Clicking the Print button will send the document to be printed on the
printer assigned in the Printer Setup panel, accessible through the Station Setup panel. Quotes,
Orders, and SROs must be printed in full page (8.5x11 or A4) layout, but Invoices can be printed out
full-page or receipt-style. For more information, see the article on Printing.
Uniques Features
Quote
The Action menu of a Quote allows you to Update Sell and Cost, which will modify the Quote's
Selling Prices and Costs to those updated in each Product's card.
Email Web Store Link will paste the Quote, as well as a link to your installed Web Store which
will allow the recipient to link to a pre-populated cart in your Web Store. See the Web
Store section of the User Guide for more information.
Convert to SRO will add the Quote's Products to a new, unsaved Service Repair Order.
Post Payments will mark any deposits on the Quote as posted, a status necessary in the
Accounting Export workflow. See the article on
Posting in the Accounting section of the User Guide for more information.
Print Packing Slip allows you to choose which Products from the Quote to include on a
printable packing slip.
For more information on Quotes, please see the Quoting & Sales Overview article in the Sales
& Workflows section.
Order
An Order can reserve an available Product by clicking the "Reservation" bar next to the
Inventory Status bar (provided your Company preferences are set to allow Products to be
reserved).
Any Products not reserved are converted to Order Requests when the Order is saved, until they
are compiled onto a Purchase Order.
Once an Order Request has been added to a Purchase Order, the Inventory Status bar will
display the ETA information for each Product, as well as which Purchase Order is ordering it.
The Action menu of an Order, in addition to those options described above for Quotes, can
allow you to reserve or release all available inventory on the Order, or to cancel the request
entirely.
More information can be found in the Inventory & Purchasing section of the User Guide.
Service Repair Order (SRO)
The Action menu of an SRO also allows you to print an SRO label or claim check for the
equipment being booked in.
You can record any work done on the repair in the Work tab of the SRO, which will be printed
on the Customer copy.
Remember that an SRO must be converted to an invoice to remove the Products from your
inventory levels, and that SROs do not reserve inventory.
Order Requests on Orders created from an SRO will appear in the Generate GSX
POs heading in the Actions tab of the Browser's Purchasing section.
Invoice
The Action menu of an Invoice will allow you to print either a full-page or receipt-style
document.
Post Invoice, Post Payments, and Mark as Exported each affect the status of an Invoice or its
payments from an Accounting Exports perspective.
Box labels are also possible, with the option to include the Customer's address.
Owing balances and outstanding credits will appear in the lower left of the Invoice window,
as well as in the Invoice list view of the Browser.
For more information on Invoices, please see the Quoting & Sales Overview article in the
Sales & Workflows section.
7. Configuration I
Contents
1. Set your Backup Schedule
2. Create your Company
3. Set up your User Privileges
4. Create your Users
5. Set the ID Number Sequence for Sales Documents
6. Set up your Currencies
7. Set up your Taxes
8. Define your Locations
9. Create your Suppliers
10. Set up your Classes and Families
11. Define your Payment Methods
12. Set up your Hardware, Station, and Printers
13. Set up your POS screen
14. Create your Products
15. Create your Customers
16. Set Inventory Levels
Introduction
Configuration of LightSpeed is, in fact, a 2-step process. There are a group of settings that must be
configured for the software to function - the creation of Products and the addition of your company
information are two examples. The second group of settings are intended to help you maximize the
software, to streamline your workflows and add functionality and flexibility over and above what a
standard configuration can achieve. This article outlines the required configurations; Configuration
II outlines that second group of settings.
A solid setup is vital.
It will allow you to keep your inventory and costs clear and untangled, it will provide you with an accurate
portrait of your store and its assets, and, most importantly, it will save you the time of the extra work
involved in "repairing" a mis-configured system. Please follow the instructions here closely, and in the
order in which they appear. It is recommended that once your configurations are complete, you spend
time testing a typical day in your store with LightSpeed, perhaps with dummy Products and Customers,
to ensure your expectations are met. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact our Support
department.
1. Set your Backup schedule
Tools > Setup > Utilities > Backup Database > Schedule
Before any other configuration of LightSpeed, it is essential that you set and understand the options
related to LightSpeed backups. There are two methods of backing up LightSpeed - manual and
scheduled. For an optimal backup schedule, LightSpeed recommends you select "Every Day" at a
time when no one is logged into the database. Your database will initially only take seconds to back
up, but as the number of your Customers, Products, and transactions increase, so, too, will the length of
time required for a backup.
IMPORTANT!
You must set your Energy Saver System Preference (Apple Menu > System Preferences) "Computer
Sleep" setting to Never, on both your server and client computers. Allowing your computer to sleep at
anytime will disrupt communication between the client and server computers, and could prevent your
database from being backed up at all. A full set of backup instructions can be found here.
Please verify that your database is being backed up regularly at Macintosh HD > Users > Shared >
LightSpeed > Backups.
Select Every Day, choose the time for the backup to occur (example: 2 hours after close of business).
Click Save.
2. Create your Company
Tools > Setup > Basics > Company
Company, Addresses and Contact Info, Fine Print Sections
To start, enter your Company name, along with your Billing and Shipping Addresses, Phone Numbers,
Email Addresses, and Web Site Addresses in the available fields. The Fine Print section allows you to
enter the fine print that prints at the bottom of Quotes, SROs, Invoices, Orders, Purchase Orders,
Supplier Invoices, and AR statements.
Logo
LightSpeed can store a 192 x 192 pixel JPEG logo for your Company. Drag a JPEG file to the Logo
section, and the image will be scaled and saved to the database. This logo will show up on all your
printed sales documents. To remove the logo, click the ‘X’ button.
General Preferences
The bottom of the Company panel is dedicated to preferences for various functions of LightSpeed. The
Enable Inventory Reservations feature should be pre-defined as enabled, allowing you to reserve
inventory on Orders. If you do not reserve Products for Customers, disabling this feature will make it
impossible to reserve stock on Orders. This is also where you set your Date Format and Time Format
as they will appear in the software and on printed documents.
Searching Preferences
The Search Current Products Only checkbox will, when enabled, disregard Products with their “current”
status deselected in the Product card when searched in the Browser, the POS, or in sales documents,
as long as they have no inventory quantities. Deselecting the Search Only After User Types ‘Return’
checkbox will enable the “Search as you type” feature, resulting in search results that narrow as you
continue to type. Leaving this box checked will require hitting the Return key after you’ve entered your
search term. The Combine Scanned Quantities for Documents/POS checkboxes will tally quantities of
the same Product Code scanned into sales documents or the POS – deselecting them will create
multiple line items for the same Product Code when it is scanned or typed in. Disable Cover Flow will
remove the Cover Flow layout from both the POS and Browser (Cover Flow is a layout which will allow
you to browse your Customers, Products, and Suppliers by their images).
Status Preferences
The checkboxes listed here will allow you to automatically mark sales documents as “invoiced” when
they’ve been converted into an Invoice. This status is used in Trackers and Smart Finds and simple
searches in the Browser.
3. Set up your User Privileges
Tools > Setup > Basics > Privileges
The Privileges setup panel allows an Administrator to determine which groups of Users can access
which privileges in LightSpeed. Click a Privilege Group to display the associated privileges. By default,
LightSpeed has four Privilege Groups: ‘Administrator’, ‘Manager’, ‘Salesperson’ and ‘Technician’.
These can be modified so that their Privilege set suits the business’s requirements and can be
duplicated to create variations on their Privilege set.
Click on an Access setting to select a new Access setting from a popup menu. Each Privilege within a
Privilege Group can have one of five Access settings:
Allowed: User has access to this Privilege
Not Allowed: User does not have access to this Privilege
User Authentication: User must confirm their Username and Password to access this
Privilege
Mgr/Admin Authentication: User must have a Manager or Administrator enter their
Username and Password to grant access to this Privilege
Admin Authentication: User must have an Administrator enter their Username and Password
to grant access to this Privilege.
Each Privilege has the ability to be recorded in a log each time it is performed, or attempted and
refused, by checking a checkbox in the Log column. When a checkbox is selected, the Log feature
(Tools > Utilities > Log) will keep a record of all Users who attempt or perform this Privilege, as well
as when it happens, and, when applicable, to which document ID. This feature will allow you to review
the deletion of records, the editing of documents, and much more, months or years after the fact.
4. Create your Users
Tools > Setup > Basics > Users
Administrators should create all Users that need access to the system in the Users setup panel. When
creating a new User, you can enter their First Name, Last Name, Email, and Phone Number, and the
Login Username and Password that they will log in with. The Login Username and Password are casesensitive.
It is recommended that you create a new Administrator account upon first login, following the steps and
guidelines for passwords outlined below. PCI compliance also requires users to change the existing
Administrator username and password upon first login. Do not forget this information.
The Privilege Group popup menu allows you to set which Privilege Group each User belongs. Please
see Configuration II for more information on configuring Privilege Groups. Can Connect to LightSpeed
Server allows you to determine whether the User is currently allowed to log in, useful after an employee
is no longer employed with the company.
Advanced
The Job Product field allows you to associate a Product you’ve created to represent any labor fees you
want to charge for this User’s time when used in conjunction with the Timesheets/Jobs features. The
GSX Tech ID field is used in the Carry-In Repair function of LightSpeed's integration with
Apple's GSX parts ordering database. Launch Point of Sale after login will log a User directly into the
POS screen, and may be used in conjunction with Privileges to prevent a User from leaving the POS
and entering the Browser. Can connect with On-Target Reports allows a User to access LightSpeed's
add-on report building, On-Target Reports.
PCI Data Security Standards and User Information
In compliance with PCI Data Security Standards, LightSpeed requires Users to create, modify, and
change passwords according to guidelines set out in LightSpeed's Guide to the PCI Data Security
Standard for LightSpeed Users . These requirements are outlined here, and are effective in
LightSpeed as of LightSpeed 3.3.
User passwords in LightSpeed must:
Be unique. No User can have the same password as any other User.
Be changed the first time a User logs in. The administrator can enter an initial password
when the User is created, but the first time that User logs into LightSpeed, they must change their
password.
Be at least 7 characters long.
Contain both numeric and alphabetical characters. For example, "dynamite" is
disallowed, but "orion1452" is allowed.
Be changed every 90 days.
Be unique from the User's previous 4 passwords.
In accordance with PCI Data Security Standards, LightSpeed will disable accounts that have not
been accessed for 90 days until an administrator "unlocks" the account in the User setup panel.
LightSpeed will also disable user accounts that have had the incorrect password entered five
times in succession at login. In this case, the account is only locked for 30 minutes, at which point the
User may again try to log in. A LightSpeed adminstrator can, however, unlock the account during this
30 minutes in the User setup panel.
For more information, please see the entire Guide to the PCI Data Security Standard for LightSpeed
Users posted here.
Creating Users and Passwords in LightSpeed
1. From the Tools menu, select Setup > Basics > Users
2. Click on ‘+’ icon
3. Enter employee information, including login and password
4. Enter a unique initial password for the employee
5. Click Save
Changing Passwords in LightSpeed
The first time a User logs in, LightSpeed will prompt them to change their password from the Adminassigned one they were given to one that adheres to the guidelines outlined above.
LightSpeed users can also change their own password at any time. The LightSpeed Administrator can
also change any employee’s pass- word by editing their employee record. After initial setup, PCI
compliance requires that users change the Administrator username and password upon first login.
To change their LightSpeed password, users simply:
1. Log in with their current password
2. From the Edit menu, choose Change Password
3. Follow prompts to enter the old password and create a
new one
Editing or deleting Users will not remove them from any sales
documents that they have been associated with.
5. Set the ID Number Sequence for Sales Documents
Tools > Setup > Basics > ID Numbers
Administrators can set the starting ID numbers for Quotes, SROs, Orders, Invoices, PO’s, Jobs,
Timesheets, Supplier Invoices, Products, Customers, Suppliers, and Gift Cards by selecting the type
and entering the ‘Next ID’ number. You cannot set the ‘Next ID’ number to lower than the ‘Last ID’
number used.
It is recommended that you set your first Invoice ID to the value following the sequence of your previous
invoicing system (if applicable). For example, if the last value of your previous system was "5692", you
should set your LightSpeed Invoice ID to begin at 5693.
6. Set up your Currencies
Tools > Setup > Advanced > Currencies
LightSpeed can handle multiple Currencies, which are set up in the Currency Setup panel. The primary
Currency used in your business must be set as the Default Currency with a Currency rate of ‘1’ and the
Currency Rates of all other Currency Rates must be set correctly in reference to the Default Currency.
To set the rates of your non-default currencies, calculate how much default currency that 1 unit of your
non-default currency would buy. For example, if your default currency is US (at a rate of 1), and you
want to add Canadian currency, click New and set the Canadian currency to the current rate of 1 CDN
dollar to US currency.
7. Set up your Taxes
Tools > Setup > Basics > Taxes
The Taxes Section of the Taxes Setup panel is where an Administrator will enter the names of up to five
taxes and set their GL Accounts. For a detailed outline on configuring your taxes, please see
the Taxes article.
Tax Codes specify which taxes and which rates are charged in a particular jurisdiction or circumstance.
The default Tax Code is the Tax Code that is used when creating a new sales document, and is set in
the Station Setup panel. You can create additional Tax Codes for charging out-of-state taxes. An
unlimited number of Tax Codes can be created. Tax Codes affect the taxes charged on a perdocument basis.
Tax Statuses are used for particular tax exemptions. If a Customer is entitled to certain tax exemptions,
or a Product is exempt from certain taxes, one can apply the corresponding Tax Status.
Taxes also have the ability to be configured according the local specifications, accessible only by
checking the Show Specialized Tax Features checkbox. In the column marked (1), you can indicate a
maximum dollar value for the tax collected. In (2), the checkbox indicates the tax is compounded on the
sum of the subtotal plus the taxes. In (3), the checkbox indicates a tax that is Paid and must be
assigned a GL Account for the export to the accounting package.
These specialized tax features are particular to a few geographic regions, such as Australia, Alaska,
and Quebec, and should NOT be used unless absolutely required.
At the bottom of the main Tax window, there is a checkbox that enables LightSpeed to calculate its
taxes differently. The Tax Inclusive Prices feature is designed for regions with particular tax calculation
involving a requirement for tax-in totals. It is recommended that unless you are in such a region, you do
not use this option.
8. Define your Cities, States, Provinces, and Countries
Tools > Setup > Places > (City, State/Province, Country)
Pre-defined lists of commonly-used Cities, States/Provinces and Countries can be set up in these
Setup panels. Select arrows on the City, State/Province, and Country fields of the Customer window
allow Users to select an item from these pre-defined lists. You can add to these lists by clicking New,
entering the name, and clicking Save. You can also choose the default city by clicking the checkbox.
Non-Administrator Users can add to the lists by clicking the “+” icon on the Select window in sales
documents. A new Customer box will come up and if the city is not in the list, the “+” icon can be clicked
in the drop down menu to add it.
9. Create your Suppliers
Toolbar > Supplier Icon
Before any costing, ordering, or purchasing functions are possible, it is necessary to create your
Suppliers. Click the Supplier icon in the toolbar to create a new Supplier card.
Enter the contact and address information for each Supplier. This list of Suppliers will be used to
indicate where you buy a particular Product in its Product card, which is necessary for cost information
and the assembly of your Purchase Orders.
The Tax Status associated with each Supplier dictates which taxes, if any, apply to the Purchase
Orders for that Supplier.
Suppliers may be imported in a batch - see the Importing article in this section of for more information.
10. Set up your Classes and Families
Tools > Setup > Products > (Classes, Families)
Classes and Families are how you categorize your Products, necessary for sales reporting, batch price
changes, and searches. Classes are normally set as the Product categories you wish to set for your
Products – speakers, accessories, dresses, chairs, etc. Families are normally set as the name of the
manufacturer – Apple, Sony, Honda, Nike, etc. However, it is entirely up to you how you define them.
Classes and Families are set in the Product card from these pre-defined lists. For more information,
please see the Products Overview article.
When importing Products, the Classes and Families you’re importing must already be in the predefined lists for Classes and Families, exactly as they appear in the source data, for the import to work
properly.
11. Define your Payment Methods
Tools > Setup > Basics > Payment Methods
LightSpeed allows Administrators to set up fifteen Payment Methods that can be selected on the
Invoice to record Payments from Customers. Payment Methods can be assigned a type that
determines whether extra information is collected on the Payment screen. For example, a Credit Card
Type displays a field where the User can enter the Authorization Number of the transaction. Payment
Method types are also used for various reports, including the End of Day report, and Payment reports.
Specifying a Payment Method as Credit Card also sets it up to process internally through an authorized
internal credit card processor if one is specified in the Credit Card Processing setup. The following is a
list of LightSpeed's payment partners. Please contact LightSpeed Sales for more information.
Authorize.net - Instructions
Axia - Instructions
Heartland Payment Systems
MerchantWARE
Tyro - Instructions
If you are going to be using LightSpeed’s Gift Card feature, you must create a Payment Method for gift
cards, and assign the type Gift Card to it. GL Accounts can also be set for Payment Methods if
exporting to accounting software is required.
Opening Cash Drawer Based on Payment Method
Beginning in 3.6. users can set their cash drawer to kick open based on the Payment Method used to
pay an Invoice. To do this, go to Tools > Setup > Basics > Payment Methods. Double-click any
Payment Method, and in the resulting slide-out window, check the Open Cash Drawer setting. This will
open the cash drawer when this Payment Method is used, regardless of connection (USB, via receipt
printer, or via serial adapter).
Setting Printed Copies Based on Payment Method
Beginning in 3.6, users can set a specific number of printed copies for Invoices based on the Payment
Method. For example, if a customer pays by cash, a retailer may choose to have only one copy of the
Invoice printed, but set LightSpeed to print two copies if the payment method is credit card. To set the
number of copies printed per Payment Method, go to Tools > Setup > Basics > Payment Methods.
Double-click any Payment Method, and in the resulting slide-out window, set the desired number of
printed copies when this Payment Method is used. To set whether to display the OS X Print Dialog box,
go to Tools > Station Setup. This setting affects all Payment Methods.
12. Set Up Your Hardware, Station, and Printers
You should now connect the POS hardware you purchased for use with LightSpeed. Please see the
POS Hardware guide for specific information regarding each of the types of devices LightSpeed
supports.
Station Setup
In the previous sections of Configuration I we worked with the Setup panel to configure LightSpeed’s
global settings. In this section, we look at the Station Setup panel, which are settings unique to each
LightSpeed station. As some of your stations may serve different roles or use different hardware, you
must configure Station Setup separately on each LightSpeed Mac. Here are some examples of
different station roles:
Stock Room: prints Product labels, uses a barcode scanner to receive goods on POs.
Cashier: prints receipts, uses a barcode scanner, makes extensive use of cash drawer and
card swipe.
Sales Associate: prints full-page Quotes and Orders, does not use a cash drawer or card
swipe.
Remember to configure Station Setup for each LightSpeed station. Here are the steps to configure a
basic Station Setup:
1. Navigate to File > Station Setup
2. Use the drop-down selectors to choose your card swipe, cash drawer, and pole display (if
applicable).
3. If you operate in a fast-paced cash environment, leave Default Search as Scan or Type Product
and change Default Customer Type to Walk In.
4. If you tend to have an account for each Customer, you may consider changing Default Search to
Type Customer. You would want to set Default Customer Type as Customer rather to Walk In.
5. Use the Default Tax Code drop-down selector to choose the default tax code you defined in the
Taxes section of this document. If you need help finding your default tax code, navigate to Tools >
Setup > Basics > Taxes and look for the top tax code in the Tax Code list.
6. Save the Station Setup panel.
Printing Basics
In LightSpeed there are three types of printing: receipt, full-page and label.
Receipt printing provides faster output and lower cost-per-page than full-page printing, making
it ideal for high volume retail environments.
Full-page printing is for documents where more detail (such as repair or ordering notes) may
need to be visible. Quotes, Orders, SROs, POs, and Supplier Invoices are all formatted for fullpage printing.
This section deals with setting up receipt and full-page printing. For more information on setting up
label printing, see the Label Printing Guide.
1. Navigate to File > Station Setup.
2. In the printing section at the top of this window, please select either Full Page or Receipt. This
controls the default mode of the print function when processing sales in LightSpeed.
3. If you wish to show the print dialog box each time you print, leave the number of copies at 0. The
print dialog box will control the number of copies. If you do not wish to see the print dialog box,
enter a number in the “Print x Copies” field and set the drop-down selector to Without Dialog Box.
Please note that your printer cannot “sense” whether a transaction is made by cash or credit card,
so you must choose a default which works for you.
4. Click Printer Setup at the bottom of the Station Setup window.
5. Use the drop-down selectors to select your printers and then click OK.
Full-Page Printer Setup
Now, we will define paper size information for full-page printing in LightSpeed. Please define your fullpage printer before your receipt printer.
1. From the Apple menu () > System Preferences > Print & Fax:
1. Set your full-sized 8.5 x 11 (US Letter) printer as the default printer (required for sizing
information).
2. Navigate to File > Page Setup in LightSpeed.
3. Choose "Format For" and select "Any Printer".
4. Change the paper size to "US Letter". If your region uses A4 paper by default, you will still need to
choose US Letter but full-page documents will print to your A4 paper.
5. Next to Settings, select "Save as Default" (Page Attributes will reappear, this is normal).
6. Click OK and then save for full-page printing.
Receipt Printer Setup
Next, we will configure the paper size for your receipt printer.
1. Navigate to File > Page Setup in LightSpeed.
2. Choose "Format For" your receipt printer.
3. Change the paper size to 72mm x 2000mm.
4. Click OK and save for receipt printing.
13. Configure POS Settings
The last step in a basic configuration of LightSpeed is to define the appearance and behavior of your
POS screen.
1. Navigate to Tools > Setup > Point of Sale > Point of Sale.
2. If you would like to brand your POS screen with your company’s logo, you can load a 255 x 140
pixel JPEG file by clicking Choose. For best results, make any required modifications to your
image before loading it into LightSpeed.
3. If you would like the POS mode to log out automatically after each sale, check the Auto-Logout
After Finishing Sale checkbox. This can be useful in cases where you have several salespeople
all sharing one LightSpeed station.
4. If you would like LightSpeed to show a pop-up window displaying the change from a cash
transaction, check the Display Change After Finishing sale checkbox. This setting can be useful if
you process a large volume of cash sales. Please note that even if you do not enable this setting
your staff will be able to see the change for the cash transaction on the right side of the POS
mode.
14. Create your Products
The creation of Products in LightSpeed depends on some of the earlier steps in this document. If you
have not followed the steps in order it is important to go back and complete the initial setup. Missing
elements may mean you cannot report on sales of your Products effectively.
For example, not having created your Suppliers would mean that you could not supply a cost for your
newly-created Product. If this were to be the case, this Product would be sold without accurate cost
data and your profit reporting would be inaccurate.
Creating a Standard Product
1. Click on File > New Product or click Product in the toolbar
2. Fill in at least Product Code, Description, Family, Class. Each Product must have a unique
Product Code. This attribute helps you search, sort, and run sales reports effectively. You may
use the manufacturer’s product name or your supplier’s catalog number if you do not wish to
define one of your own.
3. Click Save.
4. Click the “+” button next to the Costs/Suppliers window.
5. In the New Cost slide-out tray, choose the supplier, enter the Supplier Code, and enter the
Product’s cost in the Raw Cost field. Please note that LightSpeed always calculates cost from
raw cost
Importing Products from another POS, supplier spreadsheet, or other list
LightSpeed can help you import your Products from another POS system or from another source of
data. For your first import, please see "How to Import Products." For more information on how
importing Products works, please see the Importing guide.
Creating “Special” Products
From time to time you may need to make use of Products which represent something other than
physical stock. You may need a Product to represent shipping charges, your technician’s hourly rate for
repairs, or a special one-time coupon you plan to offer in-store.
Special Products can be added to a sale with either a positive or negative selling price, depending on
their function. In the case of adding a special coupon Product to a sale with a selling price of $-25.00,
LightSpeed will reduce the owing amount of the sale by $25.00.
The general rule of thumb is that special Products will be non-inventoried and will have an editable
selling price. These Products may also have a tax status of “No Tax” depending on their function.
Here are the basic steps involved in creating a special Product:
1. Create a new Product and fill in its Product Code and Description.
2. Uncheck Inventoried and check Editable Selling Price.
3. Optionally, change the Tax Status to No Tax.
4. Save and close the Product card.
See also "How to Create and Use a Coupon."
15. Create your Customers
The creation of Customers in LightSpeed depends on some of the earlier steps in this document. If you
have not followed the steps in order it is important to go back and complete the initial setup.
Creating a Customer
1. Click on File > New Customer details or click the Customer icon in the toolbar.
2. Enter the customer details.
3. Click Save.
Importing Customers from another POS, supplier spreadsheet, or other list
LightSpeed can help you import a Customer list from another POS system or from another source of
data. For more information on how importing Customers works, please see the Importing guide.
16. Set Inventory Levels
Once you have created your Products, you may set inventory levels. If you are transitioning from another
POS, you may use the Count Inventory tool to set an initial inventory count, see the Count Inventory
article. If you are opening a new store, you will wish to familiarize yourself with LightSpeed's purchasing
features to bring stock in to you store.
8. Configuration II
Contents
1. Create your Color and Size Sets
2. Learn the Size-Color Matrix
3. Name your Pricing Levels
4. Name your Warehouses
5. Set your Customer Categories
6. Define your Customer Groups
7. Set your Terms
8. Set up your Trackers
9. Create your Custom Fields
10. Set your Product Rules
11. Create your Smart Finds
12. Create your Phrases
Introduction
Having gone through Configuration I, you are now ready to configure the software in ways that will help
you get the most out of LightSpeed. These are optional settings, but you are strongly encouraged to go
through this article and invest the necessary time to these extra configurations. Spending some extra
time before you go live with the software is bound to save you and your staff far more time in the long
run.
Again, it is recommended that you thoroughly test your typical workflows in LightSpeed once the
system is configured, to ensure that reports, accounting exports, costing, pricing, and much more are
all behaving in a way that you expect. Setting up dummy Products and Customers can help you achieve
this.
1. Create your Color and Size Sets (for apparel retailers)
Tools > Setup > Products > (Color Sets, Size Sets)
The Size-Color Matrix accessible in a Product card can use color and size sets for more efficient
creation of Size-Color combination Products. Create a new set by clicking the New button, and name
the set you want to create. This set will then be accessible in the Size-Color Matrix of a Product card for
auto-population of sizes and colors. See the article on Clothing Workflows for more information.
2. Learn the Size-Color Matrix (for apparel retailers)
> Product card
If you need to create Size-Color combination Products, click the Size-Color Matrix checkbox in the
Product profile of the parent Product. This parent Product should include the basics for the “stripped
down” version of your Product. For instance, if you wanted to create Product cards for Size-Color
combinations of a particular tshirt, the parent Product should include all information EXCEPT the sizes
and colors. This information will then be added to the Product card’s Size-Color Matrix. See the article
on Clothing Workflows for more information.
3. Name your Pricing Levels
Tools > Setup > Products > Pricing Levels
Every Product in LightSpeed, in addition to having a regular Selling Price, can have up to ten alternate
prices, called Pricing Levels. Name these Pricing Levels to correspond with these alternate prices,
such as Education, Bulk Purchase, or Loyalty. Pricing Levels can be used in tandem with Customer
Categories (see below) to set automatic discount levels for your Customers.
Also, each of these Pricing Levels can have their own unique Cost. These Pricing Levels can be
accessed in the POS screen and in documents if the Pricing Levels can be selected per Line Item
checkbox is checked. Pricing Levels and their Costs can also be utilized in the Set Selling Prices
feature for batch changes of prices or costs of Products. Please see the Costs & Prices article
in the Products section of the User Guide for more information.
Pricing Levels can be associated with Customer Categories for discounts automatically applied to
Customer purchases. See section on Set Your Customer Categories below.
4. Name your Warehouses
Tools > Setup > Products > Warehouses
Warehouses in LightSpeed represent virtual stockpiles of inventory that appear in your totals but that
you do not want showing as available – demo equipment, for example, or slated for return to the
manufacturer. Name up to ten different virtual Warehouses to reflect these possible situations. Stock
can be transferred from your available quantities to one of these Warehouses, and back again, or from
Warehouse to Warehouse.
For more information on Warehouses, please see the Inventory Control article.
5. Set your Customer Categories
Tools > Setup > Customers > Customer Categories
Customer Categories allow you to automatically apply discounts to your Customers on their sales
documents. Click New to create a new Category, and name it. In the Discount field, you can set a
percentage which will be automatically be discounted from the Product’s regular selling price.
Choosing a Pricing Level in the pop-up menu below this field will automatically default to a particular
Pricing Level for the Products on the sales document this Customer is attached to, provided that
Pricing Level has been set for the Products being sold. Otherwise, the regular selling price will be
used. Used together, the percentage discount will be taken from the Pricing Level for the Products
rather than the regular selling price.
The Customer Category is set in the Customer card. If a Customer has been categorized, you will be
asked each time the Customer is attached to a sales document if you want to use the discounts
associated with this Category.
1. Name your Pricing Levels.
2. Create a Customer Category and associate it with a Pricing Level.
3. Assign the Customer Category to a Customer.
4. Set the relevant Pricing Level for a particular Product.
5. Sell the categorized Customer this Product to have the alternate Pricing Level applied
automatically.
For more information on Pricing Levels, see the Costs & Prices article.
6. Define your Customer Groups
Tools > Setup > Customers > Customer Groups
Customer Groups allow you to group your Customers together in countless ways, and search these
groups in order to do email blasts and track your Customers according to criteria you set. The groups
you create here will be accessible in the Options tab of the Customer card, and can be search in the
Smart Find feature of the Browser.
Please see the section on Customers for more information.
7. Set your Terms
Tools > Setup > Customers > Terms
Selling to Customers on credit or buying from Suppliers on credit should require you to define your
credit terms with each. Setting them here will produce a pop-up menu accessible in the Customer and
Supplier cards, indicating the terms of payment you’ve agreed to.
The creation of Terms allow you labels with which to assign to your Customers for information
purposes. Terms are not tied into LightSpeed's tracking of aging unpaid Invoices.
8. Set up your Trackers
Browser > Trackers > Setup
The Trackers feature of LightSpeed is a way for you to customize a set of notifications that are relevant
to you. From a list of close to 100 headings ranging from telephone calls you need to follow up on and
Orders you need to invoice to Web Orders ready to process, each User in LightSpeed can configure
their Trackers to list only those categories that concern them.
To configure your Trackers, click the Setup button at the bottom of the Browser for access to the
Tracker Setup window. In the first column all available Trackers will be listed, and can be sorted
alphabetically by clicking the header, or reverse alphabetically by clicking it a second time.
To install a Tracker, simply drag it from the first column to the second; multiple Trackers can be
installed using the Apple key. A Tracker can be highlighted in red in the Browser by clicking the Alerted
checkbox.
9. Create your Custom Fields
Tools > Setup > Advanced > Custom Fields
One of the most powerful ways you can customize LightSpeed to tailor-fit your business is by using
Custom Fields. You have the ability to add up to ten new fields to Customers, Products, Suppliers,
Sales Documents, and Purchase Orders, allowing you to collect information that isn’t pre-programmed
into LightSpeed already. Each Custom Field can be a text field (to store text or numbers), a date field
(to store a date), or a checkbox field (to create a checkbox that can be ticked or unticked) for further
flexibility, and you have the option to make the field printed or not. Printed Custom Fields appear on the
documents they've been added to. Custom Fields appear in the Options tab of the documents and
cards they’re created for.
For even more power for customization, use Custom Fields in tandem with Smart Finds (see below) to
organize and track your Products, Customers, and documents in new, unimagined ways.
You have a Platinum Plus club for your Customers. You could create a text Custom Field to record their
membership number, and this number could be printed on every sales document they’re attached to.
10. Set your Product Rules
Tools > Set Selling Prices/Set Product Info
Two of the most powerful timesaving features of LightSpeed include Set Selling Prices and Set
Product Info.
Set Selling Prices applies batch changes for LightSpeed’s multiple prices and costs. With the set of
criteria, you can determine a subset of Products, and then set an Action to change any of the various
Pricing Levels, the Cost, or the Web Price, using any of the other Pricing Levels, Costs, or Web Price
as a basis for calculation. Set Product Info allows you to set data for Products that is not price-related –
quantity, GL Accounts, Class/Family, reorder point, and more.
In each of these features, the Apply button will apply the Action to the subset of existing Products found
by the Criteria once only. The Rules button will allow you to create a rule for application in the future, and
by checking its checkbox and making it “live”, LightSpeed will automatically prompt you anytime any
Products which meet the criteria for that Live Rule are saved, asking whether or not you want the rule
applied. Live Rules ensure that uniform pricing or Product info is maintained even as Product card are
modified or new Products are created.
Batch changes made using Set Selling Prices and Set Product info are permanent and cannot be
undone, except by applying another Action. Also, when adjusting Product Cost, you must specify which
Supplier’s Cost you’re affecting with the pop-up menu at the bottom of the menu. For more information,
see the Product Rules article.
11. Create your Smart Finds
Source List > Smart Find Button
Smart Finds give you the ability to set a particular set of criteria, and either find the results immediately
and display them in the Browser, export them to a text file, or Save them, creating a clickable icon
accessible in the Source List which does an immediate find when accessed and displaying the results
as of that moment in the Main List.
Products, Customers, Suppliers, all sales documents, Purchase Orders, and Supplier Invoices can be
searched and sorted using Smart Finds. To create a new Smart Find, click the Source you want to
search, and in the resulting window, choose the criteria. In the header bar you will see the quantity of
items that will be found by that set of criteria. Clicking Find will find the results immediately, clicking
Export will save the results in a text file, and clicking Save will create a Smart Find icon in the Source
List of the Browser under the Source you were searching, accessible by clicking the detail arrow that
appears when a Source has at least one saved Smart Find.
The criteria of Smart Finds can also include the Custom Fields you've created, allowing you limitless
possibilities for adding expanded functionality.
I create a checkbox Custom Field called “Stockable” for Products, to record which Products I want to
keep in stock, and a text Custom Field called “Industry”, to record which markets the Product will
appeal to. I can then create a Smart Find to find all Products where “stockable” is checked and the
Industry is “Safety”, producing a list of Products I should have in stock for the safety industry.
12. Create your Phrases
Tools > Setup > Advanced > Phrases
Phrases are a way to store a longer segment of text that can be accessed from various places in
LightSpeed where you might need to enter a phrase or a few standard phrases. To enter a phrase,
click New, and enter the text you want to save. Click Save.
To access your saved Phrases, use the Command-' key combination within Notes fields, Custom
Fields, and more.
Tracking & Searching
Trackers
The Trackers feature of LightSpeed is a way for you to customize a set of notifications that are relevant
to you. From a list of close to 100 headings ranging from telephone calls you need to follow up on and
Orders you need to invoice to Web Orders ready to process, each User in LightSpeed can configure
their Trackers to list only those categories that concern them. For example, a service technician might
configure his Trackers to include the various stages of SROs to which his name is attached, whereas
the service manager might want to track all open SROs for all technicians. When a User is logged in,
their Trackers will be displayed in the Browser.
Installed Trackers can be displayed all at once, or individually, and are accessed in the left section of
the Browser. Clicking any Tracker will result in the pertinent documents displayed as a list in the main
section of the Browser. To see them all at once, click All Trackers. Beside each Tracker, the number of
relevant documents will appear in a circle.
To configure your Trackers, click the Setup button at the bottom of the Browser for access to the
Tracker Setup window. In the first column all available Trackers will be listed, and can be sorted
alphabetically by clicking the header, or reverse alphabetically by clicking it a second time.
Trackers cover almost every aspect of LightSpeed, including telephone calls assigned to Users,
Customers who have outstanding balances, Orders, Quotes, or SROs that go into a specific status,
and much more. Trackers beginning with "My" will list the items specific to a particular User, and
Trackers beginning with "All" will list all relevant items and will want to be seen by a manager
concerned with the "big picture".
To install a Tracker, simply drag it from the first column to the second; multiple Trackers can be
installed using the Command (Apple) key. A Tracker can be highlighted in red in the Browser by
clicking the Alerted checkbox.
You may also filter the results of any Tracker, according to the time the document was or was not
created or modified, as well as a list of fields which will limit your Tracker to a particular class, code,
description, family, or supplier. Once you have settled on the list of Trackers you wish to install, click
Save. To see the changes to your Trackers, click the spinning arrow Refresh icon in the Browser.
Trackers for Quote or SRO statuses will be added to your available Trackers as you create or edit
statuses in the setup panels of the Tools menu.
Searches in LightSpeed yield rapid results, and are possible from a number of places:
Point of Sale
Search Bar - clicking Customer, Product, or Document will allow you to yield immediate
search results based on the text you enter.
Browser
Simple Search - The search field at the top of the Browser window allows you to find items
based on one particular piece of information.
Smart Find - Smart Finds allow you to select multiple criteria on which to base your search, and
can be performed once, exported, or saved to be accessed later.
Search All - Search All will find every place in LightSpeed where a particular string of text
appears.
Documents
Each sales document contains a Customer search field that allows you to search existing
Customer cards based on name, telephone, or address, and a Product search field that allows
you to search based on Product Code, Description, or UPC.
Rather than a Customer search, Purchase Orders have a field with which to search Suppliers
based on name, telephone, or address.
Other Searches
Privileges
Users
Families and Classes
Customer Categories and Groups
Gift Cards
Serial Number History
Related Products
"Build Inventory" Products
"Count Inventory" Events
Importing
Essential Points
You should do a manual backup before performing any imports.
You can import Products, Suppliers, Customers, or Customer/Supplier Contacts.
You must rearrange your target fields to match your source data.
Some field values, such as those for Supplier, Class, and Family, must exist in LightSpeed
before those values are imported.
To import images, collect them as jpg files together in a folder and include their file name in the
source data.
Multiple Customer Contacts can be imported within a single Customer card.
Existing Products and Customers can be updated by matching on a particular field and
importing data into others.
Import Logs are files saved to your desktop and which indicate which data was not imported.
Introduction
As you transition from your previous system to LightSpeed, or if you simply want to add a supplier’s
pricelist to your database, Import Tools (Tools > Import Tools) provides you a simple way to import or
update data into LightSpeed in a batch, whether it’s Products, Suppliers, Customers, or Customer
Contacts.
With Import Tools, you match your target fields (UPC, Description, Telephone, etc) with your source
data (the original file) by dragging and dropping them into the correct order (see image). For complete
definitions of each importable field, please see the end of this document.
Example Templates
Click here to download template files for Products, Customers, Suppliers, and Contacts to see the
order with which each field appears in relation to the target fields of Import Tools. Open these files in
Microsoft Excel or iWork Numbers to see them laid out in a columnar format as a guideline you can
arrange your data after.
Presets
Once you have matched fields, and have checked off which fields to import/update, you can save the
order as a preset for future imports. Click Presets, enter the name of your field arrangement, and click
Save. You may also export and import preset files to have your fields automatically arranged
according to an imported Preset file. For example, you have an associate who has already matched
fields for source data that you are also importing - you can swap preset files with them to save time.
Click the Action menu in the pop-out Presets drawer, and select Import Preset to bring in a preset that
had already been exported, or select a preset and choose Export Preset to export your preset.
To apply a preset, you must first open the source data file. Select the desired preset, and click Apply.
General Import Steps
1. In the main Import Tools window, select the button that corresponds with the data you wish to
import: Products, Customers, Suppliers, or Contacts.
2. Then, in the window that appears, click the Open File button to locate the source file containing
your original data. This file must be a tab-delimited text file or a comma-separated text file, and
each line should represent a different record. It is recommended that you include the column
headings in your file as they can be omitted when you do the import, but are useful for matching
fields. To omit a record, click Omit This Record when it is displayed using the Browse slider.
(see Step 4)
3. Using the window’s two-column layout, match target fields (in the second column) with your
source data (in the first) by dragging and dropping them into the proper order. If you do not want
to import data into a particular field, uncheck its checkbox. Use the Action Menu (gear icon) at
the bottom to check or uncheck all fields.
If there is a down-pointing arrow in the first column (see Pre-Defined Values image), it is an
indication that this field currently has a pre-defined set of values set up in LightSpeed. Data being
imported into these fields may be one of three types:
Values must pre-exist in LightSpeed for import to work:
Class, Family, Tax Status, Supplier, Currency, Web Categories, POS Categories, User, Color,
Size, GL Accounts...
For example, if you have “speakers” in your source data and you want to import it into
LightSpeed’s “Class” target field, the word “speakers” must already be in LightSpeed’s list of
Classes. (see Field Definition tables below for more info)
Values can pre-exist in LightSpeed, but do not need to:
City, State/Province, Country
For example, if you have “Tucson” in your original data, it will be added to your
Customer/Supplier record, but will not modify your list of pre-definied values in LightSpeed.
Values that exist in a pre-defined value list in LightSpeed:
Phone Types, Inventoried, Serialized, Editable Sell, etc.
In some cases, where the target field is a checkbox attribute within LightSpeed (eg. Serialized),
the original data must say “Yes” or “No” (without quotations), or you click the detail arrow to select
one value - yes or no - to be imported into each record. Yes values will enable the attribute, No
values will not. Note: The original data may use “1” or “0” (without quotations) rather than “Yes” or
“No”, respectively.
Some fields use other pre-defined value lists that are already part of LightSpeed, such as Phone
Type, which has values such as Work or Fax.
If you click the down-pointing arrow, you can choose one of the pre-defined values to have one
value auto-added into all the records you import. If you do not click the arrow, the various values
from your source data will be imported into the target field of each imported record.
For example, if you are importing Billing Address Cities, you can either bring in a number of
various cities in one import, or you can click the down-pointing arrow, and choose ONE predefined city to be imported into ALL the records you’re importing.
For more information on pre-defining fields such as Class or Family, please see
the Configuration I article.
4. Using the Browse slider, skim through your original data to ensure it will be imported the way you
expect. If there are any records you wish to omit from the import, use the Omit This Record
checkbox when you are browsing the record you want to omit.
5. Once you have finished arranging your data, but before you click Import, you can click Presets to
save this configuration for a future, similar import, so you do not have to manually re-match the
same field order. (see Presets section above for more info)
6. Click Import to import your data. LightSpeed will tell you how many records were imported, and
how many were not. For a detailed list of which records were not imported and why, see the
Import Log(s) saved to your desktop. (see Import Log below for more information)
Importing Products
Products can be imported from a text file that your supplier provides you, and can be used to save time
in the creation or maintenance of Products. Each line item in the source data will represent one record
in LightSpeed. When importing new Products, LightSpeed will create a new Product card for each line
item you import. Alternatively, you can update existing Products by matching on a particular field, and
importing new data into any number of fields that you specify (see below).
You can import Size-Color Matrix Child Products, and have them maintain their relationship to the
Matrix Master Product.
When updating Products matching on Product Code or Product Code plus another field, you must
check the checkboxes for the fields you’re updating as well as the fields you’re matching on.
Skipping Records
When importing Products, you have the option to skip records that match on particular fields. For
example, choosing except matches on Product Code will skip any records that have a Product Code
identical to one already in the system. This means that if your original data matches a Product Code
with the existing Products in LightSpeed, that record will be skipped. It also means that if the Product
Codes in your original data are not unique, only the first line item will create a new Product.
You can also select matches on Product ID, UPC, Supplier Code, or on matches of both Product Code
in combination with several other fields, in the case that different manufacturers or distributors use the
same code.
Importing Size-Color Products
LightSpeed also has the ability to import size-color combination Products that use the matrix
Master/Child relationship. This relationship of a Master Product, representing a style common to
several combination Products, and its Child Products allows facilitated purchasing and inventory
management. For more information on how to use this workflow, please see the Clothing Workflows
article.
IMPORTANT: Sizes and Colors must exist in LightSpeed prior to any importing of data.
To import both Master and Child Products using Import Tools, your original data file must be
in the following format:
Product Code
Master - Main Code
Child - Master Product Code-Color-Size
Description
Master - Main Description
Child - Master Description, Color, Size
Master?
1 or Y = Yes
0 or N = No
Master Code
Master - leave blank
Child - Master Product Code
Color
Master - leave blank
Child - Color
Size
Master - leave blank
Child - Size
Importing Images
Rather than manually dragging .jpg files to the photo drawer of every Product card after the Products
have been imported, you may incorporate these images into your original data using their file names,
and adding a column to your original data that includes this file name, resulting in a batch import of your
Product images.
1. Collect all the image files you wish to import into one folder saved to your hard drive. Each image
must be in .jpg or .png format.
2. Next, enter the name of each Product’s image file, including the file type, in its own column in the
original data file.
3. Save the data file as a tab- or comma-separated text file and use the same procedure for setting
up the import as outlined above. Match the column that contains the names of your image files to
the Photo field in column 2 of the Import Products window.
4. Click Import.
5. When prompted, indicate the folder that contains all of your image files, and click Select.
Update Products
You are able to update your existing records using the Update Products option, allowing you to change
information in LightSpeed without having to delete and re-enter your Products.
1. Go through the general steps 1-3 as described above. However, you need only to check the field
you’re matching on, and the fields you’re updating.
2. Next, choose Update Products from the first pop-up menu, and choose which fields you wish to
match on from the second pop-up menu.
3. Click Import to update your existing records.
Update Costs
You are able to add new Product costs, or update the existing Product costs (default and non-default),
by using the Update Costs option, allowing you to add or change information in LightSpeed without
having to delete and re-enter your Products.
You should use Update Costs to modify existing Supplier Costs in LightSpeed. Using Update
Products may modify the Cost Average of existing inventory, or cause non-default Supplier
Costs to become the default Cost. Also, when updating Costs using Update Costs, you MUST
import the Supplier, the Supplier Code and Cost, in addition to the field you’re matching on. Not doing
so will result in an incorrect value replacing the existing Supplier Code for the Cost being modified.
1. Go through the GENERAL steps 1-3 as described above. However, you need only to check the
field you’re matching on, and the fields you’re updating. In this case, it must include Supplier,
Supplier Code, and Cost, as well as you’re matching field.
2. Next, choose Update Costs from the first pop-up menu, and choose which fields you wish to
match on from the second pop-up menu.
3. Click Import to update your existing records.
Customers and Suppliers
Customers and Suppliers
As with Products, Customers and Suppliers may be imported or updated using the “General Steps”
outlined at the beginning of this document. The guidelines are the same, including the requirement that
any data imported into a “pre-defined” field indicated by a downward-pointed arrow must already exist
in LightSpeed exactly as it appears in the original data.
For example, if your source data contains an Account Status of “Waiting”, this must be added to the list
of Account Statuses in LightSpeed prior to importing. Auto-populate fields can also include value lists
that are already pre-defined in LightSpeed, such as Phone Types (Home, Work, etc), and all of the
checkbox attribute fields use a built-in Yes/No value list.
To import Contacts within Customers or Suppliers, you must import a unique value into the field
Customer/Supplier ID (Imported), either when the Customer or Supplier is first created, or later (for
Customers only), with Update Customers. See Importing Contacts below for more information.
It is possible to import images for your Customers and Suppliers using the same method outlined in the
Importing Products section above.
Importing Contacts
Contacts in LightSpeed are separate entries, representing people or locations, that are part of one
organization, and are stored within the same Customer or Supplier record.
LightSpeed will allow you to import Contacts within a Customer or Supplier record, including alternate
billing or shipping addresses, Custom Fields, and more. To create a Contact within a Customer or
Supplier, the Customer/Supplier must first exist in LightSpeed. The essential steps for importing
Customers and Suppliers are outlined above. To be able to then import Contacts, you must have
imported a unique value for the field Customer/Supplier ID (Imported). This can be done when
importing your Customers the first time, or can be imported later using Update Customers. For
Suppliers, this must be imported on the first import that creates the Suppliers.
For example, you have two companies. Donaldson and Sons has a unique Customer ID (Imported),
and Miller Construction also has a unique Customer ID (Imported). If Miller Construction has 3 separate
Contacts, each Contact would have its own line in the source date, and the Customer ID (Imported)
would be the same for each of those contacts. (see image)
Having imported this unique value to “Customer ID (Imported)”, you can then match this same value
(whether it is a number, or a duplication of the company name column) from the original Customer
Contacts data to the target data field - Customer ID (Imported) - in LightSpeed. Individual contacts will
then be created within the Customer profile.
When importing Contacts, match the Customer ID or Supplier ID in the data above with the
Customer/Supplier ID (Imported) field.
The basic steps to importing Customer Contacts are:
1. Import or create your Customers.
If importing, include a column for a unique Customer ID for each Customer that will have a
Customer record. Match this value to the field Customer ID (Imported).
If creating Customers individually, or if your source data did not include a unique Customer ID,
you must add a unique Customer ID to each existing Customer record by using the Update
Customers feature of the Import Customers window. Choose the field(s) to match on, and then
import a unique Customer ID into each Customer record.
2. Import your Customer Contacts.
The source data must include a unique Customer ID for each Customer, imported into Customer ID
(Imported), and the information you’re importing for each contact, and can include name, department,
position, and more. (see image).
This source data can be the same file you’d used for Step 1.
Importing Supplier Contacts will use a similar method, however, you must import a Supplier ID
(Imported) when the Supplier is created the first time, and it must be created through an import.
Import Log
Each import or update you do results in an error log file saved to your desktop that notifies you if any
data failed to import, and why.
The Import Log indicates which line was not imported, the Product Code, and the reason. The name of
the file saved to your desktop reflects the type of import or update you are doing. Eg.
supplier_import_log.txt.
Import Errors
Import
Type
Description
Reason
Import
Product
“Warning: Unable to import
quantity for serialized product,
skipping inventory quantity field”
“Serialized Products cannot have their quantities or
serial numbers imported using Import Tools - they
must be counted using Count Inventory
“Error: Product already exists in
database, skipping duplicate
product.
Import Tools detected a duplicate product based on
the field you’ve chosen to match on.
“Warning: Unable to update
quantity for serialized product,
skipping inventory quantity field”
Serialized Products cannot have their quantities or
serial numbers imported using Import Tools - they
must be counted using Count Inventory
“Error: Product does not exist,
unable to update product”
Import Tools was not able to match an existing produc
based on the field you’ve chosen to match on.
“Customer exists in database,
skipping duplicate customer”
Customer was found to already exist in the database
based on a matching First Name/Last Name
Update
Product
Import
Customer
Update
Customer
“Customer does not exist, unable
to update customer”
Customer was not found in the database based on the
field you’ve chosen to match on
Import
Supplier
“Supplier exists in database,
skipping duplicate supplier”
Supplier was found to already exist in the database
Import
Contact
“Contact exists in database,
skipping duplicate contact”
Contact was found to already exist in the database
based on a matching First Name/Last Name.
Product Import Definitions
Field
Description
Auto-Populate
Product Code
The Product Code as it appears in LightSpeed
Product ID
(Matching Only)
Product ID used for matching purposes only.
Description
Product Description
Family *
Product Family
UPC
Product UPC
Class *
Product Class
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined Class
Tax Status
Product Tax Status
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined Tax Status
Supplier *
Supplier of Product
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined Supplier.
Currency *
Currency of Product Supplier
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined Currency
Supplier Code
Product Supplier Code
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined Family.
Cost
Product Cost
Sell
Product Selling Price
Sell (Tax
Inclusive)
Product Selling Price with Tax Included
Minimum
Margin
Minimum Margin setting for Modified Selling Price
Cost Always
Equals Sell
Y/N Does Cost always equal Sell Price?
Creation Date
Date Product was created
Modification
Date
Date Product was modified
Color & Size *
Product Color and Size
Height, Length,
Width
Dimensions of Product Box (Used for Web Shipping)
Weight
Weight of Product Box (Used for Web Shipping)
Photo
Product Image
Notes
Special Notes
Current
Y/N Is Product current?
Can auto-populate with
Yes or No
Inventoried
Y/N Is Product inventoried?
Can auto-populate with
Yes or No
Serialized
Y/N Is Product serialized?
Can auto-populate with
Yes or No
Editable
Y/N Is Description editable?
Can auto-populate with
Yes or No
Can auto-populate with
Yes or No
Editable Sell
Y/N Is Product Selling Price editable?
Auto Add
Related
Not a current feature.
Inventory
Quantity
Total Quantity
Web
Y/N Sell on Web Store?
Web Price
Special Web Selling Price
Web Keywords
1-3*
Web Store Keywords 1-3
Web Long
Description
Description on Product detail page of Web Store
Web Short
Description
Description on Product overview page of Web Store
Web
Categories
Web Store Categories (Primary, Secondary, Tertiary)
Reorder Type
Reorder Amount or Reorder to Max. Use 0 to indicate
reorder amount and 1 to indicate reorder to max.
Reorder Point
Quantity for Reorder Point
Reorder
Amount
Quantity for Reorder Amount or Reorder to Max
Pricing Level 1 10 Cost
Costs for each Pricing Level
Pricing Level 1 10 Cost
Costs for each Pricing Level
Can auto-populate with
Yes or No
Can auto-populate with
Yes or No
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined Web Category
Pricing Level 1 10
Pricing Level Prices
GL
Inventory/Asset
Account *
Product Inventory/Asset GL Account
GL Income
Account *
Product Income GL Account
GL
COGS/Expense
Account *
Product COGS/Expense GL Account
Custom Text
Fields 1 - 10
Product Custom Text Fields
Custom Date
Fields 1 - 10
Product Custom Date Fields
Custom Check
Fields 1 - 10
Product Custom Check Fields
Quantity
Discounts 1-5
Qty and Corresponding Sell Price of Quantity
Discounts
Customer ID
(Imported)
Customer ID you can import for use with Contacts
(undisplayed)
Customer ID
(Matching Only)
Customer ID for matching purposes only (not
importable)
First Name
Customer First Name
Last Name
Customer Last Name
First Name/Last
Name
Customer First Name/Last Name in same field
Company
Company Name
Creation Date
Date Customer was created
Modification
Date
Date Customer was modified
Type (C =
Company/I =
Individual)
Is customer a company or individual?
