Lightspeed Accounting 3.0 is currently available in Australia and the United Kingdom. Some integrations may still be in beta testing and, as a result, not accessible to all users. If you're located in a different region, follow the steps in setting up Lightspeed Accounting 2.0 instead.

To get access to Lightspeed Accounting, contact your Sales Account Manager or Lightspeed Support.

Lightspeed Accounting 3.0 integrates with Xero, QuickBooks Online, and MYOB accounting software to help you reconcile your books so you can focus on running your business. Once the integration is set up, your Back Office sales categories, including tips, revenue, and gift cards, will automatically sync to your chosen software.

Preparing Back Office for Lightspeed Accounting

Before enabling Lightspeed Accounting, verify your Back Office is properly set up by reviewing your accounting groups and payment methods.

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed Restaurant account credentials.
2. From the navigation menu, go to Menu management > Accounting groups.
3. Confirm you’ve added your desired accounting groups, assigned items to their relevant groups, and selected the correct tax profile per group.
4. From the navigation menu, go to Configuration > Settings > Payment methods.
5. Confirm that you have added all payment methods accepted by your business to this section.

Enabling Lightspeed Accounting

Enable Lightspeed Accounting from your Back Office to start syncing Lightspeed sales data to your accounting software, such as Xero, QuickBooks Online, or MYOB.

Accessing the integration setup screen 

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed Restaurant account credentials.
2. From the navigation menu, go to Integration > Accounting.
3. Click More details on the tile of your preferred accounting software.
   

   Some accounting software integrations may still be in Beta testing and, as a result, not accessible to all users.

   
4. Click Enable.
5. Click Log in and authorize to continue setup in a new tab.
6. Click Get started to connect your Lightspeed Restaurant account.
7. Enter the email address and password associated to your Lightspeed Restaurant account.
8. Click Login.
9. (Optional) If you have multiple locations, use the drop-down menu to select your desired location
10. Click Submit.
11. Click Get started to connect your accounting software.
12. Enter the email address and password associated to your accounting software.
13. Click Log in.
14. Click Allow access to enable Lightspeed to view and manage certain aspects of your accounting software for purposes of the integration.
15. Verify your company name appears correctly and click Confirm. You may need to wait a few moments before proceeding to the next step.

Completing the integration setup

As you progress through the integration setup, click Next after each step. If, at any point in the setup, you'd like to return to a previous step, click Previous.

1. In the Country section, select your country from the drop-down menu.
2. In the Sync Type section, click Journal Entry.
3. Follow the next few prompts to configure account mapping.

   Proper account mapping ensures that your accounting software will accurately reflect the transactions processed on your POS. Lightspeed cannot provide accounting advice on how to map accounts. For guidance, we recommend consulting a certified accountant.

   Sales

   • Sales: Select your sales accounts as they correspond to your Back Office accounting groups. By default, your data is mapped at the product level. If you have accounting groups configured in Back Office, then the transactions will also be reconciled against the categories specified by these groups. Please map your accounting groups to their respective accounting software accounts. You can also create new accounts in your accounting software using this drop-down menu.

   • Other accounts: Select your other accounts, including refunds, gratuity, and prepayments.

   • Tax rates: Select the tax rates as they correspond to the tax rates in Back Office.

   • Location Tracking: Enable location tracking if you have this feature set up within your accounting software. Select your Lightspeed location to map it to one of the tracking categories set up within your accounting software.

   Fees

   • Tax rates: Select the tax rates as they correspond to the tax rates in Back Office.

   • Accounts: Configure your account mapping from Back Office to your accounting software.

   Payments

   • Accounts: Select the appropriate accounts as they correspond to the payment methods in Back Office.

4. Set a sync schedule by selecting a Start date and Time zone for when you'd like to begin syncing your data. To sync historic data, you can choose a date up to 90 days in the past. Back Office syncs your data every morning at midnight in your time zone.
5. Click Complete to finish setting up the integration.

Back Office data will begin syncing to your accounting software at midnight in your specified time zone.

Updating account mappings and settings

Proper account mapping ensures that your accounting software will accurately reflect the transactions processed on your POS. Lightspeed cannot provide accounting advice on how to map accounts. For guidance, we recommend consulting a certified accountant.

Update your account mappings or settings if your business needs change after initially setting up Lightspeed Accounting.

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed Restaurant account credentials.
2. From the navigation menu, go to Integration > Accounting.
3. Click Go to sync settings.
4. In the new tab, make your desired changes to sync settings and account mappings.
5. Toggle on Sync settings to enable data syncing from Lightspeed Restaurant to your accounting software. 
6. Navigate between the tabs to adjust their settings.
   • Sales: Map your sales accounts by filtering to show only accounts that would appear as income on the profit and loss statement. For gift cards, show liability accounts since a gift card sale does not count as income until it is used. Additionally, enable location tracking, which is useful for syncing multiple business locations to the same accounting software.
   • Fees: Map your fees by filtering to show only accounts that appear as expenses on the profit and loss statement. For taxes, the list of tax profiles is based on those set up for accounting groups, then duplicated according to the percentage. The mapping options are filtered to show only those where the tax is revenue-based and the percentage matches the Lightspeed tax percentage.
   • Payments: Map your payments accounts. For payment accounts, each accounting platform will vary in determining whether payments can be deposited to an account. Sync Flow filters the list using the required logic to present only valid options for depositing payments.
   • Sync schedule: Change the time zone where your business is located. Changing the timezone will affect when syncing takes place, which is midnight local time.
   • Sync history: Visit the Viewing sync history section to learn more.
7. Click Save changes.

Viewing sync history and correcting sync errors

Check your sync history to see each time Lightspeed Accounting sent data to your accounting software and whether it was successful or generated an error.

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed Restaurant account credentials.
2. From the navigation menu, go to Integration > Accounting.
3. Click Go to sync settings.
4. In the new tab, select Sync history.
5. (Optional) Filter by Status and select a date range to customize which sync jobs will appear. Available statuses include Complete, In progress, and Error.

The Sync history table shows the ID, start time, completion time, and status of each sync job.

Correcting sync errors

Click Go to sync settings next to the sync error to verify your account mapping and update your sync settings. Depending on the error message you’ve received, there will be different troubleshooting steps to take.

• To start your first sync, go to sync settings and complete the setup: You exited the setup process without finishing it. Click Go to sync settings to finish setting up the integration.
• The following data aren't mapped to any account-if they're used in a sale, the next sync might fail: The sync was completed, but some accounts aren't mapped, which may impact future syncs. Click Go to sync settings to map your accounts and ensure an error-free sync.
• Sync failed. Update your sync settings or contact Support: The sync failed for an unknown reason. You can click Go to sync settings to investigate the issue or contact Support for help.

Frequently asked questions

• The integration currently supports Xero, QuickBooks Online, and MYOB. However, please note that some accounting software integrations may still be in beta testing and, as a result, not accessible to all users.

• Yes, both grouped and consolidated tax rates are supported.

• This integration only syncs sales data, such as product categories, transaction receipts, payment methods, and tax rates. On account sales and purchase orders currently do not sync to your accounting software.

• Yes, you can back sync data up to 90 days in the past during the setup process.

• You may be able to enter data from on account sales and purchase orders manually. For more information, contact your accounting software’s customer support.

• Sales data will appear as a manual journal entry in your accounting software.

• No, the integration only syncs your total sales for the day.