As you enter data into LightSpeed, it will become increasingly important for you to create reports based on that data. In the Reporting module, found at Tools > Reporting, you have access to over 300 reports, searchable by date range and able to be filtered for more specific results. The results of your search may be seen in one of three formats – a printout, a preview, or an export to tab-delimited format.
Reports are sorted into major Categories, covering areas such as Sales, Taxes, Commissions, Inventory, and more. Within each Category you can access the individual Reports that you wish to run. For instance, within the Sales category, you can run a report based on the Date, Class, or Size and Color, to name a few.
In most reports, you set a date range for the report, and set filters with which to limit your results. The Report Filters available in the pop-up menus at the bottom of the Reporting window will allow you seek very specific results, or to filter out specific data from the reports that are produced.
When you have set the parameters for the report you want, you can click the Print button at the bottom of the window for a printed version, or you can click Preview to produce an OS X preview of the report. With the navigation bar that appears in the upper left corner, you can choose to navigate through the pages of the report, you can choose to print it by clicking the printer icon, or export the results by clicking the “disk” icon.
Previewing a report will display a small control panel that will allow you to advance pages, jump to the last page, print the report, or export the results to a tab-delimited file.
Rather than hunting through Categories and Reports to find reports you need to run frequently, they can be saved as presets that can be accessed by clicking the Presets button.