Phone 1 - 4
Customer Phone Numbers
Phone 1- 4
Type*
Phone Number Types (Work, Home, Mobile)
Email
Customer Email
Home Page
Customer Website
Address
(Billing) Line 1
Billing Address Line 1
Address
(Billing) Line 2
Billing Address Line 2
City (Billing)
Billing Address City
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined city
State/Province
(Billing)
Billing Address State/Province
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined state/province
Country (Billing)
Billing Address Country
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined country
Zip/Postal Code
(Billing)
Billing Address Zip/Postal Code
Address
(Shipping) Line
1
Shipping Address Line 1
Address
Shipping Address Line 2
Can auto-populate with
one of the 7 phone types
(Shipping) Line
2
City (Shipping)
Shipping Address City
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined city
State/Province
(Shipping)
Shipping Address State/Province
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined state/province
Country
(Shipping)
Shipping Address Country
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined country
Zip/Postal Code
(Shipping)
Shipping Address Zip/Postal Code
Photo
Customer Image
Notes
Special Notes
Credit Hold
Y/N Is Customer on Credit Hold?
Can auto-populate with
Yes or No
Credit Limit
$ Customer Credit Limit
Can auto-populate with
Yes or No
Credit Hold
Y/N Is Customer on Credit Hold?
Can auto-populate with
Yes or No
Credit Limit
$ Customer Credit Limit
Tax Status *
Customer Tax Status
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined Tax Status
Account Status
*
Account Status
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined Account Status
Customer
Category *
Customer Category
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined Category
Currency *
Customer Default Currency
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined Currency
Tax Code *
Customer Default Tax Code
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined Tax Code
Terms *
Credit Terms
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined Term
User *
LightSpeed User assigned to Customer
Can auto-populate with a
pre-defined User
Language
Customer Default Language for Printed Documents
Custom Text
Fields 1 - 10
Customer Custom Text Fields
Custom Date
Fields 1 - 10
Customer Custom Date Fields
Custom Check
Fields 1 - 10
Customer Custom Check Fields
* Field values must pre-exist in LightSpeed exactly as they appear in the imported data
Supplier Import Definitions
Field
Description
Supplier ID
(Imported)
Supplier ID you can import (not displayed)
First Name
Supplier Contact First Name
Last Name
Supplier Contact Last Name
First Name/Last
Name
Supplier Contact First Name/Last Name
Last Name
Supplier Contact Last Name
Supplier
Supplier Company Name
Auto-Populate
Currency *
Supplier Currency
Can auto-populate with a predefined currency
Phone 1 - 4r
Supplier Phone Numbers
Phone 1- 4 Type*
Phone Number Types
Email
Supplier Contact Email
Home Page
Supplier Website
Address (Billing)
Line 1
Billing Address Line 1
Address (Billing)
Line 2
Billing Address Line 2
City (Billing)
Billing Address City
Can auto-populate with a predefined city
State/Province
(Billing)
Billing Address State/Province
Can auto-populate with a predefined state/province
Country (Billing)
Billing Address Country
Can auto-populate with a predefined country
Zip/Postal Code
(Billing)
Billing Address Zip/Postal Code
Address
(Shipping) Line 1
Shipping Address Line 1
Address
(Shipping) Line 2
Shipping Address Line 2
City (Shipping)
Shipping Address City
Can auto-populate with a predefined city
State/Province
Shipping Address State/Province
Can auto-populate with a pre-
Can auto-populate with a predefined phone type
(Shipping)
defined state/province
Country
(Shipping)
Shipping Address Country
Can auto-populate with a predefined country
Zip/Postal Code
(Shipping)
Shipping Address Zip/Postal Code
Photo
Supplier Image (Logo)
Notes
Special Notes
Tax Status *
Supplier Tax Status
Can auto-populate with a predefined Tax Status
Account Status *
Account Status
Can auto-populate with a predefined Account Status
Terms *
Your terms with the Supplier
Can auto-populate with a predefined Term
Custom Text
Fields 1 - 10
Supplier Custom Text Fields
Custom Date
Fields 1 - 10
Supplier Custom Date Fields
Custom Check
Fields 1 - 10
Supplier Custom Check Fields
* Field values must pre-exist in LightSpeed exactly as they appear in the imported data
Contact Import Definitions
Field
Description
Contact ID
(Imported)
Contact ID you can import (not displayed)
Customer ID
Customer ID you can import (not diaplyed)
Auto-Populate
(Imported)
Supplier ID
(Imported)
Supplier ID you can import (not displayed)
First Name
Contact First Name
Last Name
First Name/Last
Name
Contact First Name/Last Name
Phone 1 - 2
Contact Phone Numbers
Phone 1 - 2 Type
Phone Number Types
Email
Contact Email
Department
Contact’s Department
Position
Contact’s Position
Notes
Special Notes
Address Line 1
Contact Address Line 1
Address Line 2
Contact Address Line 2
City
Address City
Can auto-populate with a predefined city
State/Province
Address City/Province
Can auto-populate with a predefined state/province
Zip/Postal Code
Address Zip/Postal Code
Can auto-populate with a predefined state/province
State/Province
Address City/Province
Can auto-populate with one of the
7 phone types
Country
Address Country
Custom Text
Fields 1 - 10
Contact Custom Text Fields
Custom Date
Fields 1 - 10
Contact Custom Date Fields
Custom Check
Fields 1 - 10
Contact Custom Check Fields
Can auto-populate with a predefined country
* Field values must pre-exist in LightSpeed exactly as they appear in the imported data.
Customer Import Definitions
Field
Description
Customer ID
(Imported)
Customer ID you can import for use with
Contacts (undisplayed)
Customer ID
(Matching Only)
Customer ID for matching purposes only
(not importable)
First Name
Customer First Name
Last Name
Customer Last Name
First Name/Last
Name
Customer First Name/Last Name in same
field
Company
Company Name
Creation Date
Date Customer was created
Modification Date
Date Customer was modified
Type (C = Company/I
= Individual)
Is customer a company or individual?
Auto-Populate
Phone 1 - 4
Customer Phone Numbers
Phone 1- 4 Type*
Phone Number Types (Work, Home,
Mobile)
Email
Customer Email
Home Page
Customer Website
Address (Billing)
Line 1
Billing Address Line 1
Address (Billing)
Line 2
Billing Address Line 2
City (Billing)
Billing Address City
Can auto-populate with a predefined city
State/Province
(Billing)
Billing Address State/Province
Can auto-populate with a predefined state/province
Country (Billing)
Billing Address Country
Can auto-populate with a predefined country
Zip/Postal Code
(Billing)
Billing Address Zip/Postal Code
Address (Shipping)
Line 1
Shipping Address Line 1
Address (Shipping)
Line 2
Shipping Address Line 2
City (Shipping)
Shipping Address City
Can auto-populate with a predefined city
City (Shipping)
Shipping Address City
Can auto-populate with a predefined city
State/Province
Shipping Address State/Province
Can auto-populate with a pre-
Can auto-populate with one of the
7 phone types
(Shipping)
defined state/province
Country (Shipping)
Shipping Address Country
Can auto-populate with a predefined country
Zip/Postal Code
(Shipping)
Shipping Address Zip/Postal Code
Photo
Customer Image
Notes
Special Notes
Credit Hold
Y/N Is Customer on Credit Hold?
Credit Limit
$ Customer Credit Limit
Tax Status *
Customer Tax Status
Can auto-populate with a predefined Tax Status
Account Status *
Account Status
Can auto-populate with a predefined Account Status
Customer Category *
Customer Category
Can auto-populate with a predefined Category
Currency *
Customer Default Currency
Can auto-populate with a predefined Currency
Tax Code *
Customer Default Tax Code
Can auto-populate with a predefined Tax Code
Terms *
Credit Terms
Can auto-populate with a predefined Term
User *
LightSpeed User assigned to Customer
Can auto-populate with a predefined User
Language
Customer Default Language for Printed
Documents
Can auto-populate with Yes or No
Custom Text Fields 1
- 10
Customer Custom Text Fields
Custom Date Fields
1 - 10
Customer Custom Date Fields
Custom Check
Fields 1 - 10
Customer Custom Check Fields
* Field values must pre-exist in LightSpeed exactly as they appear in the imported data
Taxes
Introduction
The ease with which you may configure LightSpeed for the application of sales taxes applicable in your
geographic region should not belie its importance. Tax settings may vary greatly between cities and
counties, let alone countries, and LightSpeed’s Tax setup panel is able to accommodate requirements,
both simple and complex, you may need applied to your sales.
This guide expands on the tax setup instructions from the LightSpeed Getting Started Guide, and
includes examples for a more thorough illustration of setup.
Set up your Taxes (Tools > Setup > Taxes)
The Taxes section of the Taxes setup panel is where an Administrator will enter the names of up to five
taxes and set their GL Accounts.
Tax Codes specify which taxes and which rates are charged in a particular jurisdiction or
circumstance. The default Tax Code is the Tax Code that is automatically applied when creating a
new sales document, and is set in the Station Setup panel. You can create additional Tax Codes for
charging out-of-state taxes. An unlimited number of Tax Codes can be created. Tax Codes affect the
taxes charged on a per-document basis.
Tax Statuses are used for particular tax exemptions. If a Customer is entitled to certain tax
exemptions, or a Product is exempt from certain taxes, one can apply the corresponding Tax Status.
The basic overview is as follows:
1. Name the taxes that will be charged in the Taxes section. Do not set rates in this section.
2. Modify the Default Tax Code (“US”) to charge the appropriate tax rates on your sales documents.
Rename it to reflect the Tax Code you want to appear on documents. Enter a rate for each tax,
but without the % sign.
3. Create new Tax Codes for any alternate tax scenarios (if any).
4. Create Tax Statuses for Product-level exemptions of particular taxes.
Specialized Tax Features
Taxes also have the ability to be configured according to local specifications, accessible only by
checking the Show Specialized Tax Features checkbox. In the column marked (1), you can indicate a
maximum dollar value for the tax collected. In (2), the checkbox indicates the tax is compounded on the
sum of the subtotal plus the taxes. In (3), the checkbox indicates a tax that is Paid and must be
assigned a GL Account for the export to the accounting package.
1. Maximum Tax - allows you to set a maximum dollar amount that can be charged in tax (eg. parts
of Alaska)
2. Compounded Tax - allows you to calculate tax based on subtotal plus any other taxes levied on
document (eg. Quebec QST)
3. Exported to GL Account (Paid) - allows you enter a GL Account to track the payment of this tax,
as opposed to its collection (eg. some Canadian provinces)
None of these features should be used unless they apply to your specific region. If you are unsure,
please contact LightSpeed Support.
Tax-Inclusive Pricing
At the bottom of the main Tax section, there is a checkbox that enables LightSpeed to calculate its
taxes differently. The Tax Inclusive Prices is designed for regions with particular tax calculation involving
a requirement for tax-in totals. IMPORTANT: It is recommended that unless you are in such a region,
you do not use this option.
Tax-Inclusive Pricing (TIP) displays all prices with the Default Tax Code already applied. For example,
if a retailer’s Default Tax Code applies a 10% tax to all Products, a Product normally priced at $100
would appear as being priced at $110 with Tax-Inclusive Pricing enabled.
When TIP is enabled, both prices appear in the Product card. However, on documents, only the taxinclusive price will be displayed, while the sub-total, tax breakdown, and totals will appear as they do
without TIP.
Note: You can set either the tax-out or tax-in price for a Product in one of two ways; first, in the Product
card, you can click the Selling Price field, which will calculate the Tax-Inclusive Price using the default
Tax Code, or you can click the tax-in price to calculate the regular Selling Price. Second, you can use
Set Selling Prices to set either the regular Selling Price or the Tax-Inclusive Price.
Modifications
If there are modifications to the sales taxes in your region, you must make the necessary changes to
the LightSpeed Tax setup panel to reflect the change. Most modifications of this type will involve the
adjustment of a tax rate.
In order to prevent the accidental modification of legacy sales documents, it is recommended that you
create a new default Tax Code to apply the adjusted rate(s). Otherwise, modifying an existing Tax
Code could result in legacy sales documents automatically adopting the new rate upon being
accessed.
In the event where a new tax is being created, it is recommended that you create the new Tax without
modifying an existing Tax. Then, create a new Tax Code to apply the proper rate(s) and make it the
default Tax Code. If you have any questions, please contact Xsilva Support.
Examples
Example 1
A shoe store in San Francisco applies a sales tax of 9.5% on all its sales.
1. Rename the “US” Tax (in the top section) to “TAX”.
2. Rename the default Tax Code to “Standard” and set the rate of “TAX” to 9.5.
Example 2
There is a store in Happytown, Pennsylvania. Their sales are subject to the state tax, which is 6%, but
there is also a city tax of 4% for sales to residents of Happytown, and must be listed separately. If they
sell to anyone else, they need only charge the state tax.
1. In the top section, name two taxes, “State” and “City”.
2. Rename the default Tax Code to “HAP” and set it to charge a “State” tax rate of 6% and a “City”
tax rate of 4%.
3. Create a new Tax Code named “REG” that charges a “State” tax rate of 6%.
Now, a standard sale to the Happytowners will default to the “HAP” Tax Code and apply 10% tax, listing
each tax separately. However, when a resident of nearby Pleasantville buys, the Tax Code can be
switched to “REG”, which charges 6% only.
Example 3
A kids’ store in Ontario selling assorted clothing, books, and puzzles for little ones charges 2 taxes, a
provincial tax (PST) and a federal tax (GST). Due to a change in the way sales taxes are to be
charged, they must change their tax setup to reflect only a new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST). Clothing
and books are exempt from all taxation.
1. Create a new Tax (in the top section) called “HST”. Do not modify or delete existing Taxes.
2. Create a new Tax Code and name it “HST”. Set it to apply a rate of 13% for the “HST” Tax.
Make it the default Tax Code by dragging it to the top of the list. Do not delete existing Tax
Codes.
3. Set each Sales Station to have HST as the default Tax Code.
4. Modify the “No Tax” Tax Status to exempt HST only.
5. Use Set Product Info to set the Tax Status of all Products with the Classes “Clothing” and “Books”
to “No Tax”.
Example 4
A toy store in Sydney is setting up their database. They use tax-inclusive pricing, and they charge one
tax called GST.
1. Create one Tax called “GST”.
2. Modify the default Tax Code to charge the appropriate rate of 10%.
3. Enable Show Specialized Tax Features, then enable the “Recommended” setting for TaxInclusive Pricing.
Example 5
There is a multi-store retailer with locations in New York City and Albany, NY. Taxes in New York state
are a combined rate of city, state, and various taxes.
1. In each store’s database, name one Tax - “Sales”.
2. In the New York City location, modify the default Tax Code to apply a rate of 8.875 for the tax
named “Sales”. Rename the Tax Code if desired.
3. In the Albany store, modify the default Tax Code to apply a rate of 8.0 for the Tax named “Sales”.
Rename the Tax Code if desired.
Example 6
In New York City, clothing sales under $110 are not subject to sales tax.
1. Follow Steps 1 and 2 in Example 5.
2. Use Set Product Info to set the Tax Status of all Products with the Class “Clothing” and a Selling
Price of less than $110 to “No Tax”.
Glossary of Terms
Accounts Payable (AP) - The outstanding amount owed by a retailer to its Suppliers. LightSpeed
integrates with accounting software for management of AP.
Accounts Receivable (AR) - The balance owing/credit amount of a single Customer or of all
Customers in relation to the Products purchased, trackable in LightSpeed.
Action Menu - A menu for additional features, signified by a "gear" icon.
Actions (Purchasing) - Categories of Products pending purchase.
Browser - The administrative window from which you can manage almost all aspect of LightSpeed,
arranged in an easily accessible format for an overview of your business that lets you drill down to
important detail.
Browser Toolbar - The section under the OS X menu that allows you to create new items, open up the
Browser window when closed, or logs a User into the POS screen.
Build - A method that combines multiple Products, their quantities, and their Costs together to create a
new Product that can then be sold as a single item.
Button Mode - A layout for the POS that groups popular Products together visually, allowing you to drill
down through nested categories to find and invoice Products quickly.
Child Product - A size-color combination Product linked to a Master Product.
Class - A classification for Products used in searches, reporting, and Product Rules, along with
Family.
Cost - The cost of a Product when purchased from a Supplier.
Cost Average - The average value per unit of all existing inventory for a single Product.
Custom Field - A field that may be added for data storage that does not already exist, and is one of
three types - text, date, or checkbox. Can be used in searches and Smart Finds, and can be
categorized as "printed" or "unprinted" for documents.
Customer - The term for a customer in LightSpeed that has a Customer card/profile in LightSpeed
from which a purchase history may be tracked.
Customer Category - A Customer classification that is associated with a discount based on flat
percentage and/or a particular Pricing Level.
Deposit - Money applied to a Customer and taken on a Quote, Order, or SRO. Does not affect AR
balance until applied to an Invoice as a Store Credit.
Discount - The reduction of a Product's price as a relationship to the original Price. Can be set as a $
or % amount on a document or line-item basis.
End of Day - A report that summarizes the Payment Method totals for a specific day, and allows entry
of actuals for comparison to determine discrepancies.
Family - A classification for Products used in searches, reporting, and Product Rules, along with
Class. Also can be used to locate Products in Web Store.
Gift Card - A method that allows Customers to purchase a serialized gift card that can be redeemed
toward the purchase of Product by the recipient.
Gift Receipt - An Invoice printed without price information.
Hold - The ability to temporarily "save" a POS Invoice for later reactivation.
Invoice - A sales document in either the POS or Browser that affects inventory levels when selling or
returning Products, and where Payments affect a Customer's AR balance.
Job - Associated with Timesheets to have Users work on specific tasks that can eventually be
converted into a Product that is sold to a Custoemr on an Invoice.
Master Product - The Product card that represents a common style among several size-color
combination Child Products.
Master Store - The origin Store used in Multi-Store Replication to "push" Product information out to
target Stores.
Matrix - The arrangement by which a retailer may link size-color combinations of a common style.
Order - A sales document that reserves inventory or creates a pending Order Request for eventual
conversion to a Purchase Order. Can take deposits.
Order Request - A request for Product originating on an Order and yet to be compiled onto a PO.
Parking - The section that stores and displays "markers" for Browser items that can later be singleclicked to preview, or double-clicked to open.
Payment - Money taken on a Browser or POS Invoice and applied to a Customer's account. Affects
the Customer's AR balance.
Point of Sale - The front-counter sales interface for processing transactions on a sales floor. Can be
used in Scan Mode or Button Mode.
POS Categories - The method by which you can arrange Products in the POS Button Mode visually,
using a Primary/Secondary/Tertiary nested system that allows a User to drill down to find a Product
quickly.
Posting - The process of "finalizing" a transaction (Payment, Invoice, Supplier Invoice, Inventory
Adjustment) before it can be exported to your accounting software.
Preview - A pane in both the POS and Browser layouts that allow the user to view general information
about an item without being required to open it.
Pricing Level - One of ten alternate prices possible for Products. Can be accessed manually in sales
documents or POS Invoices, or associated with Customer Categories for automated discounts.
Product - An item in LightSpeed that can be sold.
Product Rules - Rules that can be created to automatically apply pricing or attribute Actions to a
group of Products.
Purchase Order - The document that orders items from Suppliers. Can be created from scratch,
directly from an Order, or compiled by pending Order Requests.
Quote - A sales document that gives price information to clients, and can take deposits.
Related Product - A Product that may be associated with another Product as a suggested add-on
that appears in the POS or a Browser document when . May also be marked for "auto-add" when its
associated Product is added to a sales document.
Return - A negative amount of Product applied to an Invoice that may or may not be associated with
an original "sale" Invoice.
Scan Mode - A layout for the POS that allows you to create Invoices using a barcode scanner.
Service Repair Order (SRO) - A sales document that accepts equipment repair book-ins, and allows
you to record work performed, order parts, and accept deposits.
Store Credit - An outstanding credit on a Customer account that can be applied to an Invoice as a
Payment.
Supplier - The source of Products purchased on POs.
Supplier Invoice - Represents a payable that is created when a Product is received from a Supplier.
A Supplier Invoice is exported to your accounting software, where it is paid, then marked as "Paid" in
LightSpeed.
Tax - The name of any tax applicable to your sales or purchases in LightSpeed, used in Tax Codes for
setting actual rates to be applied to documents.
Tax Code - Arrangements of Taxes and their rates that apply to sales documents.
Tax Status - The arrangement of tax exemptions that apply to Products or Customers for particular
Taxes.
Tills - The method with which to track payments taken at a sales station and with the association of a
particular opening and closing balance.
Timesheet - Tracks the time a User is working. Can be a "general" Timesheet, or associated with a
Job for specific work.
Tracker - A pre-defined set of criterion that notifies a User via the Browser when the number of items
with its status changes.
Walk-In - Customer information that can be recalled but does not store or track buying information,
including purchase history or outstanding AR balances.
Warehouse - A "virtual stockpile" for Products that allow you to track items in your inventory but you do
not want showing as "Available".
Web Store - An add-on module for selling Products online that integrates with LightSpeed for
configuration and order fulfillment.
Quoting & Sales Overview
Essential Points
Quotes and Invoices are the beginning and end of the sales workflow of LightSpeed
Drag and drop document creation, one-click document conversion, and streamlined
backorders speed the sales process
Tax, costing, and printing options are accessed within Quotes and Invoices
Money taken on a Quote is called a Deposit; when taken on an Invoice, it’s called a Payment
Deposits can be applied to Invoices as Payments to affect a Customer’s AR balance
Customers must have a Customer card to track balances owing, credits, and purchase history
Invoices can be “posted” to finalize them for accounting export, or “voided” to be disregarded
as unused
Quotes and Invoices
Quotes and Invoices are the front line of LightSpeed’s sales documents, beginning the sales process
with a streamlined workflow that allows you to create complex documents quickly and easily from
LightSpeed’s back end Browser.
The standard workflow would be to create a Quote, which gives your Customer basic pricing
information, with the Customer possibly putting a deposit on the Quote, and then converting the Quote
to an Invoice when the Customer takes the Product home, with the deposit being applied to the Invoice.
However, if the Product is not in stock, or you wish to reserve the Product for the Customer, you must
first convert the Quote to an Order, which would then be converted to an Invoice when the Customer
takes the Product home. For more information on the ordering and purchasing workflow, click here.
The many features common to Quotes and Invoices minimize LightSpeed’s learning curve while
keeping your information centralized and providing you with a real-time search of Customers and
Products, as well as live visual feedback regarding inventory status. More information on features
common to all sales documents may be found in the Documents article of the Getting Started section of
the User Guide.
Quotes
In addition to the Customer and Product procedures common to all sales documents, there are some
features that distinguish Invoices from Quotes. Quotes have the basic functions listed above, as well as
the ability to become either an Order or an Invoice, depending on the status of your inventory, and what
you want to do with it. Once saved, a Quote may be converted to an Order if the Product must be
ordered from the Supplier or allocated by your administration, or it can be converted to an Invoice, if the
Product is available for sale.
First, assign a Customer name to the Quote. If you do not want to add the Customer to the database,
you can specify them as a Walk-In, and then you may include as much or as little identifying information
as you like. If the Customer already exists in the database, type a few letters of their name, their
address, or their telephone number in the search bar, or click All, and choose their name from the
resulting list. If it is a new Customer, click the “+” icon, enter their information in the Customer window
that appears, and click Save. When asked if you would like to reload the Customer information in the
document, click OK.
To add Product to a Quote, you can either scan its UPC, type a few letters of its description or Product
Code, or click All, and choose it from the resulting list. You are able to modify the Quantity, and, if the
Product is set up to accommodate it, you are also able to modify the Sell Price. When you have
completed the Quote, click Save. Once saved, you are able to then do one of two things to the Quote create an Order using the Order button to request the Product be reserved or ordered on a PO, or, if
some or all of the Products are in stock, create an Invoice using the Invoice button, which will transfer
ALL the Product on the Quote to an Invoice. You can then remove any Product the Customer won’t be
purchasing. To print Product images on the Quote, click the Options tab and select the image size you
wish to use.
Deposits
If a Customer wants to pay a deposit on a Quote, it can be applied to their account using the Deposits
tab. As with Payments on an Invoice, different payment methods may be used alone or in combination
with each other to apply deposits to the Customer’s account. These deposits will appear as credits on
the Customer’s file, and may be applied in whole or in part on any future Invoice for that Customer until
they are used up. Once a Deposit is applied to a Quote, the printed document will reflect the payment
and act as a proof for the Customer’s records. There is a setting in the Company setup panel that can
enable balances owing after Deposits are applied to be printed with the Quote, Order, or SRO.
NOTE: Deposits cannot be made to Quotes assigned to Walk-In customers, as they will be
irretrievable on future documents.
Every profile and document has an Action menu, accessible at the bottom of the window and marked
by a gear icon. This menu contains options particular to the document or profile. The menu options
particular to a Quote are as follows:
Open Customer/Open Selected Product - allows you to open the desired item directly from
the Quote.
Duplicate - duplicates the Quote.
Apply Discount - applies a dollar/percentage discount to the entire Quote.
Update Sell and Cost - if the selling price or cost of any Products on the Quote have changed,
this option will update them automatically.
Post Payments - will post any payments (deposits) made on the Quote, a step necessary in
the accounting export feature.
Convert to SRO - creates a new, unsaved SRO, adding the Products from the Quote.
Print Packing Slip - displays a dialog that asks you to select which Products to use for a fullpage packing slip.
Email - accesses your system’s email application and creates an unsaved email to the
Customer.
Schedule iCal event - accesses iCal to create an appointment for the Customer on the
Quote.
Link this Document - opens a window that allows you to force a link between this Quote and
another document.
Add to Parking - adds this Quote to the next available Parking space.
Show in Log - opens up the LightSpeed log and shows the history of this Quote, including any
edits that were made, and which Users modified the Quote.
Quote Action Menu
Invoices
Invoices can be created several ways in the Browser – from the "New Invoice" icon, from a Quote, from
an Order, by right-clicking the "Invoice" source, or using drag and drop. If you are creating an Invoice
from scratch, simply click the Invoice icon (pictured left) and populate the Invoice yourself. Creating an
invoice from a Quote or an Order will auto-populate the Customer and the Products, and any serialized
Products must have serial numbers attached to them. Finally, LightSpeed’s drag and drop feature
allows you choose the Products you want to sell by control-clicking the items in the Browser and
dragging the group over top the Invoices source in the Source List.
Once the Customer and Product information is complete, you are able to save it, automatically
proceeding to the Payment screen. Here, you can use the Payment Methods you’ve set up in the Tools
menu to enter the Payments for the Invoice, including a combination of one or more methods. For
credit cards, you can process the payment internally, or by using your existing standalone credit card
terminal and entering the authorization number into LightSpeed.
Serial Numbers
Invoices are structured in much the same way as Quotes, with the additional feature of Payments.
However, if you add a serialized Product, the message “Serial Numbers Needed” appear beside the
Product search bar along with a gold warning icon signalling the requirement of the serial number(s).
You must then enter the serial numbers before proceeding to Payments.
To do this, click the Product once, and the message will change to “X serial numbers needed”, X being
the quantity sold. You are then able to scan the serial numbers using your barcode scanner or enter
them manually, hitting Enter after each.
The serial numbers should exist in the available inventory, and will be pulled from a list visible by hitting
the All button when LightSpeed is asking for serial numbers. If the serial number you are
scanning/entering does not exist in available inventory, you will be warned and may then proceed to sell
the serial number for later reconciliation. Once you have entered all the required serial numbers, the
warning icon will disappear.
Backorders
When you add Product that is not available to an Invoice, a red warning icon appears beside the
Product and beside the Product search bar. You now have three choices.
You can eliminate the Product from the Invoice by selecting it and clicking the “x” icon or
pressing the Delete key.
You may create a backorder for the Product. When you click Save, LightSpeed displays a
dialog window indicating any Products on the Invoice that are not in stock, and offer the option to
backorder them. Clicking Yes will result in the quantities not available being included in the BO
column. Clicking No will result in a dialog asking if you’d like to sell the unavailable Products
anyway.
You can then click OK to proceed, selling the Product and bringing the quantity of that item into
a negative value. Choosing this option will result in a dialog that asks you if you are sure you wish
to proceed.
If you choose option 2, and backorder the unavailable Product(s), you will be asked if your Customer
would like to pre-pay any Backorders on the Invoice. If the answer is yes, the amount owing will be the
entire total of all Products on the Invoice, but a credit will appear for the Products which weren’t Invoiced
at the time of Purchase which can then be applied when those Products arrive and are Invoiced.
If there are Products to backorder, you must click the Order button at the bottom of the Invoice, verify the
information, and click Save to create a new Order request. Please see the Inventory &
Purchasing section for more information.
Payments
Saving an Invoice assigns it a unique ID which is used for later reference and takes you to the
Payments screen. Payments for the Invoice are registered here, including any applicable Credits for
the Customer. To apply a Payment to the Invoice, click the button corresponding to the Method of
Payment you have set up in the Tools menu. The amount tendered will automatically show the balance
owing on the Invoice, but this can be edited for partial/split payments.
LightSpeed integrates with payment gateways such as Merchantware, Axia, HPS and Authorize.net for
fast, simple, accurate processing of credit card transactions. At time of purchase, you are able to enter
the Customer’s credit card information and click Process to send the encrypted information to the
credit card gateway. If the transaction fails, you will be notified immediately. Likewise, if it is
successful, a confirmation number will be logged into the Invoice. The Save button must be clicked to
register the payment to the Invoice. LightSpeed will automatically access the processor for any method
of payment specified as “Credit Card” in the Tools > Setup > Payment Methods menu option.
If the Customer is using more than one method of payment, you are able to modify the amount tendered
to reflect the division of payment. Save the payment and click another button for the next payment
method. In some cases, the customer may choose to use the same method of payment, but from a
different source – a different credit card, for example, even though they are both Visas. All of these
different payment methods will be reflected separately on the printed Invoice.
Clicking the Save button for a Payment saves it to the Invoice and is irreversible except by
authorization by an Administrator.
Credits
If the Customer has a credit from a previous Invoice or deposit on Quote/SRO/Order, it can be applied
as a Payment. Clicking the Apply Credit button will call up a list of all the Customer’s available credits.
Choose one and specify how much of it you wish to apply. If a Customer has more than one credit you
need to apply, you must choose each one separately and save it as its own method of payment. Click
OK to return to the Payments view of the POS screen. You will notice LightSpeed will cross-reference
both Invoices within the other's Payment screen.
Printing
When your Invoice is printed, information you have set up or customized will appear. At the top right, the
Invoice number, as well as its barcode equivalent, will appear. Underneath you will find the date the
Invoice was created, and the date any modifications were made.
In the Product section, you will see the Description, as well as the image stored in LightSpeed’s
Product database. If you have not selected images to be printed, you will only see the Description.
Any notes you have entered in the Printed Notes field will appear after the Products, and below that will
be the details on Payment Methods.
At the bottom left of the Invoice, you will see any terms or conditions you have set up in Tools > Setup
> Company in the Invoices field. For more information, please see the Printing article in
the Administration section of the User Guide.
Posting, Exporting, and Unposting
There are two steps to the accounting export procedure - posting and exporting. Posting finalizes a
transaction - sale, payment, inventory adjustment, or supplier invoice - before it is exported, and then it
is exported. Each step is indicated by a green “P” or a blue “E”. An Invoice that has been posted or
exported cannot be modified until it is unposted using the Unpost features of the Edit menu.
If you need to modify an Invoice after it has been posted or exported, go to Edit > Unpost
Invoice/Payment, and select the desired action. Make your modification. At this point, you can either repost and re-export, or simply “mark” the Invoice as exported if you do not want to export it a second
time.
For more information, please see the Posting article of the Accounting section of the User Guide.
As with Quotes, Invoices have an Action menu which give you access to various features that may or
may not be found elsewhere. In addition to many of the features described above concerning Quotes,
other Action menu options specific to Invoices include:
Post Invoice - posts, or “finalizes”, the Invoice, locking it from any editing (apart from adding
Notes), which is a step necessary in the accounting export workflow,
Void Invoice - rather than delete an Invoice, you may prefer to remove any Products and
Payments from it, and void it, maintaining your ID number sequence and allowing you to add a
Note explaining any backstory for its voiding.
Mark as Exported - if an Invoice or a Payment is “unposted”, so an administrator can make a
change that wouldn’t otherwise be possible, you may wish to re-post and re-export, or use this
option to mark the Invoice as “exported” if you don’t want to do an actual re-export.
Print Full-Page/Receipt - these choices allow you to print a copy of your Invoice to either your
full-page or receipt printer.
Print Box Label/Gift Receipt - these choices allow you to print a box label, suitable for
attaching to the outside of a box to ship it, or a gift receipt for a list of Products purchased that
doesn’t include the prices.
Returns, Refunds, & Exchanges
Essential Points
Returns are done on a new Invoice that is created from the original Invoice in both the POS
screen and the Browser
Returns are essentially Invoices with negative quantities, and refunds are essentially negative
payments
Same day credit card refunds must be done as “Voids” for the entire amount if the original
payment remains unsettled
You must have the original reference number and card number to process a credit card refund
through LightSpeed
Exchanges are essentially return invoices that also sell Products
LightSpeed does not store credit card information
All credit card batching is handled by the merchant provider. It is not handled through
LightSpeed.
Introduction
LightSpeed makes it simple to process your returns, refunds, credits, and exchanges, taking what can
often be a complicated series of cross-references and making the process rapid and clear.
Returns are done much the same way in a Browser Invoice as in the POS.
Returns
Point of Sale
1. Click the Documents icon in the search bar, and either scan the barcode on the printed copy or
enter the document ID. Select the original Invoice and click the Return button at the bottom of the
POS.
2. The Products from your original document will be added to a new Invoice, but with negative
quantities, which will bring the Product(s) back into your stock once the Invoice is saved. Delete
any Products you do not wish to return from the Invoice before saving by selecting it and hitting
your Delete key or by clicking the Delete icon at the top right of the POS screen. If you are
returning a serialized Product, you must enter the serial number as it appeared on the original
Invoice.
3. Click Check Out. The Products have now been returned into your available inventory. See the
Refunds section below for information on how to refund the Customer their money, or the Credit
section if you want to leave an outstanding credit in the Customer’s profile that they can use later
on a future Invoice.
Browser
1. In the original Invoice, click the Return button at the bottom of the window.
2. You will be asked if you want to process a Return, or, if you have selected specific Products,
whether you wish to process a return for the entire Invoice, or only the Products you’ve
selected. Click OK.
3. The Products you’d selected will be added, with negative quantities, on a new Invoice. Make any
necessary changes, and click Save, which will bring the inventory back into your available stock. If
you are returning a serialized Product, you must enter the serial number as it appeared on the
original Invoice.
If you are processing the return in the Browser, you can use an Apple key/mouse-click combination to
select one or more Products. Clicking the Return button at that point will result in your being asked if
you want to process a return for the entire Invoice, or only for the selected item(s).
Refunds and Voids
Refunds are processed as negative values in the Payments section of the Invoice on both the POS
screen and the back-end Browser. Refund payments are processed in the same way as regular
payments. That is, if the return Invoice balance is negative $100, and the payment is negative $100, the
resulting balance will be zero.
IMPORTANT: Credits cannot be saved to a Walk-In Customer. Therefore, on the Invoice processing the
credit, you must create a Customer card to which the credit will automatically be applied, and this
Customer card must be used on any subsequent sales documents where you wish to apply the credit
on file.
If you are processing credit card payments through LightSpeed, refunds require the reference
number generated during the original transaction. Payment Voids are required when you are
processing credit card transactions through LightSpeed and the original payment has not yet settled
between the payment processor and your account. Voids must completely cancel the original
transaction and return all Products, and a third Invoice must be created to start the sale from scratch.
If the original payment has settled, you may process a refund for a full or partial amount, and return only
those Products that are physically being returned.
The steps for a standard refund in both the POS and Browser are;
1. Once the return Invoice has been created (as outlined above), choose the Payment Method you
are using to refund the Customer. In most cases, this will be the same as the Payment Method
used on the original Invoice.
2. Enter a negative value that reflects how much you will be refunding your Customer. If you enter a
value that is less than the total of the Invoice, the Customer will have a credit remaining on their
account. Important: Customers must have a profile in order to track any outstanding credits (or
balances) - Walk In customers will not track these credits and balances. (See below for more
information)
3. Click Save to save the Invoice. Any remaining balance or credit will appear on the Invoice.
The steps for an internal credit card refund (through payment gateways such as Authorize.net or HPS)
are;
1. Before creating the return Invoice, you must have in hand the original payment’s reference
number. You must also have the customer’s credit card number.
2. Create the return Invoice as outlined above.
3. Click the credit card Payment Method used for the original transaction.
If you are refunding in the POS, select the payment method, swipe/enter the card number.
Click the Advanced Options arrow and enter the original reference number. Click the Void or
Refund button to process.
If you are refunding in the Browser, select the payment to refund. Click OK. Select whether you
are processing a Void or a Refund (see above). Confirm the amount, then swipe or enter the
credit card number of the original payment and click Process. A new reference number will
populate for the transaction. Click Process.
POS Cash Refund
Refunds From Deposits
Refunds that are processed from Deposits (on Orders, SROs, and Quotes) should be processed as a
negative Payment on an Invoice, along with a note, which leaves a paper trail for the transaction.
Create an Invoice with no Products, save it, and on the Payment screen, select the Method of Payment
that will receive the credit. Swipe the customer’s credit card, and enter a negative value to process a
refund. You must have the customer’s credit card number for this procedure.
To process a refund from deposit, please follow these steps:
1. Create a new Invoice and add the Customer who has the initial deposit. Save the empty Invoice.
2. Click the Payments tab
3. Click the green Apply Credit button
4. In the resulting window, select the sales document that took the initial deposit
5. Change the Amount to Apply from 0.00 to the amount of the deposit you're refunding (a positive
value), and click OK
6. Click the Payment Method you wish to refund the Customer with
7. Confirm that the value is negative. If refunding by credit card, enter the card number. Click
Process.
The refund should now be complete.
Credits
If a Customer returns a Product, but they do not want a refund, you can leave the credit on their account
simply by completing the return Invoice without applying a refund payment to it. This credit will remain
on their account until their next transaction, at which time it can be applied to the new sales document in
the Payments section.
Credits cannot be saved to a Walk-In Customer. Therefore, on the Invoice processing the credit, you
must create a Customer card to which the credit will automatically be applied, and this Customer card
must be used on any subsequent sales documents where you wish to apply the credit on file.
Exchanges
Processing an exchange in LightSpeed’s POS screen or back end Browser Invoice is done in the
same way. Create the return Invoice as explained above, with negative quantities for any Product(s)
being returned. Add the Product(s) that the Customer wants to purchase as additional line items. The
balance of the Invoice will be a negative or positive value, resulting in your Customer being owed a
refund or a credit, or in you being owed payment by the Customer.
Voided Invoices
If you create a new Invoice that you do not wish to complete (the Customer changes their mind, for
example), and you do not wish to delete the entire Invoice, you can void the Invoice. First, you must
remove all Products on the Invoice, and save the changes. Then, under the Edit menu, choose Void
Invoice. A red V will appear in the corner, and now the Invoice cannot be modified. A voided Invoice
cannot be un-voided, unless it is posted and unposted (see Posting article).
Product Rules
Introduction
When you want to make changes to large groups of Products all at once, Set Selling Prices and Set
Product Info are the tools you will use. Set Selling Prices will modify the costing and pricing
information of your Products, based on criteria you choose, while Set Product Info will modify Product
attributes. Each modification is known as an "action", and may be applied once, manually, or many
times, automatically.
Set Selling Prices
When your Products are entered in the Products database, you may wish to set their Selling Prices to a
fixed price or one calculated from either the default Cost or an alternate Cost associated with a
particular Pricing Level. This can be done according to their Family, Class, or other category by batch
rather than individually, in the interest of saving time. To do this, choose the Set Selling Prices option
of the Tools menu. There, select subsets of your Products using a series of filters that will allow
changes to be applied to only those Products that meet your chosen criteria.
Rules vs. Apply
The Rules and Apply buttons at the bottom of the Set Selling Prices and Set Product Info windows
perform similar functions, but at different times. "Apply" will set the current Action to existing Products
affected by the Criteria at the moment it is used. "Rules" will allow you to save the Action to perform on
future Products or existing Products being modified, automatically.
Prices
Once you have the subset you wish to change, you are able to decide if you want to simply set the
Fixed Price, or to calculate a markup using a percentage, a dollar value, or a combination of the two.
In addition, you can set the Sell Price for the alternate Pricing Levels you’ve created (in the Pricing
Level setup option in the Tools menu), allowing you to customize pricing for different categories of your
Customers. You may also specify which Cost on which to base this calculation; the standard Cost, a
Cost associated with a certain Pricing Level, or the Cost Average. To do this, use the pull-down menu
that allows you to set “Sell” to select the Pricing Level, and using the adjacent pull-down menu, select
the particular Cost you wish to use. Click Apply to apply this action to the affected Products.
Example: You have a repair shop that can order service parts from with an exchange cost or a stock
cost, depending on whether or not you’re sending back a dead part for credit. You would create an
alternate Pricing Level to reflect an exchange, and then indicate that the Pricing Level sets the Cost
particular to that level. (ie. A hard drive would cost $100 if a defective one were sent back, but $200 if
not). You then use Set Selling Prices to mark up the Selling Price for that alternate Pricing Level using
the special Cost you have when you send a defective part back.
Costs
You can also set your Costs for default and non-default Suppliers by choosing to set “Cost” using one of
the available options. However, it is essential that you choose the Supplier whose Cost you are
changing at the bottom of the Set Selling Prices window. The Make Default Cost checkbox will not only
modify the Supplier Cost in the Product Card when enabled, it will also mark the Supplier Cost as that
Product’s Default Cost. Not enabling the checkbox will only modify the Supplier’s Cost, and leave it as
non-default in the Product card.
Live Rules
You may create a Live Rule to save any of these criterion/action combinations and have them applied
automatically when new Products are created or existing ones modified. After having set the Criteria
for your Action, click the Rules button. A drawer appears which allows you to name and save the
current criteria. When you click Save, the Rule will appear in the upper section along with a checkbox;
checking this box will make the rule “live”, and it will be automatically applied when you click the Save
button of any Product which meets the criteria. Leaving a rule as "not live", or unchecked, simply allows
you to recall the rule (similar to a "Preset" in Import Tools) to apply it manually.
You will be asked to agree with a dialog box before any Live Rules are applied.
Making a Rule "Live"
Set Product Info
In addition to setting the Selling Prices or Costs for your Products, you may also need to make batch
changes to one or more fields in your Product profiles. Set Product Info allows you to search subsets
of your Products in a similar way as the Set Selling Prices feature, and apply an Action. By selecting
the options from the pop-up menus in the Criteria section, you can specify the Products you wish to
change. Then, set the Action in the section below to change the appropriate field in the selected
Products.
The Rules and Apply buttons behave the same way they do in Set Selling Prices.
Labeling
Product Labels
LightSpeed allows you to print labels for Products or Customers, and will print them to the Dymo label
printer, which has a spool, or to Avery 8.5” x 11” label sheets, which can be printed in a regular laser
printer.
There are several ways to access the Print Product Labels window.
Choose the Print Product Labels option of the Tools menu.
Choose the Print Labels option in the Action menu of the Product profile.
Choose the Print Product Labels option in the Action menu of a Purchase Order. This option
will ask if you wish to print labels for received quantities only.
Once you are in the Print Product Labels window, you can choose the labels you wish to print by
searching on the Description or Product Code. Double-click the Product to add it to the set of
Products for which you will print labels. You can also produce a list of all Products by clicking the All
button. To select more than one Product, hold down the Apple key as you click each item. When you
have finished, hit the Return key to add them to your list. You can also drag Products from the
Browser to the Print Product Labels window, if you wanted to label all the Products of a particular
Class, for example. Once you have selected your list of Products, change the quantities for the number
of labels you wish to print.
To auto-populate quantities related to totals of the Products you have in stock, click the Action menu
and choose the appropriate option – the Quantity Available, Reserved, In Warehouses, or Total
Quantity.
You can also use the Action menu to auto-populate the prices to be printed on your labels according to
the regular Selling Price, or one of the ten Pricing Levels. Alternatively, you can manually change the
prices to be printed by double-clicking the price in the Sell column and entering a new price.
Changing a price here does not change the Selling Price in the Product profile.
Confirm the settings in the lower half of the Print Product Labels screen: choose the method with which
you’re printing labels (Dymo LabelWriter or label sheet); the Dymo/Avery format for your labels (see the
Labelling Guide for details); which code you want printed on the label (the Product Code or the Product
ID); whether you want to print a barcode, and, if so, whether to use the UPC, the Product Code, or the
Product ID.
It is recommended that if your UPC is missing, you use the Product ID as the barcode, as Product
Codes can be longer than an acceptable length for your scanner to read. You cannot create a UPC – it
must be the code that ships with the Product from the manufacturer. Otherwise, use the Product ID as
the barcode. However, if you are using Multi-Store to transfer Products between locations, it is
adviseable that you use Product Code to create labels in the absence of a UPC to avoid the need to
relabel at the new location. For this to work, your Product Codes must be 10 characters or less.
Multi-Store Labeling
In the absence of a UPC which can be used as a universal barcode among your business's multiple
locations, you may choose the "Multi-Store Label" option from the Print Product Labels window. This
option results in a label that looks similar to one that uses the Product Code/Product ID barcode, but
instead uses a code that is shared among all locations, allowing users to freely transfer Products
between locations without the need for relabeling.
To use Multi-Store Labeling, you must first enable the Multi-Store feature in LightSpeed, and then use
the Replication feature to "link" Product matches across various locations. Once this is done, the MultiStore label may be printed, and used the format:
MASTER STORE STORE CODE + MASTER STORE PRODUCT ID
I have 2 stores, one in Seattle (SEA) and one in Portland (PTLD). Seattle is my Master Store. I sell an
item with the Product Code "CHAIR" in both locations, but in Seattle, the Product ID is 555 and in
Portland the Product ID is 1043. The Multi-Store label code that will result is "SEA555", even if the label
is printed in Portland.
The process for using Multi-Store Labeling is:
1. Upgrade to LightSpeed 3.3 or later
2. Enable Multi-Store
3. Choose Master Store
4. Replicate from Master Store
5. Go to Print Product Labels
6. Select label size
7. Select “Multi-Store Label” for barcode
8. Print and label Product
Note: The code described above (SEA555 in the example) will not appear as text on your label.
However, when scanned, that will be the code that is entered and used to find the Product.
If you are creating labels using the Multi-Store label code, you will not be able to use these barcodes to
create a spreadsheet count for use with the Count Inventory tool. Only barcodes based on the Product
ID, Product Code, and UPC can be used for importing into Count Inventory.
Label Designer
If you are using a CUPS-compatible label printer other than the Dymo Turbo, or you want to customize
your labels, you can use LightSpeed’s label designer to include the particular fields you want to appear
on your label, include a graphic, or change the dimensions.
To design a Product label, click the Design button in the Print Product Labels window. Click New in the
Custom Labels window that appears. Then, in the Page Setup window, choose the label printer you will
be printing to in the Format For pop-up menu, and then choose the label dimensions in the Paper Size
pop-up menu, or choose Manage Custom Sizes to set the dimensions yourself. Make sure you choose
“Portrait” mode, if applicable. Name the label when prompted (eg. “Jane’s Custom Label”) and click
OK.
When you land on the Layout Design window, you will see a graph representing the dimensions of your
custom label, and you can access a pop-up menu to choose which fields you wish to include in the new
layout. Choose the desired field, and click the Add Field button to have the field appear on the graph.
You can use the field handles to resize the space the field can occupy, and use the settings in the
toolbar to the right to set the font, the font size and style, and the alignment. To remove a field, select it
once so its handles appear, and then click the Delete key on your keyboard.
To add a graphic to your label, choose “Graphic” from the list, and click the Add Field button. Resize (if
necessary) the field, position it, and drag and drop a jpeg image into the graphic drawer that appears.
Adjust the graphic as necessary.
For a barcode, you have a choice between “UPC Barcode” and “C39 Barcode”. The UPC Barcode
will be the barcode of the UPC that has shipped with the Product and has been scanned into the
Product card’s UPC field. The C39 Barcode will take the Product ID or Product Code (whichever you
have chosen in the main Print Product Labels window).
When you believe you have arranged your fields to the desired configuration, click the Preview button to
see how your label will appear when printed. Use the slider to see how various Products would print if
selected. If any text that you’re expecting to appear is missing, try resizing the field dimensions to
ensure they’re large enough.
You cannot change the font for any barcode fields.
Once you have finalized your custom label, click Save, and close the window. Then, click the Label
Size pop-up menu in the main Print Product Labels window, and select the custom label name you just
created.
A good rule of thumb is to print only one or two labels to confirm they are printing as you expect.
Customer Labels
To access the Print Customer Labels window, you can:
Choose the Print Label option in the Customer profile.
Click the Print Labels button in the Customer Browser.
Having accessed the Print Customer Labels window, you can compile your list of printable labels by
selecting them from the search window individually, or, using the Apple key, in a batch. Once selected,
press the Return key to add them to the pending list. You may also drag Customers from the Browser
to the Print Customer Labels window.
Once a Customer is on the pending list, you are able to edit the quantity of labels that will be printed in
the Qty column. If a Customer has more than one Contact in their profile, you will be able to access
them with a triangle icon that appears beside the default Contact.
In the lower section of the Print Customer Labels window, you can choose which method you’re using
(the Dymo printer or by label sheet), the label size, and whether you’re printing the Billing or Shipping
address. When your list is complete, click Print.
You also have the option of printing a barcode for the Customer that can be used to scan into the
system to quickly add a Customer to a sales document.
Default Label Sizes
PRODUCT LABELS
Dymo Label Printer
30252 (1-1/8” x 3-1/2”, 28x89mm)
30299 (7/16” x 2-1/8”, 11x54mm)
30330 (3/4” x 2”, 19x51mm)
30336 (1” x 2-1/8”, 25x54mm)
30332 (1” x 1”, 25x25mm)
30333 (1/2” x 1”, 12.5x25mm)
30373 (7/8” x 2”, 22.1x50mm)
8.5” x 11” Label Sheet
A05260 (1” x 2-5/8”, 25x67mm)
A05259 (4” x 1-1/2”, 101x38mm)
A05167 (1/2” x 1-3/4”, 12.7x44.5mm)
CUSTOMER LABELS
DYMO LabelWriter
A30252 (1-1/8” x 3-1/2”, 28x89mm)
8.5” x 11” Label Sheet
A05260 (1” x 2-5/8”, 25x67mm)
A05259 (4” x 1-1/2”, 101x38mm)
Gift Cards
The Gift Card feature of LightSpeed allows you to sell and track gift cards for a variety of
denominations and purposes, including the ability to adjust the card’s balance for multiple uses.
As explained below, there are two methods for recording a serial number when a Gift Card is sold either it is generated by LightSpeed, or it is entered from a pre-printed Gift Card taken from a series
ordered from a third party company. If you are ordering pre-serialized Gift Cards, you should request
that their format is either C39 barcode, or Track 2 Data Magnetic Stripe. The cards you order should
each have a unique ID number encoded one of these ways. This number is what will be entered and
stored in LightSpeed when a Gift Card is sold. It is suggested that this ID number also is printed on the
card in the event that a magnetic stripe becomes demagnetized.
1. In the Gift Card setup panel (Tools > Setup > Point of Sale > Gift Cards), you have the choice
to enter your own gift card serial numbers, or to have LightSpeed generate its own serial
numbers for your cards.If you have gift cards that require serial numbersto be generated, select
the first radio button and choose the label size for the label on which you will print the serial
number. When you sell a gift card, LightSpeed will print a label that shows the credit amount, as
well as the gift card serial number. Affix this label to the gift card; when the card is redeemed, you
will scan or type this serial number for its retrieval from LightSpeed.
If your gift cards are already serialized, choose the second radio button. You will be asked to
enter/swipe this number when you save the Invoice selling the Gift Card.
2. Create a new Product to reflect the Gift Card. It must be non-inventoried and non-serialized,
and the Tax Status must be set to “No Tax”, which will be the default settings when the Gift Card
checkbox is checked. Set the Selling Price to the denomination of the Gift Card. Save the
Product. You can create a new Product for each value of the Gift Cards you wish to sell. If you
prefer, you can check the Editable Selling Price and Editable Descriptioncheckboxes and use
the same Product for different denominations.If you do Accounting Exports to MYOB or
QuickBooks, choose the Gift Card Liability Account you have set up in your accounting software
as the GL Income Account located in the GL tab.
3. In Tools > Setup > Basics > Payment Methods, set up a Payment Method called “Gift Card”.
In the drop-down menu, select Gift Card. Again, if you do Accounting Exports, choose the GL
Account that reflects your Gift Card Liability Account. This will be the same GL Account you
assigned in the GL tab of the Gift Card Product profile (as outlined above). Click Save.
4. To sell the Gift Card, create a new Invoice and assign the purchasing Customer. Next, add the
Gift Card Product. If you are editing the Selling Price, click the Price field and change it to the
desired amount; otherwise, leave the amount as set in the profile. Click Save. If you have
chosen Generate Gift Card Serial Numbers in the Gift Card setup panel, you will be asked if you
wish to print the Gift Card label. Clicking OK will result in the label being printed, which can then
be affixed to the Gift Card. The serial number sequence will start at G-1000, and can be changed
in Tools > Setup > Basics > ID Numbers. Once the Invoice is saved, you will be notified that
the Gift Card has been activated.You can now process the Payment.
The Payment Method of this Invoice will not be Gift Card – the purchasing Customer will pay by
normal means – cash, cheque, or credit card.
5. To redeem the Gift Card, create a new Invoice and attach the redeeming Customer. Add the
Products that the redeeming Customer is purchasing, and save the Invoice as you would
normally. In the Payment screen, click the Gift Card button. You will be asked to enter/swipe the
serial number for the Gift Card, and a window will appear asking you to indicate how much of the
remaining balance on the Gift Card you wish to apply to this Invoice (similar to the procedure for
applying credits). Once the Gift Card balance has been applied as a payment, the Gift Card will
be auto-entered as a line item on the Invoice, with a negative value. The reason for this is to
prevent revenue being reported twice.
6. If only part of the Gift Card balance is applied, the balance will remain on account for that serial
number, and can be redeemed in the future using the same procedure.
Payments made using Gift Cards will be exported with the normal Payment export to your accounting
software. Both purchases and redemption of Gift Cards will affect the same GL Account when it is set
in both the Gift Card Product profile and the Gift Card Payment Method.
