General settings determine how your POS will interact with other areas of your business, such as taxation, security, and printing, and up-to-date contact information ensures you never miss important communications.

Navigate to Setup > General to configure General setup to suit the needs of your retail operation.

Store settings

Store name

The full name of your business. This is used for receipt printing and customer emails sent from Retail POS.

Private URL

Your store URL was created during signup. This is not customer-facing information and will only be used for login purposes. This cannot be edited.

Default currency

This is the currency you trade in. You can only use one currency per Retail POS account. For businesses that have outlets across multiple countries that trade in different currencies, it is recommended that you have individual Retail POS accounts.

Time zone

Your Retail POS store uses the local time on your computer or iPad to record the payment time and date of sales. This needs to be set to the correct time zone for your store.

To edit your time zone for specific outlets, click Setup > Outlets and Registers > Edit Outlet > Adjust the time zone.

Time zones can impact your register closures and integrated services. Make sure the time zones are set to the same zone for all integrations as well.

Tax settings

The way you set up taxes in Retail POS depends on whether your store has the tax amount included in the displayed price (tax inclusive) or if it’s added during purchase (tax exclusive). Generally, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and countries in the EU are tax inclusive and Canada and the US are tax exclusive.

Default sales tax

Use the dropdown to set the Default sales tax for your store. There will be options for the suggested tax(es) for your country or region.

You can set custom tax amounts by clicking Add sales tax and entering the tax name and tax rate or navigating to Setup > Sales taxes.

VAT (Value Added Tax)

If you’re a VAT-registered business in a country where VAT is used, select the I’m registered for VAT checkbox and enter your VAT account number (VAT number) to ensure compliance, transparent pricing, and accurate reporting.

Barcode and SKU settings

SKU generation

SKUs are automatically generated when you manually create a product in Retail POS. You can override this SKU if you want to use another code, like the universal barcode, and choose whether it's based on the name or a sequence number.

If you plan on printing barcodes, we recommend you choose Generate SKUs by number. Otherwise, your barcodes may be too long and not print correctly.

If you choose the Current sequence number option, you can pick the number to start assigning SKUs from. Retail POS will increase the SKU numerically from the value entered. Note you cannot choose a number you've already picked. The sequence number you input must be a larger number than the largest number assigned to an existing product.

Automatic SKU generation will not apply for products imported from a CSV file. You must set up the SKU before importing the file.

Labels and barcodes

When choosing a Label printer format, consider the type of information you need to include on the labels and the available formats your label printer supports.

• Continuous feed (wide)

  Uses rolls of label stock that are continuous in nature. Labels are typically wide and can vary in length based on your needs.
  • Continuous label production
  • Industrial labeling
  • Shipping labels
  • Banners

  Continuous feed

  Similar to the wide format but with standard label widths.
  • Shipping labels
  • Barcodes
  • Address labels

  Continuous dual 2 x 1

  Uses labels that are 2 inches wide and 1 inch high, typically printed in dual rows.
  • Printing multiple small labels
  • Barcodes
  • Asset tags
  • Serial numbers

  A4 Avery sheet of 3 x 11

  Uses an A4-sized sheet with 3 columns and 11 rows of labels, for a total of 33 labels per sheet.
  • Address labels
  • Mailing labels
  • Organizational purposes

  A4 Avery sheet of 5 x 13

  Uses an A4-sized sheet with 5 columns and 13 rows of labels, for a total of 65 labels per sheet.
  • Printing smaller labels
  • Filing labels
  • Item labels
  • Organizational purposes

  US Letter sheet of 3 x 10

  Uses a US letter-sized sheet (8.5” x 11”) with 3 columns and 10 rows of labels, for 30 labels per sheet.
  • Mailing labels
  • Address labels
  • Inventory management

  A4 Sheet of 4 x 14

  Uses an A4-sized sheet with 4 columns and 14 rows of labels, for 56 labels per sheet.
  • Product labels
  • Inventory management
  • Organizational purposes

  Jewelry label (rat-tail)

  Jewelry labels, also known as rat-tail labels, are long, narrow labels designed for tagging jewelry items. They usually have an extended tail for attaching to jewelry items.
  • Jewelry product information, pricing, and barcode labels

Embedded barcodes settings define how barcodes are interpreted and processed when scanned or entered into Retail POS. Some settings may not be compatible with all barcode scanners (check the manufacturer's instructions for details).

• Only allow SKUs

  When this setting is enabled, the system will only accept barcodes that correspond to SKUs.
  • Ensuring only valid product codes are scanned
  • Reducing the risk of errors and improving data accuracy

  Allow barcodes with embedded price

  Some barcodes can include additional information, like the item’s price. Enabling this setting means the system will interpret barcodes with price information encoded.
  • Quickly updating pricing in Retail POS by scanning barcodes with encoded pricing

  Allow barcodes with embedded weight

  Some barcodes can also encode the weight of the product. Enabling this setting means the system will interpret barcodes with weight information encoded.
  • Industries where items are sold by weight (ex. grocery stores)

Customer settings

Checking Automatically add customers from emailed receipts to the sale will automatically create a customer profile or add a customer to a sale when you email a receipt.

Contact Information

Basic information

• First name, Last name, and Email address will be populated when you create your account. This information should pertain to the account owner and may be used for verification purposes when contacting Lightspeed about your Retail POS account.
• Phone, Website, and Twitter are optional information fields.

Physical address

These fields allow you to record the address of your store or other selling location and if applicable, a separate record for the mailing address for your business. Use different address for postal address if your store’s physical address and mailing address differ.