Having gone through Configuration I, you are now ready to configure the software in ways that will help you get the most out of LightSpeed. These are optional settings, but you are strongly encouraged to go through this article and invest the necessary time to these extra configurations. Spending some extra time before you go live with the software is bound to save you and your staff far more time in the long run.
Again, it is recommended that you thoroughly test your typical workflows in LightSpeed once the system is configured, to ensure that reports, accounting exports, costing, pricing, and much more are all behaving in a way that you expect. Setting up dummy Products and Customers can help you achieve this.
Tools > Setup > Products > (Color Sets, Size Sets)
The Size-Color Matrix accessible in a Product card can use color and size sets for more efficient creation of Size-Color combination Products. Create a new set by clicking the New button, and name the set you want to create. This set will then be accessible in the Size-Color Matrix of a Product card for auto-population of sizes and colors. See the article on Clothing Workflows for more information.
> Product card
If you need to create Size-Color combination Products, click the Size-Color Matrix checkbox in the Product profile of the parent Product. This parent Product should include the basics for the “stripped down” version of your Product. For instance, if you wanted to create Product cards for Size-Color combinations of a particular tshirt, the parent Product should include all information EXCEPT the sizes and colors. This information will then be added to the Product card’s Size-Color Matrix. See the article on Clothing Workflows for more information.
Tools > Setup > Products > Pricing Levels
Every Product in LightSpeed, in addition to having a regular Selling Price, can have up to ten alternate prices, called Pricing Levels. Name these Pricing Levels to correspond with these alternate prices, such as Education, Bulk Purchase, or Loyalty. Pricing Levels can be used in tandem with Customer Categories (see below) to set automatic discount levels for your Customers.
Also, each of these Pricing Levels can have their own unique Cost. These Pricing Levels can be accessed in the POS screen and in documents if the Pricing Levels can be selected per Line Item checkbox is checked. Pricing Levels and their Costs can also be utilized in the Set Selling Prices feature for batch changes of prices or costs of Products. Please see the Costs & Prices article in the Products section of the User Guide for more information.
Pricing Levels can be associated with Customer Categories for discounts automatically applied to Customer purchases. See section on Set Your Customer Categories below.
Tools > Setup > Products > Warehouses
Warehouses in LightSpeed represent virtual stockpiles of inventory that appear in your totals but that you do not want showing as available – demo equipment, for example, or slated for return to the manufacturer. Name up to ten different virtual Warehouses to reflect these possible situations. Stock can be transferred from your available quantities to one of these Warehouses, and back again, or from Warehouse to Warehouse.
For more information on Warehouses, please see the Inventory Control article.
Tools > Setup > Customers > Customer Categories
Customer Categories allow you to automatically apply discounts to your Customers on their sales documents. Click New to create a new Category, and name it. In the Discount field, you can set a percentage which will be automatically be discounted from the Product’s regular selling price. Choosing a Pricing Level in the pop-up menu below this field will automatically default to a particular Pricing Level for the Products on the sales document this Customer is attached to, provided that Pricing Level has been set for the Products being sold. Otherwise, the regular selling price will be used. Used together, the percentage discount will be taken from the Pricing Level for the Products rather than the regular selling price.
The Customer Category is set in the Customer card. If a Customer has been categorized, you will be asked each time the Customer is attached to a sales document if you want to use the discounts associated with this Category.
For more information on Pricing Levels, see the Costs & Prices article.
Tools > Setup > Customers > Customer Groups
Customer Groups allow you to group your Customers together in countless ways, and search these groups in order to do email blasts and track your Customers according to criteria you set. The groups you create here will be accessible in the Options tab of the Customer card, and can be search in the Smart Find feature of the Browser.
Please see the section on Customers for more information.
Tools > Setup > Customers > Terms
Selling to Customers on credit or buying from Suppliers on credit should require you to define your credit terms with each. Setting them here will produce a pop-up menu accessible in the Customer and Supplier cards, indicating the terms of payment you’ve agreed to.
The creation of Terms allow you labels with which to assign to your Customers for information purposes. Terms are not tied into LightSpeed's tracking of aging unpaid Invoices.
Browser > Trackers > Setup
The Trackers feature of LightSpeed is a way for you to customize a set of notifications that are relevant to you. From a list of close to 100 headings ranging from telephone calls you need to follow up on and Orders you need to invoice to Web Orders ready to process, each User in LightSpeed can configure their Trackers to list only those categories that concern them.