History
To track the status and history of your Gift Cards, choose the Gift Cards option in the Tools menu. You
will be able to check the status of a particular serial number and its remaining balance, as well as any
sales documents to which it was applied. Pressing the All button will bring up all Gift Cards which can
then be filtered based on whether they’re active or inactive. You can use the Reprint button to reprint
the label, or click History to open the History drawer to check a particular Gift Card’s usage.
Recharging
If your customer decides to add more money to an existing Gift Card, sell the Gift Card as described
above on an Invoice, and rather than enter a new serial number, enter the existing one. A dialog box
displays asking if you want to add the quantity to an existing amount.
It is only possible to recharge a gift card if you have chosen the option to enter/swipe gift card serial
numbers in the Gift Card Setup panel.
Cancelling
If you have any Gift Cards that are created accidentally, or have expired, you must follow these steps to
cancel the card and set its serial number to zero.
1. Create two non-inventoried, untaxed Products to represent "Expired Gift Card" and "Error Gift
Card". You could create one Product to handle either scenario, but creating two gives you the
option for more detail in terms of reporting. These Products should have "Editable Sell Price" set.
2. Create a Customer card to whom you can "sell" the cancelling transaction.
3. Create an Invoice, adding the appropriate Product from Step 1 and the Customer you created in
Step 2.
4. Change the Sell Price to match the remaining value of the Gift Card you wish to cancel. Save the
Invoice.
5. Select the "Gift Card" payment method, and enter the serial number of the Gift Card you're
cancelling. Complete the transaction.
You are now able to track these transactions with reports for Sales By Product, or Sales By Customer,
using the filters to enter the item for which you need the information. To confirm the Gift Card has been
cancelled, go to Tools > Gift Cards and look up the serial number.
Multi-Store
With LightSpeed's extended Multi-Store Pro feature set, you are able to process Gift Cards from any
location linked to yours. For more information, please see the Multi-Store article.
Refunds to a Gift Card
If in case you are performing a refund, and would like to offer your customer a Gift Card in return, create
the return Invoice as your normally would, and add a Gift Card Product onto the invoice priced at the
same value as the merchandise returned.
If you were to return a $100 pair of jeans, totalling $115 with taxes, you would create a return Invoice for
quantity "-1" jeans at $100, then add a Gift Card to the Invoice for $115 (the in-tax total).
You will notice that the Paid amount will be 0.00, and this Gift Card can be redeemed at any time.
Liquidating a Gift Card
To refund cash for a Customer's remaining Gift Card balance, complete these steps:
Create a non-taxed, non-inventoried Product called "GC-REFUND" (for
example). It should have an editable selling price.
Invoice this Product to the Customer at a price equal to the Gift Card balance
you wish to refund.
Use the Gift Card payment method to pay for this Invoice, entering the serial
number for the Gift Card when prompted, leaving an Invoice balance of 0. Click
Save.
Click the Return button on the Invoice to return the "GC-REFUND" Product,
and click Save. Now, apply a negative cash payment for the balance, and
refund the Customer cash from your till.
Clothing Workflows
Essential Points
Size-color combinations of a common style can be related to each other using the Size-Color
Matrix
The Matrix is created in the Master, which is not an actual Product, but represents the common
style for the combination Products
Size-color combinations are called Child Products, and are created using the Size-Color
Matrix in the Master Product
Sizes and Colors can be saved as sets that will auto-populate the Matrix when selected
The Matrix Master Product can be used to purchase or adjust inventory using a grid
Size-color Child Products cannot be imported and still maintain their relationship to a Master
Introduction
There are features in LightSpeed that are specific to retail stores that sell clothing and shoes, where
size-color combinations can be ordered and sold under a common style. In fact, there are sales
workflows common to clothing stores that are unique, and will be outlined here.
Size-Color Matrix
The ability to bind together Products that vary only in size or color is essential for the purchasing and
maintenance of apparel for boutiques.
The Matrix
The Size-Color Matrix is found in the Product card, and can be activated using the Size-Color Matrix
checkbox in the Info tab of the Product card. Using this checkbox and creating Products on the matrix
designates this Product as the Master Product.
The Master Product is not an actual Product, rather it represents what all the Child Products (the
combinations) have in common. Child Products created from a Master Product all have their own
separate Product card, but when created will have pre-populated the attributes the Master Product had
when they were created, including Family, Class, Costs, and Selling Price. The Master Product is not to
be deleted.
If you sell Products that differ only in size or color, you are able to use this feature to create a large
number of multiple Products easily. When you check the Size-ColorMatrix checkbox, a grid will appear
which allows you to enter various sizes and colors for the Product. The list of sizes can be created at
Tools > Setup > Size, and the list of colors can be created at Tools > Setup > Color. Clicking Save
will create checkboxes for each combination.
Colors and Sizes
To access your sizes and colors in the matrix, you must first populate them in their respective setup
panels, located in the Tools menu. Once you’ve added them to the lists, you can create sets that you
can call up in the matrix to quickly populate the row and column headings.
To save a size or color set, go to Size Sets or Color Sets in the Setup option of the Tools menu, click
New, and choose the sizes you want to save in a set. Name the set and click Save. This set will now be
accessible using the Color Sets and Size Sets buttons at the bottom of the matrix. Choose the set you
wish to use to populate the headings. Click Save.
Next, check the boxes for which you wish to create new Products, and click Create Products. New
Products will now be added to the Product database, duplicating all the Product info from the original
Product, and each will have a unique Product Code and description. Formatting for these modifications
can be done using the pull-down menus below the matrix.
Purchasing
If the Master Product is added to a Purchase Order, the matrix will appear and you can enter the
quantities you wish to order for each combination directly in the matrix.
Once you click Save and close the matrix window, the combination Products will be added to the PO,
and the Master Product will not be there. When the Products arrive, they must be received individually.
Inventory Adjustments
Inventory adjustments for Child Products can be done on the matrix as well. To access it, click the
Inventory tab of the Master Product, and click the Adjust button. In the resulting Adjust Inventory
window, click the Adjust Inventory by Matrix button, and enter the values for each combination Product.
Click Save. The inventory levels for each Child Product will now be changed.
However, the recommended method for adjusting any Product’s inventory levels is to add the Product
to a Purchase Order and “receive” the size-color Child Products into inventory, using the method
outlined above. Receiving Products to adjust their levels, rather than doing manual adjustments, is the
preferred method owing to a more accurate balance of accounting exports.
Updating the Master
When you save adjustments to the Matrix Master Product, you will be asked if you want these changes
adjusted on the Child Products as well, with a checklist of items you want adjusted.
Master Matrix Products cannot be deleted.
Workflows
A typical clothing store does not process backorders, often orders Products directly from suppliers
before being able to create a Purchase Order in LightSpeed, and in many cases will only order an item
once. Depending on how much information each business needs to track regarding profit and inventory
control, the following considerations may be useful for clothing stores when deciding on their
LightSpeed workflow:
Selling
If you are ordering Products through a catalog or on tradeshow floors, before you have a chance to
enter the orders in LightSpeed, it is important that you transcribe these orders onto POs before,
preferably, the orders arrive and you start putting the Products on your sales floor. Receiving the
Products onto a Purchase Order as they arrive will make it much easier to keep track of your inventory
and its value. In cases where you receive and sell a Product before you can enter it into LightSpeed,
you can create a generic Product with an editable Selling Price and Description. This will allow you to
create an Invoice for the Customer which you can later edit by replacing the generic Product with the
correct Product you've since had time to create. This allows you to eventually produce sales and
inventory reports that are more accurate than if you'd simply left the generic Product on the Invoice.
Receiving
It is recommended that you create an actual Product card for the Products you're receiving, with an
accurate Cost, and that you use that Product on the Purchase Order when receiving stock into
inventory. While you can modify the Costs of your generic Product on both Purchase Orders and
Invoices, creating individual Product cards for the Products you receive and sell give you greater
flexibility in terms of sales reports.
Importing
LightSpeed can import size-color combination Products that maintain their relationship to the Master
Product. Please see the Importing article for more information.
LightSpeed Mobile
Introduction
LightSpeed Mobile allows you to connect to your LightSpeed database wirelessly using your iPod
touch or iPhone, giving you the ability to create Invoices, process payments, take signatures, email or
print receipts, and look up Products anywhere in your store.
LightSpeed Mobile 1.6 requires LightSpeed 3.6.
Requirements
A complete LightSpeed Mobile setup has four separate components:
Apple iPod touch 2G or 3G, iPod 4, iPhone 4 - the main device with which a retailer
used the touch interface to operate the LightSpeed Mobile app and enters
information for the creation of Invoices, Product lookup, and signature entry
Linea Pro Sled - the hardware the iPod touch plugs into that enables the scanning of
barcodes for Product lookups and invoicing, and the ability to swipe credit cards for
processing payments. Make sure you get the correct sled for your mobile device!
LightSpeed Mobile app - available on the Apple App Store, LightSpeed Mobile is
the software required to install on the iPod touch and used to log into your store's
main LightSpeed database
LightSpeed 3.4 or higher - the central database accessed by LightSpeed Mobile as
well as any other fixed sales station such as an iMac. LightSpeed Mobile requires
LightSpeed 3.4. NOTE: LightSpeed Mobile 1.6 requires LightSpeed 3.6.
You may use the LightSpeed Mobile app on an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS, but you will be be unable to
incorporate these devices into the Linea Pro sled. Using LightSpeed Mobile app without the sled
allows you to log into a LightSpeed database as outlined in this document, but you will be unable to
scan barcodes or swipe credit cards. However, you can search for Products and enter credit card
numbers manually.
Licenses
LightSpeed's licensing is based on concurrent users. For example, if my store usually has three (3)
users logged in at once, I would purchase a 3-user license, even though I may have LightSpeed
installed on 5 different computers. Because LightSpeed Mobile is considered a standard user, it is
included in the number of licenses counted for concurrent users. That is, if I currently have a 3-user
license, and I wish to incorporate LightSpeed Mobile into my installation, I would likely add another
license so my 3 users could continue to use LightSpeed concurrently, and I could also be logged into
LightSpeed Mobile on an iPod touch at the same time.
Setup and Login
LightSpeed Mobile requires no setup or configuration in LightSpeed. If you are upgrading your existing
database to include additional licenses for new Mobile units, you simply need to refresh your license
and follow the steps below to log in on the iPod touch.
1. Purchase and download the LightSpeed Mobile app from iTunes.
2. Launch LightSpeed Mobile and tap into the IP Address field. Enter the local IP address of your
LightSpeed server computer. For more information, please see the Installation and
Networking document of the User Guide. Be sure to add the port if the database is running on a
port other than 9630.
3. Enter a Username and Password. Tap Connect.
Home Screen
The LightSpeed Mobile home screen lists three options:
New Invoice - used to create a new LightSpeed Invoice for the sale of Products to a
Customer
Inventory Lookup - used to look up Products based on particular criteria
Email Receipt - allows you to select from a list of today's Invoices and send it via
email to the Customer
New Invoice
Tap the New Invoice button on the LightSpeed Mobile home screen to begin creating a new Invoice.
The basic procedure for creating an Invoice using LightSpeed Mobile is:
Adding an existing Customer
1. Tap the Customer icon at the bottom of the Invoice detail screen. Select Walk In to add basic
contact information that will only be saved to this one Invoice, and will not create a new Customer
profile. Enter as much or as little information you choose to in the Name/Contact/Zip Code fields
displayed when you choose Walk In. Tap Save.
2. Rather than select a Walk In customer, you may tap Select Customer, then search your existing
LightSpeed database for a Customer profile, based on fields such as name, telephone number,
or address. Enter the text and tap Search. Tap the "+" icon beside the Customer you wish to add
to the Invoice, or the ">" icon to display their info. Tap Select to add this Customer to your Invoice,
or Customers to return to the list of results.
Creating a Customer
1. Tap the Customer icon at the bottom of the Invoice detail screen. Select
2. Add Customer and tap the fields you wish to enter in Customer profile. Choose whether the
Customer is a company or an individual, and enter any relevant telephone, email, or address
information. It is up to you how much or how little information you enter here; more information
may be added in the future.
Editing a Customer
1. Tap the Customer icon at the bottom of the Invoice detail screen. Select Search Customer, and
enter your search terms as described above.
2. When you have found the Customer you wish to edit, select the "info" icon as indicated by the >
character, and tap Edit Customer. Tap any field in the contact info to edit it. Click Done when
finished.
Adding Products to an Invoice
1. Press the button on the right side of the Linea Pro sled to activate the unit's scanner. Scan any
Product's barcode to add it to the Invoice. The Product must exist in LightSpeed for you to be
able to add it to your Invoice.
2. You may also tap the Items button at the bottom of the Invoice detail screen, and then tap Add
Product to do a text search for the Product(s) you're looking for; Lightspeed Mobile searches the
Product Codes and Descriptions in your database. The results display each Product's Product
Code, Description, and Price. Tap the "+" icon to add the Product to your Invoice, or the ">" icon
to display the Product's image and inventory statuses. To add the Product to your Invoice at this
point, tap the Add button at the top of the Product detail screen. To return to your results list, tap
the Products button at the top of the Product detail screen.
3. Once you've added a Product to your Invoice, it will display in the Invoice detail screen. You may
continue to add Products by scanning their barcode, or by tapping Add Product and following the
procedure listed in step 2 above. Every Product you add will modify the Invoice Subtotal
displayed at the bottom of the Invoice detail screen.
4. You may remove a Product by sliding your finger from left to right on the Product you wish to
remove, and tapping Delete.
Editing Line Items
LightSpeed Mobile allows you to edit Invoice line items in three ways - their descriptions, their
quantities, and any discount associated with that Product.
To edit a line item:
1. While in the Invoice layout, tap the Product you wish to edit.
2. In the resulting window, tap the item you wish to edit - Description, Quantity, or Discount.
3. Edit the item using the keyboard that appears, then tap Save to save your changes. When
entering a discount, you must indicate if the discount is to be calculated by percentage or dollar
amount.
4. Tap Invoice to return to the Invoice layout.
Adding Notes
As in LightSpeed, you may add printed or internal notes to your Invoice using LightSpeed Mobile. In the
Invoice detail screen, tap Notes. Then, select either Printed or Internal, and enter the notes you wish to
record for this Invoice. Select Cancel or Save. To return to the line items on your Invoice, select Items.
Payment
To pay your Invoice, tap the Pay button at the top of the Invoice detail screen.
Credit Card Payments
If paying by credit card, click the appropriate card type (Visa, Mastercard, etc), as defined in the
Payment Methods setup of LightSpeed. You will then begin a 3 step process outlined graphically:
1. Swipe the card with the magnetic strip facing up and to the left. Once the information is entered,
select Process. Or, you can choose Manual and enter the card number and expiry information
manually. Tap Process.
2. LightSpeed Mobile then submits the payment through your pre-configured credit card payment
account.
3. You will then see an "Approved" or "Declined" icon.
The next step is to tap the Signature button, and have the Customer sign the blank space using their
finger or a stylus. Tap "Done".
Other Payment Methods
If your Customer is paying by a method other than a credit card, or if you are not processing credit
cards through LightSpeed, tap the Use Other Payment Method button. LightSpeed Mobile will display
an Invoice ID that will be "dispatched" to all sales stations logged into the POS screen, as indicated by
a special orange marker in the "Hold" section. Clicking this marker activates the Invoice, and payment
can be applied at the desktop sales station as it would with any other POS invoice. Once the marker is
clicked on one POS station, it will disappear from all others.
Choose Complete Transaction to be returned to the home screen of LightSpeed Mobile.
Inventory Lookup
The Inventory Lookup feature operates in a similar fashion as the inventory lookup when creating an
Invoice, but disables the ability to add a Product to an Invoice.
1. Select Inventory Lookup on the LightSpeed Mobile home screen.
2. Either press the right-side button and scan a Product's barcode, or use the search to find
Products based on their Product Code or Description. In fact, you may activate the barcode
scanner from the LightSpeed Mobile home screen and scan a Product to find its detail without
tapping the Inventory Lookup icon.
3. From the resulting list, select a Product. LightSpeed Mobile will display its description, price,
image, and inventory statuses. Tap Products to return to the results list.
4. From the results list, you may continue to do more Inventory Lookups, or choose Back to return to
the LightSpeed Mobile home screen.
The Email Receipt feature will display a list of Invoices created today, including their Invoice ID,
Customer info, and Grand Total. Select the Invoice for which you want to email a receipt to the
Customer. From the resulting screen, enter the Customer's email, and choose Send.
For this feature to work, you must enable the Email Receipt feature of LightSpeed's Point of Sale
screen. For more info, see the
Point of Sale
User Guide article.
Printing
LightSpeed Mobile will print to the Star Micronics TSP printer that is directly connected to the computer
running LightSpeed Server. Then, once you have processed a credit card payment, and the Customer
has signed for their transaction, you can either email them a copy of their receipt to their inbox, print a
copy to a TSP printer, or both.
Setup
To enable TSP receipt printing in LightSpeed Mobile 1.4 or later:
1. Tap the "Info" icon from the home screen.
2. In the Settings window, set the Enable Printing setting to "On".
3. Tap the resulting "Printer" field, and then select the TSP printer to which you wish to print
Invoices.
4. Tap Done.
Printing
After you have processed the credit card transaction, and the Customer has entered their signature on
the mobile device, tap Done. You'll get the choice to Finish Invoice, Email Receipt, or Print Receipt.
Tapping Email Receipt or Print Receipt will perform the selected action, but will allow you to also
perform another until you select Finish Invoice.
Assembling Hardware
To plug an iPod touch 2G or 3G into the Linea Pro sled, follow this procedure:
1. Remove the smaller top piece from the larger bottom piece of the Linea Pro sled.
2. Slide the iPod Touch into the larger bottom piece with the dock connector facing down until it fits
firmly in place and the iPod is activated.
3. Fit the clip of the smaller top piece into the corresponding slot of the larger bottom piece, and
click it into place.
Attention! It is possible to remove the battery from the unit. However, the battery is rechargeable and
charges when plugged in. If you have removed the battery, please be sure to align the pins on the unit
with the contacts on the battery end when refitting the battery; otherwise, the unit will not operate.
LightSpeed for iPad
Introduction
LightSpeed for iPad allows you to connect to your LightSpeed database wirelessly using your Apple
iPad, giving you the ability to create Invoices, process payments, take signatures, email or print
receipts, and look up products anywhere in your store.
LightSpeed for iPad requires LightSpeed 3.6 or later.
Requirements
A complete LightSpeed for iPad setup has five separate components:
iPad 1, 2, or 3 - the main device with which a retailer uses the touch interface to
operate the LightSpeed for iPad app and enters information for the creation of
Invoices, Product lookup, and signature entry
LightSpeed for iPad app - available on the Apple App Store, LightSpeed for iPad is
the software required to install on the iPad and used to log into your store's main
LightSpeed database
LightSpeed 3.6 or higher - the central database accessed by LightSpeed for iPad as
well as any other fixed sales station such as an iMac.
Socket bluetooth barcode scanner - a wireless barcode scanner that consists of 2
pieces: the scanner itself, and a separate USB-connected base that connects to the
nearest Mac.
iDynamo magnetic card reader - a piece that connects to the iPad dock connector
and allows a User to swipe credit cards for payment processing through LightSpeed.
Using LightSpeed for iPad without the scanner or card reader allows you to log into a LightSpeed
database as outlined in this document, but you will be unable to scan barcodes or swipe credit cards.
However, you can search for Products and enter credit card numbers manually, or incorporate a
payment terminal to process credit and debit payments.
LightSpeed for iPad may also incorporate a payment terminal. For information on the setup of the
payment terminal, click here , and see the Payments section below.
Licenses
LightSpeed's licensing is based on concurrent users. For example, if my store usually has three (3)
users logged in at once, I would purchase a 3-user license, even though I may have LightSpeed
installed on 5 different computers. Because LightSpeed for iPad is considered a standard user, it is
included in the number of licenses counted for concurrent users. That is, if I currently have a 3-user
license, and I wish to incorporate LightSpeed for iPad into my installation, I would likely add another
license so my 3 users could continue to use LightSpeed concurrently, and I could also be logged into
LightSpeed for iPad at the same time.
Setup and Login
The basic operations of LightSpeed for iPad requires no setup or configuration in LightSpeed. If you
are upgrading your existing database to include additional licenses for a new iPad, you simply need to
refresh your license and follow the steps below to log in on the iPad.
1. Purchase and download the LightSpeed for iPad app from iTunes.
2. Launch LightSpeed for iPad and tap into the Server field. Identify the LightSpeed database on
your network and select it. For more information, please see the Installation and
Networking document of the User Guide.
3. Enter a Username and Password. Tap Login.
Home Screen
The LightSpeed for iPad home screen lists several options:
New Invoice - used to create a new LightSpeed Invoice for the sale of Products to a
Customer
Search - used to look up Products based on particular criteria
Resend Receipt - allows you to select from a list of today's Invoices and send it via
email to the Customer
Settings - the "gear" icon at the bottom of the home screen accesses the settings for
your iPad, including the version of LightSpeed for iPad software, your LightSpeed
version, the name of that particular iPad station, the Payment Terminal (see below for
details), and Printing (see below for details). Note: The name you give this iPad in
Station Name will allow you to complete an End of Day report for this specific unit.
Log Out - allows you to log out the current User from LightSpeed for iPad
New Invoice
Tap the New Invoice button on the LightSpeed for iPad home screen to begin creating a new Invoice.
The basic procedure for creating an Invoice is:
Adding an existing Customer
1. Tap the Customer "edit" icon at the bottom of the Invoice detail screen. Select Walk In to add
basic contact information that will only be saved to this one Invoice, and will not create a new
Customer profile. Enter as much or as little information you choose to in the Name/Contact/Zip
Code fields displayed when you choose Walk In. Tap Save.
2. Rather than select a Walk In customer, you may tap Select Customer, then search your existing
LightSpeed database for a Customer profile, based on fields such as name, telephone number,
or address. Enter the text and tap Search. Tap the "+" icon beside the Customer you wish to add
to the Invoice, or just the name to display their info.
3. You could also click the Search (magnifying glass) icon to get to the main search layout. Next, tap
the Customer icon (as opposed to the Product icon) and enter your search term.
Creating a Customer
1. Tap the Customer "edit" icon at the bottom of the Invoice detail screen.
2. Tap into any field you wish to enter data in. Choose whether the Customer is a company or an
individual, and enter any relevant telephone, email, or address information. It is up to you how
much or how little information you enter here; more information may be added in the
future. Click Create when you've finished.
Editing a Customer
1. Tap the Customer icon at the bottom of the Invoice detail screen. Select Search Customer, and
enter your search terms as described above.
2. Add the Customer to your Invoice.
3. Tap the "edit" icon, and tap Edit Customer. Tap any field in the contact info to edit it. Click
Save when finished.
Adding Products to an Invoice
If you have connected the Socket barcode scanner, you can use it to scan any Product's barcode to
add it to the Invoice. The Product must exist in LightSpeed for you to be able to add it to your Invoice.
For information on configuring the Socket scanner, please see the Assembling Hardware section
below.
1. Search Mode: To add a Product to your Invoice using Search mode, first tap the magnifying
glass icon at the top of the screen, then tap the Product button at the left of the Invoice detail
screen. Enter a search term to do a text search for the Product(s) you're looking for; Lightspeed
for iPad searches the Product Codes and Descriptions in your database. The results display
each Product's Product Code, Description, and Price. Tap the "+" icon to add the Product to your
Invoice, or just the line to preview the Product's image and inventory statuses.
2. Button Mode: If you do not wish to search, you may browse your Products visually. Each Product
in your database can be configured with three descending categories that allow the user to
navigate through their product database visually. For example, a user can tap the Button Mode
icon (indicated by the four-square graphic at the top left of the Invoice detail screen), and select
"Clothing" from the selection of Primary POS Categories, then "Men" from the selection of
Secondary categories nested within the "Clothing" Primary category. Finally, by selecting
"Jeans" from the selection of Tertiary categories, the user can select the individual pair of jeans
from the selection displayed. Tap once to show the Product in Preview; double-tap to add it to
your Invoice. To return to the previous “level” of your categories, tap the reverse arrow graphic that
appear at the top right of Button Mode. If there is no reverse arrow graphic, Button Mode is
displaying the primary categories.
3. To create browsable categories for your Products, see "LightSpeed for iPad: How to create
Product categories."
4. Once you've added a Product to your Invoice, you'll see the subtotal change. You may continue to
add Products by scanning their barcode, or by tapping the "+" icon and following the procedure
listed in step 2 above. Every Product you add will modify the Invoice Subtotal displayed at the
bottom of the Invoice detail screen.
5. You may remove a Product by sliding your finger from left to right on the Product you wish to
remove, and tapping Delete.
Editing Line Items
LightSpeed for iPad allows you to edit Invoice line items in four ways - their descriptions, their
quantities, any discount associated with that Product, and, if "Editable Selling Price" is enabled for the
Product being edited, the actual Sell Price.
To edit a line item:
1. While in the Invoice layout, tap the Product you wish to edit.
2. In the resulting window, tap the item you wish to edit - Description, Quantity, Discount, or Sell
Price.
3. Edit the item using the keyboard that appears, then tap Save to save your changes. When
entering a discount, you must indicate if the discount is to be calculated by percentage or dollar
amount.
4. Tap Done to return to the Invoice layout.
Invoice Settings
Invoice Discount
To apply a dollar or percentage discount to all Products on your Invoice at the time the discount is
applied, tap the "coins" icon, then select the $ or % sign and enter the numeric value for the discount.
Note: Any Product added to the Invoice after using the document discount setting will not have a
discount applied, and must be discounted separately.
Tax Code
To toggle through your different Tax Codes, click the "Tax" icon and select the desired Tax Code.
Salesperson
Click the "nametag" icon to access your list of Users, and select the User you want to associate to this
sale as the Salesperson.
Adding Notes
As in LightSpeed, you may add printed or internal notes to your Invoice using LightSpeed for iPad. In
the Invoice detail screen, tap the Notes icon. Then, select either Printed or Internal, and enter the notes
you wish to record for this Invoice. To return to the line items on your Invoice, tap outside the Notes field.
Payments
To pay your Invoice, tap the Check Out button at the top of the Invoice detail screen. Choose the
appropriate payment method and enter payment amount and details (if necessary). Tap Save to finish
applying the payment to the Invoice.
Credit Card Payments
If paying by credit card, click the appropriate card type (Visa, Mastercard, etc), as defined in the
Payment Methods setup of LightSpeed. There are three possibilities when processing credit card
payments with LightSpeed for iPad, and each require the integration of a payment gateway through
LightSpeed.
1. Scanning Credit Cards with iDynamo Scanner
1. Swipe the card with the magnetic strip facing up and to the left. Once the information is entered,
select Process. Or, you can choose Manual and enter the card number and expiry information
manually. Tap Process.
2. LightSpeed for iPad then submits the payment through your pre-configured credit card payment
account.
3. You will then see an "Approved" or "Declined" icon. Tap Dismiss.
4. The next step is for the customer to sign their name using their finger on the iPad. Tap Done.
2. Entering Credit Card Number Manually
1. Tap the Manual button. Enter the card number and expiry date, and tap Process.
2. Follow steps 3 and 4 as above.
3. Using a Payment Terminal (for both credit and debit card payments)
1. You must first have configured a payment terminal in LightSpeed (instructions here) and enabled
the terminal in the LightSpeed for iPad settings (under Pairing a Terminal below).
2. Tap a card payment method to apply the payment, and confirm or edit the amount.
3. Tap Continue. The customer then swipes their card on the payment terminal and enters their PIN.
4. The terminal will notify the customer if their payment has been approved or declined.
If you are processing credit and debit payments through Tyro, you must use the Hand Off Invoice feature
to relay the transaction to a POS station, and complete the payment there using the Banksys payment
terminal. More instructions may be found here.
Handing off an Invoice
If you need to complete the payment on a LightSpeed POS station, tap the Hand Off Invoice button, and
then the confirmation dialog. LightSpeed for iPad will dispatch the Invoice to all sales stations logged
into the POS screen, as indicated by a special orange marker in the "Hold" section. Clicking this
marker activates the Invoice, and payment can be applied at the desktop sales station as it would with
any other POS Invoice. Once the marker is clicked on one POS station, it will disappear from all others.
On the iPad, Tap Dismiss to be returned to the home screen.
Returns
To process a return, follow these steps:
1. Tap the Historical Invoices icon on the home screen. By default, the invoices from that day are
displayed. Tapping any of today's Invoices will display the Invoice ID, today's date, and the Invoice
total.
2. Tap the Return Invoice icon near the bottom of the screen to create a new, return Invoice for the
Invoice you've selected. Every Product sold on the original Invoice will appear on the return
Invoice, including any discounts or edits that had been applied to them, but with negative
quantities. Any item not being returned may be removed from the return Invoice.
3. Tap Check Out to save the Invoice and be taken to the Payment screen.
4. Tap the Payment Method(s) which you will use to refund the Customer, or leave the credit
outstanding against the Customer's profile to be used at a later date. Important - the customer
recorded on the return Invoice must be an actual LightSpeed customer, rather than a walk-in, for
any credit to be retrieved in the future.
Refunds
If you are refunding the customer by cash, enter a negative value and process the refund by tapping
Save. If you are refunding the customer's credit card, you must enter the authorization number from the
original transaction.
Related Items
When a Product is being previewed, a user may view its color-coded inventory statuses, or, by swiping
left, any Related Items that have been mapped to the Product. Related Items are normally suggested
add-ons that a customer would be interested in based on the Product being previewed. For example, a
pair of shoes may have shoe protector or shoelaces as Related Items. Click here (link) for a detailed
description on how to map Related Items to a Product. When viewing a Product's Related Items in
LightSpeed for iPad, a user may tap any item to add it to the Invoice.
To access a Product’s Related Items:
1. Tap a Product to have it appear in the Preview section.
2. Swipe left on the color-coded inventory status section to reveal any Related Items assigned to the
Product.
3. To add a Related Item to the Invoice, tap the + icon. An animation will indicate that the Product
has been added to your Invoice.
The Search feature operates in a similar fashion as the inventory lookup when creating an Invoice,
does not by default create a new transaction, while still displaying important information about a
Product.
1. Select Search on the home screen.
2. Either use the Socket scanner to scan a Product's barcode, or use the search to find Products
based on their Product Code or Description. In fact, you may activate the barcode scanner from
the home screen and scan a Product to find its detail without tapping the Search icon.
3. From the resulting list, select a Product. LightSpeed for iPad will display its description, price,
image, and inventory statuses. Tap Products to return to the results list.
4. From the results list, you may continue to do more Inventory Lookups, or choose Back to return to
the home screen.
Show & Tell
Show & Tell allows you to share detailed information about a Product with your clients. You can access
the Show & Tell feature by tapping the "eye" icon in the Product preview section of either the Search
screen or Invoice screen.
1. Tap the "eye" icon in the top right corner of the Product preview image.
2. When the "eye" icon ("Show") is active, it will be blue, and you can use your finger to swipe
through the different images for the Product you're viewing. You may store up to five (5) 512x512
pixel images in each Product card. Note: It is not recommended that you add images less than
the 512x512 resolution if you are using Show & Tell, and you should be careful about adding very
large images, as they will increase the size of your database more quickly.
3. When the "megaphone" icon ("Tell") is active, it will be blue, and the Product Description will be
displayed. If the Product has a Web Description, you can swipe between these Descriptions for
additional Product info. Click the "+" icon to add this Product to the Invoice currently active.
Resend Receipt
The Resend Receipt feature will display a list of Invoices created today, including their Invoice ID,
Customer info, and Grand Total. Select the Invoice for which you want to email a receipt to the
Customer. From the resulting screen, enter the Customer's email, and choose Send.
For this feature to work, you must enable the Email Receipt feature of LightSpeed's Point of Sale
screen. For more info, see the Point of Sale User Guide article.
Printing
LightSpeed for iPad will print to any Star Micronics TSP printer that is directly connected to the
computer running LightSpeed Server, or accessible on your network through printer sharing. Then,
once you have processed a credit card payment, and the Customer has signed for their transaction,
you can either email them a copy of their receipt to their inbox, print a copy to a TSP printer, or both.
Click here for instructions on adding the Star Micronics printer to your network.
To open a cash drawer during a LightSpeed for iPad transaction, the cash drawer must be connected
via the Star Micronics TSP100 printer.
Setup
To enable TSP receipt printing in LightSpeed for iPad:
1. Tap the "Settings" (gear) icon from the home screen.
2. In the Settings window, set the Enable Printing setting to "On".
3. Tap the resulting "Printer" field, and then select the TSP printer to which you wish to print Invoices.
4. Tap the Settings icon once more to return to the home screen.
Printing
After you have processed the credit card transaction, and the Customer has entered their signature on
the iPad, tap Done. You'll get the choice to Finish Invoice, Email Invoice, or Print Invoice. Tapping
Email Receipt or Print Receipt will perform the selected action, but will allow you to also perform
another until you select Finish Invoice.
Pairing a Terminal
To pair an iPad with a specific payment terminal, tap the "gear" icon at the bottom of the home screen.
Tap into the Terminal field, and select the desired terminal from the list of payment terminals you've
configured in LightSpeed.
Enabling the payment terminal in this way requires that credit and debit card payments are processed
through the terminal, and not by using the iDynamo card swipe attachment.
For more instructions on configuration of debit terminals, click here.
Assembling Hardware
To connect an iPad to a Socket scanner, follow this procedure:
1. Power on the Socket scanner.
2. Scan the "iOS Mode" square barcode in the Socket User Manual in the "Command Barcodes"
section.
3. Enable your iPad's bluetooth setting (Settings > General Settings) and then pair the iPad with the
Socket scanner once it's "discovered" by the iPad.
4. You are now ready to scan Product barcodes within LightSpeed for iPad.
To connect an iPad to an iDynamo swipe, follow this procedure:
1. Slide the iDynamo connector into the iPad's dock connector, making sure the fit is snug.
2. Your iPad is now ready to swipe credit cards when prompted in LightSpeed for iPad.
Service Repairs & GSX
Introduction
Retail stores with repair departments, such as computer stores or sporting goods stores, need the
ability to track their repairs, record the work performed, and, in some cases, bill out labor and order
service parts. The Service Repair Order module in LightSpeed allows you to enter repairs, assign them
to techs, and record their progress, and, for Apple-authorized service providers, integrates with Apple's
GSX warranty lookup.
Processing an SRO
There are 4 steps in the processing of an average SRO. As the status of the SRO progresses, you are
able to reflect this by a pull-down status menu at the bottom of the SRO screen.
Having completed the Customer information, you must book the equipment in, and you may
include information such as Family, serial numbers and original purchase date. Additional Items
is a list of items that you can customize at Tools > Setup > SRO Additional Items and will allow
you to indicate what additional items are being checked in that might normally get overlooked
when the equipment is returned. Warranty is a pre-defined list of warranty terms you can choose,
and can be set at Tools > Setup > Warranties, and warranty details can be entered in the
Warranty Info field. The Status of the SRO reflects the stage that the incident is currently in, and is
comprised of a pre-defined list that can be edited at Tools > Setup > SRO Status.
Any statuses you add to this list will also create a new Tracker that can be installed in your set of
Trackers.
Once the equipment is looked at, any parts that are required may be ordered as Products may
be ordered. When an Order is created from an SRO, and that Order is then turned into a PO, the
PO will have a special GSX tab that includes the Customer’s information. When the parts come
in, they will be received and allocated to the SRO as with a regular Order.
All work performed on an SRO is logged in the Work tab, and any chargeable labor can be
entered as a Product on the Parts tab. In most cases, you would create a non-inventoried
Product for each of your technicians and the Selling Price would be their hourly rate. When you
are ready to bill the SRO, including its labor and parts, you click the Invoice button and an
unsaved Invoice will be created.
In most cases, you will print both an SRO, which lists the parts and labor involved with the
repair, and an Invoice created from the SRO, which bills for the parts and labor.
Tabs
The Parts tab is where you attach Products to the SRO in the same way you would with Quotes or
Invoices. The Work tab is where you log the work that is performed on the incident. Remember, you can
use LightSpeed’s date/time stamp by using the key combination Command-=. The Options, Notes, and
Deposits tabs all behave the same way as with the other sales documents.
Action Menu
The Action menu indicated by the gear icon at the bottom of all sales documents will give you access to
a range of features unique to that document, as well as features common to all sales documents.
Features unique to SROs accessible in the Action menu are the ability to print an SRO Claim Check,
SRO Label, or a Packing Slip.
Invoicing
If you need to charge your Customer for any parts or labor that you have added to your SRO in the Parts
tab, click the Invoice button at the bottom of the SRO window. All the Products on the SRO will be put on
a new, unsaved Invoice. When you save the Invoice, the status of the SRO will change to Invoiced.
GSX
GSX, or Global Service Exchange, is Apple Computer Inc’s single service, repair and order
management tool available to Apple’s partners to conduct service business with Apple worldwide.
GSX Web Services is a data exchange mechanism that allows partners to integrate their applications
with GSX. LightSpeed allows you to instantly access the GSX database for warranty and service parts
lookups. Simply enter the serial number you wish to look up, and hit your Return key. LightSpeed will
access the GSX database, returning with the warranty status of that serial number, as well as a list of
parts that can be ordered for the equipment.
LightSpeed requires a properly setup GSX account to enable Warranty and Parts Lookups. Apple
recommends that you set up a new GSX account for doing LightSpeed GSX lookups. You must then
request that the ‘Can Access Web Services’ privilege be added to this GSX account by Apple.
Please include the words ‘LightSpeed GSX Setup’ in the notes field to ensure correct setup of your
GSX account.
To make this request, follow these steps:
Createa unique AppleID to be used when accessing GSX (usually a good idea, however you
can use an existing Apple ID)
Apply for GSX access to your SoldTo account in GSX
Verify that the Apple ID has access to GSX under your SoldTo
Submit the request formto have API access enabled (selecting the correct environment of
Production from the drop down). Ensure that the User ID entered is the same user ID created in
the previous steps. Fill in the GSX account info and specify the following in these fields:
Environment: GSX Production (Do NOT select GSXUT, which is the default option)
APIs Required: PartsLookup, WarrantyStatus
This single GSX account is shared by all users when doing Warranty Lookups, and you may choose to
create a specific account for this purpose. The account must have the ‘Can Access Web Services’
privilege enabled by Apple Service Provider Support in order for LightSpeed to authenticate securely
to the GSX server.
Stock, Exchange, Warranty Parts
You can configure LightSpeed to handle alternate costs for Apple’s service parts, particularly in the
case of stock or exchange repairs. To do this, create Pricing Levels named “Apple Stock”, “Apple
Exchange” , and “Apple Warranty” in the Pricing Level setup panel, and check their checkboxes to
enable an alternative Cost for that level. For each of these levels, select the “Use Pricing Level Cost”
option from each pop-up menu.
It is important that you have both checkboxes enabled near the bottom of the Pricing Level Setup
window.
GSX Setup
After having set up “Apple Service” as a Supplier in your list of Suppliers, choose it in the “Select Apple
Service in your Suppliers” drop-down menu. In the “Stock Pricing Level” drop-down menu, choose
“Apple Stock” level you have set in the Pricing Levels setup panel as explained above. In the
“Exchange Pricing Level” menu, choose the “Apple Exchange” level you have set in the Pricing Levels
setup panel. This will now populate the Alternate Price and Alternate Cost you have set up for the Apple
Exchange and Stock Pricing Levels when you create a new Product from Apple’s parts list.
Automated Pricing
To mark up the Selling Prices for both the Stock Pricing and Apple Exchange Levels, use the Set
Selling Prices panel in the Tools menu. Set the criteria for the Product Code to select which Products
are affected, and set the drop-down menus in the Action section for the Pricing Level you wish to set.
Once you’ve set your criteria and your action, you can either use the Apply button to apply the pricing
change to the existing Products in the database, or use the Rules button to create a Rule which will be
saved for later use. Click the checkbox beside the Rule to make it “live” and applicable on the fly as
new Products are created. For more information, see the Product Rules article in this section of the
User Guide.
Costs
Any Costs associated with Apple service parts should be stored as a Pricing Level cost. Because the
same Apple part can be associated with several costs - warranty, exchange, and stock - it is
adviseable to not enter a Cost for the part in the Supplier Costs grid, and to instead enter the Cost
manually on the Purchase Order dependant upon the kind of repair it is. This gives you another level of
control, which insures that parts are not mistakenly entered into your inventory at the wrong Cost.
GSX Carry-In Repair
In addition to performing a parts lookup, LightSpeed can send parts orders to Apple's GSX database
from a GSX Purchase Order. Once the parts order has been submitted, however, any tracking must be
done directly in Apple's GSX system until the part arrives and is received on the Purchase Order. Any
return of an Apple part, whether through warranty or exchange, must be processed through GSX and
not LightSpeed.
To create a GSX Purchase Order:
1. Create the SRO and complete a parts lookup for the Apple serial number as outlined above.
2. Add the desired part(s) to the SRO.
3. Click the Order button at the bottom of the SRO. Save the Order.
4. Click the PO button at the bottom of the Order to create a Purchase Order for the part(s). Save
the PO.
To create a GSX Carry-In Repair request from the Purchase Order:
1. Select Submit GSX Carry-In Repair from the Action menu of the PO.
2. In the resulting GSX Carry-In Repair window, confirm the Tech ID for the technician associated
with the repair.
3. Enter the time and date that you received the Apple unit for repair.
4. Enter any relevant information in the Symptoms and Diagnosis tabs.
5. Click Lookup beside the part you are ordering to populate the CompTIA Code choices for that
item.
6. After a few seconds, you will have access to a value list from which to choose your code. Select
the reason for the repair, then select a CompTIA Modifier to elaborate on the problem. Complete
this step for each part you are ordering.
7. If the part has been physically damaged, select the Abused checkbox.
8. Once you have selected a CompTIA Code and Modifier for each part, click Submit. Within
seconds, you will receive a Diagnostic Code for each part submitted, as well as a Reference
Number you can use to track the submission in GSX directly.
Clicking Submit enters the order into Apple's GSX database, where it can be tracked. When the part
arrives, receive it on the appropriate Purchase Order, then either reserve it to the Order to have it show
as unavailable, or simply incorporate it into your repair and it will be removed from stock when you
convert the SRO to an Invoice.
Jobs and Timesheets
Introduction
LightSpeed’s time-billing features allow you to account for the time Users spend on a given project,
and, if necessary, bill a Customer for that time. Timesheets will allow you to clock in and out, working on
specific Jobs and sub-tasks within that Job. Any time spent on a Job by any User will be logged, and
that work can be converted to a Product for each User, billing a Customer for the time on an Invoice.
Jobs and Timesheets
Timesheets are a way to track the time each User spends at work, and specifically the time they spend
on specific Jobs and Tasks within each Job. Jobs can be as short-term as the setup of a store demo,
or as long-term as the installation of an entire network. To use Timesheets as a general record of time
worked, each User can begin their daily Timesheet using the Timesheet icon in the Task Bar. Once
they choose their name from the drop-down menu, an inactive Timesheet will appear, and the General
default will appear under both the Job Code and Task columns. Click Start in the status column will
begin the Timesheet, and clicking Stop will stop it.
Timesheets can also be used to track the completion of specific Jobs. To create a new Job, click the
Job icon in the Task Bar. Name the Job using the Code field, and you can also provide a description
of the Job. If the Job needs to be broken down further, you can create Tasks using the “+” icon. Users
are then able to track their time for this specific Job, as well as the Tasks within that Job, when they
create a new Timesheet.
During the course of a day, it is possible that a User will complete one Job and begin another. To do
this, all they need to do is create a new entry on their Timesheet using the New button. Another line will
appear as the first entry continues to count time. Clicking Start terminates the first entry and begins the
new one simultaneously.
If the User needs to run 2 Timesheets concurrently, they must click the Timesheet icon a second time,
rather than simply using the New button within an existing Timesheet.
Any time a User spends on a Job will be logged in the Job once that Timesheet is completed, and can
be converted to a Product that is billed on an Invoice by clicking the Invoice button at the bottom of the
Job. This time-billing can only happen if a non-inventoried Product has been associated with the User
in the Users setup panel. The time is billed and the Product is applied to an Invoice, with the quantity
reflecting the time spent on the Job, and the Selling Price reflecting the labor rate that has been set in
the Product card.
Timesheets
To create a new Timesheet, click the Timesheet icon in the Tool Bar located at the top of the screen.
Choose the User from the pop-up menu; a password may be required if the User you choose is not the
one currently logged in. Click the New button to create a new entry. Under the heading Job Code, you
can choose an open Job to work on, or you can leave the default set to General. If you choose a Job,
you can also choose a sub-task within that Job. (see section on Jobs below for more info) To start the
clock ticking, click the green Start button.
You can manually adjust the start and stop times by clicking them and setting the time that is logged.
To begin a new entry, you need only click the New button. The current entry will be stopped and a new
one will be created. To log a note onto a Timesheet, click the Notes tab, enter the note, and click Save.
Several Timesheet cards may be running for one User simultaneously.
Reporting
To run a Timesheet report, go to Tools > Reporting > Timesheet, and select the report you wish to
run. Set your date range, and either preview or print the results. For more information, see the
Reporting document on our website’s documentation page.
Users can check their own Timesheets at File > Print User Reports > Timesheets. Once they set the
date range, the User can preview or print their own Timesheets.
Jobs
Click the Job icon in the Task Bar to create a new Job. Give the Job a Code and Description, and
create any sub-tasks you want Users to work on when working on this Job. Click Save. Now, this Job
will appear in the Jobs list on Users’ Timesheets. Any time a User spends on a Job will be logged in
the Time tab of the Job, the date the work was done, and that Task the User worked on. Multiple entries
may be logged by one or more Users.
To bill for the time spent on a Job, you must first associate a Product with that User. Create a new, noninventoried Product, and set the Selling Price as the hourly labor rate for that User. Open your Users
setup panel, and in the Product field, enter the Product Code of the Product you created. Click Save.
Now, when you click the Invoice button in the Job, any entries by Users with associated Products will be
transferred to a new, unsaved Invoice. The Qty column will reflect the time elapsed on the Job, and the
Selling Price will be the hourly rate set in the Product profile.
Click the Duplicate button at the bottom of the window to duplicate the Job, or Delete to delete it. You
can also use the Delete and Edit buttons below the entries to modify or delete the times logged by
Users.
Changing a Job’s status to Invoiced or Cancelled will remove it from the list of Jobs accessible in the
pop-up menu of a User’s Timesheet.
Both Jobs and Timesheets are accessible in the Browser.
Multi-Store
Introduction
LightSpeed's Multi-Store and Multi-Store Pro features offer basic or extended functionality, depending
on your needs: the basic features of Multi-Store (inventory lookups and inventory transfers) are
available to all LightSpeed users; the extended Multi-Store Pro feature set includes Product replication,
Multi-Store labeling, cross-store gift cards, returns, and reporting. In order to use the features of MultiStore Pro, each store must have an active Multi-Store Pro subscription. Contact your LightSpeed
reseller or LightSpeed Sales for more information.
Setting up Multi-Store requires network connectivity between your stores so that LightSpeed Servers at
each of your locations can "talk" to each other and pass information back and forth. LightSpeed highly
recommends a VPN (virtual private network) with two-factor authentication for connectivity between
stores. Please note that LightSpeed is not able to provide network setup or configuration assistance
for reasons of PCI Compliance. Contact your LightSpeed reseller or network technician should you
require network assistance. See also "Configuring a firewall to allow access to LightSpeed."
Ensure you're running the most recent version of LightSpeed prior to enabling Multi-Store.
All stores need to be running the same version of LightSpeed.
Initial setup for each store
Tools > Setup > Advanced > Multi-Store > Setup
You may only have one Master Store, and it is not recommended to change this status once it is set.
Changing the Master Store after having performed a replication will cause future replications to not
occur.
1. Select Enable Multi-Store to enable Multi-Store.
2. Give your store a unique store code (eg. BKN or AUST) and click Save. You must complete this
step for each store before adding any store to another.
3. If you want your Store Codes to appear on your Document IDs, check Use Store Codes on
Document IDs.
4. (For one store only) Choose which one among your locations will be your Master Store. The
Master Store is used for Replication, and is the database used to create or update Products in
the other locations. To enable a store as the Master Store, check "Master Store". Click Save.
5. Choose which fields you wish to match on. Product Code will be fine if your Product Codes are all
unique; if not, choose a combination that will be unique to one Product.
6. Click the Stores tab. Click Add Store.
7. Enter Store name, the static Server IP of the store you’re adding (eg. 204.543.23.87:9632, where
"9632" is the port which allows access to the database on the server - for more information, see
the Installation & Networking article), and the Username and Password to log in. Click Save.
8. Select the features you want enabled:
Active Store: unchecking this checkbox causes this store to be skipped or ignored.
Inventory Look Up: allows you to check this store’s inventory levels.
Gift Card Look Up: allows you to check/modify balances of Gift Cards sold at other store.
Returns: allows you to return merchandise originally sold at another store.
Inventory lookups
To look up a Product in another store, click the This Store bubble that is revealed when the Inventory
statuses are disclosed upon clicking the main Inventory bubble, either in the POS screen or the
Preview Pane of the Browser. Click the location you wish to search, and the statuses that are displayed
will be those of the other store.
If the Product does not match with one in the location you’re searching, based on what you’ve selected
in the Multi-Store Setup panel, you will receive a dialog that says the Product could not be found in that
location.
Cross-store transfers
Managing your company’s multiple stores is simple with Multi-Store Transfers, allowing you to quickly
transfer stock into and out of separate databases, and streamlining the movement of inventory from
one store to another. Transfers are recorded in the inventory tab of Product cards once they are
completed. You can consult the Reporting module for a list of Transfer reports that can be run to update
you of the status of Transfers that are incoming, outgoing, and in transit.
The basic process for transferring stock from one location to another is (detailed instructions follow):
1. Create a Transfer Out in the store of origin (Store A).
2. Enter quantities in the Sending tab to remove stock from Store A’s inventory. The status will be In
Transit.
3. Receive the Transfer In at the receiving store (Store B).
4. Enter the quantities you’re receiving to bring the stock into Store B’s inventory. The Transfer Out
in Store A should now have a Sent status.
Transfers Out
1. To create a pending Transfer Out, choose Send Transfer Out from the File menu, and populate
the Transfer with the Store and Product information. All Product quantities must be negative in
order for the Products to be removed from your inventory when the Transfer is completed.
2. Go to File > Send Transfer Out. Choose the location where you are transferring stock.
3. Add Products to the Transfer as you would add Products to a Purchase Order. As you add a
Product to the Transfer, notice that the default quantity is negative 1. If you modify the quantity, you
must retain negative values in order to remove the Product from your inventory and for the
Transfer to work properly.
4. Click Save.
5. Click the Sending tab to confirm the quantities once you are physically sending them out the door.
Enter the appropriate quantities in the Qty Sent column. If you are sending a serialized Product,
you must then click the Product line and add the serial number(s). Note: You must transfer out
ALL quantities on the Transfer. You cannot process a partial Transfer Out.
6. Once you have entered the Qty Sent values for all your Products, click Send. The Product
quantities have now been removed from your stock levels, and the Transfer is now "In Transit"
until the receiving location receives the Transfer In at their location, at which point the status of the
Transfer Out will automatically switch to "Sent".
You can view all of your Transfers Out in the Browser by clicking the Transfers Out source.
Transfers In
1. To update the list of your pending incoming transfers, click the Transfers In icon in your Source
list, and then click the Receive Transfer In icon at the bottom of the Browser. Receiving the
Transfer In will bring the stock into your available inventory.
2. Go to File > Receive Transfer In, or click the Receive Transfer In button at the bottom of the
Browser. In the resulting window, click the pop-up menu to choose the location from where you
are expecting a Transfer In. (see image)
3. Select the Transfer you wish to receive, and click the Create Transfer In button. LightSpeed will
create a new Transfer In which you can then bring into your inventory.
4. Click the Receiving tab. Enter the quantities of stock that you are receiving. If you are receiving a
serialized Product, enter the serial number(s) you are receiving. Click Save. The quantities have
now been added to your inventory, and taken out of the inventory of the sending store. Once a
transfer is received, its status will automatically reflect the change., as will the status of the
Transfer Out from the sending store.
You can view all of your Transfers In in the Browser by clicking the Transfers In source.
Cancelling a transfer
You can cancel transfers that are in the In Transit status by changing the status to Cancelled. This will
bring the Products back into your inventory.
GL Account
In the Supplier card of the other stores, you can set an asset GL account that will be included in the
export file of transfers when you export transactions to QuickBooks or MYOB. This GL account may be
the same for each of your stores, if you are using one GL account to track all your chain's inventory, or
unique per store, if you are tracking inventory value per locaiton. For more information, see the
Accounting Exports help document on the Training User Guide page of our website.
Multi-Store Replication
Replication can be used to duplicate the products and suppliers created in the database of your Master
Store to simplify the creation of these products in your other locations ("Child" stores), as well as to
replicate any modifications made to existing products in the Master Store to the Child stores, ensuring
data is kept consistent. Replication can only reproduce products and suppliers from the Master Store
to the Child stores, not the other way around.
LightSpeed uses a "pull" method for Replication, where each store pulls Product information from the
Master Store.
To use the Replication feature of LightSpeed, you must indicate which of your stores is your Master.
The Master Store is the database from which all "target" Stores will receive all their Product
Replications. It is recommended that you ensure Product Codes are unique before replicating your
database.
Run a manual backup (Tools > Utilities > Backup Database)
Prior to replicating, you must ensure that the following fields are identical in both your Master and
Target Stores: Families, Classes, Terms, Currencies, Custom Fields, Colors, Sizes, Web Categories,
Web Keywords. If you replicate a Product where one of these fields that does not match with the target
database, Replication will notify you. Please see the section Export/Import of Replication Settings for
more information.
At your "target" store, take the following steps to replicate the Master Store's Product listings:
1. Navigate to Tools > Multi-Store.
2. Click Start. This will replicate ALL existing Products and/or Suppliers in the Master Store to the
target Store.
3. The initial replication can take some time to complete depending on the number of Products in
the Master Store. It is recommended to perform the first replication outside of store hours.
Your target Store(s) should now have in its database all Products in the Master Store, as well as any
Suppliers that existed in the Master Store but did not yet exist in the target.
NOTE: Most modifications made to Products in the Master Store will be updated to the replicated
Product(s) in the target Store, including cost or price changes, if you run the replication process again.
If you are running LightSpeed 3.0–3.1.1, upgrading LightSpeed is strongly recommended. If you have
not yet upgraded, be advised that changes to replication settings will be necessary. Please consult this
article for more information.
