Lightspeed launches enhanced integrated accounting tools to save time and streamline tasks for independent business owners

In a recent poll conducted by OnePoll, Lightspeed found that business owners in the United Kingdom reported spending five to eight hours a week on their business finances, and 66% said they still manually track their books, which can lead to significant reporting errors. Lightspeed (NYSE:LSPD) (TSX: LSPD), a leading provider of cloud-based, omnichannel commerce platforms, today announced the release of new integrated accounting tools for Lightspeed Accounting that help independent business owners securely automate bookkeeping tasks, saving hours a week by eliminating the need to manually transfer data, connecting their Lightspeed platform directly to their accounting software. 

Simplified Accounting with a Broad Range of Tools

The direct integration allows business managers to automate sending all their sales data directly to a broad range of accounting softwares like Quickbooks, Xero, Sage, and more. By automating the data transfer, business owners reduce the hours spent on their business finances. Lightspeed Accounting users spend on average five minutes a day on bookkeeping tasks that would previously take hours to complete manually. 

The new Lightspeed accounting integration:

• Reduces the likelihood of human errors by automating manual processes
• Provides an automated daily summary of sales
• Tracks revenue streams across multiple locations with complete accuracy 

“No one starts a small retail business or restaurant because they’re passionate about paperwork,” said Lightspeed Founder and CEO Dax Dasilva. “Business owners pride themself on their products and customer service. At Lightspeed, we try to make the complex work easy, so they can focus on the tasks they are passionate about. Using integrated accounting tools, much like integrated payments, saves time and money for entrepreneurs.”

A “Nightmare”: Majority of Merchants Still Manually Track Their Books 

Lightspeed’s integrated accounting tools have been a game-changer for Virtuosity Musical Instruments, a Boston-based instrument sales, and repair shop. 

“With Lightspeed, my books take me five minutes a day and we’re done. It’s really quite simple,” said owner Steve Johnson. “My bookkeeper was very excited to have something that would just drop into Quickbooks on a daily download.” 

The key to simplicity for Johnson is the integration with his Lightspeed platform. “Errors happen when you have to manually input something more than once,” he said of his previous accounting system. “It gives me nightmares when I see people using a spreadsheet for their accounting. Lightspeed Accounting lets the tools work for you.” 

In the OnePoll survey, Lightspeed found that:

• 78% manage their financials on their own. 
• 66% are still using manual entry into spreadsheets to track their accounting. 
• 51% spend 5-8 hours a week just on business finances. (Lightspeed accounting user spends on average 5 minutes a day.)
• 33% said they need more support with accounting and tax management, while 42% said they need more overall support with financial management. 

Kamal Chami owns two restaurants in Canada and uses Lightspeed Accounting for both. “Lightspeed Accounting simply does everything for me,” said Chami. “I get 30 minutes back every morning due to all my information being sent directly to my QuickBooks accounts. With this new automated workflow, I now only have to confirm the data and I can spend the rest of my time on other tasks.”

This enhanced integration replaces the existing accounting integration that Lightspeed previously offered to customers in North America and the United Kingdom. The enhanced version of Lightspeed Accounting is a completely new and improved integration and is fully integrated into the Lightspeed platform to improve the customer’s experience. The initial rollout is available immediately to hospitality merchants in the United States and Canada, and will soon expand to the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Switzerland. For Retail businesses the tools will become available over the summer wherever Lightspeed Retail is sold.