Welcome to the final stage in your Lightspeed setup journey: going live!

The goal of this guide is to make the launch process as seamless as possible. Review the checklists below to make sure you've set up all features relevant to your specific business needs and for staff training resources. When you're ready, log in to the Back Office to transition your account from setup to live mode before using Lightspeed to take actual orders.

Setup checklist

This section provides a checklist of setup tasks that goes beyond the Getting started guide itself. Review this checklist to ensure that you set up all features relevant to your specific business needs before launching Lightspeed Restaurant.

Getting started guide

• Log in to the Back Office for the first time.
• Create your menus and items.
• Set up Lightspeed Payments.
• Select and purchase hardware.
• Prepare your site for hardware installation.
• Add a user for each employee, and set up a floor plan.
• Adjust your tax, business, printing, and other configuration settings.
• Download and install the Restaurant POS (K) app.
• Place a basic test order.

Menus and items

• Set up combos for groups of items that are sold together, like a value meal.
• Attach modifiers to items to communicate cooking instructions and sub-items to the kitchen.
• Assign barcodes to items so they can be scanned with a connected barcode scanner.
• Add additional languages to the names and descriptions of your items.

Payment processing

• Add payment methods for any non-standard payment types you accept.
• Enable credit card surcharging.
• Enable Tap to Pay to accept payment directly on an iPhone.

Hardware

• Optimize your network to create a stable and efficient environment for your Lightspeed system.
• Set up passive POS devices to support your main active POS device.
• Add the Lightspeed Order Display Screen or Kitchen Display System to your setup.

Settings

• Set up preset discounts that employees can apply to orders or individual items at the POS.
• Create order profiles to automatically apply specific order settings at a particular time (like Happy Hour, for example).
• Customize printing templates to change what prints on receipts and invoices by default.
• Edit POS device settings to control how individual devices operate; for example, to change which printer or payment terminal is used.
• Adjust your reporting shifts if you want to track sales by meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner).
• Learn how to add and process payments in other currencies.

Add-ons and integrations

• Set up Order Anywhere to process online orders.
• Start using Lightspeed Accounting to automatically transfer sales data to your preferred accounting software, like QuickBooks Online.
• Do you deliver via third-party channels like Uber Eats? Lightspeed Delivery automatically syncs those orders to your POS.
• Lightspeed Loyalty and Lightspeed gift cards allow you to track, reward, and give customers a new way to share your business.
• Explore our Inventory module for more detailed stock and ingredient tracking.
• Consider our Advanced Insights module if you need more comprehensive sales reporting and insights on your data.
• If you're looking for functionality that Lightspeed doesn't provide, one of our partner integrations might fill your need.

Miscellaneous

• Set up additional user groups, POS users, and Back Office users.
• Enable tip declaration for a user group.
• Import existing customer data into Lightspeed Restaurant.

Training checklist

Next, here's a checklist of tasks that serves as a guide for training your employees. Make sure your staff is well-versed in the day-to-day tasks they'll need to know to use the Lightspeed Restaurant POS.

Transactions performed at the POS before you go live will be deleted from your account after going live. If you're training staff after you've done so, make sure to set up a training user so they can process test transactions without affecting actual sales.

Starting your day

• Clock in to the Restaurant POS (K) app to start your user shift.
• Open a sales period to start your business day in the app.
• If required, count the cash drawer.

Placing orders

• Learn how to use the Register screen, where you navigate the menu, search for items, and manage individual orders.
• Place a basic table service order, including adding items by course or seat, firing courses, sending orders to the kitchen, and more.
• Place a basic direct sale order, where you process the entire order at the POS without saving it to a table.
• Open a bar tab to pre-authorize a customer’s credit or debit card before they start ordering.
• Visit the Order management screen to view all open orders, including dine-in, pickup and delivery, and bar tabs.

Managing items

• Edit an order to delete items from it, transfer items from one order to another, reorder items, etc.
• Split an item between multiple orders.
• Transfer items between different courses.

Managing tables

• Start a new table service order.
• Access the Tables screen to view seated tables, open tables, and the status of each table's order.
• Move an order to a different table or transfer items between seats by editing an order.

Other order actions

• Add discounts, change the number of covers, and perform other order editing actions.
• Sell, activate, redeem, and check the balance of gift cards.
• View, manage, and enter online orders manually.
• Create and process a customer invoice.
• Visit the Settings menu to manage printing and connected hardware, view POS reports, see order payments, reload the device configuration, and more.

Payments and receipt

• Process the payment and tip for an order to complete it.
• Reprint, reopen, and email receipts from the Receipts screen.
• Edit or void a receipt if an employee made a mistake.
• Split the check evenly by seat or cover.
• Print a receipt for an order.
• View closed orders and add tips to them from the Payments list.
• Process standalone payments if using a third-party payment processor.
• Process a manual payment when taking an order over the phone or if a customer's card cannot be read.

Ending your day

• Clock out of the Restaurant POS (K) app to close your user shift.
• If prompted, declare tips at the conclusion of your user shift.
• Close the sales period to end your business day in the app.
• If prompted, count the cash drawer.
• Access or print a shift report for a record of the activity that took place during the sales period.

Going live with Lightspeed Restaurant

After you're completely set up and your staff has been trained, the next step is to transition from setup mode to production mode in the Back Office. After "going live," all future transactions will be counted as real ones and will directly impact your reporting.

Transactions performed at the POS during setup mode will be deleted from your account after going live. After transitioning to production mode, you cannot delete transactions.

1. Open the Lightspeed Restaurant POS (K) app on all of your location's devices, including iPads, iPhones, display systems, etc.
2. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
3. Click your name or profile icon in the upper-right corner, and select Go live.
4. If prompted, verify your business information, agree to its accuracy, and click Submit to continue.
   
5. Review the information on the page about going live.

   After going live and transitioning to production mode, you won't be able to delete transactions. Going live will set the subscription start date in your contract to the current date. You will receive a subscription fee invoice after going live.

   
6. Click Go Live | Activate Subscription to transition your account from setup mode to production mode.
7. Review the confirmation that you're live, then click the button to continue to the Back Office.
   
8. After your billing invoice is generated, select Actions > Pay Invoice to pay it. To enable auto billing and rolling payments, select Pay Invoices.
9. Close and reopen the Restaurant POS app on each POS device to reload the configuration.