Exemptions
There may be some Products you do not wish to have replicated in their entirety. For example, a
Product that is set to sell on a Web Store connected to non-Master Store, but isn't set to sell on Web
Store in the Master Store database. In addition to the "Do Not Replicate" checkbox that will "cloak" a
Product entirely from being replicated, the following exemptions are possible to set for the entire
Product database of the target Stores:
"Replicate" vs "Update" - exempting Replication will prevent the population of any Products
created through Replication from being having, for example, the "sell on Web Store" attribute set;
exempting the update of replicated Products will prevent any modification to existing Products
and their settings if the setting has been changed in the Master Store.
Sell on LightSpeed Web Store - exempts Replication from either replicating or updating the
"Sell on Web Store" checkbox found in the Web tab of the Product card
Reorder Points and Amounts - exempts either the replication or updating of the Reorder
Points/Amounts found in the Inventory tab of the Product card
GL Account Mappings - exempts either the replication or updating of the GL Accounts found in
the GL tab of the Product card
Export/Import of Replication Settings
Because Replication relies on identical settings for the fields mentioned above (Families, Classes, etc)
between the Master and Target Stores, you are able to export these settings and more from the Master
Store, and import them into the target Store prior to Replication. Go to Tools > Setup > Advanced >
Multi-Store, and click Import/Export. Click the Export button to select the elements you wish to export,
dragging them from column 1 to column 2, and then clicking Export. LightSpeed will save a text-file to
your hard drive that can then be opened in the target Store using the same procedure by choosing the
Import button. The elements will be imported into your target Store.
Multi-Store gift cards
To redeem Gift Cards sold at your other locations, you need only choose the Gift Card payment method
as you normally would, and enter/swipe the serial number of the Gift Card. If the serial number of the
Gift Card is unique, you will be able to redeem it and modify its balance whether it originated in your
location, or in another.
If the serial number of the Gift Card being redeemed is a duplicate of any other active Gift Cards sold in
any stores you have linked to your location, a dialog will display asking you to select the store of origin.
Once you select the store where the Gift Card was originally sold, it will be that balance that is affected
by the purchase. The other Gift Card's balance will remain untouched.
Multi-Store returns
To verify the sale of Product in other locations for the purpose of returning them in your store, go to
Tools > Multi-Store Returns. Enter the original Invoice ID, and select the store of origin (where the
Products were originally purchased). In the event that you have Store Code-prefixed IDs enabled, you
do not have to enter the Store Code here. Click Return.
If the original sale is verified, you will be able to complete the return. If the original sale cannot be
verified, you will not be able to complete the return. Multi-Store Returns can only be processed in the
Browser; they cannot be processed in the POS screen.
Product(s) must exist in both databases for Multi-Store Returns to work.
If the original transaction was processed by credit card, your payment processor may not
permit refunds processed from another store. In this case you may refund the customer via
another payment method or process the refund manually via the selling store's payment
processor virtual console.
Multi-Store reporting
The ability to aggregate valuable sales and inventory information across multi-store environments is
easy with the Multi-Store Reporting features of LightSpeed.
To access Multi-Store Reporting, go to Tools > Multi-Store, and click the Reports tab. You will have the
choice of pulling reports from the categories of Sales, Inventory, or Returns .
Sales: the Multi-Store sales reports aggregate sales totals across multiple locations, breaking
them down by store and providing summarized grand totals.
Inventory: inventory reports show you the value of your inventory of each store, as well as the
grand totals of all stores (that you have linked) together.
Returns: these reports show you all returns processed in each location, and also allow you to
summarize reports based on GL accounts.
Multi-Store labeling
If your Products have a UPC barcode, you are most likely using it to scan your Products when invoicing.
Because a UPC code is universal, you may transfer a Product between locations and be able to scan
its UPC for lookups and Invoices without interruption. However, if you are generating barcodes based
on Product ID or Product Code, you will need to use LightSpeed's Multi-Store Labeling to create a
barcode that can be scanned at any location. Please see the Labeling article for instructions on
creating multi-store labels.
Multi-Store password handling
Because of LightSpeed's adherence to PCI Standard guidelines, User passwords must be changed
every 90 days, which affects the username password that has been entered when you add Stores in the
Multi-Store setup panel. Once a User password is changed in a Store, that change must be updated in
the Supplier card representing that Store in the other locations that have added that Store. For
example, Dallas is your location, and Las Vegas is another Store you have added. "Multi-Store" is the
username and "password1" is the password you're using to log in to the Dallas location from Las
Vegas, which means "Multi-Store" the user is set up in the Dallas database. 90 days after the
password was created or last modified, you must change it both in the Dallas User setup panel, and the
Las Vegas Supplier profile. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Update the password in the User setup panel for the User you are using to connect through MultiStore. Follow the password guidelines outlined here.
2. In each location's database that connects to the Store referred to in Step 1, open the Supplier
card that represents this Store and click the Transfers tab.
3. Enter the same password you had set in Step 1. Click Save.
Networking & Installation
Introduction
The installation of LightSpeed is a fast and simple procedure, outlined here. Prior to installation,
though, you must make sure your network and hardware meet the requirements to install LightSpeed
and LightSpeed Server.
You must be logged into OS X as an Administrator to install LightSpeed.
Your initial installation is comprised of LightSpeed Server, where your data resides, and
LightSpeed, the application that accesses that data. After installation, both
LightSpeed and LightSpeed Server will be installed. If you wish to access LightSpeed Server from
other computers, you only need to copy LightSpeed the application to the Applications folder.
Network Preparation
1. Your server must be on a network. Wired 100/1000 connection is recommended.
2. The server should have a static IP on the local network. Please contact your network
administrator if you are unsure.
LightSpeed Server and Client Requirements
Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) or Lion (10.7)
Intel-based Mac with 2 GB of RAM (4 GB recommended)
1440 x 900 minimum resolution for Point of Sale screen
Wired network recommended
Configuring A Firewall To Allow Access To LightSpeed
Firewalls help prevent unauthorized access to computer resources, but generally require configuration
in order to allow access to desire applications. A firewall that is turned on but not configured to allow
LightSpeed clients to connect will prevent users from logging in successfully.
To access LightSpeed through a firewall, it is necessary to configure the firewall for the installed
version of LightSpeed on the server computer. LightSpeed is compatible with the firewall included with
Mac OS X Server as well as most third-party firewalls, however the firewall that ships with the regular
client version of Mac OS X is not compatible as it does not allow for manual configuration of allowed
connections.
LightSpeed 3.0 and above
To enable connections to LightSpeed Server, included in LightSpeed 3.0 and above, the firewall must
be configured to allow connections on the TCP port being utilized by their LightSpeed installation. This
port is 9630 by default, but should be confirmed before the configuration process by completing the
following steps on the computer running LightSpeed Server:
1. Under the Apple menu, open your System Preferences, and click LightSpeed Server.
2. Select the licensed LightSpeed Server installation from the list on the left side of the window, and
note the number shown for the Port value on the right side of the window.
This will provide the TCP port that must be configured to allow incoming connections for LightSpeed
clients.
LightSpeed 2.9.2 and below
To enable connections to LightSpeed 2.9.2 and below through a firewall, the firewall must be
configured to allow connections from TCP ports 20221-20230. This allows LightSpeed clients to
connect to the OpenBase database that powers these versions of LightSpeed.
For further information regarding firewalls and their configuration, Xsilva recommends that customers
seek assistance from network specialists. Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS)
requirements prevent Xsilva from providing assistance or advice regarding networking or firewall
configurations.
Installation
After downloading the installer sent to you by Xsilva, a .dmg file will be downloaded to your hard drive. It
is from this file that you will install LightSpeed.
To install LightSpeed, please complete the following steps:
1. Double-click the .dmg file to open the LightSpeed installer.
2. Double-click Install LightSpeed Server. Follow the onscreen instructions. Prior to this step, you
can drag the LightSpeed client to your Applications folder at this point, rather than in Step 5.
3. You will be asked whether you want to install the demo version, or a licensed version. Choose to
install a licensed version. If you are upgrading from LightSpeed 2.x, this option will instead be
"Migrate Database".
4. When prompted, enter the LightSpeed license provided to you by Xsilva.
5. Complete the installation and restart your computer. Reopen the .dmg and drag the LightSpeed
client to the Applications folder. (Skip this if you did it in Step 2) Launch LightSpeed from the
Applications folder.
6. When the login screen appears, enter "lightspeed" as the username, and "admin" as the
password. You will now be logged into your LightSpeed database.
7. Copy the LightSpeed client to any client computers that will be accessing the server. Do not run
the installer on client computers. Launch LightSpeed, click Servers, and then click Bonjour. Your
client will detect the LightSpeed database on your network. Select the licensed database and
enter the username and password as described in Step 6. Click Connect. If you wish to connect
to your LightSpeed server using a direct IP, please see below for instructions.
LightSpeed Server
As a multi-user, multi-store application, LightSpeed requires some minor configuration of your network
settings, both in OS X, and in the LightSpeed Server System Preference. Running LightSpeed on a
central server is a simple process, but you should make sure that the hardware meets the system
requirements before proceeding with your installation.
After Installation
1. Under the Apple menu, open your System Preferences, and click LightSpeed Server.
2. Select the database and note the port listed to the left. You should see all the licensing details for
the add-ons you have enabled, including Multi-Store and Web Store.
3. To allow client computers to access the LightSpeed server on your LAN, your network
administrator must open this port on your router.
4. To dedicate a specific amount of RAM to LightSpeed server, click the Advanced button at the
bottom of the LightSpeed Server window. Set the slider to the desired amount of RAM dedicated
to LightSpeed Server; increasing this value may improve performance with various LightSpeed
functions, but may impact the performance of other applications on this system.
5. You are now ready to begin using LightSpeed. Please see the Getting Started section for more
info, including login.
Introduction
LightSpeed supports a variety of POS hardware for use in your store. Implementing POS hardware can
help you get the most from your LightSpeed system but, depending on your business needs, you may
not require all the hardware devices listed. As most of the devices connect to your Mac via USB, you
may wish to purchase a USB hub to increase the number of available USB ports. It is important to
select a USB hub with its own power supply. Unpowered USB hubs may not have sufficient voltage to
power all devices.
Barcode scanner
Star Micronics receipt printer
Cash drawer
Pole display
Dymo LabelWriter
Card swipe
Ingenico i6580 Titan payment terminal
Banksys Xenta payment terminal (Australia)
Specialized hardware for use with LightSpeed for iPad
Barcode scanner
Follow the manufacturer’s instructions provided with your barcode scanner to connect it to your Mac. No
additional configuration in LightSpeed is necessary.
Adding a barcode scanner to your LightSpeed setup can help you process sales more quickly. In order
to make the best use of a barcode scanner, you’ll need to ensure the items you sell have either a
manufacturer’s UPC or a barcode label generated from within LightSpeed. Please see our POS
Hardware page for a list of barcode scanners confirmed to work with LightSpeed, but nearly any
barcode scanner which can be configured to send a carriage return (the equivalent of hitting the Return
key on your keyboard) should work with LightSpeed.
Star Micronics receipt printer
LightSpeed supports the reliable and cost-efficient Star TSP-100 range of receipt printers. In order to
configure your printer to work with LightSpeed, please follow these instructions:
1. Before connecting your printer, install the software which came with your Star printer.
2. After installing the CUPS 3.3 driver, reboot the Mac.
3. Attach the USB cable, connecting your Star printer to your Mac.
4. Navigate to Apple menu () > System Preferences > Print & Fax. If the Star TSP does not appear
in this list, click the "+" to add it.
5. In LightSpeed, navigate to File > Station Setup.
6. Click the Printer Setup button, select your Star TSP from the Receipt Printing drop-down selector
and click OK.
7. Save and close Station Setup.
The next step is to set the paper size for your Star TSP's receipt paper. This is essential in order to
ensure your receipts print correctly.
1. In LightSpeed, navigate to File > Page Setup.
2. Select your Star TSP from the drop-down selector next to "Format For:".
3. Set the paper size to 72mm x 2000m. Click OK.
4. A new window appears. Click the Save for Receipt Printing button.
5. Click Yes.
If you note that the text on your printed receipts appears tiny or compressed, please consult these
instructions to fix the issue.
Cash drawer
Most cash drawers connect to your Mac via USB, however some models connect via a Star receipt
printer or even via a serial adaptor. The recommended cash drawer for use with LightSpeed is the
APG Vasario. A full list of hardware confirmed to work with LightSpeed is available on our POS
Hardware page.
Beginning in LightSpeed 3.6, payment methods (e.g. cash, credit card) control whether the cash
drawer opens upon processing a payment. This can be useful in the case you wish to print two receipts
for credit card transactions but only one for cash. Or, you may wish to ensure your cash drawer only
opens when processing a cash transaction.
Before using your cash drawer, please ensure you have configured your payment methods according
to Configuration I.
USB cash drawer
USB cash drawers such as the APG Vasario connect directly to your Mac’s USB port. Select “USB
Drawer” from the drop-down selector at File > Station Setup.
Cash drawer connected via a Star receipt printer
Connect the cash drawer to the receipt printer with the included RJ-45 to RJ-11 cable. Connect the
receipt printer to your Mac via USB. Select “Connected via Star Printer” from the drop-down selector at
File > Station Setup.
[LightSpeed 2.0–3.5.6 only] Cash drawer connected via a Star receipt printer
To configure the cash drawer to open when the receipt printer is activated, go to the Print Dialog by
clicking the Print button in any existing Invoice. Choose your TSP printer in the first pop-up menu.
Select Printer Features from the bottom drop-down selector. A fourth menu will appear. select Cash
Drawer Control. A further set of two menus will appear; in the first, select Open Drawers 1 and 2, and
leave the last menu set to 200 milliseconds. When you click the Print button, the printer should be
activated and kick the cash drawer open. Cash drawer connected via USB to serial adaptor
Install the adaptor and its drivers, and connect the cash drawer’s serial cable to the adaptor. You may
need to unscrew an access panel to connect the power supply to the drawer (please refer to the
drawer’s documentation). Navigate to File > Station Setup, select Serial Drawer Connected via USB
Adapter from the drop-down selector and leave the port at “0”. You can test it by clicking Command (⌘)
+ / (the slash key to the left of your right Shift key).
Pole display
The Logic Controls TD3000 USB pole display connects via one of your Mac’s USB ports. Navigate to
File > Station Setup and choose "USB Pole Display" from the pole display drop-down selector.
Remember to save the Station Setup panel.
Pole display connected via serial adaptor
1. Install the Keyspan Serial-to-USB adaptor according the manufacturer's instructions. Plug your
pole display’s serial cable into the serial port on the adaptor.
2. In LightSpeed, navigate to File > Station Setup, select "Serial Pole Display via USB Adapter."
3. Click Save. You may need to enter your Mac username and password when saving Station
Setup.
4. If no output appears when scanning a Product, you may need to change the Port to "1" or "2" in
Station Setup.
Dymo LabelWriter
1. Install the Dymo LabelWriter software included with the printer.
2. Connect the printer only when prompted.
3. In LightSpeed, navigate to File > Station Setup. Click Printer Setup.
4. Select the Dymo LabelWriter from the label printer drop-down selector.
5. Click OK then save Station Setup. You may need to enter your Mac username and password
when saving Station Setup.
Once you have configured the LabelWriter, you may wish to try printing a test label. More information on
labeling is available in this article.
Card swipe
Like barcode scanners, USB card swipes are basic input devices and most should be compatible
with LightSpeed. Recommended card swipes which have been tested and confirmed to work
with LightSpeed can be found on our POS Hardware page. No drivers or special software are
required.
1. Connect the card swipe to your Mac via the included USB cable.
2. Close the Keyboard Setup Assistant window if it appears.
3. In LightSpeed, navigate to File > Station Setup and select your card swipe from the drop-down
selector.
4. Click Save. You may need to enter your Mac username and password when saving Station
Setup.
Ingenico i6580 Titan payment terminal
Installing the payment terminal
The terminal (which can take both debit and credit payments, depending on the processor) is
connected via wired ethernet to your local network and accessible by one or more computers using its
IP address. Follow these instructions to begin installing your Ingenico device.
Break off the hole covers below the device foot so that the wiring (stylus, ethernet, and power cables)
can reach the device. Through the hole, feed the stylus, ethernet, and power cables. Connect the
Ingenico stylus, ethernet, and power cables into the Host port. Attach the device foot at the desired
elevation angle. Make sure the privacy shield is attached. This step must be taken to comply with PCI
PED standards. Verify the green LED is on, indicating that the device has power. Once you have
completed the above steps, you may configure the debit terminal for connection with a computer
running LightSpeed.
Configuring the terminal
The integration of the Ingenico payment terminal requires the completion of a brief procedure that
configures the unit with LightSpeed and your Mac.
Please follow these steps before testing your payment account with transactions.
1. Make sure that the unit is connected to ethernet and power, and that the unit’s stylus is connected.
2. On first launch, when you see the red Ingenico logo, you must restart the device by pressing the
[1] + [Cancel] + [Enter] buttons simultaneously.
3. Once the screen turns dark, hold down the [1] & [3] buttons until you see the Extended Menu.
4. Use the stylus to select Supervisor Menu from the Extended Menu. Enter the password 2634 and
click Enter.
5. Select Sys Parameters with the stylus. Click AutoDetect, Click AD On/Off, Click Off. Click the
Previous button twice.
6. Click Download Port. Select Port 3.
7. Click Setup Port: Host Port > COM 3 > Cancel button.
8. Select Port 3. Set DHCP to None.
9. Select Local IP and choose an IP address for the terminal (eg. 10.80.0.220), then select Local IP
Port and enter 12000. Your terminal must have an IP address on the same range as your Mac. If
you are unsure what IP address to choose, please contact your network
administrator. LightSpeed is not able to provide network troubleshooting or consulting services
for reasons of PCI Compliance.
10. Set IP Add Mask (subnet Mask) and Gateway (router) values to the correct values for your
network (on your Mac, choose Apple menu () > System Preferences > Network). See your
network administrator if you do not know these values. Click the Previous button twice, then click
Cancel until you return to the main menu.
Configuring LightSpeed
Once you have configured the credit card terminal, you need to instruct LightSpeed to use it for
payment processing. Before starting this process, you must already have configured credit card
processing in LightSpeed and have a compatible merchant account.
1. Navigate to Tools > Setup > Basics > Credit Card Terminals.
2. Click the “+” icon. Choose “Ingenico i6580 Titan” and give the terminal a name which will help you
identify it.
3. Click Create.
4. Select the terminal and enter the unit’s IP and Port (see step 9 above). Click Save. Click
Configure Terminal. When the dialog window disappears, the terminal has been configured.
Pair terminal to a station
Each LightSpeed station can only be paired to one Ingenico terminal. All applicable transaction will be
sent to this terminal when processing a sale.
1. Navigate to File > Station Setup.
2. Select “External Terminal” from the Card Swipe drop-down selector.
3. Click Terminals.
4. In Debit Setup window, select your terminal. Click Save and close the window.
5. Click Save in Station Setup. You may need to enter your Mac username and password when
saving Station Setup.
Banksys Xenta payment terminal
Please see the Tyro setup document for setup instructions.
International
International Settings
From Melbourne to Madrid, LightSpeed offers extensive support for tax-inclusive selling prices for
European and Australian customers, providing a simple, straightforward, accurate and comprehensive
system for tax-inclusive pricing, VAT calculations, multiple currencies, and regionalized document
printing.
Currency
LightSpeed can be configured to accommodate several currencies, allowing you to display your costs
and prices in the currency of your choice.
For example, if your store is in Amsterdam, and you have a supplier in London, you can enter your “raw”
cost and send your Purchase Orders in British pounds, yet view the calculated Cost in Euros in your
Product card and your profit calculations.
To set your currencies, go to Tools > Setup > Currencies. The primary Currency used in your
business must be set as the Default Currency with a Currency rate of ‘1’. Choose the currency symbol
from the pop-up list that is pre-populated, or click in the field and type it manually if it’s not in this list.
To set the rates of your non-default currencies, calculate how much default currency that 1 unit of your
non-default currency would buy.
For example, if your default currency is Euro (at a rate of 1), and you want to add British pounds, click
New and set the British pound to the rate of 1 Euro to x amount of British pounds. (Example: 0.69)
LightSpeed will now automatically use the currency formatting settings on a local station. This setting
may be different from other stations connected to LightSpeed and may also differ from the server’s
setting. All currency values will be saved to the database in a common format, only the display may
differ from station to station.
Currency formatting settings (example: 2500.45 vs. 2500,45) are in the Formats tab of the International
section of System Preferences, found under the Apple menu. LightSpeed must be restarted on a
station to take on new currency formatting settings after the International panel has been changed.
Tax-Inclusive Prices
Taxes have the ability to be configured according to local specifications, accessible by checking the
Show Specialized Tax Features checkbox. At the bottom of the main Tax window, there is a checkbox
that enables LightSpeed to calculate its taxes differently. The Tax-Inclusive Prices feature is designed
for regions with particular tax calculation involving a requirement for tax-in totals. The first step to
enabling the new tax inclusive support in LightSpeed is to switch to the “Recommended Calculation”
mode after enabling Tax-Inclusive Prices feature.
Product Windows
Enabling Recommended Calculation makes LightSpeed calculate Tax Inclusive prices for all of your
Products that can be adjusted in the Products windows. To change the Tax Inclusive selling price, just
click the green Tax Inclusive price to set a new one, which will back-calculate the Selling Price before
taxes. You can also import Tax Inclusive selling prices using Import Tools.
Document Windows and POS
This feature also calculates totals on documents using Tax Inclusive prices and reverse calculates the
taxes and subtotals. The Tax Inclusive prices are shown on-screen and on print outs. Discounts are
calculated on the Tax Inclusive price.
Browser and Browser Previews
Searching for Products in the Browser and in other Product searches throughout LightSpeed will show
Tax Inclusive prices. Previews of documents in the Browser will also show Tax Inclusive prices on the
line items, just as they are shown when the document is open.
Tax Inclusive Prices can also be used in the Set Selling Prices tool to do batch pricing changes based
on the tax-inclusive amounts.
Reporting and Exporting
Reports and exports of documents will show the pre-tax prices of line items. Subtotals, by their nature,
are also tax-exclusive, while Totals are tax-inclusive.
Changing Languages on Printed Documents
Printed documents in LightSpeed – Quotes, Orders, Invoices, and Purchase Orders – can be printed in
a variety of languages. To choose the language in which a document in printed, click the Options tab
and from the pop-up menu, select the language you wish to use. LightSpeed is pre-populated with
English, French, and Spanish, but can be configured manually to print in any language by adding the
correct field translations. To add a language other than the three default languages, go to Tools >
Setup > Field Translations, and scroll left to a blank column. Click the column heading, and enter the
name of the language you’re adding. Enter the term in the language you’re adding that corresponds
with the terms in the English, French, or Spanish columns, and click Save when finished.
Exporting
Introduction
Exporting information out of LightSpeed can be done several ways. Exports from Smart Find results,
reports, accounting exports, or the exporting feature allow you to extract information from a variety of
sources and save them as a tab-separated text file.
Export Feature
The Export feature can be accessed at Tools > Export, and enables you to export your Customers,
Products, Invoices and their line items, Quotes, Orders, SROs, Purchase Orders, Supplier Invoices,
and Multi-Store Transfers. This export includes every record in your database, and will allow you to
select which fields you wish to include in the export. The export will be saved on your hard drive as a
tab-separated text file.
Customers and Products
Choosing to export your Customers or Products will display the Exporting Customers or Exporting
Products window, including two columns: Available Fields and Fields to Export. Drag the fields you
wish to export from the first column to the second, or click Copy All to select all of them. If you wish to
remove a particular field from the Fields to Export column, select it with your mouse and click the
Delete key on your keyboard, or click Clear All to remove all fields from this column.
If you want to include headers for these fields (seen as the first line of your export file), click the Export
Headers checkbox. Once you have finished selecting your fields, click the Export button. You will see a
status bar appear, and will be asked to name the file when the data has been exported.
This file can be opened in Text Edit, Numbers, or Microsoft Excel.
Documents and Transfers
When you choose to export Invoices, Invoice line items, Quotes, Orders, POs, Supplier Invoices,
or Transfers, you must choose the date range from which to import, using the two calendars that
appear.
Exporting Invoices will result in a file that includes summarized Invoice information. However, exporting
Invoice line items will result in a file that breaks down each Product sold on an Invoice.
Choosing a Date Range
Smart Finds
Exports can be done from the Smart Find results of Customers, Products, and Invoices. This will allow
you to choose the fields to export as explained above, but from a subset of records that you’ve defined
through the criteria of a Smart Find.
For example, you could do a Smart Find for your Customers that live in Florida, and export only the
email addresses of this subset of your Customers.
If you are exporting from the Smart Find results of your Invoices, you can choose if you want to export
Invoice information or Invoice line items with a dialog box that will appear after you click Export button.
Reporting
Any report you produce in LightSpeed’s Reporting module can be exported by clicking the disk icon
from the Reporting toolbar, displayed by clicking the Preview button in the main Reporting window.
Suppliers
To export a list of your Suppliers, use either the Export to QuickBooks or Export to MYOB feature (in
the Tools menu) and choose to export your Purchases for any given date range. Click Export. You will
be asked if you want to export a list of all Suppliers. Click Yes and name the file to be saved, choosing
the desired location on your hard drive. When asked to save the export file for your Purchases
(Supplier Invoices), click Cancel.
Again, this is a tab-separated text file you can open with Text Edit, Numbers, or Microsoft Excel.
Intelligence
When you select an Intelligence report, you can click Find to display the results, or click Save to save
the results to your hard drive in a text file. Certain reports, such as the Inventory Valuation or
Accounts Receivable reports, cannot be viewed in the Intelligence window, and must be saved to
the hard drive before being viewed.
Count Inventory
Count events saved in LightSpeed’s Count Inventory module can be exported as text files which include
the Product Code, Description, the quantity counted, and the serial numbers. For serialized items,
every serial number will be logged on its own line, and will include the Product Code for each one.
To export an event, select the event in the Count Inventory window, and click the Export button.
Browser Exports
LightSpeed also allows you to export any results you produce in the Browser for Customers, Products,
Suppliers, Quotes, Orders, SROs, Invoices, Jobs, Timesheets, Purchase Orders, and Supplier
Invoices. By clicking the Export button at the bottom of the Browser, the columns that are currently
displayed will be exported to a tab-separated text file.
Printing
Introduction
Whether it’s Product labels, sales documents, or packing slips, there are times when you need to
commit something to paper. Here is a quick guide to LightSpeed’s printing capabilities.
Full Page vs. Receipt Layout
All sales documents - Quotes, Invoices, Orders, and SROs – can be printed in full-page (8.5x11 or A4)
format, and can:
Include Product images, Printed Notes, and Discount Margins
Include Custom Fields for documents, Customers, or Products
Include Fine Print to outline your company’s policies and procedures
Include a Document Barcode for document scanning
Be printed in one of three default languages - English, French, or Spanish
Be configured to be printed in any OSX-friendly language (using Field Translations)
Invoices can also be printed on Receipt layout, and include all data listed above with the exception of
Product images. The End of Day report can also be printed on a receipt printer.
POS
Printing Invoices from the POS will depend on what you have set in the Station Setup panel for full page
vs. receipt, as outlined above. The Action menu in the POS (indicated by the small gear at the top
right) also allows you to print the End of Day report in either full page or receipt layout.
PDF Print Backgrounds
Branding customization of full-page printed documents can be done using PDF Print Backgrounds.
This allows you to customize an 8.5x11” PDF that includes your customized header and footer section,
as well as watermarking you’d like to add to the body of the document.
To add your customer 8.5x11” PDF Background, go to Tools > Setup > PDF Backgrounds, and
choose Quote, SRO, SRO Claim, Order, Invoice, PO, or Statement. Then, drag your PDF and drop it
into the space indicated. Choose Print Blank PDF if you want a blank PDF added to any specific
document.
Labels
Product labels or Customer labels can be printed from either the Product or Customer card itself, or
under the Tools menu. Labels can be printed spool-style, or on label sheets. Barcodes are normally
produced by the Product’s UPC code, but in the absence of a UPC, you can use the Product ID as a
barcode. Product labels can include tax-inclusive selling prices, or Pricing Level prices. The Label
Designer will allow you to create custom labels and print them on any CUPS-compatible printer. (For
more on printing labels, see the Labeling article)
Reports
Each report can be produced in PDF format, and printed in full-page format. (For more info, see
the Reporting article)
User Reports
User Reports can be accessed at File > Print User Reports, and can produce:
Payments - Shows a breakdown of each Payment Method, the User, number of transactions,
and total
Timesheet - Shows start/stop times, hours worked, and Jobs/Tasks performed, by User, over
a date range
End of Day - Shows a breakdown of sales, payments, returns, and beginning/ending tills for a
specific day
Batch Printing
Batch Printing (File > Print Batch…) allows you to print batch Invoices and statements for Customers
with outstanding balances over a date range, and can be filtered to view Credits, Paid, and Invoices
Owing 1-30 days, 30-60 days, etc.
Action Menu
From the Action Menu of profiles, documents, and labels, accessed by the “gear” icon at the bottom of
the relevant window, you have several options regarding printing:
Quotes and Orders – Packing Slips
Invoices – Receipt, Full Page, Packing Slips, Box Labels, Gift Receipts
Purchase Orders – Product Labels
Products and Customers – Labels
Product Labels – Auto-populated prices and quantities
Choosing Printers
LightSpeed allows you to specify various printers and formats for the range of printing requirements in
LightSpeed, including Invoices, labels, and receipts.
Station Setup
If you wish to bypass the OS X print dialog box, enter the number of copies you’d like printed when you
print an Invoice, and choose Without Dialog Box from the pop-up menu. However, if you are using your
receipt printer to kick open your cash drawer, you must not bypass the OS X print dialog box.
To specify which format to print your invoices to, go to File >Station Setup, and click Full Page or
Receipt next to Printing. To indicate which particular printer model that you are printing to, see the
section below on Printer Setup.
To set up a receipt printer for the first time, you must perform a Page Setup. Go to File > Page Setup,
and choose to format for the Star Micronics printer. Choose the 72mmx2000mm paper size, and from
the Settings pop-up menu, choose Save as Default. Click OK. You will see another dialog appear –
choose Save for Receipt Printing, and click OK.
Printer Setup
To set the destination printer for various printer workflows in LightSpeed, click the Printer Setup button
at the bottom of the Staton Setup panel. In the resulting window, you will be able to choose the printer
models you wish to perform the following functions: Full Page printing (sales documents and reports);
Label printing (Products and Customers); and Receipt printing (Invoices only). For each function, you
can choose the system default (defined in the Print and Fix System Preference), or the exact model of
the printers you have installed.
Full-Page Printer
You must define a Full-Page printer, even if your station is only printing Invoices to a receipt printer. If
you do not have a full-page printer accessible, you can create a "fake" printer in OS X Print & Fax
System Preferences, using the following steps.
1. Go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Print & Fax.
2. Click the + icon to add a new printer.
3. In the Add Printer window, click the IP icon, then enter "127.0.0.1" in the Address field, and tab out of
the field.
4. Click Add when the button is accessible.
5. Go back to LightSpeed's Printer Setup window, and select "127.0.0.1" as your Full Page printer.
Full page printers are used for printing reports, Quotes, Orders, SROs, Purchase Orders, and can be
used for printing End of Day reports and Invoices. A receipt printer can be used for printing End of Day
reports and Invoices. A label printer can be used to print Product pricing labels, or Customer address
labels.
Setting Printed Copies Based on Payment Method
Beginning in 3.6, users can set a specific number of printed copies for Invoices based on the Payment
Method. For example, if a customer pays by cash, a retailer may choose to have only one copy of the
Invoice printed, but set LightSpeed to print two copies if the payment method is credit card. To set the
number of copies printed per Payment Method, go to Tools > Setup > Basics > Payment Methods.
Double-click any Payment Method, and in the resulting slide-out window, set the desired number of
printed copies when this Payment Method is used. To set whether to display the OS X Print Dialog box,
go to File > Station Setup. This setting affects all Payment Methods.
Backing Up
Introduction
As with any computer data, it is essential to back up your LightSpeed data regularly, so you can rest
easy, knowing that you have another copy of your database that you can restore if necessary. Luckily,
LightSpeed makes it easy to perform frequent backups.
Beginning in 3.6, LightSpeed notifies "Administrator" or "Manager"-level users if no scheduled backup
has been completed within the previous 7 days.
Make sure you follow the appropriate set of instructions below, depending on the version of LightSpeed
that you're using.
LightSpeed 3.x
Manual Backup
To manually back up your database, go to Tools > Utilities > Backup Database. A window will appear
asking you to confirm you want to backup database. Click Backup Database. This will save a copy in
Macintosh HD > Users > Shared > LightSpeed > Backups, named server1-yyyy-mm-dd-manual(randomized ID code).lightspeedBackup.
Scheduled Backup
To schedule a regular backup:
1. Go to Tools > Utilities > Backup Database.
2. Click the Schedule tab.
3. Configure whether you want the backup to be performed every day, or on particular days, and at
what time. The larger your database, the longer the backup will take, so depending on the size of
your database, it is recommended to set your backups for after business hours. Remember to
keep your server running overnight in order for backups to be completed - if the computer sleeps
during the backup process, your database will not be backed up. You do not need to keep
LightSpeed running for the backup to occur.
External Backup
Even though you have set up LightSpeed backups, you will also need a strategy to protect the
contents of your Mac. As an example, Apple’s Time Machine is an easy way to backup your Mac
to an external hard drive. If you are unsure which strategy to use, discuss backups with your
LightSpeed Reseller.
You may also wish to set up an automated offsite backup. LightSpeed partner Background
Backup offers secure, behind-the-scenes backup over the Internet. For more information, see
http://www.backgroundbackup.ca/
Be sure to monitor the amount of free space available on your hard drive. You can see free
hard drive space at the bottom of a Finder window.
Additional questions related to backing up your Mac or troubleshooting an issue with your Mac
would best be addressed by your LightSpeed Reseller or a licensed Apple technician.
RESTORING A BACKUP
Please see here for instructions on restoring your database from a backup.
LIVE BACKUPS
Do not attempt to back up your live database externally, as it slows performance of LightSpeed
significantly. This includes any third party backup solution, including Time Machine. Your live database
is stored at Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/LightSpeed Server. Exclude this folder from
your backup solution. Further, it is not possible to restore a backup of this live database.
LightSpeed 2.x
As with any computer data, it is essential to back up your LightSpeed data regularly, so you can rest
easy, knowing that you have another copy of your database that you can restore if necessary. Luckily,
LightSpeed and the OpenBase SQL database make it easy to perform frequent backups.
Manual Backup
To manually back up your database, go to Tools > Utilities > Backup Database. This will save a
copy in Macintosh HD > Library > OpenBase > Backup.
Incremental Backups
To schedule incremental backups:
Go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > OpenBase > Backup.
Make sure Enable Incremental Backups is selected.
Keep the directory path for the backup as /Users/Shared/OpenBase/Backups.
Each hour, a file will be updated at the above path.
Please see here for instructions on restoring your database from a backup.
If you want to change your directory path for the backup to a different location, or if you plan to use
Retrospect to back up your data, please contact LightSpeed Support at (514) 907-1801. It is not
necessary to create an ASCII dump of the data.
Purchasing Overview
Introduction
LightSpeed is designed to simplify the ordering process, whether it’s Product coming in for a stock
order, a Customer backorder, or for an SRO. Each sales document is able to request Product via an
Order, and Purchase Orders can then be generated according to Product, Supplier, or Order.
Orders are structured like other sales documents, in terms of adding Products and Customers and
configuring Options. They also have a unique set of features that allow the User to intuitively request
Product for a Customer. Integrated with Quotes, Invoices, and SROs, the Order feature of LightSpeed
allows you a quick transition from one stage of the sales process to another, giving you an immediate
overview of the status of real-time inventory levels.
The purchasing workflow requires some initial configuration to be completed. Specifically, Products
must be mapped to the Suppliers where they are purchased, in the Supplier Costs grid found in the
Product card, and must include both a Supplier Code and a Cost. If more than one Supplier Cost is
added to a Product, you must decide which of these Suppliers is your Default Supplier. In other
words, from which Supplier do you most often buy this Product?
The Purchasing section of the Browser is where you view your purchasing-related items - Order
Requests, Purchase Orders, and Supplier Invoices.
The Purchasing Workflow
The basic workflow of backordering and selling Products for a Customer is:
1. Order Request submitted on Order.
2. Multiple Order Requests compiled onto Purchase Order, OR Order converted directly to
Purchase Order.
3. Purchase Order placed with Supplier.
4. Product received on Purchase Order.
5. Supplier Invoice created. (if applicable for Accounting Exports workflow)
6. Product reserved on Order.
7. Order converted to an Invoice.
You may create a Purchase Order directly for regular stock ordering. Subsequent Customer Order
Requests can be dragged and dropped onto the existing, unreceived Purchase Order to link the Order
with the stock PO. Or, you can create a Stock Order as outlined below.
Orders
There are two kinds of Orders in LightSpeed: a Stock Order or a Customer Order. Stock Orders can
be created at File > New Stock Order, and will automatically have your store assigned as the
Customer. Customer Orders are created from the Tool Bar by clicking the Order icon, and are used to
either reserve available inventory for a Customer, or request Product be brought in from a
Supplier. If a Product is not reserved, it will be converted to an Order Request that will remain pending
until it is compiled onto a Purchase Order, usually with other Order Requests.
Once an Order Request is compiled onto a PO, you may click the status bar of the Product to reveal on
which PO it is ordered. When the item arrives and is received into inventory on the PO, you then
reserve the item on the Order until the Customer is ready to take ownership and the Order is converted
into an Invoice.
Purchase Orders
Purchase Orders are created directly from one Order, or compiled from several different Order
Requests that are sourced at the same Supplier. Each Product on the PO list a Supplier Code and
Cost that is particular to that PO's Supplier, and have been mapped in the Supplier Costs grid of each
Product's card. Expanding the "detail arrow" beside each Product lists the constituent Order Requests.
Once a PO has been saved and placed with the Supplier, the Products must be received when they
start arriving. Products received on a PO will go into "available" status, and should be reserved to the
constituent Orders so they no longer show as available.
Supplier Invoices
Supplier Invoices are the documents used to integrate LightSpeed with your accounting package in
terms of Accounts Payable. While LightSpeed contains all the information required to track your
Accounts Receiveable (how much your Customers owe you), most of the Accounts Payable (how much
you owe your Suppliers) workflow is taken care of in your accounting software. However, each time you
receive Product on a PO, you create a Supplier Invoice to "notify" your accounting software how much
you owe your Suppliers. You pay your Supplier from your accounting software, and manually modify the
status of the Supplier Invoice to "Paid" having done so. One Purchase Order may have several
Supplier Invoices created from it, if the Products on a PO are received at various times.
Count Inventory
You should perform a backup before importing or updating.
(TOOLS > UTILITIES > BACKUP DATABASE)
Essential Points
Use Count Inventory to set your initial inventory levels in LightSpeed, or when you do a regular
physical inventory count to compare actual quantities with what you show in the database
Each Event consists of one or more Counts in which you count, then post your actual counted
quantities
Once you have finished your Counts, you can summarize them, compare them with existing
totals, and make adjustments
Count Inventory can count specific serial numbers for Products
You can count directly into Warehouses, and also disregard uncounted quantities without
affecting their totals
You can import from a pre-counted data file to post and adjust quantities in a batch
LightSpeed does not freeze inventory when you are doing a Count
Introduction
The Count Inventory tool is to be used when you need to enter a complete count of your entire inventory,
either when you first begin to use LightSpeed, or when you do a regular inventory count. It allows you to
compare the results of this physical count with the existing quantities in LightSpeed and make the
necessary adjustments up or down to reconcile these totals. Before using Count Inventory, the
Products you are counting must exist in LightSpeed already.
Step 1: Create an Event
1. Create an Event.
First, choose Count Inventory from the Tools menu. Then, create an event by clicking the left New
button. An event is the name you give to an entire count, such as “Year End”. Events can be deleted by
clicking them once and pressing the Delete key on your keyboard; however, this is not recommended,
as it can cause discrepancies in your inventory.
2. Create a Count within the Event.
To create a section (“Count”) within an event, make sure your event is selected and click the second
New button in the Count Inventory window. A window asking you to name the new Count will appear;
this typically represents the section of the store that you’re currently counting.
Step 2: Count your Products
3. Enter/scan Products into the Receipt window.
Once you have saved a particular Count, the Inventory Count window displays where you will begin to
enter the Products you count in your store.
In the Receipt section, you enter/scan the Products that you count, until you decide to click Add to add
them to your tentative, pre-posted totals for the Count.
If you are selecting it from a list of results, you must double-click the item to add it to the count. Or, you
will be able to use your barcode scanner to add Products to your count with their barcodes. To
increase the quantity, continue to scan the barcode with the scanner, or enter the number manually in
the quantity column. If the Product is serialized, you will be asked to scan or enter the serial number.
4. Click Add to add them to your Count.
Once you have completed counting the Products and entering their serial numbers in this area, click
Add to register them as “counted”. You may continue to count and save to add the Products to the
Counted section. It is recommend that you click Add periodically as you enter/scan your Products to
display them in the Count area. You may delete a Product that you have added by selecting it and
clicking the Delete key.
5. Click Post to post or “register” the results to your Event.
Once you are satisfied with all the Products you’ve counted in this section, click the Post button to save
the reported quantities for that area or section, and you will be returned to the main Count Inventory
window, which will list all the Counts you’ve completed for the current Event.
Note: You may continue to add Products to a Count even after you’ve posted it. Simply click Post
again, and LightSpeed will add only those Products that have not yet been posted to your totals for the
Count. It is not recommended to delete any Products from a Count once the Count has been posted.
Step 3: Compare your Totals
6. In the main Count Inventory window, click the Summary tab to review a summary of all your
Counts added together.
Go to the Summary tab to see all of that Event’s Counts summarized by Product, including the list of
serial numbers you counted. To compare the quantities that you counted with the inventory totals
currently listed in LightSpeed, click the Compare tab.
7. Click the Compare tab to review the totals you counted with the totals that you show in
LightSpeed.
The Compare layout displays the quantity you counted, how many serial numbers were entered for the
quantity you counted, how many LightSpeed currently shows in total, how many serial numbers are
showing in LightSpeed, and the difference between the quantities. The detail arrow beside serialized
Products will expand to display the serial number differences between what’s counted and what’s
shown.
Serial numbers shown highlighted in purple indicate serial numbers shown in LightSpeed that were not
counted. Serial numbers shown highlighted in grey indicate those which were counted which do not
appear in LightSpeed. Serial numbers that match between what’s counted and what LightSpeed
shows as being in stock do not appear here in the Compare layout.
Step 4: Adjust your Quantities
8. Review the discrepancies, and click Adjust Inventory to adjust your quantities to what you
counted.
After reviewing both the expected and the counted quantities, use the Adjust Inventory button to adjust
the quantities and serial numbers in LightSpeed to the quantities and serial numbers of your count.
Checking the Zero Inventory for Uncounted Products box will adjust the inventory of any Products in
your database that weren’t counted to zero. If left unchecked, Products in your database that were not
counted will remain untouched. Adjustments made to your Products will be listed in the Product history
with a note saying “Count Inventory”.
You can export the results of your Event to a tab-delimited file, named “Year-End - Stock Taking
Export.txt”, that includes your counted quantities, the quantities that were in LightSpeed, and the status
of the stock (available inventory vs. Warehouses).
You are able to delete a Count by clicking it once and pressing the Delete key – you will be asked to
confirm the deletion. Deleting a Count does not undo the Count adjustments.
Importing
In cases where you have previously counted inventory quantities into a spreadsheet, you may wish to
import directly into the Count Inventory tool.
1. Click the Import button in the “counting” window, once you have created a Count
within an Event.
2. In the Import Count Inventory window, click the Open File button and select the file
that contains the data you wish to import.
This file must be comma- or tab-separated, and include the fields Product Code/Product ID/UPC,
Inventory Quantity, and (if applicable) Serial Number. Note: Your source file must only contain the
Product Code, the Product ID, or the UPC, and this must be the same field for the entire file.
Please note: Multi-Store label code cannot be used to import inventory quantities from a
spreadsheet. If your Products are labelled using the Multi-Store label code, you must scan
them into the count window.
If you are importing counts for serialized Products, each line must include the Code/ID/UPC, a quantity
of 1, and the serial number. The Product being imported must also, of course, be classified as a
“serialized” Product. For non-serialized Product, you need only put in the total quantity you wish to
import.
Add and post your totals as you would as if you’d counted the Products manually.
Import Log
Each time you use the Import feature of Count Inventory but experience a failure of any of your records
to successfully import, LightSpeed saves a file to your desktop called Inventory Count Import Log. In the
event of any record(s) failing to import, LightSpeed will still finish the import and any records that
imported successfully will appear in the Receipt window. Consult your Import Log for a breakdown of
line items that were not imported, and why.
Counting in Warehouses
LightSpeed allows you the option to count into your virtual Warehouses, breaking down the “total”
quantity normally seen in a Count into each Warehouse’s quantities. To count into Warehouses, you
must check the Count in Warehouses checkbox after you create your Event, but before you create any
Counts. When you check Count in Warehouses, Zero Inventory for Uncounted Products is
automatically checked, and cannot be unchecked when you adjust your inventory.
For example, if you had 12 iTrips, 10 of them in your available inventory, and 2 in Warehouse #3, a
standard inventory count would show you as having an inventory quantity of 12 in the Compare layout.
However, if you had enabled the Count in Warehouses checkbox when you created the Event, you
would see a breakdown of each Warehouse’s quantities, labelled in the Warehouse column of the
Compare layout.
To count into a Warehouse, simply select the appropriate Warehouse after you’ve created the Count
and the Inventory Count window displays, but before you start adding Products to the Receipt window.
This option is used only if you need a detailed breakdown of your counting into Warehouses.
Otherwise, a standard, “non-warehouse” count will display the same quantities, but as totals.
The basic steps of using Count in Warehouses:
1. Create an Event. Select the Event and check the Count in Warehouses checkbox.
(see image)
2. Create a Count. In the Inventory Count window that appears, select the Warehouse
you're counting with the pop-up menu. If you are counting inventory reflected in your
available inventory, leave the menu with Inventory selected. (see image)
3. All Products you count and post will be compared only to the Warehouse you'd
selected in the pop-up menu. Create a new Count for every Warehouse that stores
Product, as well as your available inventory.
For example, you have a total of 3 bicycles: you have 1 in your available inventory, and 2 in a
Warehouse named "Warehouse 1".
If you do NOT enable Count in Warehouses, you will show a total of 3 bicycles, and whatever you count
will be measured against that. You will not be able to choose a Warehouse to count against.
If you DO enable Count in Warehouses, you would first create one Count and leave Inventory selected
in the pop-up menu. You count 1 bicycle, and compared against the 1 bicycle you show in Inventory, you
are even. Then, you would create a second Count and choose the Warehouse that holds the other 2
bicycles (Warehouse 1). If you then count 2 bicycles, that total will be compared to the 2 you show in
that Warehouse, and you will be even for that Count. Therefore, you have counted 1 bicycle for your
available inventory, 2 bicycles for Warehouse 1, and you are even. If, for example, you had counted 3 in
that Warehouse, you would show an additional item for the Warehouse.
In the event that you count into the wrong Warehouse, your inventory count will be incorrect, and any
inventory adjustments you make will affect the quantities of the Warehouse, and, ultimately, the total
inventory for the Product.
Correcting Errors
If you mistakenly adjust your inventory after counting your Products, you can modify your Counts prior to
clicking Adjust Inventory. Double-click the Count you need to modify, remove the Product(s) you wish to
recount, and recount as your normally would. Clicking Post will change the quantities that will be
compared to the quantities you show in LightSpeed.
Inventory Control
Introduction
LightSpeed has many tools with which to adjust, track and organize your inventory. Both the Browser
and the Point of Sale screens employ color coded inventory statuses, allowing you and your staff to see
at a glance where your inventory is, and whether a Product is expected for either a Stock or Customer
Order. Available stock may be transferred to one of ten virtual warehouses to represent "stockpiles"
that are in your possession, but you do not want showing as available. The Reporting module gives you
access to overviews of inventory valuations and inventory counts. The Product card allows you to scan
a Product's entire purchase history, and set reorder points to insure you are not caught short without
stock of key items.
There are four ways of adding your existing inventory levels into LightSpeed.
The most obvious first choice for adjusting your inventory levels is to use the Count Inventory feature,
found in the Tools menu. This will allow you to move through your store with a barcode scanner, and
take a physical count of your inventory. For more information, see the Count Inventory article.
The second method is to put your Products onto one or more Purchase Orders, and then ‘receive’ the
quantities into your inventory. By ‘receiving’ your Inventory using a PO, you then have an easily
accessible record of your Inventory count, the location of each Product, and a simple way of recording
the serialized Products.
Note! The next two methods of modifying your inventory levels are not recommended for setting your
initial inventory levels, and instead should only be used for modifying individual or small batches of
Products for which little or no origin information exists. In other words, if you find an extra three items
that were forgotten behind a shelf, an individual adjustment may be made (with an appropriate note).
However, a Count Inventory event or a received PO gives you a bigger picture later on if a large
number of Products must have their quantities modified.
Third, by doing individual Inventory Adjustments for each Product. This would be the most timeconsuming method but allows you to enter specific notes for each Product for later reference. It is
important to remember, however, that you cannot modify the costs of inventory adjustments (done
individually or by a batch import) once they have been completed.
Finally, you can import the information using the LightSpeed Import Tools. Choose Import
Products and match fields by dragging the field names in the right column to correspond with the data
in your tab-delimited file. While this method is faster, be advised that you will still have to go to each
serialized Product, specify it as a serialized Product with the Serial Numbers checkbox, and enter the
serial numbers. To do this, click Adjust, and thenNew, and you must add as many serial numbers as is
reflected in your Quantity. If the Products already exist in LightSpeed, it is also possible to update
inventory levels in a batch using the Update feature of Import Tools, matching on Product Code or
Product ID. However, this method is not recommended for adjusting inventory into or out of
your stock.
Warehouses
LightSpeed is able to accommodate up to ten virtual warehouses, allowing you to be able to track
stock that exists in your store but that you do not want to appear as part of your available inventory. To
set up your warehouses, choose the Warehouses option of the Tools menu and select the Warehouse
to rename it. You may wish to set up Warehouses for your RMA inventory, store demos, damaged
product, or simply a locked stockroom that is inaccessible by sales staff.
Transfers to a Warehouse
Once a Warehouse has been set up, you are able to transfer stock from your inventory to any of these
virtual warehouses. In the profile of a Product, go to the Inventory tab and click the Transfer button. The
Transfer Inventory window will appear, listing the current status of all existing inventory and Orders for
that Product. Below the status section, there will be two pull-down menus indicating the origin and
destination of the Product in question. Your available stock is known as “Inventory”, and any
Warehouses you’ve set up will appear here also. Choose the origin of the stock with the pull-down
menu marked “From”, and the destination of the stock with the pull-down menu marked “To”. If the
Product is non-serialized, simply enter the quantity of stock you want to transfer in the Qty field, and
click Transfer. You will be notified that the transfer was successful. The available inventory will
decrease, and the quantity will now appear in the Warehouses status (this status will total the stock in
all Warehouses).
If the Product is serialized, all available serial numbers in the Product origin you’ve chosen will appear
below. Choose the serial number(s) you wish to transfer, and click Transfer. You will be notified the
Transfer was successful.
To view the transfer history of any given Product, go to the History (With Transfers) tab in the Product
profile. To have an overview of the stock in any Warehouse, go to the Inventory Valuation section of
Reporting, and choose the Warehouse report you want to check. Click Preview or Print.
Adjusting Inventory
If you need to add inventory outside the normal channels of Invoicing and Purchasing, you are able to
make manual adjustments to your inventory levels in the Inventory tab of the Product card. Stock that
must be written in because it has been found or balanced against another Product may be addressed
using the Adjust button in the Inventory tab of the Product profile.
Non-serialized Products
Adjustment of non-serialized Products allows you the choice to set the total quantity you wish to adjust
the inventory to, or to add a certain quantity to your existing inventory. There is also a field which allows
you to set the cost of the quantity you’re adjusting in, which will be calculated into the cost average total
for that Product. There is also a Note field that allows you to enter information regarding the adjustment,
useful for later reference. Click Save to save your changes; you’ll notice the Total and Available
quantities change in the statuses listed above.
Once the adjustment is saved, you can go back to your product History and see the change. If you
saved a note with the adjustment, an indicator icon will appear which will display the note when clicked.
Build & Break Apart
Introduction
The Build feature of LightSpeed is used to "fold in" component Products, their quantities, and their
Costs into a finished, "built" Product. It can be used by a warehouse or workshop that creates finished
goods such as jewelry from raw materials like chain and pendants, or a final Product that has many
component pieces, such as a bicycle or computer that is built to order.
If the Product is built from other Products, like a build-to-order computer, a custom piece of furniture or
even a gift pack, the Build button will open the Build Inventory tool and load the constituent Products so
that they can be built into the finished Product.
If you wish to add other constituent Products to build more of the finished Product – adding RAM to a
built-to-order computer, for example – you can click the Edit Build Settings button, which will take you
to the Related for Build tab. You can then add more constituent Products that can be used to build
more finished Products using the Build feature. The costs of the constituent Products will be added to
calculate the cost of the “built” Product.
Instructions
First, you must have all the component Products in the database, with existing quantities. Noninventoried Products may also be used with the Build feature.
Create a new Product to represent the final, "built" item.
In the Related tab of this Product, click Build and map each component Product. Set a quantity
for each that will be required to build the final Product. Quantities can be fractional.
In Amount to Build, enter the quantity of final Product you will most likely build each time. Click
Save.
When you are ready to build the final Product, click the Build button in the Inventory tab of the
Product card, or go to Tools > Build Inventory and find the final Product.
Confirm the quantity you wish to build, and click Build.
This process will "create" the quantity of final Product you indicated, and will decrease the component
Products by the appropriate quantity. The costs for the component Products will be added together,
resulting in a Cost Average of the final Product.
Building a Fence
You have Nails, Paint, and Wood set up as Products in your inventory, and you want to create a Fence
with them. You create a Product called “Fence”, save it, and click the Build button in the Inventory tab.