To configure your Trackers, click the Setup button at the bottom of the Browser for access to the Tracker Setup window. In the first column all available Trackers will be listed, and can be sorted alphabetically by clicking the header, or reverse alphabetically by clicking it a second time.
To install a Tracker, simply drag it from the first column to the second; multiple Trackers can be installed using the Apple key. A Tracker can be highlighted in red in the Browser by clicking the Alerted checkbox.
Tools > Setup > Advanced > Custom Fields
One of the most powerful ways you can customize LightSpeed to tailor-fit your business is by using Custom Fields. You have the ability to add up to ten new fields to Customers, Products, Suppliers, Sales Documents, and Purchase Orders, allowing you to collect information that isn’t pre-programmed into LightSpeed already. Each Custom Field can be a text field (to store text or numbers), a date field (to store a date), or a checkbox field (to create a checkbox that can be ticked or unticked) for further flexibility, and you have the option to make the field printed or not. Printed Custom Fields appear on the documents they've been added to. Custom Fields appear in the Options tab of the documents and cards they’re created for.
For even more power for customization, use Custom Fields in tandem with Smart Finds (see below) to organize and track your Products, Customers, and documents in new, unimagined ways.
You have a Platinum Plus club for your Customers. You could create a text Custom Field to record their membership number, and this number could be printed on every sales document they’re attached to.
Tools > Set Selling Prices/Set Product Info
Two of the most powerful timesaving features of LightSpeed include Set Selling Prices and Set Product Info.
Set Selling Prices applies batch changes for LightSpeed’s multiple prices and costs. With the set of criteria, you can determine a subset of Products, and then set an Action to change any of the various Pricing Levels, the Cost, or the Web Price, using any of the other Pricing Levels, Costs, or Web Price as a basis for calculation. Set Product Info allows you to set data for Products that is not price-related – quantity, GL Accounts, Class/Family, reorder point, and more.
In each of these features, the Apply button will apply the Action to the subset of existing Products found by the Criteria once only. The Rules button will allow you to create a rule for application in the future, and by checking its checkbox and making it “live”, LightSpeed will automatically prompt you anytime any Products which meet the criteria for that Live Rule are saved, asking whether or not you want the rule applied. Live Rules ensure that uniform pricing or Product info is maintained even as Product card are modified or new Products are created.
Batch changes made using Set Selling Prices and Set Product info are permanent and cannot be undone, except by applying another Action. Also, when adjusting Product Cost, you must specify which Supplier’s Cost you’re affecting with the pop-up menu at the bottom of the menu. For more information, see the Product Rules article.
Source List > Smart Find Button
Smart Finds give you the ability to set a particular set of criteria, and either find the results immediately and display them in the Browser, export them to a text file, or Save them, creating a clickable icon accessible in the Source List which does an immediate find when accessed and displaying the results as of that moment in the Main List.
Products, Customers, Suppliers, all sales documents, Purchase Orders, and Supplier Invoices can be searched and sorted using Smart Finds. To create a new Smart Find, click the Source you want to search, and in the resulting window, choose the criteria. In the header bar you will see the quantity of items that will be found by that set of criteria. Clicking Find will find the results immediately, clicking Export will save the results in a text file, and clicking Save will create a Smart Find icon in the Source List of the Browser under the Source you were searching, accessible by clicking the detail arrow that appears when a Source has at least one saved Smart Find.
The criteria of Smart Finds can also include the Custom Fields you've created, allowing you limitless possibilities for adding expanded functionality.
I create a checkbox Custom Field called “Stockable” for Products, to record which Products I want to keep in stock, and a text Custom Field called “Industry”, to record which markets the Product will appeal to. I can then create a Smart Find to find all Products where “stockable” is checked and the Industry is “Safety”, producing a list of Products I should have in stock for the safety industry.
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Tools > Setup > Advanced > Phrases
Phrases are a way to store a longer segment of text that can be accessed from various places in LightSpeed where you might need to enter a phrase or a few standard phrases. To enter a phrase, click New, and enter the text you want to save. Click Save.
To access your saved Phrases, use the Command-' key combination within Notes fields, Custom Fields, and more.
