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It is difficult to manage inventory in a company with multiple locations and hundreds or thousands of products. Lightspeed’s software helps companies track the right amount of inventory for every location at any given time, alleviating some pressure on management teams…
The “lightspeed pos” is a software that helps users to manage inventory. It allows the user to track information about their products and keep track of their sales. In 7 steps, you can use it successfully.
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use the Lightspeed POS system to manage inventory. Because it’s a browser-based platform, you can sign up for a free trial and start using it right away. We’ll go through how to add goods, submit POs, receive and tag inventory, perform inventory counts, and reconcile discrepancies.
Our top-recommended POS inventory system is Lightspeed, which is great for medium enterprises with several locations. It includes capabilities for age verification, payment processing, and analytics reporting. Register for a free trial.
Lightspeed is a great place to start.
To test the system, follow the steps below and download our Lightspeed sample inventory list. It’s made with the help of Lightspeed’s product import file. Additionally, to see the program in action, watch this fast video on the fundamentals of Lightspeed inventory management.
Log in to your Lightspeed account first.
Go to the Lightspeed website and input your login credentials to access your dashboard after you’ve created an account. On the left, you’ll see a vertical navigation bar. Select “Inventory” from the drop-down menu.
Step 2: Fill in the blanks with your products.
You must first enter your product information into Lightspeed POS before you can manage inventory. Everything from the product name, wholesale and retail price, and description to vendor and manufacturer information, SKU numbers, and UPC is included in this data.
You may add your items to Lightspeed in one of four ways:
- Items from a database may be imported.
- Items from a vendor catalog may be imported.
- Manually enter goods
- Matrixes are used to add goods and variations.
We’ll go through each one individually here.
1. Using a Database to Import Products
If you have a spreadsheet with all of your product data, Lightspeed can import it for you. To do so, go to “Inventory” first, then “Import Items.”
A green “+ New Import” button may be seen in the top right corner. That should be clicked.
You may drag & drop or click to choose your CSV or XLSX file on the following screen. You may also choose whether this is a completely new import, an update to existing items, or a mix of the two.
If you don’t know how to format the spreadsheet, you may get a template from Lightspeed by scrolling down.
Lightspeed will also import all of your vendor and customer data. Finally, this implies a swift transition to a more efficient POS system without losing critical data. Lightspeed is one of the top POS inventory systems for small company merchants for this reason.
Expect the product upload to take longer than expected. It will take some time for Lightspeed to review your import file. We had to wait around 20 minutes for our 100-item file to be ready to upload.
Lightspeed will send you an automatic email once it has finished verifying your import file.
You may then select “Finish Import” to return to the Lightspeed program. The goods will be put into your POS inventory when you click “Import Items.”
Despite the fact that another loading screen may appear, this stage of the procedure was significantly faster—it only took a few seconds.
It took roughly 20 minutes to upload 100 goods, as previously said. Keep in mind that depending on how much formatting and edits you need to do to the spreadsheet before commencing the upload process, it might take considerably longer.
It’s also worth noting that we didn’t include any photographs or product shots, which would have sped up the process.
2. Using Lightspeed’s Vendor Catalog to Import Products
Lightspeed includes a preloaded supplier market with over 8 million goods from over 100 categories. Lightspeed POS enables merchants to make wholesale orders and import items straight into their databases. Because you’re importing product data straight from the supplier, it just takes a few minutes to put up a PO using this technique.
Navigate to “Vendor Catalogs” on the Inventory page to add items from these catalogs. Select all of the categories that apply to your company and then click “Save Changes.”
Your vendor list now includes all of the suppliers linked with those industries.
You can add individual items from those vendors by submitting a PO. Go to “Inventory” > “New Order.”
By choosing the firm from the Vendor selection area in the PO, you may add products from the vendor you desire. After that, click “Save Changes.”
This will take you to the PO, where you may add goods from that provider individually. Select “Search All Catalogs” if you wish to add goods from several merchants.
This will bring up a vast list of items from which you can choose which ones to add to your shopping cart. This huge list of items might be difficult to explore, but you can refine your search by category and brand, which can help you find what you’re looking for.
Once you’ve found the things you wish to add, click “Import” on the left side of the listing to open a product page where you can fill in the data.
Alternatively, you may choose a number of things and then click “Import/Add Selected” at the bottom. These will add the items to the PO as well as your product list.