Then, call up Nails, Paint, and Wood in the search field, click them to add them to the Build Inventory
window, and enter the quantities needed for each Product to build one Fence. Enter the amount of the
finished Product you want to create, and click Build. The total of the Costs associated with the
constituent Products becomes the Cost of the Built Product.
Once built, the quantities of the constituent Products will be decreased, and the quantity of the finished
Product will increase. If there aren’t enough constituent Products to build the finished Product, you will
get a warning.
Unbuilding
The Build feature can also be used to "unbuild" Products back into their components, by building a
negative number of final Products. This will positively affect the component Products, returning them
into inventory at the appropriate Cost Average.
Products cannot be serialized, nor can their constituent Products.
Break Apart
The Break Apart feature allows you to break a primary Product down into individual quantities. For
example, you have a Product in your database that is a case of 10 DVDs, and you want to break it into
10 individuals that you can sell. Create a second Product with a unique Product Code and Description.
You may choose to enter the cost of an individual unit in the Supplier Costs grid. Save it. In the primary
Product’s profile, find the new Product in the Break Apart tab, double-click it, and enter the quantity 10.
Save it. In the Tools menu, choose Break Apart Product, and find the primary Product. In the Amount to
Break Apart field, enter the quantity of boxes you want to break down. Click Break Apart. Your primary
Product quantity will decrease, and the new Product quantity will increase.
Pre-mapping of the Break Apart individual Product can be done in the Break Apart tab of the Case
Master Product as described above for the Build feature. This pre-mapped Product will auto-populate
when the Break Apart tool is used.
Purchasing
Introduction
Acquiring products for a retail store involve them being brought in for stock or for a customer
backorder. LightSpeed allows you to compile both stock and Customer Orders together onto a
common Purchase Order, based on where the items are being purchased.
Orders
Orders may be thought of as requests for Product. They can begin life as a blank Order, to be
populated from scratch, or they may originate as a backorder from an Invoice, Quote, or SRO. They
have two functions:
To reserve Product that is in availaable inventory.
To request Product be brought in from a Supplier.
Ultimately, Orders are to be converted to an Invoice that sells the reserved Product to the Customer.
Stock Order vs. Customer Order
Choosing the New Stock Order option from the File menu allows you to request Product for your
Inventory. A new Order will appear with your company information populated as the Customer. Stock
Orders cannot have inventory reserved for them, but their status in the Browser will change to reflect
their evolution. To create a blank Customer Order, click the Order button in the Toolbar. A Customer
Order looks identical to a Stock Order, except that you choose the Customer in the Customer section.
If you create a Purchase Order directly to order your store's inventory (rather than beginning with a
Stock Order), you can drag subsequent Customer Order Requests to the existing, unreceived PO to
link them. In this case, LightSpeed will present you with a choice - to "fold in" the new Order Request
into the existing quantity on the PO, or to add to the quantity. Then, when you receive your stock, you will
know which Customers are waiting for the items you'd received.
Next, choose the Product you want, taking note of the quantities in the Inventory Status bar that appears
on each line. You can cycle through these statuses by clicking the arrow icon. The choices are:
Total – Total inventory of your entire stock
Available – Inventory available to reserve or sell
Reserved – Inventory reserved for a specific Order
In Warehouses – Total inventory in Warehouses
Coming For Customers – Backorders tagged to a specific Customer Order
Coming For Stock – Backorders tagged to a specific Stock Order
If there is Product available to sell, the status bar will appear green. If there is stock in inventory, but
unavailable (reserved or in warehouses), the bar will appear orange. If there is no stock in inventory,
but is ordered on a Purchase Order, it will appear gold. If there is no stock in inventory, and none
ordered, the bar will appear grey.
If the bar appears red, the inventory total is negative. This can happen if available inventory for a
Product was zero but inventory was sold because Product was physically available, either due to a
miscount or because it was reserved on an Order or stored in a Warehouse but was not
released/transferred. This can be corrected with Adjust Inventory in the case of the miscount or by
releasing/transferring inventory using the Order or Transfer Inventory respectively in the second case.
Once a Product is assigned to an Order, a second status bar, the Product reservation bar, will appear
beside it. If there is inventory available for the Order, you may reserve it. To do this, save the Order,
click the arrow icon in the Product reservation bar, and choose the appropriate option. You may
reserve available inventory for the line item or the whole Order, release reserved inventory or cancel the
request altogether. You also have the option of marking the line or the entire order as Invoiced.
Normally, this happens automatically when a related document, such as a Quote, invoices the Product.
However, in cases where a sales document refers to a particular Order but is not necessarily “related”
to it, you can manually indicate that the Product or Order have been Invoiced.
When you save the Order, you will be asked if you want all available inventory reserved for the Order
automatically.
Reserving inventory takes it out of the available pool until it is released, and changes the inventory
status bar to a green color, with a Received status. Releasing the Product will re-submit an Order
Request for the stock. Canceling the Request will change the status bar to red and cancel the request
permanently.
You can disable inventory reservations in the Company setup panel.
Once you have finished reserving available stock for your Order, click Save. If you decide to create a
Purchase Order solely from this Order, click the PO button and choose your Supplier from the Suppliers
you have created. In the case that you would like to sort and aggregate your Orders into POs
according to default Supplier, Product, or date requested, see Purchasing (below). You can also use
the Invoice button to invoice any reserved Product on an Order. Once an Invoice created from an Order
is saved, the Inventory Status bar changes to “Invoiced” status, becoming navy blue in color.
Product can also be ordered directly from sales documents (ie. Quotes, SRO’s, and Invoices) using the
Order button. On Quotes and SRO’s, the Order button will transfer all Products to an unsaved Order.
Once a sales document has been converted to an Order, the Product may then be reserved or
requested as above.
Statuses
The status of an Order reflects its progress in the advancement of the process. Once you have
determined whether or not there is Product to be reserved, it will change to Processed. When only
some of the Product is reserved for an Order, the status will change to Partially Received. Once all
Product on the Order has been reserved, the stat us changes to Received. Creating and saving an
Invoice from the Order will result in the status showing as Invoiced. Cancelling an Order will show the
status as Cancelled.
Backorders
On an Invoice, the Order button is used when there are Products being backordered, and only those
Products with quantities in the Backorder column will be placed on an unsaved Order when the Order
button is used. Any Products on an Invoice that are not in stock can automatically be transferred to the
backorder column, but you still have to click the Order button to transfer them to an Order. The Tracker
may be configured to track all open backorders, including those that are outstanding, received, and
reserved.
Orders can be re-requested even when they have been Invoiced or Cancelled.
Purchase Orders
Order Requests vs. Action
In the Order Requests tab of the Browser, you are able to view Product requests from Orders on a lineitem basis, sorted by date created. Each line item will include a color-coded Inventory Status bar you
can cycle through by clicking the arrow icon, as well as a pointer icon that links you to the original Order.
If Product is available, you can click this pointer icon to be taken to the Order to reserve it. When the
Order Requests list is refreshed, you will notice that this Order has now dropped off the list of Requests
for that Product. Purchase Orders can be generated by selecting one or several line items and clicking
the Generate PO button at the bottom of the browser. The Actions tab takes these same outstanding
Order Requests and categorizes them according to their Default Supplier.
Generate POs by Default Supplier
In Actions, Product requests are sorted by default Supplier, reorder points, Drop Shipment POs, and
GSX POs.
Every Product requested that has in its profile a default Supplier indicated will be found under this
heading, sorted by Supplier. By clicking Generate PO beside a Supplier in the Actions tab, an
unsaved Purchase Order will be created comprised of all the outstanding Order Requests with that
Supplier listed as the default. The Supplier Code and Cost on the PO will be those that have been
mapped to the Supplier Costs grid of the Product card relative to that Supplier. An arrow icon will
appear beside each line item; clicking it will drop down a list of the Orders that had requested this
Product, as well as any Quotes associated with that Order, along with the Customer information.
Clicking the pointer icon on any Order listed will link you to that Order.
You may remove requests from your unsaved PO by selecting the line and clicking Delete. You will
then be asked if you want to cancel the Order request completely, or re-request it for later
approval. Click Save on the PO to assign it an ID number. This is the number you will give your
Supplier as your PO number.
You can also drag and drop Order Requests from the Browser to any open Purchase Order.
Reordering PO by Default Supplier
In the Inventory tab of each Product profile, you are able to set reorder quantities when your stock
reduces to a certain point. When this point is reached, this Product will appear as a request for a
Reordering PO, displayed in the Actions tab. As with regular POs by default Supplier, generating a PO
will aggregate reorder requests, but it will place them directly into an unsaved Purchase Order,
bypassing Orders. To aggregate Customer Orders with “Re-order” Purchase Orders, create the reorder Purchase Order, and then drag the Order Requests from the Order Requests tab that are
purchased at that Supplier to the PO.
Drop Shipment POs
Clicking Generate PO for a Drop Shipment PO request will create an unsaved Purchase Order that
includes both the Supplier information and the Customer information in the Drop Shipment tab. When
you place this PO with your Supplier, the document will indicate to them that it’s a drop shipment.
Drop-shipped POs can be tracked using a Smart Find in the Browser.
GSX POs
GSX POs are for Orders originating on SROs. The Customer information will appear in the GSX tab of
the Purchase Order. Individual GSX POs are created for every SRO Order submitted, and are
processed like other Orders, with Apple as the Supplier.
Options , Costing, and ETA Information
Once the PO is created and the Supplier is chosen, the Supplier Code and Cost for each Product will
auto-populate, provided that the Supplier on the PO has been mapped to each Product’s
Supplier Cost grid. If not, these fields will remain blank, but can be edited by clicking into the
appropriate field. If you wish to update the costing information you’re entering in the PO right to the
Product card, click the Options tab and check the Update Costs of Products on this PO checkbox.
Without this option enabled, you may enter information into the Supplier Code and Cost fields, but it will
not update the Product card.
Also found in the Options tab is the ability to modify what is included on the printed document:
Discounts, Customer info, and Serial Numbers.
To include ETA information, click the detail arrow at the right of the PO, and enter the ETA in the ETA
Note field. Any information entered here will be visible in the corresponding Orders, making it possible
for sales representatives to quickly see the ETA info entered by the purchaser for each Product.
If the Product you’re receiving does not have a UPC code in its profile, a grey “U” will appear. Clicking
it will prompt a request for you to enter it, which saves it to the Product profile. If a red “U” appears, the
UPC code is already in the profile, and can be modified by clicking the icon, if required.
Receiving
Once the PO is processed, it is ready to have the Product marked as Received when it arrives from the
Supplier. To receive Product, go to the original PO’s Receiving tab and enter what you have received
of the total order. If a Product is serialized, it is necessary to click the Product line to scan or enter the
serial number of the Product. If you do not receive the total quantity of a Product that was initially
ordered, just enter the amount you did receive. Click Save.
If only some of the Product is received for a Purchase Order, its status will be set to Partially Received.
If you receive more Product from the Supplier on a particular Purchase Order, go to the original
Purchase Order and click the Receiving tab. In the Qty Rcvd column, ADD the quantity you received
that day to the quantity that had previously been received. For example, if you had ordered ten iPod
Nano 2gb Black, and two had been received on Monday according to the procedure outlined above,
there should be a quantity of two in the Qty Rcvd column. Then, when four more arrive on Wednesday,
the number you will enter in the Qty Rcvd column will be six. If the Product is serialized, you will have to
enter the six serial numbers. Click Save to enter any modifications.
Returns to Supplier
If you must return any Products that you having in stock back to the Supplier from whom you bought it,
you would create a Purchase Order with negative quantities for the inventory you're returning. For
example, if I need to send 2 scarves back to McMahon-Barry, I would create a PO as I normally would,
then enter "-2" in the Qty column. However, after saving the PO, I would also need to "receive" the stock
with negative quantities to remove it from my inventory.
1. Create a new Purchase Order
2. Add the Product you wish to return
3. Change the quantity to the amount you wish to return, as a negative number (i.e. -4)
4. Save the PO
5. Click on the Receiving tab on the PO
6. In the Qty Received column, double-click to edit and enter the same negative number as the
quantity in Step 3. Press Enter.
7. If the item you are returning is serialized, the system will prompt for the serial numbers. Enter
these just as you would if you were receiving.
8. Save and close the PO.
The stock has now been removed from your inventory, which can be verified in the Product card.
Please ensure that the "Cost" in the return PO reflects the actual credit you have arranged with your
Supplier.
Supplier Invoices
Once you receive an invoice from your Supplier for a shipment on a PO, you can create a Supplier
Invoice reflecting this billing by using the Invoice button on your Purchase Order. This generates a
document that will eventually be exported to your accounting software as a payable. The Supplier
Invoice should be created each time you receive Product from your Supplier, and will include only the
Product you received. That is, if five Nanos were ordered on a PO, and on Monday two were received,
and a Supplier Invoice is created, a quantity of two will appear on the Supplier Invoice. Then, if another
three were received on Thursday, a quantity of three will appear on the next Supplier Invoice you create
from this PO.
Statuses
As your Purchase Order advances through its various stages, its status is reflected at the bottom of the
window. Once saved, the PO is Processed. Partially Received indicates that some, but not all, of the
Products on the PO have been received. Once they are all received, the status changes to Received.
The Cancelled status is set manually, in the event that the PO has been cancelled with the Supplier,
and Invoiced, which indicates that all Product has been received and all Supplier Invoices have been
created for this PO, is set automatically when the last Supplier Invoice has been created for the
Products on the PO.
Inventory shipped via a drop shipment must still be received into inventory and invoiced on an Invoice.
Once a Supplier Invoice is saved, the status will change from None toInvoiced. When you pay your
Supplier for a particular Invoice, you must change the status to Paid manually.
To use the Trackers to track your outstanding POs and Supplier Invoices, choose All POs (various
statuses) and All Supplier Invoices (various statuses) and install them on your Trackers.
You can create a Supplier Invoice each time you receive Product, or you may choose to wait until you
receive an actual invoice from your Supplier before creating it so that your Supplier Invoice exactly
reflects the billing of your Supplier. When your Supplier Invoice is Posted, a green “P” will appear at the
bottom left of the window. When it is exported, that will change to a blue “E”. Posted Supplier Invoices
cannot be changed. (see chapter on Accounting Exports)
Drop Shipments
If the Product on an Order or a PO is being sent or delivered directly to the Customer, and involves
movement outside the regular channels of inventory, you are able to flag the Order or PO in the Options
tab using the Drop Shipment checkbox, and by indicating the Shipping Method using the pull-down
menu just below. Drop Shipment Customer information is then attached to your sales document.
Action Menus
The Action menus for both Orders and Purchase Orders, found at the bottom of the document, allow
you access to many more features in the ordering and purchasing workflow.
Order
Open Customer - opens the Customer card of the Customer in the document
Open Selected Product - opens the Product card of the Product currently highlighted
Duplicate - duplicates the Order
Apply Discount - applies a percentage or dollar discount to the Order
Update Sell and Cost - updates the costs and selling prices of the Products on the Order in
accordance with their Product cards
Post Payments - posts any deposits made on the Order
Convert to SRO - moves all Products on the Order to an unsaved SRO
Print Packing Slip - allows you to print a packing slip for some or all of the Products on the
Order
Reserve Inventory of Whole Order - reserves all available Products on the Order
Release Inventory of Whole Order - releases any reserved Products on the Order
Release and Mark Whole Order Invoiced - releases any reserved Products on the Order and
marks them as Invoiced
Release and Cancel Whole Order - releases any reserved Products on the Order and marks
them as Cancelled
Email - pastes Customer’s email address into a new message
Schedule iCal Event - pastes Customer information into iCal
Link This Document - allows you to force a link between this Order and another document
Add to Parking - pastes this Order into an available Parking spot
Show Log - shows this Order’s Log history
Purchase Order
Open Customer - opens the Customer card of the Customer in the document
Open Supplier - opens the Supplier card of the Supplier on the PO
Open Selected Product - opens the Product card of the Product currently highlighted
Receive All - receives all unserialized Products on the PO
Capture UPC - allows you to enter the UPC directly to the Product card from the PO
Reserve Inventory of Linked Orders - automatically reserves all Products from the PO to their
linked Orders in chronological order
Copy Product Codes for Supplier - if the Supplier Code is blank on a PO, this feature
copies the Product Code as the Supplier Code
Print Product Labels - pastes all the Products from the PO into the Print Product Labels
window
Email - pastes Customer’s email address into a new message
Schedule iCal Event - pastes Customer information into iCal
Link This Document - allows you to force a link between this Order and another document
Add to Parking - pastes this Order into an available Parking spot
Show Log - shows this Order’s Log history
Overview
Essential Points
The Web Store integrates with LightSpeed for a sales solution that satisfies both a traditional
store and an online web cart from the same source.
The Web Store operates from a web hosted MySQL database that communicates with
LightSpeed via SOAP.
Products are selected from LightSpeed to be uploaded to the Web Store, and shopper Web
Orders are downloaded into LightSpeed and manually converted into Invoices.
Xsilva offers hosting services for your Web Store, or you can select your own host. Xsilva does
not host your primary website or email.
The Web Store offers encrypted credit card processing for secure and stable transactions.
Tax and shipping charges are applied based on the shipping destination of Web Orders.
Shoppers find products on your Web Store based on keyword search, or by drilling down
through nested categories.
Shoppers on the Web Store can check out as a guest, or create a registered account that
allows them to track their purchase history, access backorder lookup features, wish lists, and
more.
The Web Store may be customized in terms of design or functionality.
LightSpeed can connect to Magento. More information can be found here and here.
Compatibility
Web Store 2.1 and later requires LightSpeed 3.5 for full functionality. LightSpeed 3.5 has been tested
with Magento 1.4.2 and 1.5 Community Edition.
Introduction
LightSpeed’s Web Store is a flexible, intuitive way to sell your Products online, integrating your existing
LightSpeed database with a full-featured, polished web store. It features a dynamic MySQL database
that resides on the web host, communicating with your LightSpeed server with even tighter security,
and allows for greater flexibility in updating your database and your Web Store.
LightSpeed always initiates the communication, with either the "Update Store" (to push Products to the
Web Store) or "Download Orders" (to download shopper Web Orders) functions. Each process can be
executed manually, or set to a schedule.
Overview
Technology
Web Store’s installation results in a MySQL database on the web host, which communicates with your
LightSpeed server via Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) - a simple, XML-based protocol that
lets applications exchange information over HTTP. It is designed to maximize compatibility among
various browsers, and, more importantly, the security of information exchanged between servers. Once
the web host's URL and password has been entered in the Web Store Setup panel, communication is
established.
Features
Security Control - for safe, worry-free online credit card purchasing
Product Slider - for showcasing products with an innovative interface
Feature Products - for spotlighting specific products for higher sales
Professionally-designed Templates
Cross-Selling - for suggested selling of related products
Wish List - for later purchase, or for a gift registry
Customer Log-In - for sales history, Wish Lists, Order Lookups
Real-Time Shipping and Tax Calculators
HTML Email Notification - for stylized emails after purchase
Search Engine Optimization - for high-priority search engine results
Drag and Drop Purchasing - for quick, intuitive shopping
Product Availability
Order/SRO Lookups - for direct customer convenience
Quote-to-Cart - allows the merchant to email a Quote link from LightSpeed that takes the
shopper to a pre-populated cart of those Products
Taxes
Web Store automatically applies the correct LightSpeed Tax Code to web orders, based on the Tax
Codes you have assigned to your list of pre-defined destinations, according to zip/postal code,
state/province, or country.
Shipping
Web Store has several shipping calculators based on the shipping method chosen by the customer at
the time of the web order. These calculators use the weight, volume, or quantity of the Products on the
web order. Shipping can also be restricted to particular zip/postal codes, state/provinces, or countries.
As in LightSpeed, shipping charges are applied to Web Orders and Invoices as a Product.
Customer Info
New customers that are registered and/or order in Web Store will be created into LightSpeed when the
Download Orders happens. If the customer email already exists in LightSpeed, then a new customer
will not be created. If the email address cannot be found, then a new customer card is created. If the
customer exists in LightSpeed but the email address is not in the card, a new card will be created, but
the store owner has the ability to merge these two cards together in LightSpeed since they are the
same customer.
Security
Credit card payment transactions in Web Store are conducted online with authorized, encrypted
payment gateways such as Authorize.net. No credit card information is sent to or stored in LightSpeed,
making it absolutely secure for online payments.
Hosting
Because of the vast number of web hosting companies selling their services, and the multitude of
variables that can influence the Web Store’s performance over which we have no control, Xsilva offers
a hosting solution for Web Store in order to provide the highest level of service and support possible. In
this way, any enhancements or modifications that are made can be implemented without any difficulty
or incompatibility being experienced by merchants or customers using Web Store.
Templates and Customization
Web Store ships with three pre-defined templates, each with varying complexity, designed to provide
online customers with a polished, intuitive, innovative buying experience that is also customizable by
the merchant.
The Basic Workflow
The basic workflow of installing, configuring, and using the LightSpeed Web Store can be outlined as
follows:
1. INSTALL WEB STORE (link)
a. Hosting with Xsilva
b. Hosting with a Third Party
2. CONFIGURE WEB STORE
a. Enter Host and Setup information (link)
b. Confirm initial LightSpeed settings
c. Update Store to register initial settings (link)
d. Configure Web Admin Panel
1. Set Store and Localization Info (link)
2. Add a Header Image
3. Set Customer Preferences
4. Set Product Preferences
5. Set Product Image Preferences
6. Set Inventory Preferences
7. Set Payment Method Preferences (link)
8. Set Shipping Preferences (link)
9. Set Shipping Method Preferences
10. Set Shipping Destinations and Taxes
11. Set Pages Preferences (link)
12. Set Administation Preferences (link)
e. Define Web Categories and Keywords (link)
3. CHOOSE THE PRODUCTS TO SELL ONLINE (link)
4. UPLOAD TO WEB STORE (link)
5. YOUR CUSTOMERS PLACE ORDERS (link)
6. DOWNLOAD AND FULFILL WEB ORDERS (link)
Shopping Web Store
Once your customers have found your web store online, they will see the landing page, which includes
your company information, branding, Web Categories, and purchasing options. Placing a Web Order
requires several steps - Registration, Browsing Products, Adding Products, Cart Review, Shipping,
and Payment.
Registration
If not purchasing as a Guest, a customer must register an account before purchasing items in the Web
Store for the first time. They must enter their name, address, and telephone information, as well as a
password that will be required the next time they log in. To register, the customer must click “Register”
at the top right of the page, enter their contact information. Before the registration can be completed,
the customer must enter a confirmation code. Once registered, the customer will automatically be
logged in for their session, and can proceed to browse and purchase.
The customer can browse and add products to their cart without registering, but will be required to
register before the purchase can be completed.
Logging In
If a shopper has already registered, they are able to click “Login” at the top of the Web Store, and enter
their email address and password. Once logged in, a shopper can access their purchase history,
wishlists, and order lookups. Customers who have forgotten their password can retrieve them using the
email address associated with their account.
Browsing Products
Having set up your Web Keywords and Web Categories, you enable your customers to find your
products in a variety of ways. By using the Web Store’s Search feature, your customers can find
specific products not only by entering particular keywords, but by entering any term that appears in the
product’s code or description. After the Search button is clicked, the Web Store will return a list of
results that include that search term.
Advanced Search is a way for shoppers to use a price range to find a group of Products that fits
within their budget. A "simple search" on Web Store will display all Products with descriptions or
keywords that match the search term. An Advanced Search will only display those results that match the
search time AND fall within the price range defined by the shopper.
To use Web Store Advanced Search:
1. In the Web Store, click the "+" icon in the search field.
2. In the resulting Advanced Search window, enter the Search Term.
3. Enter the Start Price and/or End Price for the range you wish to search. Leaving either of these
fields blank will result in all Products before or after the price you defined to be displayed.
4. Choose Current Category if you only wish to search the Web Category you're currently in, or
Entire Store if you want the Advanced Search to display Products that meet the criteria from the
entire catalog.
If your customers prefer, they can use a pre-defined set of Categories, allowing them to tunnel down to
a product’s location, using a category tree accessible on the left side of the Web Store. Clicking a
Primary Category produces a list of Secondary Categories, and each secondary category allows
shoppers to access Tertiary Categories. This option is useful for customers who only have a general
idea of what they’re searching, and are guided by the categories you have defined in LightSpeed to
find a particular product or series of products.
Regardless of where the shopper is on the Web Store, they will always have immediate access to both
the Search feature and to the Categories.
Adding Products
Once your customer has located the product they wish to purchase, they click its image to view the
Product detail. To add the product, they click the Add to Cart button to add it to their shopping cart. If
the customer prefers, they can modify the quantity to add by entering a value in the Qty field. The
shopping cart is displayed at the far right of the store, and includes an abbreviated line item for each
product, as well as a subtotal. Products may also be added to the Cart by dragging the Product’s
primary image in the detail view and dropping it over the cart on the right hand side of the store.
Before a Product with size and color menus can be purchased, a size and color must be chosen.
The shopper can continue to use the search/category methods to browse other products, adding them
to the cart using the same method. The shopping cart will grow to accommodate new products being
added.
Edit Cart
Anytime during the shopper’s session, and before they proceed to the payment screen, they can click
the Edit Cart button to see the details of their cart, including all quantities for each product. Quantities
can be modified simply by changing the value in the Quantity column, and products can be removed
from the cart by clicking the “-” icon.
There are three options at the bottom of the Edit Cart screen. Update Cart will register any changes
you have made to the quantities for each product. Clear Cart will clear all products from the cart. Email
This Cart is a convenient feature that allows you to send a pre-populated cart to any email address. The
recipient receives an email with a link that opens a new session of your web store with a pre-populated
cart, perfect for creating ready-to-buy quotes for your customers.
From the Edit Cart screen, the customer can select the Continue Shopping button, to return to the
browse screen, or the Submit Order button, which takes the shopper to either the Registration/Login
screen (if they are not logged in to an account), or the Account Confirmation screen (if they are). At the
Registration/Login screen, the shopper can either log in to their existing account, click the Become a
Member button to create a new account, or click Checkout as Guest, which will allow them to process
the transaction without opening up an account.
Once logged in, or checking out as a guest, the shopper enters their billing and shipping information.
Then, they are able to choose their shipping and payment options.
Order/Repair Lookup
The Web Store’s Order/Repair Lookup function allows your shoppers to get information about their
LightSpeed backorder or repair directly through over the internet.
If your business has a repair department that uses LightSpeed’s SRO module, you are able to
configure online lookups by your customers of their SRO ID numbers in the LightSpeed Web Store.
Alternately, your customer can look up their LightSpeed Orders to find out their status. Only those
shoppers who have registered on your Web Store are able to access the lookup feature. The
Order/Repair Lookup decreases the amount of telephone communication required by customers to get
basic information on their repair or backorder.
Orders - includes basic Order information, including Products, quantities, special
notes, and Order status
SRO - includes problem description, work performed, special notes, warranty info,
and SRO status
To access this feature, the customer clicks the Order/Repair Lookup button that appears on the far right
of the store, under the Shopping Cart. The customer then enters the Order or SRO ID number, as well
as their email address, for security measures. The LightSpeed Web Store then displays the status of
their Order or SRO, as well as any special notes you may wish the customer to see.
Wish Lists
Whether your customer wants to “bookmark” products they would like to purchase at a later date, or
they would like to create a list of products that others can access that acts as a gift registry, the Web
Store’s Wish List feature is able to “remember” products that can be quickly added to the Shopping
Cart when required.
To access the Wish List, your customer clicks on the Wish List button at the far right of the store,
located under the Shopping Cart. My Wish Lists allows the shopper to create a new Wish List, or
review their existing Wish Lists. Find Wish Lists allows the shopper to search the Wish Lists of others,
log into them, and purchase their Products.
To create a new Wish List, click Create a Wish List. You must name your Wish List, and enter a
password that will be required by a shopper who wishes to purchase the items on your Wish List. Enter
an expiry date for the Wish List, and select to whom you want the items purchased from your Wish List
to ship. For example, a gift registry Wish List would likely ship to you, whereas a Wish List that
represents a selection of products that might interest your customer would likely ship to the buyer.
Finally, enter the descriptive text to explain more information about your Wish List. Click Save to save
your Wish List.
Once saved, you may add invitees to your Wish List, and email them with a link that brings them directly
to the Wish List for purchasing.
To add Products to your Wish Lists, click the Add to Wish List button on the Product detail page. A
pop-up menu will appear, where you can choose which Wish List you want to add this Product to. Click
the Add button to add the Product, or the Cancel button if you do not want this Product on the Wish List.
If your customer buys something from your Wish List, the item will be removed from the Wish List. If the
customer adds something from the Wish List to their cart and do not buy it within a specified time
period, the item will be returned to the Wish List.
My Account
Your customer is able to review their purchase history by clicking My Account at the top right of the Web
Store. My Account displays their basic account information, including name, phone, and address, as
well as their Web Orders, their Wish Lists, and any outstanding
In the Action Menu of the LightSpeed Quote, you will find the Email Web Store Link option. Selecting
this option will create a web link that you can email to your customer. When they click the link, they will
be directed to your Web Store with a web cart pre-populated with these Products, provided the
Products are among those uploaded to the Web Store and that you have selected “Upload Quotes” in
the Web Store setup panel prior to updating your Web Store. The customer may then immediately edit
the cart, add to it, or proceed to checking out and purchasing.
Checking Out
Shipping Options
The shopper is able to choose their preferred shipping method from a pop-up list that includes United
States Postal Service, Store Pickup, Free Shipping, Flat Rate Shipping, FedEx, IUPS, UPS,
InterShipper, Canada Post, Australia Post, and Destination Shipping. The FedEx, USPS, UPS, IUPS,
and Intershipper options will display a second pop-up menu of choices when selected, a list of shipping
options offered by that carrier. Web Store will display the shipping amount after the selection is made.
Payment Options
The shopper then chooses their method of payment from a pop-up menu - PayPal, Purchase Order,
Authorize.net, Beanstream, eWAY, Cheque, WorldPay, Cash on Delivery, or Phone Order.
Authorize.net Simple Integration - sends the shopper to a special payment page on
the Authorize.net website, where the shopper enters their name, address, and credit
card information and processes their payment. The shopper will then be prompted to
complete their transaction, returning them to your Web Store. The Authorize.net
transaction authorization will be auto-populated into the web order and will be
included when you process your web orders. The Web Store administrator will receive
an email confirmation of the payment that includes the transaction authorization
number.
Authorize.net Advanced Integration - allows the shopper to remain in the Web
Store payment page and enter their payment information (name, address, credit card
info) without leaving your Web Store. The Authorize.net transaction authorization will
be auto-populated into the web order and will be included when you process your web
orders. The Web Store administrator will receive an email confirmation of the
payment that includes the transaction authorization number.
WorldPay - sends the shopper to a special payment page on the WorldPay website,
where they enter their name, address, and credit card information, and process their
payment. The shopper will then be prompted to complete their transaction, returning
them to your Web Store. WorldPay’s transaction authorization number will be autopopulated in the LightSpeed Web Store order, and the Web Store administrator will
receive an email confirmation of the payment that includes the transaction
authorization number. Note: WorldPay is not available in Australia or Canada.
PayPal - sends the shopper to a special payment page on the PayPal website, where
they enter their name, address, and credit card information , and process their
payment. The shopper will then be prompted to complete their transaction, returning
them to your Web Store. The PayPal transaction authorization number will be
included when you download your web orders. The Web Store administrator will
receive an email confirmation of the payment that includes the transaction
authorization number.
Beanstream Integration - allows the shopper to remain in the Web Store payment
page and enter their payment information (name, address, credit card info) without
leaving your Web Store. The Beanstream transaction authorization will be autopopulated into the web order and will be included when you process your web orders.
The Web Store administrator will receive an email confirmation of the payment that
includes the transaction authorization number.
eWAY Integration - allows the shopper to remain in the Web Store payment page
and enter their payment information (name, address, credit card info) without leaving
your Web Store. The eWAY transaction authorization will be auto-populated into the
web order and will be included when you process your web orders. The Web Store
administrator will receive an email confirmation of the payment that includes the
transaction authorization number.
Purchase Order - allows a shopper with a terms account to purchase using a PO
Phone Order - selecting the Phone Order option displays a message with the
number to call for a phone order transaction
Cash on Delivery - allows the shopper to select an option that will require them to
pay upon delivery of the web order
Cheque - displays the message notifying the shopper which addressee to use for
their cheque payment
Once the Account Confirmation screen has been completed, the shopper enters a verification code,
and clicks Submit Order to finalize the purchase.
Confirmation
Once the web order has been processed, the shopper will see a confirmation screen which outlines
their order, including the shipping and payment details, order status, and Order ID. The shopper will
also receive a confirmation email outlining the details of their order, as configured in the Web Store
setup panel.
Web Store Getting Started
This document provides you with a basic overview of the LightSpeed Web Store, and includes
summarized chronological steps on installation and configuration of an essential setup procedure. It is
meant as the primary document to a Web Store setup, and a complementary resource to the Web
Store articles, where detailed explanations of configuration of specific settings, such as shipping
carriers, can be found.
A Note About Shipping
Like LightSpeed, Web Store charges shipping via a non-inventoried Product. Even though this
shipping "Product" does not appear when the shopper is submitting their Web Order online, any
shipping charges applied to the Web Order will be added once the Web Order is downloaded into
LightSpeed. As explained below, each Shipping Method enabled in the Web Store must be
associated with a non-inventoried Product created in LightSpeed to represent shipping/freight.
Configure Web Store
Configuration of the Web Store is centralized to the Web Store Setup panel in LightSpeed (Tools >
Web Store > Setup), which is where you will enter your web host info, and access the various
configuration windows you’ll need for setup. Again, this guide outlines a summary of the requirements
for a basic Web Store configuration in chronological order. For more information, please see the
various articles on each step of the Web Store process, including the Web Store Installation article.
A. Enter Host and Setup information (link)
Within LightSpeed, you must enter the basic host information in the Web Store setup panel (Tools >
Web Store > Setup). Enter the URL of your web host’s store location, and password. If you are hosted
with Xsilva, you will receive this information from Xsilva Support. If you are hosting with a third party,
they will provide you with this information.
B. Confirm initial LightSpeed settings
Before you can complete a Web Store setup, you should confirm the following LightSpeed settings and
make sure they have been properly configured. For information on how to configure these settings,
please consult the LightSpeed Getting Started Guide, except where otherwise specified.
Tax Code - The Tax Code(s) you set up in LightSpeed applies a particular
combination of tax rates that you configure for different sales situations. The default
Tax Code is the setting that is automatically applied to new documents, per sales
station, and can be changed to any other Tax Codes you have added. These Tax
Codes will be uploaded to the Web Store you can assign them to specific
destinations, allowing them to automatically be applied to your Web Orders based on
the shipping address.
Default Currency - You must first define your default currency prior to updating the
Web Store.
Size-Color Matrix settings - Any Product you wish your shoppers to be able to
choose using the pop-up menus for size and color must first be created using the
Size-Color Matrix feature in LightSpeed.
Families - This setting is only required if you want Families to be included with your
Web Categories, the system of nested classification that allows your shoppers to drill
down to the category of Product they’re looking for.
C. Update Web Store to register initial settings (link)
Before you can configure the Web Store, you must update the Web Store to register the settings
described above. No Products or Documents will be added, but information regarding Tax Codes,
Currency, and more will be communicated to the web host and become accessible in the Web Store
Admin panel for the configurations described below. Go to (Tools > Web Store > Setup), and click
Update Store.
D. Configure Web Store Admin Panel
The Web Store Admin panel is a web-based interface accessed within LightSpeed that allows you to
configure how your Web Store looks and behaves, including localized requirements, shipping and
payment methods, and more. Outlined below are brief summaries of the essential configuration of the
Web Store, and how to perform each one. Further information can be found in the Web Store articles
linked within each step.
1. Set Your Store and Localization Information (link)
Tools > Web Store > Admin Panel > Configuration > Store
Store Name - the name that appears at the top of each screen the customer browses
in your Web Store
Store Phone - the primary contact telephone number for your retail location,
displayed in the email footer
Store Email - the email address that appears in the Contact Us section of your web
store, and from which address emails are sent
Default Language - the language you wish your web store to appear in. The default is
English. However, it is possible to customize your store to operate in other languages
using external solutions.
Locale - sets the location and language for the Web Store. For example, an English
store in England would require “en_GB” (minus quotations) to be entered. Common
locales would include:
en_CA - Canada
en_US - United States
en_AU - Australia
en_GB - United Kingdom
Default Country - the country where the order will be fulfilled from. This setting is
used in the shipping calculations.
Date Format - the date format as it will appear on correspondence with the customer
Web Store Time Zone - the international time zone from which the order will be
fulfilled (contact Xsilva if this is different than your store’s time zone)
Tax-Inclusive Pricing - enabling this displays your web prices with the default Tax
Code already applied. This setting should only be applied if you are using taxinclusive pricing within LightSpeed.
Default Currency - this sets the currency your prices appear in, and should reflect
the Default Currency in LightSpeed.
Currency Printing Format - sets the formatting for your currency, the %n default is
pre-populated and will work in almost all situations.
Browser Encoding - sets what special characters can be seen in your web store,
dependant on language (normal setting is UTF-8)
Next Order ID - sets the next Web Orer ID number, in a similar fashion to the way ID
numbers work in LightSpeed.
2. Add a Header Image to Brand Your Store
Tools > Web Store > Admin Panel > Configuration > Appearance
Header Image - add a header image to your Web Store by uploading the image to
your web host, and then outlining the path where the image can be found as being
either on your web host or with a full URL for the image online. The maximum
dimensions of this image are 748 pixels wide by 111 pixels high. If you are hosting
with Xsilva, you can send your header image to support@xsilva.com.
3. Set Your Customer Preferences
Tools > Web Store > Admin Panel > Configuration > Store
Allow Guest Checkout - enables the ability for non-registered customers to process
orders
Minimum Password Length - sets the minimum number of characters required for
the customer log-in password
Phone Types - enter the options possible for customer telephone numbers,
separated by commas and no spaces, including “work”, “home”, “mobile”, etc. These
choices will appear in a pop-up menu when the shopper is registering.
4. Set Your Product Preferences
Tools > Web Store > Admin Panel > Configuration > Appearance
Product Color Label - the term used to indicate the product’s color
Product Size Label - the term used to indicate the product’s size
Products Per Page - sets the default number of products that appear per page on the
web store
Product Sorting - sets the default sort mode for your products as they appear on your
Web Store, including Product Name, Product Code, Price, or Inventory
Enable Families - enables the inclusion of LightSpeed Families in the list of Web
Categories in the Web Store
5. Set Your Product Image Preferences
Tools > Web Store > Admin Panel > Configuration > Appearance
Show Lightbox in Product Detail Page - enabling this feature opens a preview
version of the primary image in its own window when the primary image is clicked
Image Store Location - allows you to indicate where the images are stored for your
products, whether it’s in the database or in a separate file system on the web server.
6. Set Your Inventory Preferences
Tools > Web Store > Admin Panel > Configuration > Appearance
Display Inventory - enabled, this feature shows your customers basic information
about the inventory levels of your products
Display Inventory Level - enabled, this feature will display a general message
(defined below) regarding your inventory levels, whether a product is available, not
available, low, or not stocked. If this feature is disabled, but Display Inventory is
enabled, the quantity of your available stock as of the last store update will be
displayed.
Use Total Inventory Count - enables the display of Total inventory quantities, not
just Available Inventory quantities, including quantities Reserved and in
Warehouses.
Zero or Negative Inventory Message - the message that is displayed when a
product has no inventory, or is in negative quantities
Available Inventory Message - the message that is displayed when there is
available inventory with a quantity more than the Low Inventory Threshold defined
below
Low Inventory Message - the message that is displayed when a product has “low”
inventory as definied by the Low Inventory Threshold below
Low Inventory Threshold - the point at which the Low Inventory Message is
displayed. Does not affect Reorder Point in LightSpeed.
Non Stocked Item Display Message - enables the indication of Products that are
attributed as “non-inventoried” in LightSpeed, such as “Labor”
Allow Out-of-Stock Products To Be Added to Cart - allows Products that have no
quantities to be added to the Cart and purchased
7. Set Your Payment Methods (link)
Tools > Web Store > Admin Panel > Payment Methods
Each Payment Method in the Web Store must be linked to an existing Payment
Method in LightSpeed. For example, if you have enabled "Purchase Order" as a
payment method in Web Store, you must enter "Purchase Order" in the LightSpeed
Payment Method field of the Admin panel (provided this is what it is called in
LightSpeed). This text match must be exact and is case-sensitive.
Credit card payment methods require an account to be set up with the appropriate
provider - Authorize.net, WorldPay, Beanstream, eWay, and/or PayPal. When setting
up an Authorize.net account, you must specify that it needs to be a Retail Card-NotPresent account. Payment gateways on the Web Store can each be linked to their
own Payment Method within LightSpeed, or all to a more general "Credit Card"
Payment Method. Only those gateways with whom you arrange an account need to be
configured in the Web Store. Please see the Web Store 2.0 document for more
information on setting up gateway accounts.
In the Credit Card Types tab, you are able to restrict which types of credits cards with
which the customer can pay, and the order in which they appear.
Authorize.net Simple Integration - this payment method directs shoppers to the
Authorize.net set to process their encrypted, online payment, and then returns them
back to the LightSpeed Web Store when completed.
Authorize.net Complex Integration - this payment method allows the shopper to
remain in the LightSpeed Web Store while they process their encrypted Authorize.net
payment.
WorldPay - adds "WorldPay" as a choice of payment on the payment screen,
sending the shopper to the WorldPay site to process their encrypted payment, and
returning them to the LightSpeed Web Store when completed
PayPal - adds "PayPal" as a choice of payment on the payment screen, sending the
shopper to the PayPal site to process their encrypted payment, and returning them to
the LightSpeed Web Store when completed.
Purchase Order - allows your shopper to enter a PO number as their payment when
checking out. No credit card information is required.
Phone Order - allows you to indicate a telephone number your customer can call with
their credit card for processing payment. No credit card information is required.
Cheque - allows your shopper to enter a cheque number as their payment when
checking out, as well as you to tell your customer to what address to send the cheque.
No credit card information is required.
Cash on Delivery - allows your shopper to check out without any payment
information. No credit card information is required.
Beanstream - allows Canadian or American merchants to accept credit card
payments from shoppers. This payment method allows the shopper to remain in the
LightSpeed Web Store while they process their encrypted Beanstream payment.
eWay - allows Australian shoppers to accept credit card payments from shoppers.
This payment method allows the shopper to remain in the LightSpeed Web Store
while they process their encrypted eWay payment.
8. Set Your Shipping Preferences (link)
Tools > Web Store > Admin Panel > Shipping
Restricted Shipping - allows you to restrict the available choices for shipping
destinations. For example, if you are in Utah, and you will only ever ship to customers
in Utah, you can enable Restricted Shipping, and then only define destinations
based in Utah as outlined in step 10 below.
Weight Unit - sets Pound or Kilogram as the unit of weight measurement
Dimension Unit - sets Inch or Centimeter as the unit of dimension measurement
9. Set Your Shipping Methods
Tools > Web Store > Admin Panel > Shipping > Methods
The Web Store uses a shipping calculator to calculate shipping charges based on
the destination of the Web Order. Charges are applied the same way they are in
LightSpeed, by creating a "shipping" Product that is used to calculate based on
weight, volume, or item count. While they will be informed of the shipping charge
upon checkout, the shopper will not see this Shipping Product until they are sent a
copy of the LightSpeed Invoice.
Each shipping method must be linked to a specific Product set up in LightSpeed to
charge shipping, using the LightSpeed Product Code field in each method's settings
of the Admin panel. Most shipping methods allow for a price markup or a handling
fee to be added to any shipping charges.
UPS, FedEx, Australia Post, Canada Post, US Postal Service, IUPS, InterShipper
- allows you to enable and configure each carrier and the account information that
you have received from the carrier
Store Pickup - allows your customer to arrange to pick up their order in-store, and
allows you to decide which instruction message is displayed when they choose this
method
Flat Rate Shipping - sets a flat rate based on item quantity, order weight, or a flat rate
for the order itself
Destination Shipping - allows you to set shipping charges based on the destination
of the Web Order, calculated by item count, weight, or volume
10. Set Your Shipping Destinations and Taxes
Tools > Web Store > Admin Panel > Shipping > Countries, Destinations
Defining destinations in the Web Store is important for two reasons; shipping charge
calculations, and tax calculations.
Countries, States, and Regions
LightSpeed Web Store comes pre-populated with all the world's countries, accessible
in the Countries tab of the Admin panel's Shipping section. The default setting is for
all countries to appear in the pop-up menu that is displayed when a customer is
registering their account. Any countries that you do not want to appear in this list can
be omitted by clicking the "gear" icon and selecting "No" from the pop menu in the
Available? column.
The States/Regions tab comes pre-populated with the states/provinces/regions of the
US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, and Australia. When any of these countries
are chosen in the shopper's registration, its list of sub-regions will auto-populate. To
add to these lists, click the + Add icon at the bottom of the window, choose the country
from the pop-up menu, and provide the name and code of the sub-region you're
defining. Click the "checkmark" icon to save your addition.
Destinations & Taxes
The Web Store allows you to assign the Tax Codes you've configured in LightSpeed
to the destinations you define in the Web Store Admin panel. When shoppers choose
a particular destination as their ship-to address, the Web Store will apply the
appropriate Tax Code as it has been assigned here.
Using the Restricted Shipping feature accessible in the Shipping tab, you can limit
your customers to choosing from a list of pre-defined shipping destinations that you
define here. If Restricted Shipping is not enabled, the customer can enter any
address as the ship-to when they place an order, but if this address does not match a
configured destination, no Tax Code will be applied to the Web Order.
1. In the Destinations tab of the Shipping section, click the + Add icon at the
bottom left to add a destination to the list.
2. Choose the country and province/state/region for the destination you're
defining.
3. Set the range of postal or zip codes for which this destination and its Tax Codes
will apply. If none are set, the Web Store will apply the assigned Tax Code to all
orders that are set to ship to this destination, regardless of zip/postal code.
4. Name the Tax label for this tax setup (reference purposes only)
5. Assign a Tax Code to the destination using the pop-up menu. These Tax
Codes reflect the Tax Codes that were defined in LightSpeed as of the most
recent store update.
In the case the you are NOT using any of the pre-configured shipping services (eg.
UPS, FedEx, etc), you can do a manual calculation of the shipping charges using
Base Charge, Free Allowance, and Rate Unit. The Base Charge allows you to enter
the base amount that is applied to all web orders. Free Allowance allows you to enter
a certain number of units (based on what you've configured in Shipping > Methods >
Flat Rate Shipping) that are not used to calculate charges. Per Rate Unit is the dollar
amount to use to charge per unit (weight, volume, order) after the Free Allowance.
11. Set Your Pages Preferences (link)
Tools > Web Store > Admin Panel > Pages
All "pages" in your Web Store - New Products, Promotions, Top Products, About Us,
Contact Us, Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions - provide you an opportunity to
promote or highlight specific Products that will be showcased in a "slider" that
displays four Products at once and can be "advanced' for the next set of four, and so
on. Each of these "pages" in your Web Store also provide you an opportunity to
communicate with your shoppers, giving them background and contact information,
as well as details particular to your business policies.
Page Key - the text that appears in the URL to identify this page
Page Title - the title that appears at the top of the Browser window
Text - the text that appears on this page
Slideshow Product Tag - Web Keywords that have been assigned to the Products
you wish to showcase in this page's slider. Example: If you enter "shoe" as the
Slideshow Product Tag, all Products with "shoe" as a Web Keyword will appear in this
page's slider. Multiple Product Tags can be set.
Meta Keywords - words that internet search engines use to find this page
Meta Descriptions - the description that appears for the page when an internet
search engine produces a list of results
12. Set Your Administration Preferences (link)
Tools > Web Store > Admin Panel > System > Configuration
Database Backup Folder
In the System Configuration section, you must indicate the web host folder where you
will back up your database.
Confirmation Email
In the Email section, enter the info to define the settings for the email confirmation
that your customer receives once they have placed an order.
Order From - the email address that will appear in the "from" section of the
confirmation email the customer receives
BCC Address - the email address that will receive a BCC copy of the order
confirmation
Email Signature - the signature that appears at the bottom of every order
confirmation email
SMTP Server Info - the server, server port, username, and password information for
your SMTP email server
E. Define your Web Categories and Keywords (link)
Tools > Web Store > Web Categories, Web Keywords
Web Categories
Web Categories set a system of organization you will use to create a directory that your shoppers will
use to drill down to find the Product they need. There are 3 levels to Web Categories - Primary,
Secondary, and Tertiary. Each Primary category may have a number of Secondary categories, which,
in turn, may have a number of Tertiary Categories. For example, you may have a Primary category
called “Shoes”, then within that a Secondary category called “Sneakers”, then within that a Tertiary
category called “Nike”.
To create a new Primary category, click the + icon under the Primary Category column, enter its name,
and click Save. To create a Secondary category within that Primary category, click the Primary
category once to select it, and click the + icon under the Secondary Category column. Name the
Secondary category, and click Save. To create a Tertiary category within that Secondary category,
click the Secondary category once to select it, and click the + icon under the Tertiary Category column.
Name the Tertiary category, and click Save. These categories will now be accessible in the Web tab of
the Product card.
The order of your categories can be changed by clicking and dragging them within your lists. It is in this
order that they will appear on your Web Store.
Web Keywords
You are able to assign up to 3 Web Keywords to each Product sold on the Web Store to assist your
shoppers in finding the Product they need using a Search. If your shopper searches on any term
assigned to a Product as a keyword, the Product will appear in the list of results. For example, if you
have “tshirt” assigned as one of a Product’s Web Store Keywords, that Product will appear when the
shopper searches for “tshirt”, even if “tshirt” isn’t in the Product’s description. However, ANY Product
that has tshirt in the description will also appear in the same search, even if they do not have “tshirt” set
as a keyword.
To create a new Web Keyword, click the New button at the bottom of the Web Keywords window. Add
the keyword in the pop-out drawer and click Save. This keyword will now be accessible in the Web tab
of the Product card.
Choose Your Products
LightSpeed Product Card > Web Tab (link)
Having configured both LightSpeed and the Web Store Admin panel, you must select which Products
you wish to sell on the Web Store, and assign them with Web Categories and Web Keywords, giving
shoppers two ways to locate the Products on your Web Store.
A special Web Price and Web Description can be set that will override the regular Selling Price and
Product Description. The weight and dimension fields allow you to enter values that are used in the
shipping calculator of the Web Store.
Each Product can have up to 5 images stored in the image drawer, and all 5 of these images will be
displayed and accessible in the Product detail page of the Web Store. To add multiple images, click
Photo in the Product card to open the image drawer, and select the square where you wish to store the
image. Drag the image from your desktop or a website and drop it into the primary square in the image
drawer.
Size-color combination Products in LightSpeed are brought together under a common style using the
Size-Color Matrix. Uploading Matrix and Child Products to the Web Store allows shoppers to choose
their size-color combination using 2 pop-up menus that allow them to select their desired Product.
Any items that are assigned to a Product as Related Products and are uploaded to the Web Store
appear in an animated slider that showcases these Products in a polished, easy-to-access way.
You can use Set Product Info to set in a batch which Products you wish to sell on your Web Store, and
Set Selling Prices to set in a batch the Web Price for these Products. For more information, see
the Product Rules article.
Update Web Store
Tools> Web Store > Documents (link)
With the Products you wish to sell on the Web Store enabled and configured, you must upload them to
your Web Store, along with any documents you wish to use to enable particular Web Store features.
Quotes - enables the Quote to Cart feature, allowing you to email Quotes from LightSpeed to
customers along with a link that will take them to a pre-populated Web Store cart.
Orders - enables your shoppers to look up outstanding LightSpeed Orders online.
SROs - enables your shoppers to look up outstanding Service Repair orders online.
Click Update Store to upload any new or modified Products, as well as any documents you have
indicated in the Documents tab. The first time you update your Web Store with Products and
Documents, it will require a considerable amount of time to complete the upload, depending, of course,
on the number of items being uploaded. However, the initial update of basic settings, as outlined in
step 2c, will not take long.
ONCE YOU GO LIVE - Once you are live with your Web Store, but before you download and receive
any Web Orders, go to Admin Panel > Appearance > Products, and enable “Cache Categories”.
Shoppers Buy Online
Having found your Web Store using a search engine, customers can browse or search Products, add
them to the cart, and even check out as a guest. If they register for an account, or log into an existing
account, they are able to access their purchase history, create Wish Lists, look up oustanding
LightSpeed Orders or Service Repair Orders, or purchase through their customer account.
The major features available on the Web Store are as follows:
Drag and Drop Purchasing - for quick, intuitive shopping
Product Availability
Product Slider - for showcasing products with an innovative interface
Feature Products - for spotlighting specific products for higher sales
Professionally-designed Templates
Cross-Selling - for suggested selling of related products
Quote-to-Cart - allows the merchant to email a Quote link from LightSpeed that takes the shopper to
a pre-populated cart of those Products
Wish List - for later purchase, or for a gift registry
Customer Log-In - for sales history, Wish Lists, Order Lookups
Real-Time Shipping and Tax Calculators
HTML Email Notification - for stylized emails after purchase
Search Engine Optimization - for high-priority search engine results
Order/SRO Lookups - for direct customer convenience
Security Control - for safe, worry-free online credit card purchasing
When shoppers check out, taxes will be calculated based on their shipping address as you have
defined in the Destinations tab of the Web Store Admin panel. They choose a Shipping Method,
including any of the compatible carriers that you have enabled in the Web Store Admin panel. Specific
shipping options, such as overnight or priority, are available in a separate pop-up menu for most
carriers. Once a method is selected, a shipping charge is calculated and added to the Order.
The next step is for the shopper to choose a Payment Method. If the Customer is paying by credit
card, and selects Authorize.net Simple Integration, PayPal, or WorldPay, they will be redirected to that
gateways’ web site to process their payment, and will be returned to the checkout area of your Web
Store once it’s processed. If a Customer is paying by credit card and chooses Authorize.net Complex
Integration, eWay, or Beanstream, they can process their encrypted payment without being redirected.
In all cases, the authorization number of the transaction will be attached to the Web Order and
downloaded into LightSpeed. If the shopper is going to pay using alternate means, such as Phone
Order, Purchase Order, Cheque, or Cash on Delivery, the Web Store can notify your shopper of
instructions or allow them to record specific information such as PO number.
