Lightspeed Best Practices

Lightspeed Menu Setup:

• Sales Categories
  • Sales category names should be identical to RASI GL names found on the Sales page
  • Food, NA Bev, Liquor, Beer, Wine, Retail are the most common names for accounting purposes
  • Setting up these Sales Categories in a different manner will make a comparison between Lightspeed/RASI more challenging for operators
    • This same principle applies for Subcategories, they will be combined into the Master Sales Category
• All items MUST be assigned to a Master Sales Category or they will not poll into RASI
• PLU's will not poll into RASI. When the menu data is polled into RASI, the PLU number will be created by RASI for Menu Engineering purposes

Lightspeed Employee Setup:

• Best Practice is to assign Jobs to an employee upon setup
  • Employees must be assigned a job code and a payrate in Lightspeed in order to poll
  • If they clock in without either, the employees hours will need to be manually added to payroll
• Employee ID and Pin need to be entered to poll employee hours
  • Set up employees in Lightspeed and RASI on the day they are hired
  • Enter the employee ID in BOTH the employee ID field and PIN field
    • The PIN field is listed as optional in Lightspeed but is required to poll over information
    • Leading zeros will not poll over. If the employee ID contains a leading zero it needs to be removed from both the Employee ID and PIN fields
  • Enter POS ID into RASI profile
• Terminated Employees
  • The employee PIN is removed when an employee is terminated in Lightspeed which can lead to duplicate employee ID's, resulting in the payroll information not polling into RASI
  • When an employee is terminated, the employee ID needs to be removed from the Employee Profile to prevent duplicate POS ID's
• Best Practice is to give dummy users (i.e. Bar Terminal, FOH Training) and salaried employees zero dollar pay rates.
  • If non-zero pay rate is assigned, these hours will need to be deleted prior to beginning payroll and the pay period repelled
  • RASI reports are still able to show zero rate clock-ins if ever necessary
• Overtime calculations are generated from Lightspeed and must be set up in your Lightspeed settings to poll accurately

Lightspeed Discount Setup:

• Best Practice is to use Item Level discounts instead of Check Level discounts
  • If more than one check level discount or void is used on a check, only one of them will poll over
• Discounts will be mapped to GLs in RASI with consideration for compliance and use tax implications
  • Consider clear naming conventions for proper use by staff
  • Important distinctions
    • Whether food, alcohol, or carbonated beverage is being discounted
    • Whether the comp is for an employee, owner, to build business, or resolve a customer issue
    • Whether 100% of the item is being comped
• When creating discount/void buttons in Lightspeed, make sure the button is set up to be used as either a comp or a void.
  • Setting the button up to be used for either a comp or a void will cause the discount to not poll.
• When naming comps and voids, keep the name under 49 characters. Names exceeding 49 characters will poll over truncated to 49 characters for RASI reporting
• If track tax is used for comped items, the amounts polled over will not match the Lightspeed Report as the data provided to us by Lightspeed does not include this information.
  • This information will need to be updated manually when verifying sales in RASI.

Lightspeed Non-Cash Tenders:

• If any 3rd Party Delivery Services are used, they will need to be set up in Lightspeed as a non-cash tender
  • Order is placed in Lightspeed: Ring in the order as per normal and close it to the non-cash tender in Lightspeed. This will poll to the Delivery Service on the Sales Transmittal in RASI
• Payment is Received: Will be entered as a misc. deposit in RASI against the Delivery Service GL
• If Catering Deposits are Taken:
  • Set up a non-cash tender called "Applied Catering Deposit"
  • Create a sale for the Catering Deposit and close it per the tender that is used. This will poll into the catering Deposit line on the Sales Transmittal
    • If the deposit is given via check, it will be entered as a misc. deposit in RASI to the Catering Deposit GL
  • On the day of the event, the order should be rung in as per normal and closed to the non-cash tender "Applied Catering Deposit". If a balance remains. collect form of payment and close check as per normal
  • Catering Deposits will live on the balance sheet as a liability until applied
• House Accounts - This is only to be used if the balance will be paid back. This is a person or organization that will place an order and pay for it at a later date
  • Set up the name of the House Account as a non-cash tender in Lightspeed
  • Ticket will be rung in as per normal and closed to the House Account non-cash tender. This will poll to the House Account line on the Sales Transmittal
  • When the balance is paid, it will be entered as a misc. deposit to the House Account GL
  • Best Practice is to have one generic House Account GL in RASI which will live as an asset on the balance sheet
  • House Account balances from Lightspeed can be viewed by navigating to:
    • Report Card > Payment Reports > House Accounts.

Lightspeed Refunds:

• If refund is due (customer complaint, incorrect charge, chargeback, etc...)
  • Refund amount from Lightspeed will be manually entered as a Paid Out to GL 5320 Bad Debt Expense
  • Refund amount from Lightspeed must be manually subtracted from polled credit card tender totals on the RASI sales page