LightSpeed for iPad

Introduction

LightSpeed for iPad allows you to connect to your LightSpeed database wirelessly using your Apple iPad, giving you the ability to create Invoices, process payments, take signatures, email or print receipts, and look up products anywhere in your store. 

LightSpeed iPad 1.0 requires LightSpeed 3.6.

Requirements

A complete LightSpeed for iPad setup has five separate components:

iPad or iPad 2 - the main device with which a retailer used the touch interface to operate the LightSpeed for iPad app and enters information for the creation of Invoices, Product lookup, and signature entry

LightSpeed for iPad app - available on the Apple App Store, LightSpeed for iPad is the software required to install on the iPad and used to log into your store's main LightSpeed database

LightSpeed 3.6 or higher - the central database accessed by LightSpeed for iPad as well as any other fixed sales station such as an iMac.

Socket bluetooh barcode scanner - a wireless barcode scanner that consists of 2 pieces: the scanner itself, and a separate USB-connected base that connects to the nearest Mac.

iDynamo magnetic card reader - a piece that connects to the iPad dock connector and allows a User to swipe credit cards for payment processing through LightSpeed.

Using LightSpeed for iPad without the scanner or card reader allows you to log into a LightSpeed database as outlined in this document, but you will be unable to scan barcodes or swipe credit cards. However, you can search for Products and enter credit card numbers manually, or incorporate a payment terminal to process credit and debit payments. 

LightSpeed for iPad may also incorporate a payment terminal. For information on the setup of the payment terminal, click here, and see the Payments section below. 

Licenses 

LightSpeed's licensing is based on concurrent users. For example, if my store usually has three (3) users logged in at once, I would purchase a 3-user license, even though I may have LightSpeed installed on 5 different computers. Because LightSpeed for iPad is considered a standard user, it is included in the number of licenses counted for concurrent users. That is, if I currently have a 3-user license, and I wish to incorporate LightSpeed for iPad into my installation, I would likely add another license so my 3 users could continue to use LightSpeed concurrently, and I could also be logged into LightSpeed for iPad at the same time.

Setup and Login

The basic operations of LightSpeed for iPad requires no setup or configuration in LightSpeed. If you are upgrading your existing database to include additional licenses for a new iPad, you simply need to refresh your license and follow the steps below to log in on the iPad. 

1. Purchase and download the LightSpeed for iPad app from iTunes. 
2. Launch LightSpeed for iPad and tap into the Server field. Identify the LightSpeed database on your network and select it. For more information, please see the Installation and Networking document of the User Guide.  
3. Enter a Username and Password. Tap Login. 

Home Screen

The LightSpeed for iPad home screen lists several options:

New Invoice - used to create a new LightSpeed Invoice for the sale of Products to a Customer

Search - used to look up Products based on particular criteria

Resend Receipt - allows you to select from a list of today's Invoices and send it via email to the Customer

Settings - the "gear" icon at the bottom of the home screen accesses the settings for your iPad, including the version of LightSpeed for iPad software, your LightSpeed version, the name of that particular iPad station, the Payment Terminal (see below for details), and Printing (see below for details). Note: The name you give this iPad in Station Name will allow you to complete an End of Day report for this specific unit. 

Log Out - allows you to log out the current User from LightSpeed for iPad

New Invoice

Tap the New Invoice button on the LightSpeed for iPad home screen to begin creating a new Invoice. The basic procedure for creating an Invoice is: 

Adding an existing Customer

1. Tap the Customer "edit" icon at the bottom of the Invoice detail screen. Select Walk In to add basic contact information that will only be saved to this one Invoice, and will not create a new Customer profile. Enter as much or as little information you choose to in the Name/Contact/Zip Code fields displayed when you choose Walk In. Tap Save. 
2. Rather than select a Walk In customer, you may tap Select Customer, then search your existing LightSpeed database for a Customer profile, based on fields such as name, telephone number, or address. Enter the text and tap Search. Tap the "+" icon beside the Customer you wish to add to the Invoice, or just the name to display their info.
3. You could also click the Search (magnifying glass) icon to get to the main search layout. Next, tap the Customer icon (as opposed to the Product icon) and enter your search term. 