Once the shopper has entered their payment information, they must also enter a verification code of
random letters and numbers generated and shown in an image, simply to verify that they are human, as
opposed to a spam bot or other piece of spyware. If the shopper is paying by any credit card gateway
that requires them to be directed to another site for payment, they must enter this verification code prior
to being redirected.
Download Web Orders
In the Web Store Setup panel Tools > Web Store > Setup, you have the option to either
manually download the Web Orders that your shoppers have placed, or set them to automatically
download at scheduled intervals, as frequently as once every 10 minutes. If Download Schedule is set
to “Manually”, no Web Orders will be downloaded into LightSpeed until you click the Download Orders
button. Otherwise, LightSpeed will download Web Orders from the Web Store automatically.
a. Install the Web Order Tracker.
To be notifed of new Web Orders, install the Web Orders (Requested) Tracker. When you download
new Web Orders, they will appear here.
b. Download Web Orders
c. Convert each Web Order into an Invoice.
As per the standard workflow of LightSpeed, convert your Web Orders to Invoices using the Invoice
button at the bottom of the Order. Confirm which Products you will be sending to the Customer, and
make any necessary edits prior to saving the Invoice. Save the Invoice.
If the Customer had processed an online credit card payment for their Web Order, the Apply Credit
button on the Payment layout of the Invoice will be accessible. Click it to access the credit created by
the online payment, and apply it to the Invoice. If you need to bring in Products from your Suppliers to
fulfill a Web Order, follow the standard ordering procedure outlined in the Ordering and Purchasing
PDF document on the Training page of www.xsilva.com. For more information regarding the
application of credits, please see the Getting Started section.
Installation & Hosting
There are two scenarios for the installation of the LightSpeed Web Store. The first is if you have chosen
to have Xsilva host your store, the second is if you have chosen to use another host. The instructions for
each scenario follow. Note: If you need info regarding hosting a Magento store, please
visit http://www.magentohosting.biz/magento-hosting-requirements/.
Hosting Web Store with LightSpeed
If you have chosen to have LightSpeed host your Web Store, installation is a simple, 4-step process. In
short, you will receive a link that will install a procedure that allows LightSpeed to communicate with the
Web Store. You enter the license information Xsilva has sent you, and then configure the LightSpeed
Web Store setup panel with the hosting information provided to you by Xsilva.
1. Receive an email from LightSpeed Billing after purchase.
Once you have purchased Web Store, you receive an email from Xsilva that includes steps to
update your LightSpeed installation.
2. Receive an email from LightSpeed Hosting after purchase.
You will also receive an email from Xsilva Hosting with the information required to point your
domain name to Xsilva's hosting environment.
3. Wait for the domain information to update.
Once the domain changes have been completed, Xsilva Hosting will contact you with your Web
Store credentials and will provide you with the last steps required to start updating your new Web
Store.
Hosting Web Store with a Third-Party Solution
Customers who are hosting their own web store must verify that their hosting environment meets the
minimum requirements as follows:
Minimum PHP version 5.2.4 (5.3.x recommended)
Apache 2.0
MySQL 5
A valid SMTP host (the system will use "localhost" by default)
The following libraries and options must be installed and active for Web Store:
MySQLi, PHP Session support, cURL support, Multibyte Support, SOAP
Library, MCrypt Library and GD Library.
On most default installations, most of these options are already installed and active. MCrypt and GD
Library (including GIF, JPG, PNG and FreeType support) may need to be added since they are
generally not default options. Depending on your hosting solution, you may be able to activate these
through your hosting panel interface, or use the appropriate command line options if you are compiling
your own PHP.
Note if you are hosted on GoDaddy 4GH hosting, you will need to set a PHP option to properly
upload photos.
If you are using a host other than LightSpeed, there are a few additional steps in the setup of your Web
Store.
1. Receive an email from LightSpeed after purchase.
Once you have purchased Web Store, you receive an email from LightSpeed that includes a link
to an install file.
2. Create a MySQL database on your web host.
Before you can complete the installation, you must create a blank MySQL database on your web
host. If you are unsure how to complete this step, or step 5, you should contact your web host
administrator.
3. Upload the store files to your web host via FTP.
4. Complete the web-based installer.
Having uploaded your store files to your web host, access them via your browser, which takes you
to a web-based installer wizard that will help you enter the configuration info needed to point your
Web Store to the correct place on your web host. You will need to have the following information:
Document Root, Sub Directory, the MySQL Database Host Server Name or IP, Port, Username,
Password, Database Name, and the Store Password you have chosen. Click Install Store on
Step 5 of the web-based installer.
5. Enter your configuration info into LightSpeed.
You will also have received your web host information (web host domain and password). First, for
LightSpeed 3.5, make sure under Tools > Setup > eCommerce that the Web Store option has
been chosen. Next, select Tools > eCommerce > Setup (Tools > Web Store > Setup for earlier
versions) and enter this information into the setup panel of LightSpeed. If the connection is
successful, the Web Store version number should appear in the lower left. (If you have an earlier
version than 3.5, you will need to close and reopen Tools > Web Store to view the version
number.)
In each scenario, you should now be able to access your Web Store's URL.
LightSpeed Setup
Configuration of the Web Store is done in the Web Store setup panel, found at Tools > Web Store.
Once there, you can choose between configuring Web Store 1.3 or 2.0 in the pop-up menu accessible
at the lower left corner of the setup panel. The default setting is for Web Store 2.0, which includes
buttons for the configuration of Web Keywords, Web Categories, and the Admin Panel. Please find an
“Essential Configuration” table at the end of this document for a list of configuration settings that must
be completed for the Web Store to operate. For a chronological guide on setting up and using Web
Store, please see the Web Store Getting Started Guide on the Training page of www.xsilva.com.
Host and Setup
The first step is to configure your web host information, accessed by clicking the Setup tab near the top
of the Web Store setup panel.
Web Host - the location of your web host
Password - the password required to access your web host
Update Schedule - sets the frequency of updating your store with changes to your
Products
Download Schedule - sets the frequency of web order downloads from your Web
Store
Reset Store Products - resets all the upload flags in LightSpeed’s Product cards,
and removes all Products from the Web Store
Change Password - allows you to change the password required to access your web
host
Only Upload Products with Available Inventory - restricts uploaded Products to
those with available inventory
Only Upload “Current” Products - restricts uploaded Products to only those which
are current
Save - saves any changes made to the Setup tab
The Documents tab of the Web Store setup panel allows you to choose which documents you want to
upload to your Web Store:
Upload Quotes - enables the ability to convert LightSpeed Quotes to pre-populated
web carts
Upload Orders - enables the ability for Web Store visitors to look up the status of
their LightSpeed Orders
Upload SROs - enables the ability for Web Store visitors to look up the status of their
LightSpeed SRO repair
Save - saves any changes made to the Documents tab
Web Categories and Keywords
Web Categories set the system of organization for your Products on the Web Store, and can be
thought of as being in a tree formation, as Primary Categories branch off into subcategories. These
Primary Categories will be displayed along the left hand side of your store and will help your customers
navigate to the products they’re searching. Clicking a category on the Web Store will reveal its
subcategories.
To create a new Primary Category, go to the Web tab of the Product card, click the “+” icon, enter the
name, and click Save. To create a Secondary Category for that Primary Category, click the Primary
Category once to select it, and click the “+” icon for Secondary Category. Name it and click Save;
repeat for as many Secondary Categories as you’d like to create. Follow the same procedure for
Tertiary Categories. To view the branches of the Category tree, start by clicking a Primary Category
you wish to inspect, and continue along to view a category’s subcategories.
One way for your customer to find a Product on your Web Store will be using the search engine, located
at the lower left of your store. LightSpeed allows you to set up to three different Web Keywords that will
call up a Product when they are searched. To create your list of keywords, use the Web Keywords
setup panel in the Tools menu. To create a new keyword, click the button, enter the keyword you
anticipate your customers will use to find this Product, and click Save.
See the Selecting Products to Sell Online article for information on assigning Web Keywords and
Categories to Products.
Admin Panel: Configuration
Admin Panel
Clicking the Admin Panel button opens a web-based configuration panel where most of the
configuration of the Web Store’s features is done. Your computer must be connected to the internet to
configure the admin panel. The panel is organized into sections and subsections, first by major
category, then tabs that can be accessed to configure each individual aspect of each individual
feature.
The major categories are Configuration, Payment Methods, Shipping, Pages, Stats, and System.
Each of these categories have a number of subsections that can be configured individually.
Configuration
There are three (3) sections within the Configuration category - Store, Appearance, and Sidebars.
Each section contains several subsections and within those are the individual configuration settings at
the most detailed level. In most cases, click the Edit button or gear icon to display that subsection’s
settings, and click Save to save your changes. In many cases, you may also mouse over the “i” icon
beside each field for additional info.
Store Tab
1. Store Information
Store Name - the name that appears at the bottom of each screen the customer
browses in your Web Store
Store Phone - the primary contact telephone number for your retail location,
displayed in the footer of the order confirmation email
Store Email - the email address to which mail submissions in the Contact Us section
of your web store are sent, and from which address emails are sent
2. Localization
Default Language - the language you wish your web store to appear in. The default is
English. However, it is possible to customize your store to operate in other languages
using external solutions.
Locale - sets the location and language for the Web Store. For example, an English
store in England would require “en_GB” (minus quotations) to be entered. Common
locales would include:
en_CA - Canada
en_US - United States
en_AU - Australia
en_GB - United Kingdom
For more information, please see http://ca.php.net/money_format.
Default Country - the country where the order will be fulfilled from. This setting is
used in the shipping calculations.
Date Format - the date format as it will appear on correspondence with the customer
Web Store Time Zone - the international time zone from which the order will be
fulfilled (contact Xsilva if this is different than your store’s time zone)
Tax-Inclusive Pricing - enabling this displays your web prices with the default Tax
Code already applied. This setting should only be applied if you are using taxinclusive pricing within LightSpeed.
Default Currency - this sets the currency your prices appear in
Currency Printing Format - sets the formatting for your currency, the %n default is
pre-populated and will work in almost all situations. For more information please visit
http://ca.php.net/money_format.
Browser Encoding - sets what special characters can be seen in your web store,
dependant on language (normal setting is UTF-8). For more information, please
visit http://htmlpurifier.org/docs/enduser-utf8.html.
Next Order ID - sets the next Web Order ID number, in a similar fashion to how ID
numbers work in LightSpeed
Localization Info
The first and most important aspect is currency conversion. Below is a list of locales
you can set based on where you are for your currencies. All settings for this are
configured under the Web Store Admin Panel under Localization.
If you’re in the United States and wish to use the $ sign and it’s not
automatically on your items.
Code:
Locale: en_US
Currency Printing Format: $ %n
Canada (same as above) or use the below settings to show CAD:
Code:
Locale: en_CA
Default Currency: CAD
Currency Printing Format: %i
Quebec or other French speaking regions in Canada:
Code:
Locale: fr_CA
Default Currency: CAD
Currency Printing Format: %n or %i
UK with pound sterling:
Code:
Locale: en_GB
Currency printing format: %n
Browser Encoding: ISO-8559-15
Some web servers may not work with the above. If not, try this:
Code:
Locale: en_GB.utf8
Currency printing format: %n
Browser Encoding: UTF-8
European Union with the Euro:
Code:
Locale: nl_NL@euro
Currency printing format: %n
Browser Encoding: ISO-8559-15
Some web servers may not work with the above. If not, try this:
Code:
Locale: nl_NL.utf8
Currency printing format: %n
Browser Encoding: UTF-8
Australia (same as number 1 for $ sign), otherwise use the below for AUD:
Code:
Locale: en_AU
Default Currency: AUD
Currency Printing Format: %i
You can also add characters to the currency printing format. For example, if your
locale doesn’t show your currency symbol or abbreviation, you can set your currency
to print a particular value.
You can also translate your Web Store to the language of your choice. There are
already pre-defined examples provided by Qcodo that you could just tweak and plug
into the includes/qcodo/i18n folder. These examples by default are located under
includes/qcodo/_core/i18n.
The “Default language” section under Localization specifies which PO file to look for,
if any exists. If you wanted Spanish, you would create a file called es.po in that folder
with your translations. The default language would be es in the Admin Panel. Note
that the language is case sensitive - ie. if your file is ES.po, the default language
should say ES.
3. Customer Registration
Allow Guest Checkout - enables the ability for non-registered customers to process
orders
Languages - this will provide future functionality on language labeling when the
shopper registers
Minimum Password Length - sets the minimum number of characters required for
the customer log-in password
Phone Types - enter the options possible for customer telephone numbers,
separated by commas and no spaces
Appearance Tab
1. Store Template
Allows you to choose which of the three (3) pre-defined templates are to be used for
the Web Store: Deluxe, which includes all graphical elements; Basic, which includes
some graphical elements such as buttons and the sidebar; and Framework, which is
a completely stripped-down version that includes only a skeleton of graphical
elements. You do not have to update the store to see modifications to this setting
take effect on the Web Store.
Customization of the Web Store is not available from Xsilva, but our sales team can
offer contact information for designers well versed in customizing the look and feel of
Web Store.
2. Header Image
Add a header image to your Web Store by uploading the image to your web host, and
then outlining the path where the image can be found as being either on your web
host or with a full URL for the image online. The maximum dimensions of this image
are 748 pixels wide by 111 pixels high. If you are hosting with Xsilva, you can send
your header image to support@xsilva.com.
3. Products
Product Color Label - the term used to indicate the product’s color
Product Size Label - the term used to indicate the product’s size
Products Per Page - sets the default number of products that appear per page on the
web store
Product Sorting - sets the default sort mode for your products, including Product
Name (Description), Product Code, Price, or Inventory (level).
Enable Families - enables the inclusion of LightSpeed Families in the list of Web
Categories in the Web Store
Cache Category - stores Web Category information for quicker reloading
Display Empty Categories - enables the display of Web Categories with no Products
or Web Categories within them
Show Products in Sitemap - enables the inclusion of all Products in the Web Store
sitemap
Ignore Line Breaks in a Long Description - when enabled, allows Web Long
Description to be displayed with no line breaks; used primarily when HTML is used
within the long description
Hide Price of Matrix Master Product - when enabled, does not display the Sell Price
entered in the Matrix Master Product; a price is displayed only when a size-color
combination is set
4. Inventory
Display Inventory - enabled, this feature shows your customers information about
the inventory levels of your products. Disabled, no inventory information will be
displayed.
Display Inventory Level - enabled, this feature will display a general message
(defined below) regarding your inventory levels, whether a product is available, not
available, low, or not stocked. If this feature is disabled, but Display Inventory is
enabled, the quantity of your available stock as of the last store update will be
displayed.
Use Total Inventory Count - enables the display of Total inventory quantities, not
just Available Inventory quantities, including quantities Reserved and in
Warehouses.
Zero or Negative Inventory Message - the message that is displayed when a
product has no inventory, or is in negative quantities
Available Inventory Message - the message that is displayed when there is
available inventory with a quantity more than the Low Inventory Threshold defined
below
Low Inventory Message - the message that is displayed when a product has “low”
inventory as definied by the Low Inventory Threshold below
Low Inventory Threshold - the point at which the Low Inventory Message is
displayed. Does not affect Reorder Point in LightSpeed.
Non Stocked Item Display Message - displays a message for items that are “noninventoried” in LightSpeed
Allow Out-of-Stock Products To Be Added to Cart - allows Products that have no
quantities to be added to the Cart and purchased
5. Images
Listing Image Width - the pixel width of the product image that is displayed in the
standard layout of the store
Listing Image Height - the pixel height of the product image that is displayed in the
standard layout of the store
Mini Image Width - the pixel width of the product image that is displayed as a
secondary image in the detail view of a product
Mini Image Height - the pixel height of the product image that is displayed as a
secondary image in the detail view of a product
Detail Image Width - the pixel width of the product image that is displayed as the
primary image in the detail view of a product
Detail Image Height - the pixel height of the product image that is displayed as the
primary image in the detail view of a product
Show Lightbox in Product Detail Page - enabling this feature opens a preview
version of the primary image in its own window when the primary image is clicked
Image Store Location - allows you to indicate where the images are stored for your
products
6. Carts
Disable Cart - allows you to turn off the ability for shoppers to purchase products in
your store if you want to show them in catalog-style only, with prices, and with or
without inventory (as defined above). Prices may be removed with further
customization, please see the Web Store 2.0 Feature Customization document for
more information.
Quote Expire Days - sets the duration a Quote is active
Shopping Cart Expiry - sets the duration an active shopping cart will retain its
contents
7. Wish List
Enable Wish List - turns the Wish List feature on
Default Expiry Days - sets the duration a Wish List remains active
Number of Hours Before Purchase Status is Reset - sets the hours until an item is
put back in the Wish List after being dormant in a shopper’s Cart
Sidebars Tab
Please note that the up/down arrows to the left of each sidebar item can be used to position the order
of each enabled item as it is displayed in the Web Store.
Order Lookup - adds the Order Lookup feature to the Sidebar
Wish List - adds the Wish List feature to the Sidebar
Generic Sidebar - reserved for use in a future version of Web Store
Admin Panel: Payment Methods
The Payment Methods used on the LightSpeed Web Store are defined here. Each Payment Payment
enabled for the Web Store must be “paired” with an existing Payment Method in LightSpeed (see each
Payment Method below for info) in order to function. Please note that this pairing is case-sensitive.
Choosing to offer credit card payment options involves the setup of accounts with whichever
companies you’re including. In most cases, special “card not present” accounts must be set up, and
contact numbers can be found below beside each credit card payment method outlined below.
All credit card payment systems (WorldPay, PayPal, Authorize.net, Beanstream, MerchantWARE
Online, and eWAY) each “push” an authorization number directly into the Web Order once payment has
been processed. In all cases, you will receive an email from the processor with the authorization
number is included.
Credit Card Payment Method
You can create a Payment Method for each credit card payment method you offer on your site, or you
can pair all of them with your "Credit Card" payment method in LightSpeed. Remember this text is
case-sensitive.
Verifying Email Confirmations
It is recommended that you verify your email confirmation with each Web Order.
PAYMENT CONFIRMATIONS
IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED THAT YOU CONFIRM DAILY TRANSFER OF FUNDS HAS
TAKEN PLACE, AS TRANSACTION SETTLEMENT NORMALLY OCCURS AT THE END OF EACH
BUSINESS DAY.
In the case of Cheque, COD, and Phone Order, payment arrangements must be made outside of the
web order transaction, directly with the customer. For this reason, these Payment Methods should be
mapped to the Notes field in the Order (see below). Purchase Orders are also paid outside of the web
order transaction, and should be mapped to “Purchase Order” (see below).
Authorize.net has two setup possibilities, simple or advanced. A simple setup will direct the shopper to
Authorize.net’s front end payment screen. The shopper completes the transaction, and is returned to
the Web Store. The authorization number will be “pushed” from the Authorize.net site to the web order,
and will be included with the web order when you download it for fulfillment. An advanced setup will
allow the shopper to enter their payment information directly in the Web Store, where it will be
processed and approved without the shopper ever having to leave your Web Store. The authorization
number will also be captured by the web order and will be downloaded with the web order to
LightSpeed.
If you are currently using Authorize.net for your online credit card transactions within LightSpeed, you
must arrange to have a second, “card not present” account. Your Web Store Authorize.net account is
NOT configured in LightSpeed, only in the Web Store Admin panel.
Each Payment Method includes various fields to define, but there are two common to each, including
Label, which is what is used to identify this method in the pop-up list presented to the shopper upon
checkout, and LightSpeed Payment Method, which is the Payment Method in LightSpeed that is to be
paired with the Web Store Payment Method you’re defining.
Methods Tab
1. Authorize.net Simple Integration
Activates the Web Store's use of Authorize.net as a payment processor using the simple setup as
outlined above
Authorize.net Simple Integration results in the shopper being redirected to the Authorize.net payment
site, and returned upon completion of the payment. To arrange for an Authorize.net account, please
contact a LightSpeed authorized reseller. (www.xsilva.com/resellers.php). Be sure to specify that you're
interested in an Authorize.net account for the Web Store that involves the "simple integration".
Label - the term used to identify which credit cards can be accepted in the Web Store
when paying via Authorize.net Simple Integration
Login ID - the Authorize.net payment login ID (not to be confused with the
Authorize.net merchant login for their website)
Transaction Key - the Authorize.net Transaction Key of your Web Store "card not
present" account. Both the Login ID and Transaction Key are available in your
merchant account of Authorize.net.
MD5 Hash Value - another level of security between your Web Store and the
Authorize.net payment gateway, to be set in your Authorize.net merchant account and
replicated here
Deployment Mode - sets the payment processing to live, test, or dev. Live
processing is required for actual payment processing.
Special Transaction Code (if any) - specialized Authorize.net tracking option.
Please contact Xsilva Support if you have questions.
LightSpeed Payment Method - the Payment Method in LightSpeed this payment
links with to record the payment (probably "Credit Card").
2. Authorize.net Advanced Integration
Results in the shopper processing their payment from within the Web Store checkout screen. To
arrange for an Authorize.net account, please contact a LightSpeed authorizied reseller.
(www.xsilva.com/resellers.php). Be sure to specify that you're interested in an Authorize.net account for
the Web Store that involves the "complex integration". For more information on configuring
Authorize.net for Web Store, click here.
Label - the term used to identify which credit cards can be accepted in the Web Store
Login ID - the Authorize.net payment login ID (not to be confused with the
Authorize.net merchant login for their website)
Transaction Key - the Authorize.net Transaction Key of your Web Store "card not
present" account. Both the Login ID and Transaction Key are available in your
merchant account of Authorize.net.
Deployment Mode - sets the payment processing to live, test, or dev. Live
processing is required for actual payment processing.
LightSpeed Payment Method - the Payment Method in LightSpeed this payment
links with to record the payment (probably "Credit Card").
3. Purchase Order - adds "Purchase Order" as a choice of payment on the payment screen.
Choosing this method will result in the shopper being asked to enter a PO number, without having to
enter any credit card information.
Label - the term used to identify the Purchase Order payment method on the Web
Store
LightSpeed Payment Method - enter the text "Purchase Order" to have the
Customer's PO number pasted into the Order's PO field, and leave the Order unpaid
in LightSpeed
4. Phone Order - adds “Phone Order” as a choice of payment on the payment screen. Choosing this
method will result in the shopper being shown a merchant-defined message regarding how payment
may be completed, such as calling in a credit card number. No credit card information will be required
on the Web Store when this method is used.
Label - the term used to identify the Phone Order payment method on the Web Store
Phone Number for Calling With Credit Card - the message telling your customer
what telephone number to call for phone orders
LightSpeed Payment Method - enter the text “Notes” to have this info pasted into the
Order’s Notes field, and leave the Order unpaid in LightSpeed
5. PayPal - adds “PayPal” as a choice of payment on the payment screen. To arrange a PayPal
account, please visit www.paypal.com and choose your country.
Label - the term used to identify the PayPal payment method on the Web Store
Business Email - the email address to which payment confirmations should be sent.
This is the email you have registered your account with, and the information PayPayl
uses to identify your account for crediting the shopper’s payment..
Live/Test - sets the mode for payments. Live payment processing requires the “Live”
setting.
LightSpeed Payment Method - the Payment Method in LightSpeed this payment
links with to record the payment (probably “Credit Card”).
Paypal also requires configuring a service called Instant Payment Notification. Paypal IPN is a
background process that notifies Web Store that the payment has been received. Web Store will then
update the order so it can be downloaded into LightSpeed. To properly configure IPN, please
reference the document Configuring Paypal Instant Payment Notification for Web Store.
6. Cheque - adds “Cheque” as a choice of payment on the payment screen. Choosing this method will
result in the shopper being shown a merchant-defined message regarding how payment may be
completed, such as where to mail a cheque. No credit card information will be required on the Web
Store when this method is used.
Label - the term used to identify the Cheque payment method on the Web Store
Addresses for Posting Cheque - the “payable to” information the customer should
enter on the cheque
LightSpeed Payment Method - enter the text “Notes” to have this info pasted into the
Order’s Notes field, and leave the Order unpaid in LightSpeed
7. WorldPay - adds “WorldPay” as a choice of payment on the payment screen. To arrange a
WorldPay account, please visit www.rbsworldpay.com, and choose the country you reside in. Please
note, WorldPay is unavailable as a payment option for Australia and Canada. Click here for more
information on WorldPay.
Label - the term used to identify the WorldPay payment method on the Web Store
Installation ID - the WorldPay installation ID assigned to you. This is the information
WorldPay uses to identify your account for crediting the shopper’s payment.
Live/Test - sets the mode for payments. Live payment processing requires the “Live”
setting.
LightSpeed Payment Method - the Payment Method in LightSpeed this payment
links with to record the payment (probably “Credit Card”).
8. Cash on Delivery - adds "Cash on Delivery" as a choice of payment on the payment screen.
Choosing this method will result in the shopper not being asked for any credit card information.
Label - the term used to identify the Cash on Delivery payment method on the Web
Store
LightSpeed Payment Method - enter the text "Notes" to have this info pasted into
the Order's Notes field, and to leave the Order unpaid in LightSpeed
9. Beanstream - adds "Beanstream" as a choice of payment on the payment screen. Beanstream is
aimed toward Canadian and American customers. To arrange a Beanstream account, please visit
www.beanstream.com.
Label - the term used to identify the Beanstream payment method on the Web Store
Merchant ID - the Beanstream Merchant ID assigned to you. This is the information
Beanstream uses to identify your account for crediting the shopper's payment.
LightSpeed Payment Method - the Payment Method in LightSpeed this payment
links with to record the payment (probably "Credit Card").
10. eWAY CVN - adds “eWAY” as a choice of payment on the payment screen. eWAY is aimed toward
Australian customers. To arrange an eWAY account, please visit www.eWAY.com.au, or click here.
Label - the term used to identify the eWAY payment method on the Web Store
eWAY Customer ID - the eWAY Customer ID assigned to you. This is the
information eWAY uses to identify your account for crediting the shopper’s payment.
Deployment Mode - sets the mode for payments. Live payment processing requires
the “Live” setting.
LightSpeed Payment Method - the Payment Method in LightSpeed this payment
links with to record the payment (probably “Credit Card”).
11. MerchantWARE Online - adds “MerchantWARE Online” as a choice of payment on the payment
screen. To arrange an eWAY account, please click here (http://merchantwaresolutions.com/xsilvamerchants.php)
Label - the term used to identify the eWAY payment method on the Web Store
Account Name - the name your MerchantWARE Online account is registered under
Account Site ID - an id number given to you by Merchantware
Account Key - a transaction key given to you by Merchantware
LightSpeed Payment Method - the Payment Method in LightSpeed this payment links with to record
the payment (probably “Credit Card”).
12. Axia via USAEpay - adds “Axia via USAEpay” as a choice of payment on the payment screen. To
arrange an Axia account, please click here (http://www.axiapayments.com/lightspeed/). Once you
arrange your account, you will be emailed a login. Follow the instructions listed here
(http://www.lightspeedretail.com/en/training/userguide/other/axia.html) to generate the info required by
the Web Store Admin panel outlined below.
Label - the term used to identify the eWAY payment method on the Web Store
Source key - a key generated on the Axia/USAEpay site
PIN for Source key (if set) - a PIN code that you may set when setting up your Axia account
Deployment Mode - controlled on the Axia/USAEpay site, toggles between "Live" vs "Test". Any
transaction processed when account is in "Test" mode will not be settled and you will not receive
payment. Make sure that Test Mode is not selected in either the Web Store Admin panel or your Axia
merchant settings when you are processing live transactions.
LightSpeed Payment Method - the Payment Method in LightSpeed this payment links with to record
the payment (probably “Credit Card”).
Credit Card Types Tab
The Credit Card Types tab is where you configure the list of credit cards you’re able to accept for your
credit card processors. To add a credit card type, click the “+” icon and enter the Card Name, Length
(number of digits possible in that credit card type), Prefix (the digits required at the beginning of the
credit card number), Sort Order (the order that the credit card types will appear in), and whether that
card type is Enabled (appears on that store). To edit an existing card type, click the gear icon beside
the type.
Web Store comes with a pre-populated list of credit card types that includes most major cards,
including MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and more.
Promo Codes Tab
Promo Codes allow you to provide your web shoppers with a code that can be entered to automatically
apply discounts to the entire Web Order, or to specific Products. Promo Coupons can apply either a
percentage or currency unit discount, and automatically activate and deactivate according to start and
stop dates. They may also be limited to a certain number of uses, or only be applied if the amount is
over a specified value. Promo Codes are a Web Store-specific feature.
To create a Promo Code, go to the Web Store Admin panel (Tools > eCommerce > Admin Panel >
Payment Methods > Promo Codes), and complete these steps:
1. Click Add.
2. Enter a Promo Code. This is the code you'll give to your customers to enter.
3. Enter the Discount Amount, and select the Type - % or $, that will be applied.
4. Enter start and stop dates during which the Promo Code will be valid.
5. If you want the Promo Code to apply to one Product, or a number of Products, enter a Product
Code, or the beginning part of a Product Code to have the promotion applied to a group of
Products. For example, you could enter "ABC123", "ABC123, ABC345", or "ABC" to affect one
Product, two Products, or all Products starting with ABC, respectively. If the Promo Code is
meant to affect all eligible Web Orders, leave this field blank.
6. If you want to limit the number of times the Promo Code can be used, enter a value in the # Uses
Remain. If it is unlimited, leave this field blank.
7. If this Promo Code only applies to Web Orders or Products over a certain amount, enter the value
in the Good Above $ field. If you leave this field blank, it will apply to all Web Orders using this
Promo Code.
To redeem a Promo Code, your shopper must simply enter the code when prompted during
checkout. After entering the code, they click the Apply Promo Code button, and the discount will
automatically be applied. Both the original price and the discounted price will be displayed.
Admin Panel: Shipping Methods
A Note About Shipping
Like LightSpeed, Web Store charges shipping via a non-inventoried Product. Even though this
shipping "Product" does not appear when the shopper is submitting their Web Order online, any
shipping charges applied to the Web Order will be added once the Web Order is downloaded into
LightSpeed. As explained below, each Shipping Method enabled in the Web Store must be
associated with a non-inventoried Product created in LightSpeed to represent shipping/freight.
Shipping charges on the Web Store, whether they are applied based on weight, volume, or quantity,
are applied using a shipping “product” similar to how shipping is charged in LightSpeed. That is, you
first create a Product in LightSpeed to represent shipping. You can create one Product for both
LightSpeed and Web Store shipping, or you could create separate Products, including multiple Web
Store shipping Products for various shipping methods.
Once you create a non-inventoried, non-taxed, price-editable Product in LightSpeed for Web Store
shipping, it can be mapped to the shipping methods outlined below (using its Product Code) to apply
shipping charges to Web Orders, including markups for profit based on shipping charge quantities
being returned from carriers such as FedEx.
Shipping Tab
1. Restricted Shipping
Only Ship to Defined Destinations - enables the list of destinations to which a Web
Store order is limited to use as a shipping address. If a shopper enters an address
that is not on the list of destinations, they will get an error message at the top of the
saying that your store cannot ship to their address.
2. Weight Unit - allows you to set metric or imperial weight measurement (kilogram or pound)
3. Dimension Unit - allows you to set metric or imperial dimension measurement (inch or centimeter)
Methods Tab
1. Store Pickup - adds "Store Pickup" as a Shipping Method choice for web orders
Label - the term used in the Web Store to identify Store Pickup
Store Pickup Message - the message displayed when Store Pickup is chosen as the
shipping method
LightSpeed Product Code - the Product Code of the Product to be used to indicate
and, if required, charge for store pickup
Handling Fee - the dollar amount of the handling fee to be applied to Store Pickup
orders
2. Destination Shipping - adds "Destination Shipping" as a Shipping Method choice for web orders.
For a full explanation of Destination Shipping, please see the Destinations Tab section below.
Label - the term used in the Web Store to identify Destination Shipping
Calculate Shipping On - sets the factor used in calculation of shipping charges (item
count, weight, or volume)
LightSpeed Product Code - the Product Code of the Product used to charge
shipping
Destination Shipping
3. IUPS - adds "IUPS" as a Shipping Method choice for web
orders. For help setting up IUPS, please see instructions at the
side.
Label - the term used to identify IUPS shipping on the Web Store
Username - your IUPS username
Access Key - the XML access key for your IUPS (International United Parcel
Service) account
Origin Zip/Postal Code - the postal code of the shipping origin
Origin Country - the country of the shipping origin
State - the state/province of the shipping origin
Use Services for Region - sets the region parameters for IUPS shipping calculation
Rate Code - sets the IUPS shipping method for the calculation of shipping charges
for ALL web orders
Packaging - sets the default packaging setting
LightSpeed Product Code - the Product Code of the LightSpeed Product to be used
to charge IUPS shipping
Mark Up (in $) - the amount in dollars to add to the calculated shipping cost
NOTE: iUPS: Canadian and International customers will need to go through the following process and
then fill in the blanks with the information they get in their Admin Panel:
1. UPS Shipping account number
2. A MyUPS login and password
3. Developer’s key
4. XML Access Key
UPS Shipping account number:
Contact UPS to open a shipping account (http://www.ups.com)
MyUPS login and password:
Sign up for a UPS online login using the “Register” link on the top right of the UPS index page
after you’ve chosen your location
Log in with your username and password
Developer’s key:
Navigate to http://www.ups.com/e_comm_access/gettools_index and click “Get Online Tools”
Fill out the form and follow every step, you will be emailed your developer’s key, leave the final
page open
XML access key:
On the final page of the previous step, choose “Get XML access key”
Enter your Developer’s key
You will be emailed your XML Access Key
4. FedEx - adds "FedEx" as a Shipping Method choice for web orders.
Contact FedEx to set up your account and retrieve the following details. For the US & Canada, call
877-339-2774 and ask for "Web Services". For Latin America, email helpdesk@fedex.com. For
Europe and the Middle East, email emeawebservices@fedex.com. For Asia Pacific, email
apacwebservices@fedex.com.
Label - the term used to identify FedEx shipping on the Web Store
Account Number - your FedEx account number
Meter Number - your FedEx meter number
Security Code - your FedEx security code
Authentication Key - your FedEx authentication key
Origin Address - address of web order origin
Origin City - city of web order origin
Origin Zip/Postal Code - zip or postal code of web order origin
Origin Country - country of web order origin
State - state/province of web order origin
Packaging - sets the default packaging shape for your shipments
Rate Type - sets whether you want to use FedEx's regular listed rates, or if you have
negotiated rates set with them
Customs (International) - sets whether you want FedEx to handle customs
clearance (in which case there is usually a surcharge), of if you are arranging that
yourself
LightSpeed Product Code - the Product Code of the LightSpeed Product to be used
to charge FedEx shipping
Mark Up (in $) - the amount in dollars to add to the calculated shipping cost
5. Flat Rate Shipping - adds “Flat Rate Shipping” as a Shipping Method choice for web orders, letting
you apply a flat rate based on the Web Order, the number of items purchased, or the weight of the total
shipment.
Example>: You create a Product for shipping and set the rate in the Admin panel (see below) at $10.
The shopper buys two Products that weight 3lbs total for $5 each on the Web Store. The total for each
flat rate method would be as follows:
Per Order - $10 shipping x 1 Order = $10
Per Item - $10 shipping x qty 2 Products = $20
Per Weight - $10 shipping x 3lbs = $30
Label - the term used to identify Flat Rate Shipping on the Web Store
Per - the factor used to calculate flat rate shipping (Order, Item, or Weight)
Rate - the amount in dollars of how flat rate shipping is calculated. For example, a
rate of $10 per item will result in a shipping charge of $30 on a Web Order with 3
items, even if it’s only one Product Code. Charges based on weight will result in a
dollar amount per pound/kilogram for the shipment. (see example above)
LightSpeed Product Code - the Product Code of the LightSpeed Product to be used
to charge flat rate shipping
6. UPS - adds “UPS” as a Shipping Method choice for web orders
Label - the term used to identify UPS shipping on the Web Store
Origin Postal Code - zip or postal code of web order origin
Origin Country - country of web order origin
Default Shipping Product - the default UPS shipping method used for calculation of
UPS shipping on the Web Store
Rate Code - the UPS shipping method used to calculate shipping charges
Packaging - sets the default packaging shape for your shipments
LightSpeed Product Code - the Product Code of the LightSpeed Product to be used
to charge UPS shipping
Mark Up ($) - the amount in dollars to add to the calculated shipping cost
7. Australia Post
Label - the term used to identify Australia Post shipping on the Web Store
Origin Postal Code - zip or postal code of web order origin
Default Shipping Product - the default UPS shipping method used for calculation of
UPS shipping on the Web Store
LightSpeed Product Code - the Product Code of the LightSpeed Product to be used
to charge UPS shipping
Mark Up ($) - the amount in dollars to add to the calculated shipping cost
8. USPS
You must obtain your USPS webtools account by visiting https://secure.shippingapis.com/registration/.
USPS will first put the client’s account in “test mode”. Once you receive a response from USPS stating
this, let them know you are using LightSpeed to calculate shipping rates and to switch their account to
production mode. Enter the username, and zipcode in the Admin Panel (case sensitive). Please see
the note on the side for more information regarding USPS shipping options.
Label - the term used to identify USPS shipping on the Web Store
Username - your USPS username
Origin Postal Code - zip or postal code of web order origin
LightSpeed Product Code - the Product Code of the LightSpeed Product to be used
to charge UPS shipping
Mark Up (in $) - the amount in dollars to add to the calculated shipping cost
A Word About USPS
Because USPS does not use dimensions to calculate shipping, and instead relies on weight alone, you
may choose specific options for shipping when setting up your USPS account, including First-Class,
Media Mail, or International Delivery Services.
To access any of these settings, you must first enter your Username, and click Save. The Web Store
will then communicate with USPS and return a list of the options you have previously set up with your
account. Click Edit to access these settings and enable the ones you wish to appear on the Web Store.
9. Canada Post
Contact Canada Post at sellonline@canadapost.ca to set up an account, or call 1-866-511-0546.
Label - the term used to identify Canada Post shipping on the Web Store
Origin Postal Code - postal code of web order origin
Canada Post Customer Number - your Canada Post Customer number
Default Shipping Product - the default Canada Post shipping method used for
calculation of Canada Post shipping on the Web Store
LightSpeed Product Code - the Product Code of the LightSpeed Product to be used
to charge Canada Post shipping
Mark Up ($) - the amount in dollars to add to the calculated shipping cost
10. InterShipper
Label - the term used to identify InterShipper shipping on the Web Store
Username - your InterShipper username
Password - the password for your InterShipper account
Your/Sender Name - the name to be used as the sender for your shipments
Origin Address - the address of the web order origin
Origin City - the city of the web order origin
Origin Zip/Postal Code - the zip/postal code of the web order origin
Origin Country - the country of the web order origin
Origin State - the state/province of the web order origin
AirBorne Account ID (If Any) - if applicable, your AirBorne Account ID number
DHL World Wide Express Account ID (If Any) - if applicable, your DHL World Wide
Express Account ID number
DHL World Wide Express Invoices You? - whether you have terms with DHL
Federal Express Account ID (If Any) - if applicable, your FedEx Account ID number
Federal Express Invoices You? - whether you have terms with FedEx
United Parcel Service Account ID (If Any) - if applicable, your UPS Account ID
number
United Parcel Service Invoices You? - whether you have terms with UPS
US Postal Service Account ID (If Any) - if applicable, your USPS Account ID
number
US Postal Service Invoices You? - whether you have terms with the USPS
Canada Post Account ID (If Any) - if applicable, your Canada Post Account ID
number
Canada Post Invoices You? - whether you have terms with Canada Post
Service Classes - various classes of service with your shipper of choice
Ship Method - the default choice for your shipments
Content Type - the default choice for your shipment content
Insurance Items - whether the items being shipped are to be insured
Sort Rates By - the default setting for how you wish your rates to be sorted by, either
by carrier or by delivery date
LightSpeed Product Code - the Product Code in LightSpeed for the Product to be
used to charge shipping
Mark Up ($) - the amount the shipping charge is to be marked up above the normal
calculation
11. Free Shipping
The Free Shipping setting allows you to offer your web shoppers free shipping on all Web Orders, or
orders with a subtotal that is above a specified amount.
If you wish to offer your shoppers free shipping AS WELL AS other tiers of shipping charges based on
their order total, please use Tier-Based Shipping (see below) instead of the Free Shipping feature. You
should not enable both.
To set up Free Shipping, go to the Web Store Admin panel (Tools > eCommerce > Admin Panel >
Shipping > Methods), and complete these steps:
1. Enable Free Shipping.
2. Modify the default label that will appear in the Shipping Options menu at checkout (if desired).
3. Enter the Threshold Amount, after which free shipping will be applied to the Web Order. For
example, if all orders more than $50 are eligible, enter "49.99".
4. Enter the Product Code of the Product created in LightSpeed to apply shipping charges. Xsilva
recommends that this Product is set to have an editable Sell Price.
When your web shopper places an Order, your Free Shipping settings will be applied automatically if
Free Shipping is the only shipping method you've enabled. Otherwise, your shopper may have to
manually select it from the menu.
12. Tier-Based Shipping
Tier-Based Shipping automatically applies shipping charges to Web Orders based on their subtotals.
For example, you might specify that a Web Order subtotalling $49.99 is subject to a shipping charge of
$10, while a Web Order subtotalling $50.00 would be subject to a shipping charge of $7. You may even
configure Tier-Based Shipping to apply a shipping charge of zero for Web Orders subtotalling above a
specified amount, allowing you to offer free shipping without having to enable the Free Shipping feature
outlined above.
Note: You should not have both Free Shipping and Tier-Based Shipping enabled, and Tier-Based
Shipping can encompass free shipping.
To set up Tier-Based Shipping, go to the Web Store Admin panel (Tools > eCommerce > Admin
Panel > Shipping > Methods), and complete these steps:
1. Enable Tier-Based Shipping.
2. Modify the default label that will appear in the Shipping Options menu at checkout (if desired).
3. Enter the Product Code of the Product created in LightSpeed to apply shipping charges. Xsilva
recommends that this Product is set to have an editable Sell Price.
4. Click the Shipping Tiers tab.
5. Click Add.
6. Enter the Start Price and End Price, the range of which will be subject to the Shipping Amount
you specify.
7. Enter the Shipping Amount to be applied to Web Orders subtotalling between the Start and End
Prices indicated.
8. Repeat for each tier you wish to define.
Note: To create a tier for free shipping, you must define an entry with a Start and End Price, and a
Shipping Amount of zero. If you wish to apply free shipping to all Web Orders higher than a certain
amount, you should enter an End Price that is higher than any Web Order could possibly be. For free
shipping on all Web Orders higher than $500, your Start Price would be "500.00", and your End Price
could be "99999999.99".
Destinations Tab
The Destinations tab is used to calculate the taxes that are applied to web orders. By pre-populating
the Destinations tab with a list of possible destinations for your customers’ web orders, you can assign
a Tax Code to each one, which will be applied when the customer’s address matches the zip/postal
code, state/province, or country.
Using the Restricted Shipping feature accessible in the Shipping tab, you can limit your customers to
choosing from a list of pre-defined shipping destinations that you define here. If Restricted Shipping is
not enabled, the customer can enter any address as the ship-to when they place an order, but if this
address does not match a configured destination, no Tax Code will be applied to the web order.
To add a destination, click the “+” icon at the bottom of the layout. The resulting line item will allow you
to add the zip/postal code, state/province, country, or any/all of these fields. It is these fields that will be
matched to the web order’s shipping address to apply the appropriate Tax Code.
I have a destination defined as Country - United States, State - California, and have applied the
"STATE" Tax Code to that destination. When a customer enters "United States" as their ship-to
country, and "California" as their ship-to state, the Web Store will apply the "STATE" Tax Code to the
order.
If you want to have a Tax Code apply to a region such as a county, which includes several zip codes,
enter the range in the zip/postal code “from” and “to” fields.
Then, use the Name/Label to name the tax setup you’re going to apply (for reference purposes only),
and select the Tax Code (auto-populated from the Tax Codes in LightSpeed) from the pop-up list. In
the case the you are NOT using any of the pre-configured shipping services (eg. UPS, FedEx, etc), you
can do a manual calculation of the shipping charges using Destination Shipping (enabled in the
Methods tab). The Base Charge allows you to enter the base amount that is applied to all web orders.
Free Allowance allows you to enter a certain number of units (based on what you’ve configured in
Shipping>Methods>Flat Rate Shipping) that are not used to calculate charges. Per Rate Unit is the
dollar amount to use to charge per unit (weight, volume, order) after the Free Allowance.
Destination Shipping allows you to apply flat rate shipping charges based on where the Web Order is
being shipped. For instance, you can have $5 shipping charged to customers in Wyoming, and $8 for
customers in Illinois. In addition, you can add a per item, per weight, or per volume calculation.
If you enable Destination Shipping, you must assign an existing shipping Product to it, as outlined for
each method above, and indicate whether charges should be based on item count, weight, or volume.
You must also under the Destinations tab in the Shipping module of the Admin panel and add each
destination for which you want to apply a unique shipping charge.
The fields for Destination Shipping, found in the Destinations tab, are as follows:
Base Charge - This is the flat charge that will be charged regardless of any other
factor. For example, if you enter 5, a $5 charge will automatically be applied when
shipping to this destination.
Free Allowance - Any value in this field will be subtracted from the Base Charge. For
example, if you enter 3, with a Base Charge of 5, a $2 shipping charge will be applied
to this destination.
Per Unit Rate - This is the amount charged per item/weight/volume as defined in the Destination
Shipping setting. For example, if you’ve set it to charge per item, and you’ve entered 3 as the Per Unit
Rate, with the Base Charge and Free Allowance rates left as described above, the charge will be $5
(Base Charge) - $3 (Free Allowance) + (3 x Item Qty on Web Order).
Per Item - Per Unit Rate x Item Qty
Per Weight - Per Unit Rate x Web Order Weight
Per Volume - Per Unit Rate x Volume (LxWxH)
To edit a destination, click the gear icon to the right, complete your edits, and click the green
“checkmark” icon. To delete a destination, click the trash can. The Search field at the bottom of the
screen allows you to search a specific destination within your list.
Countries Tab
This tab lists the choices available to your customer to choose from when completing their shipping
information. It will come pre-populated, but you can add to the list by clicking the “+” icon at the bottom
of the screen. The Zip Validation is a field which requires a country’s zip/postal code to conform to a
particular format - Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia come pre-populated
with a zip validation. To search a particular country, enter the search term in the search field at the
bottom of the screen, and click Search.
States/Regions Tab
This tab lists the choices available to your customer to choose from when completing their shipping
information. It will come pre-populated, but you can add to the list by clicking the “+” icon at the bottom
of the screen.
Admin Panel: Pages
The Pages module allows you to specify various tags and descriptions for the different pages
accessible on your Web Store, including About Us, Contact Us, New Products, Privacy Policy,
Promotions, Terms and Conditions, Top Products, and Welcome to our store. Each page allows you
configure the following data:
Page Key - the text that appears in the URL for this page after the “=” character
Page Title - the title that appears at the top of the browser window for the page
Text - the text you wish to display on the About Us page of your web store. Clicking
the down arrow reveals formatting tools with which you can add formatting to your text,
including bolding, underline, italics, etc.
Slideshow Product Tag - enter a tag (Keyword) to produce a slider of products which
all contain this word as one of their three Web Keywords
Meta Keywords - keywords that internet search engines use to find this page. Adding
Meta Keywords here increase the likelihood that search engines will locate this page
as a result of searching by your shoppers, in addition to the text included with your
store name, Product Codes, Descriptions, and Web Keywords.
Meta Description - the description that appears for the page when an internet search
engine produces a list of results
+ New Page - you are able to add new pages by clicking the “+” icon. Pages created
here are accessible through the Sitemap, as well as by adding the Page Key to the
web host address. For example, you could create a Page called “Summer”, with
“summer” as a Page Key. Entering the basic URL info in your web browser, ending
with “/summer” will produce the “Summer” page.
Pages Preferences Meta Keywords
Featured Product Sliders
Each Page, including New Products and Top Products, can be configured to include sliders that
showcase a set of Products that the merchant defines using Web Keywords or Product Codes, know
here as “tags”. They are configured by entering a Web Keyword or Product Code that is assigned to
each Product you want to group together, and entering that Keyword or Product Code in the Slideshow
Product Tag field for the New Products and/or Top Products Pages sections. These Products will then
appear together in the appropriate slider upon the next update.
For example, if you have a Product with the Product Code “SHIRT”, and another Product that has the
Web Keyword “SHIRT-MENS”, and you enter “shirt” in the Slideshow Product Tag field for “New
Products”, both Products will appear in a showcase slider under the “New Products” page.
Product Sliders
Admin Panel: Stats
Charts Tab
Most Viewed Products - a graphic representation of your web store’s most viewed
products
Most Ordered Products - a graphic representation of your web store’s most
purchased products
Today’s Visitors/Sales - a graph of Web Store visitors compared to the web orders
placed in the Web Store
Last 30 Days Visitors/Sales - a graph of Web Store visitors compared to web orders
over the past 30 days
Web Browsers - a pie-chart graph illustrating which web browsers were used to
access your Web Store
Screen Resolutions - a pie-chart graph illustrating the screen resolutions of the
computers used to access your Web Store
Visitors Log Tab
The Visitors Log tracks all of your Web Store customers, the network from which they visit, and the
action they took, whether it was to search a product or place an orde
Admin Panel: System
Configuration Tab
1. System Configuration
Admin Email - the email of the Web Store administrator
Use SEO-Friendly URL - allows your store URLs to be searched by internet search
engines. Please see side note for more info.
SEO-Friendly URLs
If you are not hosted with Xsilva, to use SEO-friendly URLs you must rename your web host's htaccess
to .htaccess (with the period). Then, alter RewriteBase in the .htacess file at approximately line 10:
# Some hostings require RewriteBase to be uncommented
# Example:
# Your store url is http://www.yourcompany.com/store/xlsws
# So "RewriteBase" should be:
# RewriteBase /store/xlsws
if it is http://www.yourcompany.com
RewriteBase /
if it is http://www.yourcompany.com/store
RewriteBase /store
Database Backup Folder - sets the path for the store’s backup file. Xsilva
recommends this path is outside of your webroot, and it must be readable/writeable
by the www process. By default, the Web Store will back up the database into the
db_backup folder under your Web Store root directory.
Debug Template Usage - enabling this displays the paths of the files used to
generate the web page when looking at the source code
System Configuration
2. Email
Whether or not your Web Store is hosted with Xsilva, you must contact the host of
your email server for your SMTP information required for email integration with the
Web Store.
Order From - the “from” address in the email sent to the client to confirm purchase
BCC Address - the email address that will blindly receive a copy of the order
confirmation
Enable HTML Email - enables the formatting of the order confirmation email to be
HTML
Email Signature - the signature that appears at the bottom of every order
confirmation email
SMTP Server - the host name of your SMTP server
SMTP Server Port - the email port of your SMTP server
SMTP Server Username - the username of your SMTP server account
SMTP Server Password - the password of your SMTP server account
Admin Email
3. Security
Enable SSL - redirects customers to secured pages for customer registration and
checkout - requires that your web host have a valid SSL certificate installed and that
access to port 443 is enabled. Xsilva recommends that this option be enabled.
Forward to Non-SSL When Not Required - if Enable SSL is turned on, this option
will redirect customers to non-secured pages for product browsing and other general
site viewing. This will increase the speed at which pages load for Web Store
customers.
Authorized IPs For Web Store Admin - a list of IP addresses from which an
administrator is able to access the back end of the Web Store. This feature is only
possible if you have a static IP, regardless if you host with Xsilva or a third party.
Tasks Tab
Generate Sitemap - amalgamates all the pages and subsections of your Web Store
into a single page of links and generates the sitemap.xml file. It is recommended
that you create your own sitemap.xml file and set permission to 666 to be writeable by
the www process.
Take Store Offline - when performed, this feature takes your store offline. The feature
then becomes Take Store Online, which will take your store back online when
performed.
Upgrade Web Store - this feature upgrades previous versions of Web Store to the
newest version. However, any use of this feature should be preceded by contacting
Xsilva Support for instructions, and should not be performed unless advised by
Xsilva Support.
Optimize Database - performs general optimization to decrease the size of the
database, including purging log files
Backup Database - performs a backup of the database to the location specified in
the Configuration tab
Flush Category Tree - erases the Web Category tree; a fresh Category tree will be
uploaded the next time LightSpeed updates the Web Store
Xsilva strongly recommends that you perform an "Optimize Database" on a regular basis, and
particularly after the first upload. This step ensures that the duration of subsequent updates will be
minimized.
Tools > Web Store > Admin Panel > System > Tasks > Optimize Database
Systems Log Tab
The Systems Log tracks all the actions taken to administer the Web Store, assigning each action an ID
number.
Selecting Products to Sell
Once your Web Store setup tab is configured, you can select which Products you wish to sell on your
web store, and configure their Product cards with additional information to be made available to your
online customers.
Selecting Products Individually
1. Open the Product card.
First, open the Product card of a Product you want to upload to the Web Store. Go to the Web tab, and
check the Sell on LightSpeed Web Store checkbox.
2. Set Web Categories and Keywords.
Choose the categories into which you want to organize this Product; the first pop-up menu indicates the
Primary Category, the second the Secondary Category, and the third indicates the Tertiary Category.
Use the pull-down menus in the Keywords fields to choose the keywords you anticipate your customer
will use to find this Product in the Web Store’s search engine.
3. If desired, add Web Description and Web Price.
The Web Description field is where you enter the long description for this Product; you may choose to
use the same description that is used in LightSpeed. The regular description in LightSpeed will act as
the link title for the Product, and the image stored in the Product’s image drawer will be what’s
displayed on the Web Store. The Web Price is the price that will be used on the Web Store, and may
or may not be different than the regular Sell Price.
4. Add weight and dimension info for shipping calculator.
The weight and dimension fields at the bottom of the Web tab are reference fields that allow you to
enter the weight, height, width, and length of your Product to calculate a Web Order’s shipping charges.
The weight would be in pounds, and the length, width and height in inches if you reside in the U.S.,
otherwise you would use kilograms and centimeters for your products respectively.
5. Add images to the Product.
Each Product can have up to 5 images stored in the image drawer, and all 5 of these images will be
displayed and accessible in the Product detail page of the Web Store. To add multiple images, click
Photo in the Product card to open the image drawer, and select the square where you wish to store the
image. Drag the image from your desktop or a website and drop it into the primary square in the image
drawer.
