Once you have Lightspeed Tasks up and running, you can set up checklists for your staff to ensure they know what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and to verify that it’s been done correctly.

Creating a checklist

Checklists are lists of tasks that must be completed. When creating a checklist, you can schedule it by day or time and assign it to specific people or roles. Email notifications can be sent to employees and managers to remind them of the task and to confirm completion.

1. Navigate to Tasks > Checklists in the Back Office.
2. Click Create Checklist.
3. Fill in the checklist settings as needed.
4. Click Create checklist to finish setting up the checklist.

Checklist settings

You enter a checklist's settings when you create it, but you can also edit them at any time thereafter. These settings are split into a few sections: Details, Notifications, and Tasks.

Details

Checklist details include the checklist's title, which users it applies to, its schedule, and other basic information.

Notifications

Checklist notifications are optional alerts that can be sent to remind staff before the checklist is due or confirm the checklist's completion.

Tasks

Tasks are added to a checklist by clicking the + Add task button. At least one task must be added to a checklist before it can be saved.

Using the checklist summary

Back Office users with the correct permissions can view the reports of scheduled checklists to see their completion rates or any notifications that may need attention. Users can only see reports for the locations that they have access to.

To view the checklist summary, navigate to Tasks > Summary in the Back Office.

Summary details

• Date: The date or date range of the summary. By default, the report for today is displayed on the page.

  To change the date, click on it. Then select a new start date and end date from the calendar that appears. To view a single day, select the same date as both the start and end. Click Apply to view the report with the new date range.

• Location: Checklists are sorted by location.
• Completion rate: The fraction and percentage of checklists completed, as well as a line graphically showing the percentage of checklists completed.
• Name: Title of the checklist.
• Due by: The required completion time of the checklist.
• Status: The current status of the checklist: In progress or Incomplete.
• Progress: The fraction and percentage of tasks completed, as well as a line graphically showing the percentage of tasks completed.

The number of rows per page and page navigation are at the bottom of each location’s section.

Viewing completion logs

To view the completion logs of a checklist, click the title of the checklist in the summary.

Completion log details

• Summary: Displays the Completion rate as a percentage of tasks completed, Tasks completed as the number of tasks completed, and Time between tasks which is the average time between task completion.
• Task: The name of the task.
• Status: The current status of the task: Completed, In progress, or Incomplete.
• Completed by: The name of the user that completed the task and the date and time it was completed.
• Issues: Any problems or missing information related to the task completion is noted here, such as a missing response or a temperature that exceeds a set minimum.
• Comment: Any additional comments or information provided by the user completing the task.

To expand the task details, click the arrow icon at the start of the row.

Importing tasks

You can import tasks to create a new checklist faster. Download a CSV template, enter your tasks in the file, then upload it to add the tasks to a new checklist.

You can only import tasks when creating a new checklist. You can’t import to overwrite tasks in an existing checklist.

Download a template

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed Restaurant account credentials.
2. From the navigation menu, go to Tasks > Checklists.
3. Click Import from file. 
4. In the Import tasks pop-up, click Lightspeed import spreadsheet (.csv). The template downloads automatically.

Prepare your file for import

Open the downloaded CSV file and enter your task details. Before you upload your file, review these formatting requirements:

1. Don’t change the column headers in the template.
2. Fill in one task per row.
3. For each task, use the format below for each field.
4. Each row must include a task name.
5. Keep all text on a single line within each field. For example, don’t split descriptions into paragraphs.
6. Counts and multiple-choice response types can't be imported.
7. If you set Temperature to “Yes”, enter values for Min temperature and Max temperature.
8. Include a maximum of 255 tasks per file.
9. Include a maximum of 255 characters for text fields.
10. The template is already a CSV file. Keep it in CSV (.csv) format when you save your changes:
    • Save as CSV in Excel
    • Save as CSV in Numbers

For definitions of each field and response type, see the setting descriptions.

Uploading the template

1. From the navigation menu, go to Tasks > Checklist.
2. Click Import from file. 
3. In the Import tasks pop-up, drag and drop or browse to select your prepared CSV file.
4. Click Import tasks.

After you upload the file, the data is validated. If the file contains errors, you’ll see a message that lists the row and column and explains what needs to be fixed. The checklist isn’t created until you resolve the errors.

If the file is valid, you’re returned to the new checklist with tasks pre-populated from the CSV in the Tasks section.  From there, edit your checklist settings as needed, then click Create checklist. This creates the new checklist and saves your imported tasks and checklist settings.

Using a checklist template

Instead of creating checklists from scratch or importing tasks, you can use pre-made checklist templates to get started faster, such as Opening front of house or Closing back of house. When you select a template, a new checklist with pre-filled tasks is created for you. To preview the tasks before you select a template, click the eye icon (Preview).

Editing a checklist

Edit a checklist to make changes to it. For example, you may need to change the users assigned to it, add or remove tasks, or update notification settings.

1. Navigate to Tasks > Checklists in the Back Office.
2. Click the name of the checklist you wish to edit.
3. Make your desired changes to the checklist settings.
4. Click Update checklist to save.

Changing the order of a checklist is done by dragging the stacked three lines to the left of the task name to its new position.

Deleting a checklist

Delete checklists you are no longer using to remove them from the Back Office.

1. Navigate to Tasks > Checklists in the Back Office.
2. Click the trashcan icon in the row of the checklist you wish to delete.

3. Review the prompt that appears.

   Deleting a checklist will also remove all of its tasks. This action cannot be undone.

4. Click Delete checklist to confirm the deletion.

What's next?