3. Manually Adding Products
Lightspeed also enables you to manually enter items and information. Unless you have a small inventory list, this will be a time-consuming operation when you first start using Lightspeed. When you simply need to add one or a few things after setup, however, manually adding goods makes more sense.
Click “Inventory” and then “New Item” to do so.
On the following page, you’ll find a form with fields for price, SKU, vendor, category, and other product details.
4. Incorporating Product Matrixes
Finally, products may be added to a product matrix. This matrix enables you to swiftly add goods with many colors or sizes at the same time, as well as note varying inventory levels or pricing as required. This is also useful for grouping all of a product’s variations into one product listing rather than having separate listings for various sizes and colors.
From the main Inventory page, choose “Matrix” to add product matrices.
This will take you to a page where you may create new matrices and manage the ones you already have. Select “New Matrix” from the drop-down menu.
Now you’ll fill in the data for your fundamental products, such as the description, brand, seller, and price. You’ll also choose your matrix properties on this page.
The matrix attributes are restricted to color/size, size, color, and a custom three-attribute setting—which may be beneficial if you’re selling a product with numerous sizes, washes, and lengths (like pants). You cannot, however, modify the title of the qualities.
After you’ve chosen the variables you’ll need for your product matrix, fields to fill in the individual versions will display. For each version, you may add up to 40 parameters.
After you’ve entered all of the necessary characteristics, click “Save Changes” in the upper left corner of the screen. You may alter specifics like price and stock levels for each choice by populating a matrix field with all of the numerous potential attribute combinations.
Step 3: Create & Submit POs Manually or Automatically
Calculating how much of each product you need takes up a lot of time and effort when creating a PO. Lightspeed can setup POs for you with the correct parameters. You may build up particular criteria in Lightspeed to produce POs automatically by recording your inventory on hand and lowering your inventory count after each sale.
Lightspeed POS can also integrate POs for the same vendor, allowing you to keep track of everything in one spot. All you have to do now is go through the PO with your vendor and submit it.
You may also choose from a variety of regulations for various shops. Assume you have two physical stores (Stadium Shop and City Store) as well as an online store (nmbr1fan.com), each of which stocks and orders its own goods.
Team Pompoms may sell faster in one place than in another. If this is the case, you may create a rule for each shop separately. When the Stadium Store’s on-hand inventory level hits 25, it can automatically reorder 100 Team Pompoms, but when the City Store’s on-hand inventory level reaches 5, it can automatically create a PO for 15 Team Pompoms.
To do so, go to Inventory and choose Item Search from the drop-down menu.
Select a product from this page to view its description, price, and costs, as well as current stock in the top right corner and automatic reordering information in the middle.
Set a reorder point (the point at which your stock level will trigger a reorder) and a reorder level to implement automated reorders (the number of the product you want to automatically reorder). If you have many locations buying goods, keep in mind that these amounts may fluctuate if the product sells at a different pace.
All of these automated reorders will be available for you to add when you’re ready to submit your POs to your suppliers. To do so, go to “Inventory” and then “Master Order,” then “Add Reorders.”
By choosing “Add Reorders,” you may add all goods at or below reorder points automatically.
The items you need to reorder will show automatically below. You may change order amounts or delete items from the master order list entirely at this time.
Click “Assign Goods to Orders” after you’ve gathered the items and quantities you’ll need. This will produce POs for each vendor based on the master order list.
You may now make any necessary changes to those POs (for example, to add in new products or items not yet on the reorder list). Last but not least, send them to your merchants.
It’s vital to remember that automated reorders aren’t sent to your suppliers automatically. They still need your permission, so you may make adjustments at any time.
Step 4: Use Lightspeed POS to receive inventory
Inventory shrinkage may occur for a variety of causes, including human mistake, vendor fault, and fraud. Assuming you’re sending in proper POs, the delivery of goods is the first place to look for expensive mistakes.
It’s critical to ensure that your suppliers provide the necessary items, quantity, pricing, and quality. These tests may be performed using your Lightspeed POS.
Receiving Inventory Tips
- Examine each invoice carefully. Verify that the PO, invoice, and shipping all match.
- Any discrepancies between the PO, invoice, and shipping should be noted right once.
- Before settling the invoice, resolve any inconsistencies with your suppliers.
- Within 24 hours of discovering a discrepancy, contact your vendor to explain and fix the invoice.
- Before storing or stocking the item, update the inventory counts.