Creating a Customer

1. Tap the Customer "edit" icon at the bottom of the Invoice detail screen. 
2. Tap into any field you wish to enter data in. Choose whether the Customer is a company or an individual, and enter any relevant telephone, email, or address information.  It is up to you how much or how little information you enter here; more information may be added in the future. Click Create when you've finished.

Editing a Customer

1. Tap the Customer icon at the bottom of the Invoice detail screen. Select Search Customer, and enter your search terms as described above. 
2. Add the Customer to your Invoice.
3. Tap the "edit" icon, and tap Edit Customer. Tap any field in the contact info to edit it. Click Save when finished. 

Adding Products to an Invoice

1. If you have connected the Socket barcode scanner, you can use it to scan any Product's barcode to add it to the Invoice. The Product must exist in LightSpeed for you to be able to add it to your Invoice. For information on configuring the Socket scanner, please see the Assembling Hardware section below. 
2. You may also tap the Product button at the left of the Invoice detail screen, and then enter a search term to do a text search for the Product(s) you're looking for; Lightspeed for iPad searches the Product Codes and Descriptions in your database. The results display each Product's Product Code, Description, and Price. Tap the "+" icon to add the Product to your Invoice, or just the line to preview the Product's image and inventory statuses.  
3. Once you've added a Product to your Invoice, you'll see the subtotal change. You may continue to add Products by scanning their barcode, or by tapping the "+" icon and following the procedure listed in step 2 above. Every Product you add will modify the Invoice Subtotal displayed at the bottom of the Invoice detail screen. 
4. You may remove a Product by sliding your finger from left to right on the Product you wish to remove, and tapping Delete. 

Editing Line Items

LightSpeed for iPad allows you to edit Invoice line items in four ways - their descriptions, their quantities, any discount associated with that Product, and, if "Editable Selling Price" is enabled for the Product being edited, the actual Sell Price.

To edit a line item:

1. While in the Invoice layout, tap the Product you wish to edit. 
2. In the resulting window, tap the item you wish to edit - Description, Quantity, Discount, or Sell Price. 
3. Edit the item using the keyboard that appears, then tap Save to save your changes. When entering a discount, you must indicate if the discount is to be calculated by percentage or dollar amount. 
4. Tap Done to return to the Invoice layout.

Invoice Settings

Invoice Discount

To apply a dollar or percentage discount to all Products on your Invoice at the time the discount is applied, tap the "coins" icon, then select the $ or % sign and enter the numeric value for the discount. Note: Any Product added to the Invoice after using the document discount setting will not have a discount applied, and must be discounted separately. 

Tax Code

To toggle through your different Tax Codes, click the "Tax" icon and select the desired Tax Code. 

Salesperson

Click the "nametag" icon to access your list of Users, and select the User you want to associate to this sale as the Salesperson.

Adding Notes

As in LightSpeed, you may add printed or internal notes to your Invoice using LightSpeed for iPad. In the Invoice detail screen, tap the Notes icon. Then, select either Printed or Internal, and enter the notes you wish to record for this Invoice. To return to the line items on your Invoice, tap outside the Notes field. 

Payments

To pay your Invoice, tap the Check Out button at the top of the Invoice detail screen. 

Credit Card Payments

If paying by credit card, click the appropriate card type (Visa, Mastercard, etc), as defined in the Payment Methods setup of LightSpeed. There are three possibilities when processing credit card payments with LightSpeed for iPad, and each require the integration of a payment gateway through LightSpeed: 

1. Scanning Credit Cards with iDynamo Scanner

1. Swipe the card with the magnetic strip facing up and to the left. Once the information is entered, select Process. Or, you can choose Manual and enter the card number and expiry information manually. Tap Process. 
2. LightSpeed for iPad then submits the payment through your pre-configured credit card payment account. 
3. You will then see an "Approved" or "Declined" icon. Tap Dismiss. 
4. The next step is for the customer to sign their name using their finger on the iPad. Tap Done. 

2. Entering Credit Card Number Manually

1. Tap the Manual button. Enter the card number and expiry date, and tap Process.
2. Follow steps 3 and 4 as above.  

3. Using a Payment Terminal (for both credit and debit card payments)

1. You must first have configured a payment terminal in LightSpeed (instructions here) and enabled the terminal in the LightSpeed for iPad settings (under Pairing a Terminal below). 
2. Tap a card payment method to apply the payment, and confirm or edit the amount. 
3. Tap Continue. The customer then swipes their card on the payment terminal and enters their PIN. 
4. The terminal will notify the customer if their payment has been approved or declined. 

