On account sales allow customers to purchase products or services on a credit account they can pay off later. By placing a purchase On account, you'll create an invoice for that sale the customer will need to settle in the future. You can view and manage On accounts through the Customers page or during a sale.

You can also process On account sales using the Lightspeed Scanner app. Payment links will be sent to customers if the payment link feature is enabled.

On account visibility

You can access a customer’s On account information by clicking on their name either during a sale, through the Sales history page, or through the Customers page by clicking on the Account tab. This gives you a clear view of their On account activities.

Balances

The Account tab provides a variety of additional information on the different balances your customer may have.

• Balance: The rolling balance that recalculates every new transaction. This balance includes On account and layaway transactions.
• Balance excluding layaway: Total balance of On account transactions.
• Layaway: Total balance of layaway transactions.
• Allow On account balance: Limit of On account payments.
• Limit available: The remaining limit for On account payments. This amount differs from the On account limit available from the customer modal.
• Total spent: The total value spent to date.
• Last 12 months: The total value spent in the 12 months prior to the customer's last purchase (not the last 12 months from the date viewed).

Period

This section is separated into the current period and the previous period. You can expand the view of either by clicking on the set of dates.

The Current period is the time period of the On account balance from the 1st of the current month to today's date. This section shows:

• Current balance: The up-to-date amount of the On account balance. This amount is the same as the one you see on the customer modal and can change until the last day of the month.
• Opening balance: The closing balance of the On account balance from the previous month.

The Previous period is the time period from the first to the last day of the previous month. This section shows:

• Closing balance: The account balance on the last day of the period.
• Opening balance: The closing balance of the On account balance from the previous month.

The Amount column shows the total amount of the transactions made by your customer. This amount includes sales, any payment towards a specific sale, or payments towards their On account balance.

Viewing all customer balances

You can view the total balances of all your customers at once by exporting a customer list. This balance shows total amount owing, including On account and layaway combined.

1. Navigate to Customers > Customers.
2. Click Export list.
3. Locate the Balance column. A negative number represents the customer's total balance owing.

Making payments to On account balances

You can set whatever policy you desire around timing and methods for making payments to On account balances.

To apply a payment to a customer's On account balance, you can either apply a payment on the Customers page, apply a payment during a sale, or continue the sale through the sales history. Additionally, if you use Lightspeed Payments you can send an online payment link for On account sales.

Applying a payment on the Customers page

You can apply a payment to a customer's On account balance via the Customers page and manually accept cash or process an integrated payment type outside of Retail POS.

Not all integrated payment terminals allow manually processed payments. Merchants using Lightspeed Payments will need to apply a payment during a sale to pay off an On account balance.

1. Navigate to Customers > Customers.
2. Locate the customer, using filters to sort if needed.
3. Click on the customer's name to expand the customer details.

   

4. Click Pay account balance.

   

5. In the Amount field, enter the amount you want to pay off.
6. Select the Payment type from the dropdown menu.

   If you're paying off the On account balance with an integrated payment method, the amount will not automatically trigger your payment terminal. You'll need to manually process the payment using the terminal.

7. Select the register you wish to attach the payment to from the Register dropdown menu.

   

8. Click Pay balance.

The customer's total balance will be updated and the payment will be applied to the oldest invoices first. You won't be prompted to print a receipt for the transaction but the balance will update when the page is refreshed. 

Xero-integrated retailers may notice a delay of a few seconds while the invoices are updated and synced with Xero.

Applying an On account payment during a sale

Applying On account payments to a sale is only available on desktop.

If the customer is making a new purchase and wants to make a payment towards an On account balance, this can be done at the same time. This also allows you to use an integrated payment type without having to manually process and apply the payment later.

To apply a payment during a sale:

1. Navigate to Sell > Sell.
2. Add products and add the customer to the sale.
3. Click Pay.
4. On the Sale screen, there will be a blue banner above the customer name indicating the customer has an unpaid account balance. Click Add a payment.

   

5. Enter the value the customer wants to pay against their account balance in the Amount to Pay field.

   

6. Click Add Payment. This will add the On account payment amount to the current sale amount.

   

7. Process the sale using the customer's desired payment method.

   Sales with added On account payments must be processed with cash or card payment. Store credit, Loyalty, layaway, and On account payments are not accepted for these transactions.

8. Click Complete sale.

Adjusting On account limits using the Retail Imports Team

The Retail Imports Team can help you import or update on account balances:

1. Navigate to Customers > Customers.
2. Use the available fields and filters to find your customer or group of customers.
3. Click Export list. A CSV file will download.

   

   You can only download 1000 customers per CSV file. If needed, the Retail Imports Team can generate a special customer export for you, which may contain some additional data, including customer_id.

4. In the export file, delete all the columns except for customer_code, first_name, last_name, and on_account_limit.

   You must include the customer_code for all the customers in your file. First and last names are required as a verification reference.

5. Fill in the on_account_limit column with the values you want to adjust:
   • Write disable to set Not Allow On Account Balance.
   • Write unlimited to set Unlimited On Account Balance.
   • Write the desired amount to set a specific amount. On account limits can only have positive values. Decimals and integers are accepted.
6. Save your file as an XLSX (preferred) or CSV.
7. Verify your file before submitting to avoid issues that may cause the data import to fail:
   • Remove special characters, like™,☺,©, etc.
   • Erase cells with N/A so the field is blank.
   • Format scientific numbers (4.001E+11) as regular integers (40010000000).
   • Format all cells, including cells with numbers, as plain text. In Google Sheets, click Format > Number > Plain text.
   • Ensure the only fields are customer_code, first_name, last_name, and amount.
8. Submit your file to the Retail Imports Team.

What's next?