You’ll know precisely how much inventory is coming into your business if you follow these suggestions, and you’ll avoid paying for additional things or items you didn’t get. Read our guide on inventory loss for more helpful hints like these.
When you get a delivery, you may verify your products using Lightspeed mobile. You may also do it on the PC by choosing “Inventory” and then “Purchase Orders.”
Pull up the matching PO from there. This will display all of the items you purchased from the merchant.
Then, in the top left corner, click “Check In.”
You are now able to receive deliveries. Use a bar code reader to scan each item or manually choose it. If the order is minimal and you can account for everything quickly, you may choose “Receive All Items” to expedite the procedure.
Select “Add Received to Inventory” once you’ve verified the delivery. All things received will be added to the inventory on-hand count at that location. Select “Purchase Order Finished” after you’re finished.
If you neglected to verify an inventory item at this stage, it will appear in the PO as Not Received or Partially Received.
You may send a copy of the PO to your vendor along with a letter explaining the disparity while still in the PO.
Return to Lightspeed’s Inventory and search for the item or items supplied once you’ve received inventory and put it to your database. The overall stock counts will be updated.
Step 5: Tag Inventory: Label Inventory & Stock the Shelves (optional)
It’s possible that your inventory has its own barcodes. If that’s the case, all you’ll need to do now is add a price tag with your logo, and your goods will be ready to sale.
If you’re selling craft goods, whether your own or others’, your inventory is unlikely to include barcodes. Lightspeed allows you to design and print your own own barcode stickers. It suggests a Zebra Label Printer, however other printers are also compatible. We’ve compiled a list of the finest barcode printers for small retail stores.
In the long run, tagging your inventory today will save you a lot of time. Your colleagues just need to scan to acquire price information at customer checkouts, and inventory counts will be automatically adjusted. When all you have to do is scan an item using a Bluetooth barcode scanner during physical inventory counts, you’ll save time.
Step 6: Count your physical inventory.
The first benefit of a contemporary POS system is that it gives you with an up-to-date, accurate inventory count based on sales, so you’re immediately ahead of the game. The second benefit is that it is quick.
Select “Inventory” from the drop-down menu, then “Inventory Counts.”
Then, in the top right corner, pick the green “+ New Inventory Count” button.
Give your inventory count a name. To preserve consistency and make it easier to discover information later, I suggest sticking to a predetermined timetable and naming pattern. Read our guide to retail inventory management to understand how to perform cycle and yearly inventory counts.
You may now scan bar codes or manually choose goods and count them. If anything requires your immediate attention, the system will preserve it so you may return to it later.
I definitely suggest using a barcode scanner instead of manually looking for items since it is much quicker. Alternatively, you may print and distribute count sheets to your team. This option is appropriate if you require a manager to double-check the counts before they’re recorded to avoid internal theft. This option is particularly useful if you wish to distribute the counts across many team members by allocating various workers to different product categories or divisions.
The count sheets are prepared without the predicted on-hand numbers, so it’s a blind count from the start.
Step 7: Conciliate Disagreements
You’re ready to reconcile after you’ve done your physical inventory count. There would be no discrepancy between what you physically counted and what your POS has labeled as stock on hand in an ideal world. If there are, now is the time to account for them and ensure that your POs refill inventory levels to the proper levels.
If your physical count page is still active, that’s fantastic. If not, go back to it by going to “Inventory,” choosing “Inventory Counts,” and then selecting the count you want to reconcile. Select “Reconcile” if your physical count is complete.
When you reconcile your numbers, your inventory number will be updated to match the results of your physical count. It’s now time to go through Shrinkage again.
The Shrinkage reporting will reveal the gap between what your POS predicted based on recorded deliveries and sales and what you really have. It will show you the differences in number of units and total value by product.
Your inventory counts have been updated, and you’re ready to return to your vendors and submit fresh POs if needed.
Conclusion
Lightspeed POS and other current POS systems may completely transform the way you handle inventory in your small company. Inventory management is one of the few areas in which many small firms still rely on technology and procedures from previous generations.
Because Lightspeed’s platform is straightforward and powerful, upgrading to a new POS system is fast and easy. This is a simple approach to save time and money if your small company moves any sort of goods in large quantities. Day after day, quarter after quarter, year after year, it will give you dividends. Sign up for a 14-day free trial.
Lightspeed is a great place to start.