If you are processing credit and debit payments through Tyro, you must use the Hand Off Invoice feature to relay the transaction to a POS station, and complete the payment there using the Banksys payment terminal. More instructions may be found here. 

 

Other Payment Methods

If your Customer is paying by a method other than a credit or debit card, or if you are not processing credit cards through LightSpeed, tap the Hand Off Invoice button, and then the confirmation dialog. LightSpeed for iPad will display an Invoice ID that will be "dispatched" to all sales stations logged into the POS screen, as indicated by a special orange marker in the "Hold" section. Clicking this marker activates the Invoice, and payment can be applied at the desktop sales station as it would with any other POS invoice. Once the marker is clicked on one POS station, it will disappear from all others. 

Choose Dismiss to be returned to the home screen of LightSpeed for iPad.

Search

The Search feature operates in a similar fashion as the inventory lookup when creating an Invoice, does not by default create a new transaction, while still displaying important information about a Product. 

1. Select Search on the home screen. 
2. Either use the Socket scanner to scan a Product's barcode, or use the search to find Products based on their Product Code or Description. In fact, you may activate the barcode scanner from the home screen and scan a Product to find its detail without tapping the Search icon. 
3. From the resulting list, select a Product. LightSpeed for iPad will display its description, price, image, and inventory statuses. Tap Products to return to the results list. 
4. From the results list, you may continue to do more Inventory Lookups, or choose Back to return to the home screen. 

Resend Receipt

The Resend Receipt feature will display a list of Invoices created today, including their Invoice ID, Customer info, and Grand Total. Select the Invoice for which you want to email a receipt to the Customer. From the resulting screen, enter the Customer's email, and choose Send. 

For this feature to work, you must enable the Email Receipt feature of LightSpeed's Point of Sale screen. For more info, see the Point of Sale User Guide article.

Printing

LightSpeed for iPad will print to any Star Micronics TSP printer that is directly connected to the computer running LightSpeed Server, or accessible on your network through printer sharing. Then, once you have processed a credit card payment, and the Customer has signed for their transaction, you can either email them a copy of their receipt to their inbox, print a copy to a TSP printer, or both. Click here for instructions on adding the Star Micronics printer to your network. 

To open a cash drawer during a LightSpeed for iPad transaction, the cash drawer must be connected via the Star Micronics TSP100 printer. 

Setup

To enable TSP receipt printing in LightSpeed for iPad:

1. Tap the "Settings" (gear) icon from the home screen.
2. In the Settings window, set the Enable Printing setting to "On".
3. Tap the resulting "Printer" field, and then select the TSP printer to which you wish to print Invoices. 
4. Tap the Settings icon once more to return to the home screen.  

Printing

After you have processed the credit card transaction, and the Customer has entered their signature on the iPad, tap Done. You'll get the choice to Finish Invoice, Email Invoice, or Print Invoice. Tapping Email Receipt or Print Receipt will perform the selected action, but will allow you to also perform another until you select Finish Invoice. 

 

Pairing a Terminal

To pair an iPad with a specific payment terminal, tap the "gear" icon at the bottom of the home screen. Tap into the Terminal field, and select the desired terminal from the list of payment terminals you've configured in LightSpeed. 

Enabling the payment terminal in this way requires that credit and debit card payments are processed through the terminal, and not by using the iDynamo card swipe attachment. 

For more instructions on configuration of debit terminals, click here.  

Assembling Hardware

To connect an iPad to a Socket scanner, follow this procedure: 

1. Power on the Socket scanner. 
2. Scan the "iOS Mode" square barcode in the Socket User Manual in the "Command Barcodes" section.
3. Enable your iPad's bluetooth setting (Settings > General Settings) and then pair the iPad with the Socket scanner once it's "discovered" by the iPad. 
4. You are now ready to scan Product barcodes within LightSpeed for iPad. 

To connect an iPad to an iDynamo swipe, follow this procedure: 

1. Slide the iDynamo connector into the iPad's dock connector, making sure the fit is snug. 
2. Your iPad is now ready to swipe credit cards when prompted in LightSpeed for iPad.