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Getting started FAQ

Getting started guide

In this article, find answers to frequently asked questions around key Getting started topics. Navigate to other articles in the guide using the carousel below.

Logging into Retail POS

  • To log in to your account, navigate to the Retail POS login screen. Enter your Store URL and click Next. Then, enter your Username and Password and click Log in. If you have multi-factor authentication (MFA) enabled, you will be prompted to enter an authentication code generated by your authentication app.
  • To reset your password, navigate to the sign in page and click Forgot your password?. Enter your Username and click Send email. A password reset email will be sent to your email address. Follow the prompts to reset your password. Note that if you are the account owner, your username will always be your email address.

Supported hardware

  • Retail POS supports the following operating systems and browsers:
  • Retail POS supports a number of Star and Epson receipt printers for both computer and iPad devices. For more information, refer to our Supported hardware guide.
  • Retail POS supports multiple Dymo label printers. For more details, refer to the Supported Hardware Guide.
  • Retail POS supports multiple Honeywell, Zebra, Socket Mobile and Motorola barcode scanners. For more details, please refer to the Supported Hardware Guide.
  • Retail POS supports multiple Star cash drawers, and any cash drawer that is able to connect to a supported receipt printer via an RJ12 cable. For more details, please refer to the Supported Hardware Guide.
  • Lightspeed Payments is specifically built to optimize your payment processing power in Retail POS and is currently available to merchants in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia. For more information, refer to our Lightspeed payments guide.

Setting up your catalog and inventory

  • Retail POS streamlines store management with its comprehensive product catalog, including standard items, products with variations, and composite products. Products can also be added quickly using the quick add product modal.
  • There are two types of inventory counts, partial and full. Partial inventory counts are used to focus on specific sections of your inventory, such as certain brands or types. Regularly conducting these counts ensures inventory accuracy. Full inventory counts are conducted at the end of the financial year to provide an exact value of a store's inventory, ideally outside of regular trading hours.
  • Create your product(s) with the correct supply price but without adding inventory. When you're ready to start selling, update your products with accurate inventory quantities. This can be done individually via the Add product page or in bulk using CSV, XLSX, or XLS. After your store goes live and inventory has been added, always use a Purchase order to add more inventory or record any Supply price changes.

Making sales

  • To process sales, access the sell screen on either a computer or iPad, where you can add customers, products, and manage transactions. Once you've added items to a sale, you can complete various actions like parking a sale, creating quotes, taking payments, and issuing receipts.
  • Retail POS provides options to add a cash float when opening your register and manage cash throughout the day. You can add or remove cash from the cash drawer and record cash movement for monitoring purposes. The system also allows you to handle different scenarios like cash out, petty cash out, cash in, and petty cash in.
  • Customer receipts can be printed after completing a sale or from the sales history for historic sales. Emailed receipts are sent automatically upon completion of the sale if the feature is enabled.
  • The sales history allows you to view sale details, return completed sales, reprint and email receipts, and manage On Account, layby, and parked sales. It can be accessed via the Sell > Sales history path on desktop or through the Sales history option in the sidebar on iPad. The sales history includes tabs for all sales, returns, and open sales, and provides search filters for specific transactions.

Processing payments

  • Lightspeed Payments is our integrated payment processor that allows users to accept various payment methods directly within their Lightspeed Retail (X-Series) POS, including credit and debit cards and contactless payments. It offers features such as integrated reporting, chargeback management, and is designed to streamline the checkout experience for customers while simplifying payment processing.
  • To apply for Lightspeed Payments, complete the digital Payments application form, ensuring it's filled out accurately and accompanied by all necessary documentation, such as valid IDs for business owners and business banking documents. Once the Lightspeed Payments team reviews and approves your application, your payment hardware will be shipped to your specified address.
  • Cash management in Retail POS allows retailers to record and track cash movements, including adding and removing cash floats, petty cash transactions, and register closures. It's essential to regularly review cash movements, ensure accurate recording of cash in and out, and perform register closures to tally end-of-day totals, with the system offering features for both desktop and iPad platforms.
  • Retail POS offers a gift card feature, allowing customers to purchase and redeem gift cards at your store. Before selling, ensure you've enabled the gift card feature in your Retail POS store and have the physical gift cards ready. Once set up, you can monitor gift card sales through the reporting feature.

Understanding reporting

  • Retail POS offers both basic and advanced reporting functions, giving you a comprehensive insight into your business data. These diverse reports allow you to tailor and explore your data as per your requirements. You also have the ability to save customized reports. For a deeper understanding, please refer to the Reporting Guide.
  • Retail POS offers basic and advanced reporting based on your plan. Basic reporting provides fundamental business performance insights, while advanced reporting offers a more comprehensive, customizable view with additional features for detailed analysis.

    Feature Basic Reporting Advanced Reporting
    Home Dashboard Basic view of business performance Customizable view of business performance
    Sales Reports Includes sales history, sales summary, customer groups, promotions, and sales channels Includes all Basic reports plus additional reports on products, SKU name, users, customers, brand, supplier, product category, tag, variant attribute, register, and outlet
    Report Measures Includes sales count, revenue, revenue (including tax), gross profit, margin (%), discounted, discounted (%), and tax Includes all Basic measures plus additional measures like COGS, return count, return (%), customer count, sales with customer (%), items sold, average items per sale, average sale value, average sale value (including tax), first sale date, and last sale date
    Payments Reports Basic view of all payment types Ability to compare payment types across periods
    Inventory Reports Not available Includes summary, replenishment, performance, and inventory types reports

Configuring settings

  • General setup in Retail POS allows you to configure your store settings, including the store name, URL, default currency, time zone, tax settings, SKU generation, user settings, and contact information. Adjusting your Retail POS settings ensures a seamless experience for both staff and customers.

    You can also set up user permissions for switching between users.

  • The billing section of the help center offers guidance on managing and navigating your Retail POS account, covering topics from activation to cancellation. It also provides insights into payment procedures, GDPR compliance, and managing third-party app subscriptions. These settings can be found in Setup, under Billing.

Understanding security and privacy

  • Multi-factor authentication (MFA) provides an added layer of security for admin user accounts in Retail POS, safeguarding against potential threats like fraud and identity theft.
  • You can enable a user switching security feature to ensure account safety and restrict users from making changes beyond their assigned roles. This tool prompts a password when transitioning between accounts with higher permissions, such as from cashier to manager or manager to administrator.
  • Retail POS provides a range of tools to assist with GDPR compliance. These include data exporting tools for access and data portability, the ability to rectify user or customer data, options to capture customer consent for marketing, and multi-factor authentication for added security.
  • Lightspeed Payments takes PCI-compliance seriously, providing only PCI-compliant hardware and software, and rigorously maintaining compliance with PCI DSS to protect both merchants and customers. Lightspeed also monitors industry changes to ensure ongoing compliance and handles all related assessments and filings on behalf of its users.
  • You can find information about processing a data privacy request on our Privacy Policy page.

Getting support

  • This Help Center is a comprehensive resource for all things Retail POS. You can use the search bar with keywords to find specific articles, navigate through categories, sections, and articles using the side navigation bar or feature blocks, and even navigate within articles using the 'In this article' section.
  • This Help Center is your go-to resource for all Retail POS queries. To chat with a Support agent, click Contact us at the top of this page or use the Help button within your Lightspeed Retail account. You can also contact us by phone.

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