Product Card Web Tab
Selecting Products in a Batch
Rather than opening each Product card individually to configure your Web Tab settings, you may use
the Set Product Info and Set Selling Prices tools to choose which Products to sell on the Web Store,
set Web Keywords and Categories, and set special Web Prices, all using criteria that targets only a
specific subsection of your Products. Please see the Set Selling Prices document on the Training page
at www.xsilva.com for more information.
Size-Color Matrix Products
The Web Store can sell Products that are related to a common style as size-color combinations using
pop-up menus the customer uses to select the right size and color for the Product they wish to buy. Both
the Master and Child Products must be selected to be sold on the Web Store (in the Web tab) for these
pop-up menus to appear.
When the shopper selects a Product for which there are size-color choices, special pop-up menus will
appear on the Product detail page of the Web Store a shopper must use to select the appropriate size
and color of their desired Product. For more information, please see the Size-Color Matrix document
on the Training page at www.xsilva.com.
Related Products
Related Products are Products that appear in both LightSpeed and the Web Store as suggested “addons” that the merchant assigns to a primary Product. When the primary Product is sold, a selection of
Related Products appears from which the customer can choose.
Related Products on the Web Store appear in a graphical slider that allows the shopper to quickly
browse through sets of 4 Related Products at a time. For Related Products assigned to a primary
Product in LightSpeed to also appear in the Web Store as related, both the Related Products and the
primary Product must be uploaded to be sold on the Web Store.
Related Products can also be made to be “auto-added” to a document. When the primary Product is
added, for example, to an Invoice, any “auto-add” Related Products are also added to the Invoice, as
opposed to simply being “suggested” in a pop-up list. Similarly, when a primary Product is added to the
cart on the Web Store, any of its Related Products that are auto-add are also put into the cart. The
regular Related Products, however, appear in the slider.
For more information on Related Products, please see the
Related Products
article.
Related Products
Assigning Related Products
Selling Gift Cards on Web Store
Gift cards sold on Web Store but must be set up differently for those sold in LightSpeed. Where in
LightSpeed, Gift Cards can have an editable Selling Price, Gift Cards through Web Store must be set
at desired denominations ($10, $25, $50, $100, etc). For this reason, it is easiest to set up a
Master/Child matrix to handle these cards.
1. In LightSpeed, create a new Product that will be your Master Matrix product. In our
example, we will set the Product Code to be "WEBGIFTCARD", and Description to
"Gift Card".
2. Uncheck the Inventoried attribute
3. Turn on the checkboxes for Gift Card, and Size/Color Matrix. Tax Status should be
No Tax. Click on the Web tab and check Sell on Web
4. Click Save.
5. Click the green Create Products button
6. Use the Size headings across the top and enter your desired denomination, such
as 25, 50, 100
7. Use only the first row in the Color column, and enter "Dollars"
8. Click Save
9. Check all three checkboxes and click Create Products
10. Close the Product Card
11. Open the first Product card you created (i.e. $25)
12. Set the Selling Price to match the denomination (25)
13. Click Save.
14. Repeat for the other denomination cards
15. Choose Tools > eCommerce > Update Store
This will add the Child Gift Card Products on the store. When a person picks the item, they will access
a dropdown menu with the possible denominations and the second column will simply say "Dollars".
This process does not generate the Gift Card, it simply registers that one has been purchased. When
the Order is downloaded, convert it to an Invoice and apply the Credit as with any other Web Order.
When the Invoice is created, it will prompt you to create/enter the Gift Card serial number which you can
then send to the client.
It is not possible to redeem a Gift Card through Web Store.
Updating the Store
You will need to update the Web Store when:
1. You are "registering" your LightSpeed settings to the Web Store, including Tax
Codes, Default Currency, Size-Color Matrix settings, and Families. This must be
done before uploading Products or Documents to the Store.
2. You wish to add Products or Documents to the Web Store initially.
3. You wish to add any modifications or additions done to the Products you wish to
sell online.
4. You wish to add any added or modified Quotes, Orders, or SROs to the Web Store.
Uploading Products
Once you have selected and configured the Products you with to upload to the Web Store, you have the
choice to either upload them manually, or on a schedule. If you are uploading manually, open the Web
Store setup panel, confirm it’s set to be using version 2.0, and click Update Store in the Web Store tab.
If you are uploading on a schedule, open the Web Store setup panel, confirm it’s set to be using version
2, and click the Setup tab. Use the pop-up menu for the Update Schedule setting to choose how
frequently you wish to have your Products updated to the store.
IMPORTANT: Any changes made to Only Upload Products with Available Inventory or Only Upload
Current Products features at Tools > Web Store > Setup will not take effect until at least one Product
has been added or updated to the Web Store. Please see LightSpeed Support if you have questions.
To reupload all Products currently sold on the Web Store:
1. Go to Tools > Set Product Info
2. Set Criteria "Web" to be checked
3. Set Action "Web" to be checked
4. Click Apply. These Products will be reuploaded during the next Store Update.
Uploading Documents
Clicking the Documents tab in the Web Store setup panel displays the 3 documents you can upload to
enable additional features in the Web Store: Quotes, Orders, and SROs. Uploading Quotes will enable
to Quote-to-Cart feature that allows you to email links from LightSpeed which bring your customer to a
pre-populated web cart. Uploading Orders or SROs allow your customers to look up the status of their
outstanding repairs or backorders, using only their email and the Document ID.
Uploading Considerations
Your initial upload of Products may take a significant amount of time, depending on the number of
Products being uploaded. However, subsequent updates should be much faster as only new or
modified information is uploaded.
It is recommended that you do not upload documents during the initial upload of Products, in order to
minimize the time required, and that the upload of documents is completed anytime after the initial
Product upload is complete. To do this, click the Documents tab of the Web Store setup panel, and
uncheck each document type. After the initial Product upload, go back to this tab and check the
documents you with to upload during the next update. Again, this might take a significant amount of
time initially, but will become faster on subsequent updates.
Fulfilling Web Orders
As Web Orders are placed though the eCommerce store, they are downloaded automatically or
manually and placed into the Orders list, viewable by clicking Orders in the Browser window.
The download schedule can be configured by going to Tools->eCommerce->Setup and setting the
dropdown to any increments between every 5 minutes and every hour. Unless you have a high volume
eCommerce store, usually 30 minutes or every hour is perfectly adequate to reduce traffic on your
computer network. You may also manually start the download process at any time by going to Tools >
eCommerce and clicking Download Orders. LightSpeed will "poll" the eCommerce store for any
pending orders to download.
If you have installed a tracker in your Browser, the counter would change red to show new orders
which have been downloaded. (Note that the Tracker refreshes when the Browser screen is redrawn
through general LightSpeed navigation, and may not light if LightSpeed is simply sitting idle.) When
your eCommerce has been properly configured with an SMTP Email server, you will also get email
notifications as orders have been placed.
Orders downloaded from Web Store are nearly identical to Orders placed manually though
LightSpeed. The primary difference is that the downloaded order will contain an additional item for
Shipping as specified by the user, and the payment will be on file as a Credit to be used later when
invoicing. Customer information is also downloaded with the Order. If a Customer Card already exists
with a matching email address, the customer information is merged with this card. If a card does not
already exist, one is created. Note that if you have an existing customer card but it does not contain the
email address, LightSpeed is unable to match and will create a new card in this case. It's easy
to merge Customer Cards to combine these and eliminate the duplicate.
In normal workflows, Orders are converted to Invoices when you are ready to ship the product. For a
better workflow, we recommend creating the shipment with your shipper and getting the tracking
number before you convert the Order to an Invoice. You can copy/paste the shipping address from the
Order into your shipping software.
To convert an Order to an Invoice, follow these steps:
1. Open the Order in the Browser
2. (optional) Click on the Notes tab, and paste your tracking number into the
Printed notes, then click Save.
3. Click on the Invoice button which appears at the bottom of the window.
4. You will be prompted that the Order was created under another user, and if you
want to split the Invoice. We recommend clicking Yes (see below for additional
details on why.)
5. All the Order information is copied to the Invoice, including Shipping Address.
6. In the Invoice window, click Save. This will assign an Invoice ID and
immediately take you to the Payment screen.
7. The payment that has been previously collected through Web Store is available
as a Credit, and the green Apply Credit button should be available. (If it is not,
you may not have your payment methods set up correctly.) Click on the green
Apply Credit button to apply the money.
8. Choose the Order from the list that contains the credit. This should be the exact
amount that matches the Invoice total. The Amount to Apply will be
automatically filled in.
9. Click OK.
10. You may also choose to click the action menu (gear icon) and print either a Full
Page or standard receipt to include in the box as you ship.
By pasting the tracking number in the Order before converting to an Invoice, it will be copied in the
Notes so it is in both documents. Your store staff may view the Invoice to reference the tracking number
later, but it's the Order that is updated back to Web Store. If you have LightSpeed set to upload Orders
in the Tools > eCommerce > Documents setting, having the tracking number in the Order allows a
person on Web Store to view it within their order details. If you create the Order to an Invoice and get
the tracking number afterwards, you have to manually update both documents.
Trackers
Convert the Web Order to an Invoice
About Splitting Invoices
During the Order-to-Invoice process, you will be prompted that the Order was placed by another
salesperson, and if you wish to "Split" the order with the currently logged in user. It is highly advisable
that you click Yes and perform this function.
Web Orders are downloaded assigned to a special User account called "Web Order". You will see this
account when viewing Orders under the User column. When you create an Invoice under your own
account, the system will treat it as if you are sharing credit with another salesperson, hence the
question on splitting. The reason it is advisable to do the split, as opposed to clicking No which
removes Web Store altogether, is that keeping Web Order attached to Invoices allows you to run
salesperson reports later on and use this field as criteria.
For example, if you wanted to run a report on all Web Orders within the last month, you can run a report
by Salesperson and include the Web Order user in the criteria box. If you have chosen No during the
split, the Invoice is now completely under your name, and the fact it originated as a Web Order will be
lost.
Applying Payment Additional Details
If your customer has paid online using Axia, Merchantware, Authorize.net, WorldPay, PayPal,
Beanstream, or eWAY, a credit will be created in their Customer card the next time you download Web
Orders. Because Web Order fulfillment involves the conversion of the Order to an Invoice, any credit
card payments the shopper has processed online must be applied to the Invoice as a credit.
For example, Chin Lee submits a Web Order for a woman’s shirt, worth $100, and have processed an
online credit card payment using Authorize.net. When the Web Order is downloaded into LightSpeed, a
credit card payment will appear on the Order and Chin Lee’s Customer card will contain a credit for
$100. You convert the Order into an Invoice, and then click Apply Credit to apply the $100 credit to the
fulfillment Invoice to pay its balance. More information can be found in the Quotes and Invoices PDF
document on the Training page at www.lightspeedretail.com.
Credit Card - a credit card payment appears on the downloaded Web Order which is
converted into an applied credit on the Invoice.
Purchase Order - the Web Order is converted to an Invoice with an a balance that
remains outstanding until the Customer sends you payment, at which point the
payment is applied directly to the Invoice.
Cheque, Phone Order - when you secure payment from your Customer, you convert
the Web Order to an Invoice and apply the appropriate Payment Method as you
would normally in LightSpeed.
Cash On Delivery - you convert the Web Order to an Invoice, leaving the balance
outstanding until you confirm payment from your Customer upon receipt of the
Products. You then apply a payment to the Invoice using the Payment Method used
by the Customer.
This document will take you through the steps required to configure Magento to function with
LightSpeed. You will need to be running LightSpeed 3.5 or higher to ensure compatibility with the
LightSpeed Connector. Once you have followed these instructions you should be ready to upload your
Products from LightSpeed and begin taking orders on your Magento store!
Initial Magento Setup
Please note that LightSpeed connectivity is only supported in Magento Community versions 1.4, 1.5,
and 1.5.1. Magento 1.6.x contains an incompatibility which prevents third-party plugins such as the
LightSpeed connector from connecting to Magento. As such, Magento 1.6.x cannot be used with
LightSpeed. Magento 1.7 has been released and we will be posting information on compatibility as it
becomes available. At this time we can only provide assistance connecting LightSpeed to Magento
1.5.1.
To download Magento Community 1.5.1, navigate to http://www.magentocommerce.com/download and
click the Release Archives tab. Scroll down to the section marked “ver 1.5.1.0” and click the download
link.
To install Magento, please follow the installation guide on the Magento site:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/1-installationandconfiguration/magentoinstallationguide
Please note that LightSpeed does not host your Magento database. For more information on Magento
hosting, see this page:
http://www.magentohosting.biz/magento-hosting-requirements/
Install the LightSpeed Connector
1. In the Magento Admin Panel, navigate to System > Magento Connect > Magento Connect
Manager.
2. Log in as an administrator.
3. In the text field next to “Paste extension key to install” paste this
URL: http://connect20.magentocommerce.com/community/Lightspeed_Connector
4. Click Install.
5. Once the extension appears with a status “Ready to install” click Proceed.
6. The LightSpeed Connector is now installed.
7. Click “Return to Admin” to go back to the Admin Panel.
Create Magento Web Services User and Role
Creating a Web Services user in Magento generates an API key. This special key functions like a
password and it will be used later in LightSpeed to connect to Magento. Note that this Web Services
user is not like an ordinary Magento login, and can only be created or managed from System > Web
Services > Users.
1. In the Magento Admin Panel, navigate to System > Web Services > Users.
2. Click on the Add New User button.
3. Fill in the required fields. We would suggesting naming the user “connector” or “lightspeed” to
identify it.
4. Note that the API key chosen must be at least 6 characters.
5. Click the Save User button and wait for confirmation that the user has been saved.
6. Navigate to System > Web Services > Roles
7. Click Add New Role.
8. Name the role (such as “lightspeed” or “connector”) and click Save Role.
9. Click Role Resources.
10. Select “All” from the Resource Access drop-down selector then click Save Role again.
11. Navigate to System > Web Services > Users
12. Click the user you created in step 3.
13. Click User Role, select the role you created in step 8 and click Save.
Configure Taxes in Magento
See either Sample Magento Tax Setup for USA or Sample Magento Tax Setup for Canada.
Manage Payment Methods in Magento and LightSpeed
The payment methods you offer on your Magento store must also be created in LightSpeed to ensure
that payments on Web Orders you download into LightSpeed can be tracked appropriately.
1. To manage your payment methods in Magento, log in to the Admin Panel and navigate to System
> Configuration.
2. Click Payment Methods under the Sales category in the left column. Please note that PayPal has
its own menu option on the left. Click a payment method in the list and note the contents of the
Title field. This must match the name of the payment method in LightSpeed exactly.
3. To create payment methods in LightSpeed, navigate to Tools > Setup > Basics > Payment
Methods.
4. Any payment methods you activate in Magento need to be created in LightSpeed.
5. The name of the payment method is case-sensitive and must match the Title field of the payment
method in Magento exactly. Set the payment method type to Web Payment to instruct LightSpeed
that these payments are being placed on Web Orders.
Connect LightSpeed to Your Magento Store
1. In LightSpeed, navigate to Tools > Setup > eCommerce > eCommerce. Select Magento and
click Save.
2. Navigate to Tools > eCommerce > Setup.
3. In the Web Host field, enter the URL of your Magento store. Ensure you include “http://”.
4. In the Username field, enter the username of the Web Services user you created in section 3.
5. In the Password field, enter the API key for the user you created in section 3.
6. Click Save.
7. Go to Tools > eCommerce > Magento, and click Update Store.
Define the Root Category for Products
Each Magento store must have a root category which acts as a starting point for the display of your
merchandise categories. LightSpeed creates a root category for you when Products are uploaded, but
Magento must be told to use this category.
1. In the Magento Admin Panel, navigate to System > Manage Stores.
2. In the Store Name column, click “Main Website Store”.
3. Click the Root Category drop-down selector and select LIGHTSPEED_ROOT_CATEGORY.
4. Click Save Store.
5. Navigate to Tools > eCommerce and click the Setup tab.
6. Click Reset Store Products and wait for the operation to complete.
7. In the Magento tab of Tools > eCommerce, click Update Store.
Once you have set the root category and updated your store you have completed all the basic tasks
required to configure LightSpeed and Magento to work together. Please see this document to learn
how to choose which Products appear on your Magento store.
Customizing Web Store
For a full list of Web Store-related technical articles, including documentation on the customization of
Web Store, please click
here.
Customer Overview
The Customer features of LightSpeed allow you to track your customers' purchase history and
outstanding balances, apply discounting based on categorization, run sales reports based on
customer, and much more. The customer information you record on sales documents can either be a
"Walk In", which records no historical data or balances/credits, or with a Customer card, which does.
Finding Customers
in the POS screen, customers are searched by clicking the customer icon and entering the customer
name, telephone, or address. from the results, click a customer's name or image to add them to the
invoice. in a Browser sales document (Quote, Invoice, SRO, Order), enter a name, telephone number,
or address in the search field and double-click the desired result to assign the customer to the
document. in the Browser window, select Customer in the Source List and choose the data field you
wish to search on in the pop-up menu at the top of the browser.
Customer Search
Deleting Customers
In some cases, you may need to delete Customer records from your database. For example, if you
discover that a Customer has two cards, you will probably want to reconcile one card's history into
another using the "Merge" feature, accessible in the Customer card Action menu. To delete a
Customer, click the Delete key at the bottom of the Customer card. To delete multiple Customers, use
the Command key to select multiple Customers in the Browser list, and click the Delete key at the
bottom of the Browser.
Be careful before deleting Customers - the action cannot be undone.
Checking a Customer's History
The History section appears when you click the History button. The History Section lists all sales
documents (Quotes, SROs, Orders, Invoices) ever saved for this Customer in addition to all of the
Products ever sold to this Customer. Double-clicking a sales document will open it.
Checking a Customer's History
Merging Customers
In the event that you have multiple Customer cards for a single Customer, you may wish to merge
Customer records to unify sales histories and attribute sales documents to a single source, rather than
leaving it fractured and giving a partial picture of their AR standing.
To merge Customer records, go to the Action menu of the Customer card you wish to leave
unchanged, and select Merge Customer. Using the Search field, find the Customer(s) you wish to
"assimilate", and click Merge. You will be asked to confirm. Click OK, and every document attributed
to the Customer you selected will now be attributed to the Customer you'd chosen originally.
Note: For security reasons, the Customer information written on the "assimilated" documents will not
have changed.
Merge Customer
Contact Info
Introduction
Contact information for your customers is stored in the Customer card, and can include all the basic
information for the customer, including whether they are a company or an individual. Companies with
multiple contacts or addresses can be stored in the Contacts tab of the Customer card, and give you
the freedom to store specific information about individuals within that company, or contact information
for other locations. You can also assign these Contacts to their own Groups, or create Custom Fields
specifically for your Contacts.
Customer Card
Info Tab
Phone Numbers
Up to four phone numbers can be entered in the Phone Numbers section. Phone Numbers are autoformatted when you tab out of the field.
The Phone Number Type popup menu lets you set the type of the Phone Number, like ‘work’, ‘home’,
‘mobile’, etc.
The radio button beside each number allows you to set the preferred number for contacting this
Customer.
Email and Web
The Email and Web fields allow one to store email addresses and web page addresses for a
Customer. Clicking the Email or Web labels will open the address with your default email application or
web browser.
Addresses
The Billing- and Shipping Addresses for the Customer can be entered in the Address area. A two-line
address, City, State/Province, Country and Zip/Postal Code can be entered for each.
Select arrows on the City, State/Province, and Country fields allow you to select an item from predefined lists, which can be set up in the City, State/Province, and Country Setup panels. Clicking the
Plus icon allows you to add a new item on the fly. Clicking the spiraling arrow icon will paste the Billing
info into the Shipping info.
You could create a text Custom Field called "Kids" to record the names of the Customer’s children.
Contacts Tab
The Contacts tab lists all Contacts entered for this Customer. Multiple Contacts can be used to track
information about different people at a company and store multiple addresses associated with those
Contacts.
When a Customer with multiple contacts is added to a sales document, a Select arrow appears from
which you can select one of the Contacts. If the Contact has an associated address, a dialog box will
ask whether you would like to use the alternate address as the Billing or Shipping Address on the sales
document.
Customer Contacts
Adding a New Contact
Click the New button to enter a new Contact on the Contacts
drawer. All Customer Contact Custom Fields set up in the
Custom Fields setup panel show up in the Options Tab of the
Contacts drawer. Custom Fields can be created as text , date,
or checkbox fields. Contacts can also be assigned to
Customer Groups.
Editing and Deleting a Contact
To edit a Contact, double-click the Contact in the Contacts list or select the Contact and click the Edit
button. To delete a Contact, select the Contact and click the Delete button.
Importing Contacts
Contacts can be imported into LightSpeed using Import Customer Contacts in LightSpeed Import
Tools. More details can be found in the Importing article.
Photo
LightSpeed can store 256 x 256 pixel JPEG photos of your Customers. Drag a JPEG file to the Photo
drawer, opened by clicking the Photo button, and the photo will be scaled and saved to the database.
This photo can be dragged from your desktop, or directly from a web page. To remove the photo, click
the ‘X’ button. If you have an iSight camera, you can click the image area to activate it, and press the
space bar to capture an image you can then save to the Customer card.
Customer Image
Options & Extras
Introduction
In the Customer card, there are two locations that extend the customer functionality of LightSpeed: the
Options tab, and the Action menu. The Options tab is where Customer Custom Fields and Customer
Groups are found, and the Action menu gives you access to various features, including the ability to
locate a Customer using Google Maps.
Options Tab
Custom Fields
Custom Fields add functionality and storage to LightSpeed for information that you need to record that
doesn't belong in any of the existing fields of the Customer card. Custom Fields can be created as text,
date, or checkbox fields, and are set up at Tools > Setup > Custom Fields. They can be used in your
simple searches and Smart Finds.
Customer Groups
Customer Groups can be set up in Tools > Setup > Customer Groups. Creating a group will allow you
to assign your Customer to it here, making Customers assigned to specific groups searchable and
able to be emailed in a batch with other group members.
Call Button
LightSpeed can place a call to the default Phone Number on the VoIP phone system (webFones or
Skype) by clicking the Call button.
Schedule Call Button
LightSpeed can schedule a call to the default Phone Number on the VoIP phone system by clicking the
Schedule Call button and choosing a date and time at which the call should be placed. When the date
and time arrives, your phone will ring, and when picked up, the outgoing call will be placed. Scheduling
calls can be done only with webFones.
iCal/Now Up to Date Button
LightSpeed can schedule an appointment with a Customer by clicking the iCal/Now Up to Date button
(the correct icon will appear depending on the setting in Station Setup). When the Schedule Event
sheet opens, select the calendar you would like to book your appointment in as well as specify the date,
time and any notes.
The Toolbox menu (accessed with the gear icon) allows you a variety of functions, including the creation
of a new sales document assigned to the Customer from which you’re selecting the option. (image:
Customer Card Actions Menu)
Send Email
Allows you to paste the Customer’s email directly into your default email application.
Visit Homepage
Accesses the URL pasted into the Web field of the Customer profile.
Map Billing and Shipping Addresses
The Map Address features will call up Google Maps and show you the location of the Customer’s billing
or shipping address.
Directions to Billing and Shipping Addresses
Using the Directions to Address features will map the directions from your address (set in the
Company Info setup) to the Customer’s billing or shipping address using Google Maps.
Schedule iCal/Now Event
Functions the same way as the iCal/ Now Up to Date button.
Customer Merge
In the event that you have multiple Customer cards accumulated in the database representing the same
Customer, you may choose to use the Merge Customer feature to aggregate them together into one.
To do this, you must first decide which Customer card will "assimilate" the others. Open it and select
Merge Customer from its Action menu.
The Merge Customers window will appear. Using the Search field, locate a Customer card you wish to
merge into the primary Customer. Double-click the Customer name, and click the Merge button. Any
document associated with the Customer card you are discarding will now be associated to the primary
Customer. However, for security reasons, the Customer information written on those documents will
remain unchanged. If you wish to update this written info, remove the Customer from these documents
and replace it with the Customer card you wish to keep.
You may only "assimilate" one Customer card at a time. Repeat the procedure outlined above if you
have multiple Customer cards that you wish to merge into your primary Customer card.
Print Label
The Print Label feature will allow you to print Customers’ billing or shipping address labels on a roll-type
label printer or on a sheet of labels with your laser printer. Choose the label size using the Label Size
pull-down menu. See Labeling article for more info.
New Sales Document
Using the Toolbox menu, you can create new sales documents directly which include all the Customer
info.
Add to Parking
This option will add the Customer to the next available Parking space.
Show Log
This option calls up the Log entry for this Customer, indicating any editing that it undergone, as well as
which User initiated the edits.
LightSpeed's search options allow you to target a specific subset of your Customer list for email blasts
that target only those to whom the message is relevant. For example, you could send an email to only
those Customers within a particular city, or belong to a certain Customer Group. Any field you can
search on, including Custom Fields, contact info, Customer Groups, or Account Statuses, can be used
to create this subgroup with whom you wish to communicate.
To send an email blast, follow these steps:
1. Open a new Customer Smart Find by selecting "Customers" in the Source List and clicking the
Smart Find button at the bottom of the Browser.
2. Enter the criteria that will result in the desired set of Customers, and click Find, making sure that
Customer Browser is selected under "Show Results In".
3. In the resulting Customer Browser window, click Email. Any email addresses entered for this set
of Customers will be pasted into your default email application. Don't forget to move the emails
from the "To" field to the "BCC" field!
Calls & Notes
The Calls and Notes features of the Customer card allow you to record correspondence with your
customer, as well as any special notes that you wish to record for the Customer.
Calls Tab
The Calls tab lists all of the telephone calls that you have logged with this Customer.
Adding a New Call
Click the New button to enter a new call on the Calls drawer.
Call Type
You are able to classify each Call entry you make using the Call Type setting. Call Types are defined
in the Customer section of the Setup panel.
Call Duration
The Call Duration field allows you to record the length of your call.
Marking a Call for Follow Up
You can mark a call for Follow Up by checking the Follow Up checkbox and assigning a User to the
Follow Up by selecting a User from the popup menu that appears when clicking the User shown. Calls
marked for Follow Up appear in Trackers if it’s set up to show Calls to Follow Up. Selecting a date will
provide a further filter that can be searched in Trackers in the Browser.
Editing and Deleting a Call
To edit a call, double-click the call in the Call list or select it and click the Edit button. To delete a Call,
select the call and click the Delete button.
Notes Tab
The Notes tab lists all of the Notes that you have entered for this Customer. If a Customer has notes on
file, a pop-up window will appear anytime that Customer is added to a sales document.
Adding a New Note
Click the New button to enter a new Note on the Notes drawer.
Marking a Note for Follow Up
You can mark a Note for Follow Up by checking the Follow Up checkbox and assigning a User to the
Follow Up by selecting a User from the popup menu that appears when clicking the User shown. Notes
marked for Follow Up appear in the Tracker if set up to show Notes to Follow Up. Selecting a date will
provide a further filter that can be searched in Trackers in the Browser.
Editing and Deleting a Note
To edit a Note, double-click the Note in the Note list or select the Note and click the Edit button. To
delete a Note, select the Note and click the Delete button.
Customer Properties
Account Tab
Status
The Account Status popup menu allows one to set the status of a Customer’s account, like ‘Lead’,
‘Active’ or ‘Credit Hold’. Account Statuses can be set up in the Account Status setup panel.
Category
The Category popup menu allows you to select a category for Customers who may receive a particular
discount or Pricing Level. Categories can be assigned discounts and Pricing Levels in the Customer
Categories setup panel.
Salesperson
You can assign a User to a Customer by selecting the User on the Salesperson popup menu. When
someone tries to invoice a Customer that ‘belongs’ to another Salesperson, a dialog will ask whether
the Invoice should be set up as a split between the two Users.
A company that has Customers in the education market may create a Category called ‘Education’ that
receives an automatic discount or is assigned an ‘Education’ Pricing Level. Products that have special
pricing for ‘Education’ Customers will enter their alternate price in the Pricing Levels section of the
Options tab of the Product card. Alternate Pricing Levels are named in the Pricing Levels setup
panel.(see chapter on Getting Started)
Profile Tab
Referred By
Referred By allows you to choose from a user-customized list of referral sources.
Birthday
The Birthday field allows you to record your Customer’s birthday.
Prefs Tab
Language
LightSpeed can print Quotes, Orders, SROs, Invoices and POs in English, French and Spanish. If a
Customer has a language preference for the sales documents they receive, select the language from
this popup menu. You can edit any of the language translations on the sales documents in the Field
Translations Setup panel.
Currency
If a Customer pays in a particular currency this currency can be selected from the Currency popup
menu. When added to a sales document, the currency will be set to the currency set for the Customer.
Tax Tab
Tax Code
The Tax Code popup menu allows one to set the Tax Code that should automatically be set when
adding this Customer to a sales document. Tax Codes specify which taxes and which rates are
charged in a particular jurisdiction or circumstance. Tax Codes are set up in the Taxes Setup panel.
A Customer whose purchases are always shipped to another state where a particular tax must be
charged might have their Tax Code set to the Tax Code that will be applied.
Tax Status
If a Customer is entitled to certain tax exemptions, one can apply the corresponding Tax Status. Tax
Statuses are set up in the Taxes Setup panel.
If Customers who are registered businesses do not pay a certain state tax, a Tax Status can be set up
and applied to automate this exemption for those Customers.
Credit Tab
Terms
The Terms popup menu allows one to set the terms of payment for a Customer, like ‘COD’ or ‘Net 30’.
Terms can be set up in the Terms Setup panel.
Customer Credit Preferences
Credit Limit
Enter the Customer’s credit limit here. When their limit is
surpassed, the User will receive a warning. There is also a
Privilege called Save Invoice with Credit over Limit that will
allow you to prohibit an Invoice for a Customer over their credit
limit from being saved.
Credit Hold
If the Customer has been put on credit hold, check the Credit Hold checkbox. When this Customer is
assigned to a sales document, a warning window will appear which will inform the User the Customer is
on credit hold when it is opened. There is also a Privilege called Add Customer with Credit on Hold on
Invoices that will allow you to prohibit Customers on credit hold being added to an Invoice.
Accounts Receivable
LightSpeed’s Accounts Receivable module allows you to see the credits and balances owing for your
Customers, apply Payments to outstanding Invoices, and track the age of unpaid Invoices. As Invoices
with balances owing age, they will move through the Accounts Receivable timeline located near the
bottom of the window and display their status.
Click the Customers button to display a list of all your Customers in a drawer that appears
showing each one’s balance. The pop-up menu in the Customers drawer allows you to filter the
list according to their balances and the age of their unpaid Invoices.
To check the detail of a Customer, double-click their name to populate their information in the
main AR window. A list of their Invoices, as well as any documents that take a deposit, will
appear, and can be filtered according the balance owing or outstanding credits with the pop-up
menu at the right.
Each line item will display the total for the sales document, any amount paid, and the balance between
the two. Only Invoices will produce a balance owing, and will be measured in terms of age. Any credits
will be displayed as a negative value.
Accounts Receivable Customers with Balances
Applying Payments
To apply a payment to an unpaid Invoice:
1. Select the Invoice from the list in the main Accounts Receivable window by clicking it once.
2. Then, click the Apply Payment button located at the bottom of the window to display the Apply
Payment window.
3. Choose the Payment Method being used, enter the amount of the payment, and process it as you
would any other.
4. The payment will appear in the Payments screen of the Invoice. If the Invoice is now completely
paid, it will no longer appear in the list of owing Invoices. If it’s partially paid, the balance owing
will have been adjusted.
if a Customer sends a payment that is to cover several Invoices, you must apply the payment in whole
to any of the outstanding Invoices, creating a credit. Then, go to each outstanding Invoice and apply the
oustanding credit until it is entirely depleted.
Applying Payments
Setting Balances
When you transition from your previous system, whether it’s a manual system or accounting software,
you will need to set opening balances for any customers you’ve set up with terms or who has an
outstanding credit. This action is meant to be done once only per Customer with a prior balance.
Before proceeding, it is required that you create a new Product with which to apply this balance, with a
Product Code of ACCTENTRY. The Product should have a Tax Status of No Tax, be Non-Inventoried,
and have an editable Selling Price.
In Tools Accounts Receivable, choose the Customer for whom you wish to set the balance, and add
them to the AR window by double-clicking their name from the results list. Click the New Entry button at
the bottom of the AR window.
In the resulting window, you have the ability to set the following fields:
1- Invoice ID
This is the LightSpeed Invoice number which will be used for the setting of the Customer’s balance.
Assuming that your standard Invoice ID sequence begins at a value larger than the last Invoice of your
previous system (eg. your last system ended at Invoice 5692, so you would set your first LightSpeed
Invoice to begin at I-5693 - see more info here), it is advised that the Invoice ID you choose here
reflects the corresponding owing Invoice number of your previous system, and is therefore smaller than
the value of your first sales Invoice, so as to avoid the mix of balance Invoices and sales Invoices.
For example, if your first Invoice is I-5693 (as in the above example), you should match the original
owing Invoice and set the Invoice ID to (for example, as yours will be different) "5139" - whatever it was
in the previous system. Please note, entering a value higher than your regular Invoice
sequence will set your next Invoice ID as the next value. So, if your regular Invoice ID is at 1005, and
you enter "20000" as the value in the Invoice iD field here, your next standard Invoice ID will be I20001.
2- PO
This refers to the reference number you’d like to associate with the Invoice.
3- Date
If you wish to backdate the Invoice, choose that date here. If you do not set the date, today’s date will
be used.
4- Description
Any text you enter in this field appears in the description of the ACCTENTRY Product that is used on
the Invoice to apply the balance.
5-Total
Enter the total here for the balance to set. If the Customer has a credit to bring over, set a negative total
here.
Click OK and a new Invoice will be created with the ACCTENTRY Product being “sold” to the
Customer. The Invoice will close automatically and you’ll be returned to the AR window, where you will
see the Invoice added to the Customer’s history. Double-click the Invoice to view it. You will notice a
blue “E” in the lower left corner of the Invoice, essentially making it “invisible” to any accounting exports
you do to your Invoices.
Setting Balances
Terms and Credit Limits
As explained in the Customers help documentation, terms can be set for Customers in the Credit tab of
their profile. To define the values of the pop-up menu, go to Tools > Setup >Terms. The values of this
list will be accessible in both the Customer card, and in the Supplier card (for the terms you have with
your Suppliers).
You may also set a Credit Limit for each Customer. Once a Customer has reached their Credit Limit
by carrying an outstanding balance of unpaid Invoices, a dialog will appear when the Invoice is saved
outlining that the Customer is over their Credit Limit, and by how much.
There are two Privileges that allow you to restrict the addition of Customers who have either surpassed
their Credit Limit or have been placed on Credit Hold in the Customer card. Add Customer with Credit
on Hold on Invoices is a Privilege that, when disallowed, will keep a Customer set to Credit Hold from
being saved to an Invoice. Save Invoice with Credit over Limit is a Privilege that, when disallowed, will
restrict the saving of an Invoice with a Customer who is over their Credit Limit. There is one further
related Privilege, Print Invoices if Unpaid, which will restrict the printing of an Invoice until it is paid.
Credit Tab of Customer Profile Credit Limit Warning Dialog
Privileges
Statements
Creating Statements from the AR window allows you to provide your Customers with outstanding
credits or balances with a summary of their history. To create a Statement for your Customer, click
Print Statement or Email Statement - LightSpeed will create a summary of the Customer's AR
balance that includes only those transactions that are visible in the AR window when the
Statement is created. That is, if you have selected to only view the Customer's credits, using the popup menu in the AR window, clicking Email Statement will produce a list of only the Customer's credits
and paste it into an email.
Writing Off Bad Debt
If you are unable to collect an outstanding balance from a Customer, you may choose to write off the
balance to remove it from your active AR records. To do this, create a Payment Method named
something like "Write-Off", and give it the type "Store Card". If you are exporting information to
QuickBooks or MYOB, you can assign a liability account to this Payment Method for tracking purposes.
Then, on each Invoice with an outstanding balance you wish to write off, apply a payment for the
outstanding amount using this Payment Method. This should be done individually, to each outstanding
Invoice.
Products Overview
Introduction
The Product card lets you set up an individual Product in your LightSpeed database, defining all of the
properties that determine how the Product is treated throughout the system. The Product card is also
where you "map" your Suppliers and their costs when you purchase the item, as well as track the
Product's inventory trail, its levels, and the different statuses the Product can be in.
Accessible in the Product card but explained in other articles of the Help database are the Web tab,
where all selection and categorization of Products to be sold on the Web Store is done, and the GL
Tab, where you set the GL Accounts that are used in Accounting Exports.
Product Card
Creating a Product
Creating a Product can be done in several ways. Clicking the
Product icon in the LightSpeed Tool Bar will open a new,
unsaved Product card, as will right-clicking the Product source
in the Source List. Products can also be created directly from
all Sales Documents (Quotes, Orders, SROs, and Invoices), or
from a Purchase Order, by clicking the "+" icon at the far left.
Importing Products using Import Tools can be done to create
Products in a batch from a pre-defined tab-delimited file.
Deleting a Product
Authorized users can delete Products by clicking the Delete button inside the Product card, or by
selecting the Product(s) in the Browser window and either pressing the Delete key on their keyboard,
or clicking the Delete button at the bottom of the Browser. Note: You cannot delete a Product if it has
been sold on an Invoice, or received on a Purchase Order, nor can you delete a Master Product.
Product Types
There are several types of Products in LightSpeed:
Inventoried - A Product that can physically be counted
Non-Inventoried - A Product that reflects a service, such as Shipping or Labor
Serialized - A Product that tracks unique serial numbers for each unit of inventory
Current - A Product that shows up in all searches, whether or not it has stock
Non-Current - A Product that only shows up in POS or Browser searches if it has stock
Master - A Product that represent a group of size-color combination Products, such as an article of
clothing or a pair of shoes (link)
Child - A size-color combination Product tied to a Master (link)
Gift Card - A Product that employs LightSpeed's Gift Card process (link)
Account Entry - A Product that allows you to set a one-time opening balance for legacy Customers
with outstanding balances (link)
Product Properties
Introduction
The Product card is where all of the information about the Product is kept, including costing and pricing,
inventory levels, categorizations, tax exemptions, and much more. It is important to properly define a
Product's properties before the Product is added to your documents, because these properties
become "fused" to the document when the Product is added. In other words, changing a Product to
"serialized" after the Product has been added to a Quote, Invoice, or PO does not automatically
update that property on the document, and in fact can cause you considerable work "untangling"
documents after principal Product properties have been modified "mid-stream".
If you must change one of these major properties, and you want the updated version of the Product info
to appear on the document, you must first remove the old version of the Product from the document,
and then re-add the updated version, even if the changes were made to the same Product card.
For more information on the Options, Web, Inventory, and GL tabs, or the Supplier Costs grid, please
see the appropriate articles.
Product Code and Description
The Product Code is the code that is used to identify the Product in the system. It should be short
(under 12 characters) and may be the same code used to identify the Product by its manufacturer, or a
compound of different characteristics of the Product. It is recommended that you are able to surmise
some basic information about the Product from its Product Code.
The Product Code of the iPod Touch is M2334LL/A. It is possible to identify this as an Apple product
because all Apple manufacturer's part numbers begin with the letter M.
The Product's Description is the longer text description of the Product that may describe the item’s
attributes in detail. LightSpeed supports the printing of long, multi-line descriptions on sales
documents. This description is searchable in the POS screen and will appear on printed documents.
Info Tab
Family and Class
The Family is one of two general classifications for a Product, along with Class. It is recommended
that the brand or manufacturer of the Product is used for Family, and a general categorization such as
"speakers" or "tshirts" is used for Class, but this is not a requirement. In fact, you may choose to use an
entirely different set of values for the Family and Class categorizations.
Having appropriate Classes and Families entered for Products will help you when reporting on your
sales and inventory in the Reporting or Intelligence tools, for doing batch pricing markups using Set
Selling Prices or Set Product Info, in complex Smart Find searches, or just doing simple searches in
the Browser. For assistance, contact Xsilva’s support department.
The values for your Family or Class list can be added or deleted in Tools > Setup >
Families/Classes. See the Configuration I article for more information.
UPC
The UPC Code is the unique, universal 12 digit number that is printed as a barcode on a Product’s box
and is used to identify the Product when its barcode is scanned. The number can be read below the
UPC barcode on the box of the Product.
You can scan in the UPC barcode of the Product anyplace in LightSpeed where you’re searching for a
Product. This UPC can be added directly in the Product profile, or in the Receiving tab of a Purchase
Order.
If you are a computer shop, you may want to set up Classes like ‘Hardware’, ‘Software’ and ‘Service
Labour’. When you run a report you may filter the report by Class to see the results for only one of your
Classes, so that you can compare the results with that of another Class to get an overview of their
performance.
Tax Status
Tax Statuses can be set up in the Taxes setup panel and applied to individual Products. A Tax Status
may be set up to exempt an individual Product from certain taxes that are applied to all other Products
on a document.
Labour may always be exempt from a particular tax. A Tax Status called ‘Labour Tax Exemption’ can
be set up in the Taxes setup panel and chosen on the Product window of a Product that is labour.
Size and Color
These fields allow you to select the size and color for this Product from the pre-configured list
customizable in the Size and Color setup panels. For more info, see the Clothing Workflows articles in
the Sales & Workflows section of the User Guide.
Photo
LightSpeed can store 512x512 pixel photos of your Products. Drag a .jpg or .png file to the Photo
drawer, opened by clicking the Photo button, and the photo will be scaled and saved to the database.
To remove the photo, click the ‘X’ button. Clicking the image area will also activate your iSight camera
– click the space bar to take a photo, and click Save or Cancel when asked. Images may also be
dragged directly from a web page.
Photos can be printed on sales documents such as Quotes and Invoices by checking the Print Images
option in the Options tab of the document, and re-used on the LightSpeed Web Store. This image will
also appear in the POS screen in the Product detail section, and this will also be the image uploaded
to your Web Store.
Multiple Product images can be added to a Product that will also display in the Web Store. To add
additional images to a Product, open the image drawer and click New. Drag the image into the drawer
as described above. Each Product may have up to 5 images.
Attributes Checkboxes
Inventoried
Inventoried indicates whether you keep inventory numbers for the Product. A Product like an iPod
would be inventoried, but a Product set up as a service, such as a technician’s labour, would not be
inventoried, even though the hours would be tracked on the sales document (two hours of labour for
example).
Be sure when creating a Product to set this option properly, as checking it later on, after the Product
has been added to various sales documents, can cause disruptions to some features.
Serialized
Serialized indicates whether the Product will have associated Serial Numbers. A Product like an iPod
or a 10-speed bicycle will generally have a unique Serial Number for each unit, but an item like an iPod
Armband or a pair of earrings will not. Check this option only if you plan to record the Serial Numbers
when receiving and invoicing the Product.
Current
Current indicates whether the Product is currently available for ordering or sale. You may want to
uncheck Current on Products that can no longer be ordered from any Supplier because they have been
discontinued. In the Company setup panel, you can specify whether only Current Products are
searchable in the Browser, the POS, and in documents. If a non-current Product has inventory, it will
appear in searches until the inventory level is zero for the Product.
Editable Description
This option allows Users to edit the Product’s description on a sales document. You may want some
Products to have editable description, particularly if it is a custom or build-to-order Product. This box is
checked by default when a new Product is created.
Editable Selling Price
This option allows Users to edit the Product’s Selling Price on a sales document. You may want some
Products to have editable Selling Prices, particularly if it is a custom or build-to-order Product. If this
option is not checked, a User with appropriate Privileges can only modify the Selling Price through
discounting.
Gift Card
Checking this attribute will indicate to LightSpeed that this Product is a gift card, and is subject to
certain statuses, such as non-inventoried, and non-taxed. When Gift Cards are sold, they are
serialized. See the article on Gift Cards in the Sales & Workflows section for more information.
Cost Always Equals Sell
Products with this checkbox selected will have a Cost equaling the Selling Price on sales documents,
useful for selling Products without registering changes to your profit margins.
Size-Color Matrix
If you sell Products that differ only in size or color, you are able to use this feature to create a large
number of multiple Products easily. When you check the Size-Color Matrix checkbox, a grid will appear
which allows you to enter various sizes and colors for the Product. Clicking Save will create
checkboxes for each combination. Check the boxes for which you wish to create new Products, and
click Create Products. New Products will now be added to the Product database, duplicating all the
Product info from the original Product, and each will have a unique Product Code and description.
Formatting for these changes can be done using the pull-down menus below the matrix.
For more info, see the Clothing Workflows article in the Sales & Workflows section.
Costs & Prices
Introduction
The most important part of any business is the numbers, and, in particular, the difference between what
a Product costs the merchant and the price they sell it for. Accurate costing and pricing information is
essential, as are the tools to set them quickly. This article outlines the different places where Costs and
Prices are used in LightSpeed, and how to change them easily.
Terms
Term
Definition
Cost
The amount that you pay when you order a Product from your
Supplier
Default Cost
The amount that you pay when you order a Product from your
default Supplier
Raw Cost
The cost of a Product in the currency of the Supplier you buy it
from.
Cost Average
The average cost of the entire quantity of a Product you have in
stock.
Pricing Level Cost
The unique cost you set that is associated to a particular Pricing
Level.
Cost vs. Raw Cost
The Cost of your Product is set in the Product card in the Supplier Costs Grid, and is set for each
Supplier you map to the Product.
To add a cost to your Product, click the “+” icon in the Info tab of the Product card. Choose the Supplier
that you’re mapping from the pop-up menu, enter the Supplier Code (the code/sku that your Supplier
uses to identify the Product in their system), and the Raw Cost. The Raw Cost you enter should be the
amount you pay in the Supplier’s currency. In most cases, this will be the same currency as the one you
use, and therefore, the Raw Cost will equal the Cost. If your Supplier’s currency is different than your
default currency, the Raw Cost will not equal the Cost.
You cannot enter the Cost directly – it must be an automatic calculation from Raw Cost. Click Save.
It is the Cost, and not the Raw Cost, that is used in sales reports and appears as the cost in sales
documents. It is the Raw Cost that appears as the cost on Purchase Orders and Supplier Invoices.
Remember, if your Supplier uses the same currency as you do, this number should be the same.
Product Profile Supplier Cost Grid
Cost Average
While the cost entered on a Purchase Order will be the Raw Cost of the Product, the value of that
Product when it is received will be the Cost in your default currency, and will affect the Cost Average.
The Cost Average is the value of your existing inventory, and is found in the Inventory tab of the Product
card.
For example, if you receive 10 widgets at a cost of $10, and then another 10 at a cost of $20, you will
have 20 widgets with a Cost Average of $15. It is the Cost Average that is used when you sell a
Product on an Invoice.
When you add a Product to a Quote, Order, or SRO, the Cost that is used is the cost of your default
Supplier. However, once you save an Invoice that has been created from one of these documents, the
Cost automatically is replaced with the Cost Average.
Pricing Level Cost
Each Product can have up to ten alternate prices, called Pricing Levels, and each of these Pricing
Levels can have their own unique Cost. To allow entry of a unique Pricing Level Cost, go to Tools >
Setup > Pricing Levels, and select both checkboxes. The Pricing Levels can be selected per Line
Item checkbox allows your users to access alternate prices and costs for Products (provided they have
been set in the Product card), and the Pricing Levels set the Cost in addition to the Selling Price
checkbox enables the option to set the unique Pricing Level Cost for a particular Pricing Level.
When you add a Product that has at least one Pricing Level entered to any sales document, an
indicator arrow will appear beside the regular Selling Price. Clicking this arrow displays the Pricing
Levels and any costs associated with these levels. Choosing a Pricing Level that has a unique Cost will
use this cost as the Cost for the document, even if it is an Invoice. In other words, accessing a Pricing
Level Cost on an Invoice precludes the substitution of the Cost Average when the Invoice is saved.
Pricing Levels Setup
Reporting
Costing is an essential factor in sales, commission, and inventory valuation reports. Depending on the
report, however, different costs are used, and are outlined in the table here.
Category
Report
Costing
Sales
Gross Profit
Cost Average at time of sale
Inventory
All Reports
except
Inventory
History
Reports
Current Cost Average
Inventory History
All Reports
Cost and Cost Average at time of entry
Product
General By
Default
Supplier
Default Cost
Commission by Profit
All Reports
Cost Average at time of sale
Intelligence
Similarly, the reports in Intelligence use various costs as well. See the adjoining table.
Category
Costing
Products
Cost Average at the time of sale
Quotes
Cost
Invoices
Cost Average at the time of sale
Sales
Cost Average at time of sale
Inventory
Current Cost Average
Documents
To understand costing on your reports and accounting exports, you must understand what costs are
used on the various documents created in LightSpeed, including Quotes, Orders, Invoices, Purchase
Orders, and Supplier Invoices.
Document
Cost Used
Quote
Default Cost (Pricing Level Cost will override)
Order
Default Cost (Pricing Level Cost will override)
SRO
Default Cost (Pricing Level Cost will override)
Invoice
Default Cost will appear when Product is added, but will be replaced by
Cost Average when Invoice is saved. However, Pricing Level Cost will
override if a Pricing Level is chosen.
Purchase Order
Cost of the Supplier attached to the PO
Supplier Invoice
The cost from the original Purchase Order
Set Selling Prices
LightSpeed’s Set Selling Prices feature allows you to make batch changes to the prices or costs of
subsets of your Products based on criteria you set.
The Default Cost, Default Raw Cost, and Pricing Level Costs can be used to set your criteria –
methods you can use to isolate subsections of your Products in order to apply “Actions” to them.
In the Actions section, you can set the Cost of any Supplier by selecting Cost in the first pop-up menu.
However, doing this requires you to choose which Supplier’s cost you are affecting.
When setting an action in Set Selling Prices, you have many choices as to which cost on which to base
your calculation – regular Cost, Pricing Levels Costs, or the Cost Average.
For example, you could set the Cost of a Product you purchase from Ferris Ltd. based on 15% less
than the Selling Price (ie. discount from MSRP).
For example, using the criteria “Cost Price Level A is greater than 350” will result in all your Products
that have a Pricing Level A Cost of more than $350 ready to have an action applied to them.
It is necessary to set a Supplier when changing the Cost (as above), or you will create a second cost
line in the Product card that has no Supplier.
Set Selling Prices
Accounting Exports
The costs that are included with the files that are exported in LightSpeed’s accounting exports files
(Tools > Export to MYOB or Tools > Export to QuickBooks) are the costs on the relevant
documents.
File
Cost Used
Invoices
The cost saved in the invoice (see Documents table above)
Purchasees
The cost saved in the Supplier invoice (see Documents table, above)
Inventory Adjustements
Cost Average or the cost edited during the adjustment
Troubleshooting
You can find a powerful costing tool at Tools > Utilities > Troubleshooting > Inventory at Zero
Cost displays a list of Products that were received or adjusted at a cost of zero, and give you
the opportunity to “fix” those transactions by replacing the current Cost Average.
Product Card Supplier Costs Grid
The Supplier Costs Grid is where you set up the Cost records that show the Supplier where the
Product is purchased, in what currency and at what cost. Each Product can be purchased from multiple
Suppliers, with the Default Supplier listed at the top of the Costs list. The Default Supplier is where
you most often buy the Product.
Adding a New Cost
Click the “+” icon beside the Costs grid to open a new Cost drawer. Here you can choose a Supplier
and enter the Supplier Code for the Product - the code that this Supplier uses to identify the Product in
its own system. In some cases it will be the same as the manufacturer’s part number that you may have
used as the main Product Code for the Product.
Important: You should only use the same number for both the Product Code and the Supplier Code if
you only have, and only will ever have, one Supplier for the Product.
If the Supplier is set up with a currency other than your default currency, the currency and the conversion
rate will be shown. Entering a Raw Cost (the cost in the Supplier’s currency) will calculate the
converted Cost.
Check the Default checkbox if this is the Default Supplier for this Product.
Editing a Cost
To edit a Cost, double-click the Cost in the Supplier Costs Grid and the Edit Cost drawer will open.
Removing a Cost
To remove a Cost, select the Cost in the Costs list and click the “-” icon.
Importing Costs
Entering every cost using the Costs drawer could be a very time-consuming process if you have many
Products. Consider using the Import Tools to import and update Costs in a batch fashion. More details
can be found in the LightSpeed Importing article in the Getting Started section of the User Guide.
The Supplier Costs Grid is where you set up the Cost records that show the Supplier where the Product
is purchased, in what currency and at what cost. Each Product can be purchased from multiple
Suppliers, with the Default Supplier listed at the top of the Costs list. The Default Supplier is where you
most often buy the Product.
Use the Update Products or Update Costs functions of the Import Products tool to update Product
properties, selling prices and costs using tab-delimited price lists or files. More details can be found in
the Import Tools chapter of the manual.
Pricing
Selling Price
Selling Price is the price at which you are selling the Product. When you enter the Selling Price, the
margin is calculated based on the Default Cost in a field beside the Selling Price field.
Quantity Discounts
LightSpeed will automatically modify the price of a Product when it is sold in a quantity pre-defined in
the Product card, up to five levels. For instance, you may sell a 10-pack of dvd’s at $14.99, but offer a
$1 reduction when a customer buys a quantity of 10 10-packs.
Click the “ellipsis” icon beside the Selling Price to call up the Quantity Discounts grid. Along the top
row, enter the quantity values which will automatically trigger the corresponding price when the quantity
of the Product sold is modified. In the example above, you would enter a value of 10 as in the figure
shown, and below that, enter a price of 13.99.
Quantity Discounts also work in tandem with Pricing Levels. Entering values in each “quantity” column
beside each “Pricing Level” row will allow you to access up to 66 various prices according to how many
the customer is buying, and what Pricing Levels are set.
For example, if you have a Pricing Level set for “Education” of $12.99, you could set a price of $10.99
when the customer bought a quantity of 10.
When the Product is sold, the Selling Price will automatically adjust as the quantity is modified.
Minimum Margin
Minimum Margin allows you to specify the lowest profit margin (in percentage) at which a particular
product can be sold, quoted, or ordered. The minimum margin calculation on sales documents is
based on the product's current cost average, not its default cost. You can prevent users from selling a
Product for below the minimum margin by setting the "Sell Below Minimum Margin" privilege to Not
Allowed (Tools > Setup > Basics > Privileges). This privilege can help prevent against overdiscouting or accidental loss of profit.
Quantity Discounts
Option Tab
You could create a Date Custom Field called “Introductory Date” to record when the Manufacturer
introduced the Product.
Pricing Levels
You can configure up to ten alternate prices for your Product, known as Pricing Levels, in the Pricing
Levels setup panel. These Pricing Levels can then be accessed in a Browser document or the POS
screen for a manual, pre-defined discount, or assigned to Customer Categories and automatically
applied when the Customer is added to a sales document. Each Pricing Level may also have a unique
cost associated with it. The Selling Prices and Costs for each of the Pricing Levels can be set in the
Pricing Levels setup panel. For more info, please see the Configuration II article in the Getting
Started section.
Value
Value
In the event you need to change the Cost Average of a particular Product – a freight charge you want to
embed into the Cost, or price protection you want to apply across that Product’s quantity – you can
adjust the overall value of a sku by clicking the Value tab in the Adjust Inventory feature. Enter a value in
the Change Value by for the amount you wish to change for the entire value of this
Product, including all quantities.
Pricing Levels
Related Products
Related Products
The Related Products drawer, opened by clicking the Related button, lists the Products that have been
related to the open Product. When the open Product is quoted, ordered or invoiced, a popup window
listing the related Products appears, prompting the user to double-click the related Products to add
them to the sales document. Related Products are a convenient way to remind salespeople to upsell an
item with related accessory or warranty products.
Adding a Related Product
Type the Product Code or Description of the Product you'd like to "relate" to the primary Product in the
search field of the Related Products drawer. When the correct match appears, double-click it to add it
to the list of Related Products. You can adjust the number in the Qty column to indicate the quantity
needed of the Related Product. In the POS screen, Related Products appear in the lower right corner
when the User is browsing a Product.
Clicking the checkbox beside each Related Product will turn on the auto-add feature – when the
primary Product is attached to a sales document, any auto-add Related Products will automatically be
attached to the sales document also. Otherwise, the Related Product will only appear in a list that can
be dismissed or accessed.
Related Products Drawer
Related Products Drawer
Build
The Build tab of the Related Products drawer, opened by
clicking the Related button, lists the constituent Products that
have been related for building the open Product with the Build
Inventory tool. The Amount field shows the number of Products
that can be built with the constituent Products.
For example, building a necklace out of chain and a pendant
can be done with Build, combining raw materials and adding
their respective Costs to create a finished Product that can be
sold on its own. For more information, see the Build & Break
Apart article.
Break Apart
The Break Apart feature allows you to break a primary Product down into individual quantities. For
example, you have a Product in your database that is a case of 10 DVDs, and you want to break it into
10 individuals that you can sell. Create a second Product with a unique Product Code and Description.
You may choose to enter the cost of an individual unit in the Supplier Costs grid. Save it. In the primary
Product’s profile, find the new Product in the Break Apart tab, double-click it, and enter the quantity 10.
Save it. In the Tools menu, choose Break Apart Product, and find the primary Product. In the Amount to
Break Apart field, enter the quantity of boxes you want to break down. Click Break Apart. Your primary
Product quantity will decrease, and the new Product quantity will increase.
Pre-mapping of the Break Apart individual Product can be done in the Break Apart tab of the Case
Master Product as described above for the Build feature. This pre-mapped Product will auto-populate
when the Break Apart tool is used. For more information, see the Build & Break Apart article.
Overview
An Important Note About LightSpeed’s Accounting Exports
It is necessary for you understand what LightSpeed is exporting to your accounting package, whether it
is MYOB or QuickBooks. LightSpeed exports transactions (Invoices, Payments, Purchases, Multi-Store
Transfers, and Inventory Adjustments) to the General Ledger (GL) of MYOB/QuickBooks as general
journal entries. There are two methods of executing the export/import, depending on which version of
accounting software you're integrated with.
MYOB AccountEdge, QuickBooks 2005-2008 for Mac - individual files that are exported for each
item listed above that must be imported individually, then archived on your hard drive for later
reference
QuickBooks for Mac 2009-2012 - a simplified process with a click in LightSpeed to export all data, a
click in QuickBooks to import all data, and no resulting files to archive
This means that the exports debit and credit the GL accounts that you have linked in LightSpeed to
Products/Payment Methods/Taxes/Multi-Store appropriately as per your transactions. It does not export
customer data or update customer accounts in these accounting packages, nor should you be
maintaining customer accounts in these accounting packages. Your Accounts Receivable should be
managed in LightSpeed.
Accounts Payable is handled in your accounting package and so LightSpeed exports more detailed
journal entries of your purchases (Supplier Invoices), including your Supplier list. You will be warned of
any errors in your export with a dialog box.
What Gets Exported
Outlined below is the list of what is included in the accounting export files from LightSpeed, and the GL
accounts they affect.
Invoices - Income, Inventory/Asset, Cost of Goods Sold, Accounts Receivable, Sales Tax
Payments - Undeposited Funds, Accounts Receivable
Purchases (Supplier Invoices) - Accounts Payable, Inventory/Asset, Payable Expense
Inventory Adjustments - Inventory/Asset, Cost of Goods Sold
Transfers (for Multi-Store environments) - Inventory/Asset, Transit
General Steps
The general steps in LightSpeed's accounting export procedure are:
1. Import your accounting software's GL accounts into LightSpeed.
2. Make sure you map GL accounts to all Products, Payment Methods, Taxes, Accounts Receivable
and Accounts Payable, and Multi-Store locations. If your export gives you errors, check your
Troubleshooting reports to find missing GL accounts.
3. Post before you export – Invoices, Payments, Supplier Invoices (Purchases), and Inventory
Adjustments. Posting “finalizes” a document or transaction. Transfers are not posted.
4. Choose which items you wish to export, and export data.
5. Unpost if you need to change something, then be sure to repost it and mark it exported (if
necessary).
6. Import into your accounting software. Do not import a file into your accounting software twice.
Each export from LightSpeed has an ID number to identify it.
7. If your export saved files to your desktop, do not delete the files exported from LightSpeed –
archive them.
Glossary of Accounting Terms
Inventoried: Products with physical inventory.
Non-Inventoried Products: Products without physical inventory: Non-inventoried products tend to be
services, but can also be small goods for which you don’t count. Although stickers have physical
inventory, you may not care to track it, because there are so many and they are very inexpensive per
unit.
Income Account: The income account is used to record revenue. When you sell products on invoices,
your income account is credited and it’s value increases. Both inventoried and non-inventoried
products have income accounts.
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): The COGS account records the value of goods that you have sold to
customers. The value of these goods is recorded as the cost that you paid - not the price at which
you’ve sold them. The COGS and Inventory/Asset Account must balance. Only inventoried products
have a COGS account, non-inventoried products do not.
Inventory/Asset Account: The Inventory/Asset account records the value of goods that you have
received and paid for, but have not sold. That is, the value of goods in your inventory; items you have
not yet sold. Inventory/Asset accounts must balance with a COGS account. Only inventoried products
have a Inventory/Asset account, non-inventoried products do not.
Balanced GL Accounts: In LightSpeed, a COGS account must be paired with an Inventory/Asset
account. If they are not paired, that is, if a product has one account, but not another, they are said to be
unbalanced. Attempting to export documents that have products with unbalanced accounts attached to
them will result in an export error.
Expense Account: This account is rarely used by LightSpeed. It records the value of pure expenses,
such as shipping and handling, extra fees, some consumables. Products with expense accounts are
typically non-inventoried.
Payment Accounts: These are typically bank-type accounts. They record the value of money that is
taken in by LightSpeed. Some users will have separate accounts for each payment methods, other
users will record all payments into one account. Other users may record cash and checks in one
account and electronic payments in another.
Sales Tax Collected Accounts: These accounts record the value of sales tax that you have collected
from your customers when they purchases goods or services and owe to your tax vendor (government).
Typically, you will have one account per sales tax.
Sales Tax Paid Accounts: These accounts record the value of sales tax that you have paid to your
suppliers on goods that you have purchased for resale.
Tax Vendor: Entity to which you pay sales tax. Government, board of revenue, etc...
Accounts Receivable (AR): Account that records the value of all money that you are owed. When you
export invoices, AR is credited (increases). When you export payments, AR is debited (decreases).
Accounts Payable (AP): Account that records the value of what you owe all of your suppliers.
Although each supplier’s account is kept in your accounting package, AP represents all money that
you, including other expenses entered in your accounting package.
Posted: Documents in LightSpeed that are posted are locked and ready to export. Only posted
documents are exported; documents must be posted to be exported. Exported documents remain
locked, but are marked exported instead of posted.
Posting
Before Invoices, Payments, Inventory Adjustments, Transfers, or Supplier Invoices (aka Purchases) can
be exported, they must be posted. Effectively, posting means finalizing a document so that it can no
longer be edited. It is important to note that Invoices and Payments are posted separately. Also,
Transfers are posted as Supplier Invoices, but are handled separately when they are exported.
There are two circumstances in which Invoices may be posted. If you do not have terms with any of
your Customers, and each Invoice is paid at the time of the transaction, you can check the Post
Invoices When Paid option in the Company setup panel to have Invoices post automatically when paid.
If you do accept credit terms with your Customers, and you accept payments to Invoices after the
transaction has been completed, you can post all your Invoices, Payments, and Supplier Invoices over
a specified date range.
To post your Invoices, Payments, Inventory Adjustments, and Supplier Invoices, choose the Post By
Date option of the Edit menu or click the Post By Date button in the Export window. Invoices, Supplier
Invoices, and Transfers that have been posted will appear with a green “P” beside them in the Browser;
Payments that have been posted will appear with a green “P” beside them in the Payment screen of the
document. Inventory Adjustments that have been posted will appear with a green “P” beside them in the
Inventory Adjustments window, accessible in the Action menu of the Export to MYOB or Export to
QuickBooks windows.
Posting
When these items are exported, the green "P" will become a
blue "E".
Unposting
If you need to modify an Invoice or Payment that has already been posted, you can select the item and
go to Edit > Unpost… whether it’s a Payment or an Invoice. Once you have made your change, you
can repost the item, also under the Edit menu. If the item had originally also been exported, you can
choose the Mark as Exported option from the Action menu of the Invoice. An option box will display
allowing you to choose if you want to mark the Payments or the Invoice (or both) as “exported”
You must be very careful with your Unpost and Mark As Exported that you do not import data into your
accounting software more than once.
GL Accounts Setup
Introduction
Integrating LightSpeed with accounting software MYOB or QuickBooks first requires a once-only
mapping of the GL Accounts exported from QuickBooks or MYOB and imported into LightSpeed.
There are approximately 10 places where GL accounts must be mapped, outlined in a table at the
bottom of this article. Once they are mapped, LightSpeed knows to which GL accounts it should send
its financial data.
Setup
1. Import Your GL Accounts into LightSpeed and set your AR and AP accounts
First, you must export your GL accounts from MYOB or QuickBooks to a file that is saved on your
desktop.
In MYOB, go to File > Export Data > Accounts > Account Information. Be sure that the
default settings for the export are “Tab-delimited” for the file format, and “Header Record” for the
first record. Click Continue. In the Export Data window that appears, click “Match All”, and then
“Export”. Name and save the file.
In QuickBooks, go to File > Export > List to IIF File > Chart of Accounts. The settings for
export are automatic.
Then, you must import this file into LightSpeed.
Open the GL Accounts Setup in LightSpeed in Tools > Setup and import the file you exported
using the button that corresponds with the software you are using (QuickBooks or MYOB). The
account names, account numbers, and account types will be recognized automatically. Click
Save to register the account list.
Select GL accounts for Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable in the Linking section.
In QuickBooks, you have to choose between using account names or account numbers.
2. Setup Your Tax Accounts
Open Tools > Setup > Taxes
Select a Collected GL Acct and (if applicable) a Paid GL Acct for the taxes you have
configured.
If your region calculates taxes with each product line item in regards to Purchases, check the checkbox
marked (2) for that tax.
3. Setup your Payment Method Accounts
Open Tools > Setup > Payment Method
Select a GL account for each Payment Method.
4. Setup your Products
Set the GL Accounts (Income, Inventory/Asset, Expense/COGS) for each Product in the
Product card's GL tab, or by batch using Set Product Info found in the Tools menu. You can use
the Defaults tab in the GL Accounts Setup window to automatically assign GL Accounts when a
new Product is created.
The Asset and COGS accounts for non-inventoried Products will not be visible and cannot be
assigned.
You need to set the Payable Expense Account only for those non-inventoried Products which will be
applied to Supplier Invoices, such as freight/shipping.
To ensure that the GL accounts for your Products are set correctly, run the GL reports in the
Troubleshooting section of the Reporting window, found in the Tools menu.
5. Setup your Locations (Multi-Store only)
Open each Supplier card that is created when you set up locations for Multi-Store Transfers.
Click the Transfers tab and select an asset/inventory GL account to account for your inventory
while it’s in transit. This GL account should be the same for all locations.
MYOB File Export GL Accounts Setup Window Setting Product
GL Accounts
Required GL Accounts
GL Account
Type
Location
Notes
Accounts
Receivable
Accounts Receivable
GL Account
Setup
Records the value of all money you are
owed.
Accounts
Payable
Accounts Payable
GL Account
Setup
Records the value of what you owe your
Suppliers.
Income
Income
Product
Card or GL
Account
Setup
When you sell Products on Invoices,
your income account is credited.
Inventory/Asset
Asset
"
Records the value of goods that you
have received, but not yet sold.
Expense/COGS
Cost of Goods Sold
"
Records the value of goods that you
have sold to Customers.
Payable
Expense
Expense / Payable
"
Required only for Services entered in
Supplier Invoices, such as Shipping.
Each Method of
Payment
Bank / Holding
Payment
Method
Setup
Typically bank-type accounts that record
the money taken in.
Each Tax
Collected or
Paid
Liability
Tax Setup
Records the value of sales tax you have
collected from your Customers, or paid
to your Suppliers.
Each Location
(Multi-Store)
Asset
Supplier
Card
Records the value of inventory in “In
Transit” status on Transfers Out.
QuickBooks for Mac
LightSpeed's integration with QuickBooks for Mac 2009-2012 is a quick, 2-click process that exports
all data in a single batch, and does not create files that must be stored and archived on your hard drive.
Exporting To QuickBooks
1. Choose the Export to QuickBooks option in the Tools menu of LightSpeed
2. Choose either a Summarized or Detailed Journal Entry export.
3. Click on the Setup button and enter the Sales Tax Vendor for each tax you have set up. These
vendors can be found in QuickBooks, and must be entered in LightSpeed exactly as they appear
on the Vendor List in QuickBooks. Click the Save button to save your account settings.
4. Select which items you wish to export - Suppliers (first time only), Invoices, Payments,
Purchases, Transfers, Vendors, and/or Inventory Adjustments. Click the Back button to
return to the main window.
5. Select the date range for your export.
6. Click Export. No files will be saved to your hard drive. The details of your export will be displayed
in a green status box if the export was successful, or a red one if not.
The result of your export will display in a green status box (if the export was successful) or a red one if it
was not.
When these items are exported, the green "P" will become a blue "E".
Exporting Suppliers (Vendors)
To create your LightSpeed Suppliers as QuickBooks vendors, you must do a once-only export of
Suppliers. Once the Suppliers are set up in QuickBooks as Vendors, you do not need to re-export
them. However, if you add any Suppliers to LightSpeed, you must re-export your list of Suppliers for an
automatic re-import into QuickBooks. IMPORTANT: If you modify the name of a Supplier/Vendor
in either LightSpeed or QuickBooks, you must manually update the same modification in the
other software.
Export To QuickBooks
Importing To QuickBooks
In some versions of QuickBooks for Mac, you must enable Enable AutoImport Folder at QuickBooks
> Preferences > Transaction, When linking QuickBooks for Mac with LightSpeed, you need to make
sure this is turned on to ensure that QuickBooks is monitoring. In earlier versions of QuickBooks for
Mac, auto-import was automatic and there was no preference to set. Please check to see if you need
to set this preference for auto-import to function.
In QuickBooks 2009, this setting can be found at Company Settings > Transactions; make sure
Auto Import is enabled.
Importing your GL Account information to QuickBooks is an automatic process with LightSpeed and
QuickBooks for Mac.
1. Launch QuickBooks for Mac to produce a window that displays the pending import. Click the item
once to select it, and click the Import button to bring the data into QuickBooks.
2. Confirm in each GL Account in QuickBooks that the entries were imported. Remember, there
won’t be any files saved to your hard drive that require any attention at all.
Once your import is completed, you may return to the Export to QuickBooks window, click History, and
check off the successfully imported files, for future reference.
Checking History
The integration between LightSpeed and QuickBooks for Mac means that you no longer need to
organize exported files, as the export/import to QuickBooks does not result in any saved files.
However, there may be times when you need to check the contents of a file in case of a discrepancy or
if you simply want more information.
In the Export to QuickBooks window, click History and a drawer displays all the exports that have been
completed, including how many records were included, the date range of the export, the date the export
was completed, and the ID number of the export. Selecting any of these entries will enable one or both
of the buttons at the bottom of the drawer, allowing you to view, in the case of Invoices or Purchases, a
detail file of the export, or an export of the file itself, for all items. These files contain all the information
that was exported the first time, and can be used to track down discrepancies between LightSpeed
and QuickBooks.
Clicking either button results in a file being saved to your desktop. Be sure not to re-import this file into
QuickBooks manually.
Manual Export
In the case that you are emailing your exported information to your accountant , you can select the
QuickBooks 2009 (File Export) option in the Export to QuickBooks window. This option saves your
exports to your hard drive in the same way that previous versions of LightSpeed do. You may manually
import these files into any version of QuickBooks using the method outlined in Exporting to QuickBooks
(Individual Files).
QuickBooks (Individual Files)
If you are using a version of QuickBooks for Mac earlier than 2009, or wish to send your accounting
exports as files to another computer, you can save each file to your hard drive, then import each one
individually.
The basic steps for exporting from LightSpeed to QuickBooks using the file method are:
1. Choose the Export to QuickBooks option in the Tools menu of LightSpeed.
2. Choose either a Summarized or Detailed Journal Entry export.
3. Click on the Setup button and enter the Sales Tax Vendor for each tax you have set up. These
vendors can be found in QuickBooks, and must be entered in LightSpeed exactly as they appear
on the Vendor List in QuickBooks. Click the Save button to save your account settings.
4. Select which items you wish to export - Suppliers (first time only), Invoices, Payments,
Purchases, Transfers, Vendors, and/or Inventory Adjustments. Click the Back button to
return to the main window.
5. Select the date range for your export.
6. Click Export. One file for each item you chose to export will be saved to your hard drive. The
names of the file will include what is being exported, the data range of the export, and a unique ID
number that can later be used to identify files for reconciliation if necessary.
The details of your export will be displayed in a green status box if the export was successful, or a red
one if not.
Export to Quickbooks
Exporting Suppliers (Vendors)
To create your LightSpeed Suppliers as QuickBooks vendors, you must do a once-only export of
Suppliers. Once the Suppliers are set up in QuickBooks as Vendors, you do not need to re-export
them. However, if you add any Suppliers to LightSpeed, you must re-export your list of Suppliers and
re-import it into QuickBooks.
IMPORTANT: If you modify the name of a Supplier/Vendor in either LightSpeed or QuickBooks, you
must manually update the same modification in the other software.
Exporting Invoices
First, you must select which type of journal entry you prefer to export: Detailed Journal Entry or
Summarized Journal Entry.
Detailed Journal Entry
Each Invoice is exported as a separate transaction. It is VERY IMPORTANT to
understand that the Invoices are NOT imported into QuickBooks as invoices but as
journal entries that debit or credit the appropriate GL account in QuickBooks.
If you look at the export file, each entry will have a common journal entry number
generated by LightSpeed, the date of the transaction, a memo containing the original
Invoice ID, the GL account number, and the debit or credit amount.
Summarized Journal Entry
All Invoices are exported as a single transaction. If you look at the export file, each
entry will have a journal entry number generated by LightSpeed, the date of the
journal entry, the GL account number, and the debit or credit amount.
Both export files have the same structure. The first line of each transaction is the
Accounts Receivable account, followed by the Income, Tax, COGS, and Inventory
accounts. The number of lines for each transaction will depend on how your GL
accounts are set up in LightSpeed. If all Products use the same Income account, you
will only see one line for Income, etc.
When you export Invoices, you will be asked to save a file, named Invoices (To
Import). This is the file you will import into QuickBooks.
Rather than exporting unique Customer Names for each Invoice, LightSpeed exports
a single summarized Journal Entry with “LightSpeed Export Customer” tagged as the
Customer in Accounts Receivable. This Customer tag is a requirement in
QuickBooks. The default file names will again include the date range of the export,
and an ID number you can save for your records for later referral. Exporting Invoices
is how you change the value of your Income, Asset, and COGS accounts, as well as
your Accounts Receivable account.
Exporting Payments
Exporting Payments are how you change the value of the GL accounts that have to do with
Payment Methods, as well as the value of your Accounts Receivable account.
Each Payment is exported as a separate transaction. If you look at the export file, named Payments
(To Import), the first line is for the Accounts Receivable account and the second line is for the Payment
Method account. Every line will have the same journal entry number generated by LightSpeed and the
transaction date. Each transaction will have a memo containing the Invoice ID and the Customer Name,
the GL account number and the debit or credit amount. The default file names will again include the
date range of the export, and an ID number you can save for your records for later referral.
You have the choice of exporting credit cards and/or cash and checks.
Exporting Transfers
Exporting Transfers are how you change the value of the GL accounts that track inventory
value, as stock moves from store to store and while it's in transit.
When you enable LightSpeed’s Multi-Store functionality, you can set up a GL account to account for
Product that is “in transit” – that is, not in the inventory of either location. Transfers are not posted, so it
is very important that you do not export the same “in transit” transfers twice. Transfers will affect this
asset/inventory GL account, as well as your regular asset/inventory GL account. When your Transfer Out
is in transit, the value of the inventory will be taken out of your regular asset account, and moved to your
“in transit” GL account. Then, when your other location receives the transfer, the value will be moved
from this “in transit” GL account to the regular asset account of the receiving location. The file name is
Transfers (To Import).
Exporting Purchases
Exporting Supplier Invoices (Purchases) are how you change the value of your inventory
after receiving Product on a PO, and the value of your Accounts Payable account.
When you export your PO’s into QuickBooks, you will be asked if you want to export your Suppliers.
The first time, you must do this export, saved as Vendors (To Import), and then import it into
QuickBooks (in QuickBooks, go to File >Import >From IIF Files, and then choose this file). You will
also be asked to save two files – a Supplier Invoices (To Import) file, which is the file you will import
into QuickBooks (see “Importing to QuickBooks” below), and a Supplier Invoices Detail (Do Not Import)
file, which is simply for your records. As above, this file name can be modified if you wish.
Each transaction block in the export file corresponds to a Supplier Invoice. The number of lines
depends on how the GL accounts for taxes (Collected and Paid) are set up in LightSpeed. The first line
is for the Asset account and the others are for the Tax accounts. If you want the taxes (Paid) to be
counted separate from the line items, you have to set up your GL accounts in Tax Setup accordingly. By
default, the taxes are counted with the Asset account.
LightSpeed is able to export multiple payables for the same PO. Each time you receive product on an
existing PO, you create and save a new Supplier Invoice. This will allow you to import multiple Supplier
Invoices into QuickBooks for each PO entered in LightSpeed.
If you look at the export file, you will find the Supplier, the PO ID, the PO Date, the GL account number,
and the amount.
In the US, taxes are counted in the Asset accounts while in Canada, some provinces count their Taxes
separate from the line items.
Exporting Inventory Adjustments
Adjusting your Inventory negatively or positively will affect its value in your accounting software. Each
adjustment you make must be exported along with your Supplier Invoices and Invoices as a credit or
debit to your accounting package. The default name of this file is Inventory Adjustments (To
Import), and may be edited.
Importing To QuickBooks
Invoices
Go to the Import feature under the File menu
Choose From IIF Files
Choose the Invoices (To Import) file you want to import.
Payments
Go to the Import feature under the File menu
Choose From IIF Files
Choose the Payments (To Import) file you want to import.
Transfers
Go to the Import feature under the File menu
Choose From IIF Files
Choose the Transfers (To Import) file you want to import.
Purchases
Go to the Import feature under the File menu
Choose From IIF Files
Choose the Supplier Invoices (To Import) file you want to import.
Inventory Adjustments
Go to the Import feature under the File menu
Choose From IIF Files
Choose the Inventory Adjustments (To Import) file you want to import.
Recording History
Clicking the History button will open the History drawer, which lists in reverse chronological order the
exports to QuickBooks you have done. The information listed is the type of export, its ID, the date
range of the export, the user who performed the export, and the date the export was performed. For
each entry, there is also a checkbox you can select once the export has been performed
successfully. Imports into QuickBooks should only be performed once.
MYOB AccountEdge
The basic steps for exporting from LightSpeed to MYOB using the file method are outlined below.
1. Choose the Export to MYOB option in the Tools menu of LightSpeed.
2. Select which accounting package you are exporting to (MYOB AccountEdge).
3. Click on the Setup button and enter the basic MYOB Export preferences.
Strip Dash in ID - removes dashes from document IDs
GL Account for Tax-Inclusive Rounding - allows you set GL account for rounding discrepancies
Tax Inclusive (Australia) - indicates export is by Australian customer using tax-inclusive pricing
Click the Save button to save your account settings.
4. Select which items you wish to export - Suppliers (first time only), Invoices, Payments,
Purchases, Transfers, Vendors, and/or Inventory Adjustments. Click the Back button to
return to the main window.
5. Select the date range for your export.
6. Click Export. One file for each item you chose to export will be saved to your hard drive. The
names of the file will include what is being exported, the data range of the export, and a unique ID
number that can later be used to identify files for reconciliation if necessary.
The details of your export will be displayed in a green status box if the export was successful, or a red
one if not.
Export to MYOB
Exporting Suppliers
To create your LightSpeed Suppliers as MYOB Suppliers, you must do a once-only export of Suppliers.
Once the Suppliers are set up in MYOB as Suppliers, you do not need to re-export them. However, if
you add any Suppliers to LightSpeed, you must re-export your list of Suppliers and re-import it into
MYOB. IMPORTANT: If you modify the name of a Supplier in either LightSpeed or MYOB, you must
manually update the same modification in the other software.
Exporting Invoices
First, you must select which type of journal entry you prefer to export: Detailed Journal Entry or
Summarized Journal Entry.
Detailed Journal Entry
Each Invoice is exported as a separate transaction. It is VERY IMPORTANT to understand that the
Invoices are NOT imported into MYOB as Invoices but as journal entries that debit or credit the
appropriate GL account in MYOB.
If you look at the export file, each entry will have a common journal entry number generated by
LightSpeed, the date of the transaction, a memo containing the original Invoice ID, the GL account
number, and the debit or credit amount.
Summarized Journal Entry
All Invoices are exported as a single transaction. If you look at the export file, each entry will have a
journal entry number generated by LightSpeed, the date of the journal entry, the GL account number,
and the debit or credit amount.
Both export files have the same structure. The first line of each transaction is the Accounts Receivable
account, followed by the Income, Tax, COGS, and Inventory accounts. The number of lines for each
transaction will depend on how your GL accounts are set up in LightSpeed. If all Products use the same
Income account, you will only see one line for Income, etc.
When you export Invoices, you will be asked to save two files. One is Sales (To Import), which is the
file you will import into MYOB. You will also export a detail file, named Sales Detail (Do Not Import),
where you will find a list of all the exported invoices including the Invoice ID, Date, Customer Name,
Subtotal, Taxes (Collected Tax Accounts) and Total of each Invoice. This detail file should not be
imported into MYOB, and is simply for your reference.
You can modify the name of these export files if you prefer. The default file names will include the date
range of the export, and an ID number you can save for your records for later referral. Exporting
Invoices is how you change the value of your Income, Asset, and COGS accounts, as well as your
Accounts Receivable account.
Exporting Payments
Each Payment is exported as a separate transaction (a block of two lines in the file). If you look at the
export file, named Payments (To Import), the first line is for the Accounts Receivable account and the
second line is for the Payment Method account. Every line will have the same journal entry number
generated by LightSpeed and the same journal entry date. Each transaction will have a memo
containing the Invoice ID and the date, the GL account number and the debit or credit amount. The
default file names will again include the date range of the export, and an ID number you can save for
your records for later referral. Exporting Payments are how you change the value of the GL
accounts that have to do with Payment Methods, as well as the value of your Accounts
Receivable account.
Exporting Transfers
When you enable LightSpeed’s Multi-Store functionality, you can set up a GL account to account for
Product that is “in transit” – that is, not in the inventory of either location. Transfers are not posted, so it
is very important that you do not export the same “in transit” transfers twice. Transfers will affect this
asset/inventory GL account, as well as your regular asset/inventory GL account. When your Transfer Out
is in transit, the value of the inventory will be taken out of your regular asset account, and moved to your
“in transit” GL account. Then, when your other location receives the transfer, the value will be moved
“in transit” GL account. Then, when your other location receives the transfer, the value will be moved
from this “in transit” GL account to the regular asset account of the other location. The file name is
Transfers (To Import).
Exporting Purchases
When you export your Supplier Invoices (Purchases) from LightSpeed into MYOB, you will be asked if
you want to export your Suppliers. The first time, you must do this export, saved as Vendors (To
Import), and then import it into MYOB (in MYOB, go to File > Import Data > Cards > Vendor Cards).
You will also be asked to save two files – one named Miscellaneous Purchases (To Import), which is
the file you will import into MYOB (see “Importing to MYOB” below), and another named Supplier
Invoices Detail (Do Not Import), which is simply for your records. As above, the file name can be
modified if you wish. Exporting Supplier Invoices (Purchases) are how you change the value of
your inventory after receiving Product on a PO, and the value of your Accounts Payable
account.
LightSpeed is able to export multiple payables for the same PO. Each time you receive product on an
existing PO, you create and save a new Supplier Invoice. This will allow you to import multiple Supplier
Invoices into MYOB for each PO entered in LightSpeed.
Each transaction block in the export file corresponds to a Supplier Invoice. The number of lines
depends on how the GL accounts for taxes (Collected and Paid) are set up in LightSpeed. The first line
is for the Asset account and the others are for the Tax accounts. If you want the taxes (Paid) to be
counted separate from the line items, you have to set up your GL accounts in Tax Setup accordingly. By
default, the taxes are counted with the Asset account.
Example: In the US, taxes are counted in the Asset accounts while in Canada, some provinces count
their Taxes separate from the line items.
If you look at the export file, you will find the Supplier, the PO ID, the PO Date, the GL account number,
and the amount.
Vendors
Vendors only need to be exported the first time you export from LightSpeed to MYOB, to set up the
Vendors/Suppliers in MYOB. If you modify the name of any Supplier/Vendor in either LightSpeed or
MYOB, you must manually modify the name in the other application to match exactly the original
modification. If you add any Suppliers to LightSpeed, you can export Vendors/Suppliers to MYOB and
only the new entries will be added to MYOB.
Exporting Inventory Adjustments
Adjusting your Inventory negatively or positively will affect its value in your accounting software. Each
adjustment you make must be exported along with your Supplier Invoices and Invoices as a credit or
debit to your accounting package. The default name of this file is Inventory Adjustments (To
Import), and also may be edited.
Note for Australia
Because of the method with which MYOB handles Inventory Adjustments in terms of requiring both taxinclusive and tax-exclusive pricing, LightSpeed does not support exporting inventory adjustments to
MYOB for Australia, and instead recommends doing manual journal entries in MYOB for any inventory
adjustments you make in LightSpeed.
History
Clicking the History button will open the History drawer, which lists in reverse chronological order the
exports to MYOB you have done. The information listed is the type of export, its ID, the date range of
the export, the user who performed the export, and the date the export was performed. For each entry,
there is also a checkbox you can select once the export has been performed successfully. Imports into
MYOB should only be performed once.
Importing To MYOB
Invoices
Go to the Import Data feature under the File menu.
Choose General Journal Entries.
Make sure the pop-up menus are set to “Tab Delimited” for Import File Format, and “Header
Record” for First Record Is. Click Continue.
Choose the Sales (To Import) file you want to import.
Click “Match All”, and then “Import”.
Payments
Import Data feature under the File menu.
Choose General Journal Entries.
Make sure the pop-up menus are set to “Tab Delimited” for Import File Format, and “Header
Record” for First Record Is. Click Continue.
Choose the Payments (To Import) file you want to import.
Click “Match All”, and then “Import”.
Transfers
Go to the Import Data feature under the File menu.
Choose General Journal Entries.
Make sure the pop-up menus are set to “Tab Delimited” for Import File Format, and “Header
Record” for First Record Is. Click Continue.
Choose the Transfers (To Import) file you want to import.
Click “Match All”, and then “Import”.
Purchases
Go to the Import Data feature under the File menu.
Choose Purchases, and then Miscellaneous Purchases.
Make sure the pop-up menus are set to “Tab Delimited” for Import File Format, and “Header
Record” for First Record Is, and “Reject Them” for Duplicate Records. Click Continue.
Choose the Miscellaneous Purchases (To Import) file you want to import.
Click “Match All”, and then “Import”.
Inventory Adjustments
Go to the Import Data feature under the File menu
Choose General Journal Entries.
Make sure the pop-up menus are set to “Tab Delimited” for Import File Format, and “Header
Record” for First Record Is. Click Continue.
Choose the Inventory Adjustments (To Import) file you want to import.
Click “Match All”, and then “Import”.
Recording History
Clicking the History button will open the History drawer, which lists in reverse chronological order the
exports to MYOB you have done. The information listed is the type of export, its ID, the date range of
the export, the user who performed the export, and the date the export was performed. For each entry,
there is also a checkbox you can select once the export has been performed successfully. Imports into
MYOB should only be performed once.
Reconciling QuickBooks
INTRODUCTION
Once your information has been exported from LightSpeed and imported into QuickBooks, you must
confirm that the accounts are balanced. To do this, it's important to have a basic understanding of how
these numbers and accounts relate to each other. This article outlines each export file, the GL accounts
that are affected, and how they relate to other GL accounts. It must be noted, however, that the initial
setup of the GL accounts (your Chart of Accounts) should be done with the aid of a Chartered
Accountant, and decided on prior to any integration with LightSpeed.
There are, in fact, up to five regularly-exported files being sent from LightSpeed to QuickBooks Invoices, Payments, Inventory Adjustments, Supplier Invoices, and Transfers (in the case of Multi-Store
use). The table below illustrates which GL accounts are affected by each of these files, and their type.
The "type" assigned to each
account is not used in
LightSpeed, though they are
displayed in the GL Accounts
setup window. However, they
are used in QuickBooks for
Mac, and should accurately
reflect the kind of account being
used in LightSpeed. Please
click here for a complete list of
accounting terms and their
definitions.
There are two additional
numbers that are affected by
these exports: Accounts
Receivable and Accounts
Payable. A/R represents the
overall amount that a retailer is
owed (or owes) their Customers,
while A/P represents the overall
amount a retailer owes (or is owed by) their Suppliers. If you purchase an item for $10 from a Supplier,
your A/P would be $10. If you sell an item for $10 to a Customer without them paying for it, your A/R
would be $10 until they paid, when it would return to $0.
SALES
The Invoice export (also known as Sales) contains data pertaining to a LightSpeed Invoice. For
example, an Invoice taxed at 10% selling an item for a $100 sell price would total $110. Assuming a
Cost Average of the Product of $50, the GL accounts would be affected like this:
Income: +100
Inventory/Asset: -50
COGS: +50
Accounts Receivable: +110
Sales Tax: +10
The retailer's revenue increases by $100, their inventory level decreases by $50, which is offset by an
increase in the cost of their goods sold by the same amount. Assuming the Customer didn't pay, the
retailer now has an outstanding A/R balance of $110, which is made up of the $100 revenue (Income)
and $10 tax collected, which is a liability that must be paid to the Tax Vendor from QuickBooks.
PAYMENTS
If the Customer paid for the above Invoice, it's the Payments file that would be affected. So:
Undeposited Funds: +110
AR: -110
Therefore, the A/R balance increased by the sale ($110) is decreased to zero by the payment of $110,
and the account the retailer uses to track their payments (Undeposited Funds, in this example)
increases by $110.
PURCHASES
If a retailer buys an item from their Supplier, their Purchases export is affected. For example, a retailer
now needs to replace the item sold above, so they buy it from their Supplier, and has 30 days to pay for
the purchase. The Supplier is not charging freight, so the Payable Expense account is not touched.
Therefore:
Accounts Payable: +50
Inventory/Asset: +50
When a retailer receives product, it's the Supplier Invoice that affects the Inventory/Asset account by
increasing it ($50 in this case), and they owe the Supplier for the cost of what they bought, which is also
$50.
It is important to remember than although the Supplier Invoice originates in LightSpeed, it is imported
into QuickBooks and ultimately is paid from QuickBooks. The retailer would make a manual adjustment
to the Supplier Invoice in LightSpeed once it has been paid.
INVENTORY ADJUSTMENTS
When a retailer makes an Inventory Adjustment in LightSpeed, whether it's to adjust the item(s) in or
out, both the Inventory/Asset and COGS accounts are affected. If a Product is, for example, lost or
damaged and adjusted out of inventory (either by a manual adjustment in the Product card, or by Count
Inventory), the Inventory/Asset account will be decreased by the value of the item, naturally, but the Cost
of Goods Sold (COGS) account will be increased. A retailer should make a manual entry in
QuickBooks to offset this COGS entry, as it is an inaccurate picture of what has happened.
EXAMPLES
1. I have a retail store. I need to stock the shelves, so I buy a Product for $10. After posting and
exporting my Purchases file and importing it into QuickBooks, my Chart of Accounts looks like this:
I now owe my Supplier $10, so my A/P account is at $10. My stock levels have risen, so my
Inventory/Asset goes to $10.
2a. I put the Product on my shelf and it sells for a price of $100 to a Customer who has Net 30 terms.
My sales tax is 10%. My A/P hasn't changed - I still owe my Supplier. My A/R is now $110, since I am
owed $110 for the Invoice. And my Inventory/Asset account has decreased to zero, since I no longer
have anything in my inventory.
b. My COGS account has increased $10, since there's a cost associated to the Product I've sold.
c. My Sales (Income) account increases to $100, since that's how much revenue the sale generated.
d. My Accounts Receivable account has increased to $110, which is the Income plus the sales tax.
e. My Tax account has also been modified $10, since that value must be tracked separately from my
general A/R value.
3. The Customer later sends me a check to cover the sale, so I go back and apply the check directly to
the Invoice, even though the sale has already been posted and exported. Again, my A/P balance hasn't
changed. However, my A/R balance has gone from $110 to zero, because I have been paid and am no
longer owed anything. The account that tracks my payments - Undeposited Funds - has increased
$110.
4. I find a Product under my desk and must adjust it into inventory. My Inventory/Asset account
increases to $10, since I've written the Product into my inventory. However, my COGS account has
automatically been decreased by $10, so I would need to make a manual entry offsetting this
adjustment to correctly portray what has happened.
RECONCILING
Verifying information between LightSpeed and QuickBooks is important. Confirming that your accounts
are balanced and accurately reflect the various states of your inventory and sales is an essential part of
a store's success. Knowing how to use various LightSpeed reports to verify the accuracy of your data is
extremely beneficial to retailers who want reliable information in both LightSpeed and QuickBooks.
There are several reports that can be run to determine the value of your inventory, either at the time, or
at a point in the past.
INVENTORY
Reporting > Inventory Valuation > General - a breakdown of all current inventory and its value
Intelligence > Inventory Valuation by Date (GL Asset) - a breakdown of all inventory as of midnight on
the date specified broken out per GL Asset account
SALES
Reporting > Sales > By GL Income - a breakdown of Sales that should match the Sales/Income
account in QuickBooks
COGS
Reporting > Sales > By GL COGS - a breakdown of costs that should match the COGS account in
QuickBooks
SALES TAX
Reporting > Taxes > General - to help verify the value of Sales Tax collected
Reporting > General (Supplier Invoices) - if applicable, can be used to verify Sales Tax paid to
Suppliers
PURCHASES
Tools > Reporting > Inventory History > By Date (Purchase Orders) - PO History report to track all
Purchase Orders
HISTORIES
You can resave a file that was exported by clicking the History button in the Export to QuickBooks
window.
BEST PRACTISE
It is recommended that when you begin to export data from LightSpeed to QuickBooks, you do it daily,
and with Detailed exports. This makes any discrepancies easier to spot, and reconciliation can be
done quickly. As you become accustomed to the process and understand which amounts correspond
between the two software packages, you may choose to export on a weekly basis, and, depending on
the level of detail you want in QuickBooks, choose to do Summarized exports.
Reporting Overview
As you enter data into LightSpeed, it will become increasingly important for you to create reports
based on that data. In the Reporting module, found at Tools > Reporting, you have access to over
300 reports, searchable by date range and able to be filtered for more specific results. The results of
your search may be seen in one of three formats – a printout, a preview, or an export to tab-delimited
format.
Reports are sorted into major Categories, covering areas such as Sales, Taxes, Commissions,
Inventory, and more. Within each Category you can access the individual Reports that you wish to run.
For instance, within the Sales category, you can run a report based on the Date, Class, or Size and
Color, to name a few.
In most reports, you set a date range for the report, and set filters with which to limit your results. The
Report Filters available in the pop-up menus at the bottom of the Reporting window will allow you seek
very specific results, or to filter out specific data from the reports that are produced.
Reporting Main Window
Format
When you have set the parameters for the report you want, you can click the Print button at the bottom
of the window for a printed version, or you can click Preview to produce an OS X preview of the report.
With the navigation bar that appears in the upper left corner, you can choose to navigate through the
pages of the report, you can choose to print it by clicking the printer icon, or export the results by
clicking the “disk” icon.
Previewing a report will display a small control panel that will allow you to advance pages, jump to the
last page, print the report, or export the results to a tab-delimited file.
Presets
Rather than hunting through Categories and Reports to find reports you need to run frequently, they can
be saved as presets that can be accessed by clicking the Presets button.
Popular Reports
The most popular reports tend to be common across various markets. This article outlines reports that
are likely to be of interest to your business, regardless of what you sell. We have also included some
reports that will be useful for specific industries and markets.
Accounts Receivable
The Accounts Receivable Reports give a summary or a detailed outline of the owing Invoices for a
given time period for all your Customers, or just one. The Balance Summary report in particular gives
you a simple, across-the-board overview of who owes you money, and who has outstanding credit.
Setting the Date Range
Commissions
LightSpeed allows you to track commissions based on either the Selling Price or the Gross Profit in the
Commission or Commission by Profit categories, respectively. Set your date range, and set the rate of
your Commission calculation.
There are two categories for Commissions - Commissions (based on Price) and Commissions By
Profit. The Commission By Profit category is a straightforward configuration - simply enter the
commission rate, and it will be calculated on the profit margin of your sales, per User. The Commission
report, based on price, requires a range set for discounts.
If, for example, you pay 5% commission for non-discounted Products, and 3% commission on Products
discounted between 10% and 20%, you would run the report twice. First, you would enter a rate of 5%
for Products discounted between 0 and 10%. Then, you would enter a rate of 3% for Products
discounted between 10 and 20%. If you make no distinction, set the range to be 0% and 100%.
Commission reports list Users separately. In cases where there was a split, that particular combination
is shown as a separate User. For example, a LightSpeed Administrator/Karen Scarpelli combination
will show up on the report as its own User, as would a Karen Scarpelli/LightSpeed Administrator split.
All Invoices assigned to Karen Scarpelli alone would appear under the User Karen Scarpelli, separate
from the two combinations mentioned.
Setting the Commission Rate
Inventory
There are several Inventory categories possible, including Inventory Valuation, which will allow you to
check the value of your stock, and any stock you have in your warehouses. The Inventory (In Stock)
category allows you to check your inventory by Supplier. The Inventory History category allows you to
track any changes in inventory levels according to the User who processed it, including Invoices,
inventory adjustments, and Purchase Orders.
Inventory History by User
Payment Methods
The Payment category shows you a summary of Payment Methods used over a given date range, and
can be filtered based on Payment Method, Station, Customer, or User.
Price List
To create a Price List from your Products, select the Product category, and choose the Price List
Report.
Sales
There are more than 60 reports available in the Sales category, allowing you to run reports based on
Class or Family, User, Customer, or combinations. Choosing a different report may result in new
filters becoming available.
To create a report based on your company’s sales over a date range, choose the General Report in
the category Sales. Set your date range using the two calendars. The pop-up menu below allows you
to indicate if you want this date range to reflect the creation date of all Invoices, the creation date of
non-Posted Invoices, or the Posted date of Posted Invoice. If you wish to filter your results based on
Customer or User, you can set the Report Filters at the bottom of the window.
Sales Report by Product, filtered for "shuffle"
Taxes
Choosing the Taxes category gives you access to many options in the reporting of taxes charged on
Invoices, including a breakdown of paid or owing Invoices, or by each particular tax charged.
Timesheets
Timesheets will provide an overview of the time clocked by the Users and can also be seen in terms of
the time spent on Jobs created in LightSpeed.
Troubleshooting
Accounting Exports cannot happen properly if you have Products that are missing any of their GL
accounts – the Troubleshooting reports allow you to pinpoint if you are missing any GL accounts for
Products, as well as if you’ve received any inventory at zero cost.
Intelligence
The Intelligence module gives you a snapshot of the best and worst producers for a given time period,
including Products, Customers, and sales documents.
In addition, you are able to see these reports in terms of Revenue, Margin, and Profit for each
category. These reports can be saved as a favorite for easy-access at a later date.
To choose a particular Intelligence report, select it from the pop-up menu at the top of the window.
Select the number of results you wish to find. If you want to exclude Products with no cost, check the
checkbox below the menus. To refine the results of your search, use the filters at the bottom of the
window. In the “Sales By” set of Reports, your results will be displayed in chart form. You have the
option to view the data as a bar chart or a line chart.
There is an Inventory Valuation By Date report that you can save as a tab-delimited file to your hard
drive. For Apple authorized resellers, the Apple GDV Inventory Report shows the levels of Apple
inventory you have in stock in the time frame you specify. However, this report can be used for a basic
inventory turnover report for all Products.
Intelligence
Charts
You can produce a bar chart or line chart to represent monthly or yearly sales, based on revenue,
margin, or profit.
By Date
Inventory Valuations and Accounts Receivable reports are available as of a particular date in the
Intelligence module, allowing you to know the value of your inventory at any time in the past.
GDV Report
To run the GDV report, choose it from the pop-up menu in Intelligence, and filter your results for the
Family “Apple”. If you require it, the file will display the Supplier Code, or you can leave the pop-up
menu blank to have the Product Code used. Click OK, and save the file to your hard drive.
The resulting file will include the Product Code, the Description, the quantities sold and returned in the
date range you had specified, and the quantity you have left in stock.
Sales by Monthly Revenue
Save vs. Find
Clicking the Find button in Intelligence displays your results in the Intelligence window, and the pop-up
menu at the top of the window allows you to increase the number of results produced. Save will save
the results in a tab-demited file on your hard drive.
Add to Favorites
Clicking the Add to Favorites button allows you to save the selected report to a list that you can open in
the future for fast access of your commonly-run reports.
Apple GDV Report Dialog
End of Day & Tills
End of Day Report
Cashing out requires accuracy. With LightSpeed’s End of Day report, you can track each station’s
sales, payments, credits, and expected vs. actual totals. You can run the report at any point during the
day, and reviewing daily station histories is done with a single mouse click.
You can choose to run a Summarized, Detailed, or Receipt report.
Summarized Report
1. Go to File >Print User Reports >End of Day. Choose the date you want to cash out.
2. Choose Summarized.
3. Choose Sales Station.
4. In the Tills window, enter your Beginning and Ending Tills, and your Actual Deposit
5. Click Print.
You get a Summarized End of Day report that shows Sales Totals, Payment summaries, Class Totals,
and Till Totals.
End of the Day Totals Window
Detailed Report
1. Go to File >Print User Reports >End of Day
2. Choose the date you want to cash out.
3. Choose Detailed.
4. Choose Station.
5. In the Counted window, enter your actual totals for each Payment Method. Click OK.
6. In the Tills window, enter your beginning and ending tills (see below). The Actual Deposit will be
autopopulated as a summary of all your counted totals in the previous window.
7. Click Print.
You get a Detailed End of Day report, showing Sales Totals, Payment Summaries, Class and Family
Totals, Payment Details, Deposits, New Invoices, Old Invoices with payments made that day, Invoices
Modified that day, and Invoices with Returns.
Receipt Report
1. Go to File >Print User Reports >End of Day
2. Choos the date you want to cash out.
3. Choose Receipt.
4. In the Tills window, enter your Beginning and Ending Till totals, and your Actual Deposit.
5. Click Print.
End of Day Report
Definition of Terms
Beginning Till - the till at the start of the day.
Ending Till - the till at the end of the day after you have removed the funds for
deposit.
Funds For Deposit - the amount of cash and cheques that were entered into
LightSpeed that day.
Estimated Deposit - the total of cash and cheques LightSpeed is expecting you to
deposit.
Actual Deposit - the total of the cash/cheque you’re actually depositing.
Difference - the difference between Actual Deposit and Estimated Deposit.
Histories
Clicking the History button in the main End of Day window will produce a list of all End of Day reports.
Double-clicking any entry will display that day’s totals in the main window, which you can print using the
Print button.
Tills
Tills are a way of keeping track of the payments taken by a sales station, and can be joined and left
periodically by a number of employees charged with transacting invoices. At the end of a shift, or the
end of a day, these tills can be closed and reconciled, based on the ending totals of each payment
method compared to the totals recorded at the beginning totals.
Creating, joining, and reconciling multiple tills is possible using LightSpeed’s Tills feature. To enable
the Tills feature, go to Tools > Setup > Basics > Company, and choose the Tills tab, clicking the
Enable Tills checkbox.
Next, go to Tools > Tills, and click the Open Tills tab of the Tills window. Click New, and enter the
opening balance of your Till. Click OK, which will display a window asking if you want to join the Till.
Only one Till can be “active” at any time, and a Till must either be “left” or reconciled before another one
can be “joined” or activated.
LightSpeed allows you to decide whether or not you want to absorb any overages/shortages between
the Estimated and Actual totals in your Till.
For example, if the Beginning Till is $100, the Cash total in LightSpeed indicates you took in $100, but
the Ending Till is only $190, the Difference is $10. If you want the Till to remain constant at $100 for the
next day, you can choose to short your deposit by $10. Or, if you want the Funds for Deposit to equal
the Estimated Deposit, you can choose to short your till, and make $90 your Ending Till total.
Once active, a Till records each payment entered into LightSpeed, and adds them to the beginning
total recorded when the Till was created.
Leaving a Till will not close it entirely, and can later be rejoined, as in the case of a clerk leaving a
sales station with their Till, possibly for a break, and then rejoining the sales station with their Till intact.
Reconciling a Till closes the Till, prompting the Payments window, where you enter the actual, or
Counted, totals for each method of payment. Ideally, your Counted totals will match your Expected
totals, but you may have discrepancies between these numbers, which may affect your Closing Till.
Cash and check totals can be broken down further, by clicking the Enter Count button illustrated in the
image shown here.
Tills Payments Window
Once you have entered your totals, click OK on the Payments
window, and you can either print or preview the overview of that
Till, including the cash and checks you expect to deposit, as
well as each other method of payment taken into that Till.
Discrepancies
In the case that you have discrepancies for your check or
credit card totals, it is advisable that you cross-reference with
other payment methods to determine if the wrong payment
method was chosen in LightSpeed, and then simply modify the
type of payment method in LightSpeed for that transaction. For
cash discrepancies that have been verified as actual
overages or shortages in cash taken in, you may choose to
short either the Till or the Deposit, as explained in the End of
Day section of this document.
Tills Window
iStats
Setting up LightSpeed iStats
Staying in touch with your business every day is simple with LightSpeed’s iStats, no matter where you
are. With your iPhone, iPod Touch, or any web-ready device, and an internet connection, you can stay
up to date by looking up the following information:
Sales
The Sales tab on your iPhone displays your total Sales, Returns, Payments, and number of Invoices for
the day, the week, the month-to-date, or the year-to-date.
Intelligence
Track the invoices, products, and customers generating the highest revenue, again for the day, week,
month, or year. Knowing which products are your bestsellers will keep you ahead of the curve on
stocking and marketing, and knowing which customers are buying the most will let you know who to
send the biggest gift baskets to.
Staff
From your iPhone, you’ll be able to tell who’s clocked in at your store, when they started, and whether
they’ve been working on specific jobs. Tap their phone number or email address to contact them
instantly.
iStats requires a publicly accessible FTP (SFTP accounts are not supported) account. The account
cannot be hosted by Xsilva.
If you do not have a publicly accessible FTP Account, we recommend contacting your ISP (Internet
Service Provider) as most ISP's will provide you with these accounts for free upon signing up for their
Service. It is also possible that they might charge a small fee.
Configuration
To configure LightSpeed for iStats, follow these steps:
Download the installer file (iphone.zip) found at
http://downloads.xsilva.net/iphone.zip
If a file named iphone.zip appears in your downloads folder, double click it to decompress it. If
an iPhone folder appears from the download, you’re already set.
With a graphical FTP client, connect to your web server and upload the iPhone folder from step
2. If you don’t have an FTP client, we suggest one of the following:
CyberDuck (free)
Transmit
Fetch
Yummy FTP
These FTP clients will let you connect to your web server and browse the files and folders there. Once
connected, you can copy the iPhone directory by dragging it into the FTP window.
iStats only supports FTP, not SFTP.
If your Web Store is hosted with Xsilva's hosted service, your web host cannot be used to host iStats.
Enter your connection info (the same that you used in step 3) into the iPhone Stats setup panel,
found in the Tools menu. You do not need to specify the iPhone directory.
Web Host - Your publicly accessible FTP Account IP or URL.
Username - Your credentials to access this account.
Password - Your credentials password to access this account.
Root Directory - / (If your iphone folder is in a folder named 'MyiStats' one step down from the
Root Directory for example, then you would use: /MyiStats/ for your Root Directory.)
Connection Mode - Active (This depends on your hardware setup)
Behind Firewall - No (This depends on your hardware setup)
Stats Login PIN - Use a 4-digit number you will remember
Update Schedule - Select every 5 minutes or more
Click Save.
Bookmark the URL in any web browser that will be accessing iStats.