Simplifying Accounting with Lightspeed and Xero Integration

Accounting can be a daunting prospect for retailers, as there’s a lot to consider, from tax compliance to payroll, reconciliation and reporting. However, timely and accurate accounting is crucial to the success and growth of your business. 

That’s where Lightspeed and Xero step in. 

Implementing accounting software and integrating it with your point of sale platform (POS) can be invaluable for retailers looking to improve their financial management processes. From time-saving benefits to increasing efficiency and improving accuracy, employing accounting software like Xero is a great way to help your business grow and succeed.

Keen to learn more? In this article, we’ll cover:

• What is Xero?
• 4 Xero features that will streamline your retail accounting
• 5 Benefits of integrating Lightspeed with Xero
• Lightspeed and Xero: what do retailers think?

What is Xero?

In a nutshell, Xero is a world-leading online accounting software platform built for small and medium-sized businesses. 

For many retail store owners and managers, crunching the numbers and staying on top of accounting can be confusing and time-consuming. Xero’s accounting software makes running your business easier, from simplifying everyday admin to automating manual tasks like invoicing, reporting, and streamlining payroll.

Essentially, Xero consolidates all of your business finances in one place, making it easier to stay on top of your accounting and ensuring your finances run smoothly so you remain compliant. 

4 Xero features that will help streamline your retail accounting

Xero can be a valuable tool for retailers looking to improve their financial management processes. From time-saving benefits to increasing efficiency, employing Xero’s accounting software is a great way to help your business grow and succeed.

Here are a few examples of how Xero can help streamline your accounting. 

1. Easily track your cash flow and financial health metrics

Xero’s analytics dashboards instantly give you a snapshot of your business finances so you can track your cash flow and understand the financial health of your business.

Visual dashboards make it easy to understand your cash position and project bank balances, see the impact of invoices and bills and know which ones are the most urgent to pay. With all your reports in one place, it’s easy to assess the financial health of your store as you can quickly track metrics like your income and expenses, as well as identify and compare trends for different timeframes. 

2. Automate payroll and tax calculations 

With Xero, it’s easy to pay yourself and your staff, report payroll details to the ATO, and automate superannuation calculations. 

Xero takes the hassle out of running your payroll as it’s built for Aussie businesses. This ensures your store remains compliant with Single Touch Payroll (STP), making it easy to lodge salary, wage, PAYG and superannuation details and send STP reports every payday.

Plus, there is also an option for your employees to access the Xero Me payroll app, where they can check their pay slips, view leave balances and submit leave requests and timesheets. 

3. Easily submit GST returns

Xero is the perfect tool for managing your GST liabilities. The system automatically calculates GST on each transaction made in your retail or e-commerce store and prefills your Business Activity Statement (BAS)–saving you hours on manual accounting come tax time. 

You can also connect Xero to the ATO, allowing you to securely lodge your BAS directly from Xero to the ATO–reducing errors and saving on double handling.

4. Track and pay bills on time

It’s easy to keep on top of your bills and accounts payable with Xero. The system makes it simple to see what bills and invoices are due (and pay them on time), make batch payments (and schedule them in advance) and ensure all your bills are saved in one centralised location that can be accessed anytime. 

Not only does this save time on admin, but it also helps you avoid late payment fees and build a strong relationship with your suppliers. 

5 Benefits of integrating Lightspeed with Xero

Lightspeed is a unified POS and Payments platform that empowers retailers to manage inventory, suppliers, teams and stores from one easy-to-use system. By integrating Lightspeed and Xero, the two systems can sync your key financial metrics to minimise the time you’ll need to spend on accounting and ensure your finances are always accurate.

Integrating Lightspeed with Xero not only allows you to automate time-consuming admin tasks but it also provides you with a holistic insight into how your business is really performing. 

Let’s explore five benefits you’ll realise from integrating Lightspeed and Xero.

1.  Real-time profitability tracking

It’s easy to track profitability in real time with Lightspeed and Xero. Your cost-of-goods-sold (COGS) automatically post to Xero and are tracked as you sell your products. This makes it simple to view your profitability against your wages, rent, marketing and other expenses to understand your financial performance and profitability.

2. Automatically sync daily sales for easy bank reconciliation

Automatically sync your daily sales, account sales, payment totals, inventory orders, COGS and customer details from your Lightspeed POS to Xero. This removes the need for manual data entry, saving time at the end of a long shift while also eliminating human error, ensuring your numbers are correct every time. 

Once your daily sales automatically sync between systems, it’s quick and easy to make bank reconciliations. Xero simply uses Lightspeed’s daily total data to recognise merchant payments coming into your accounts. This also includes any account sales or stock orders, which will also automatically post to Xero.

3. Report across stores and channels

Integrating Lightspeed and Xero also allows you to report on financial metrics across your different stores and channels. 

Lightspeed maps your tracking categories (such as individual stores and eCommerce channels) into Xero, giving you all the information you need to report on transactions by outlet. In turn, this easily allows you to see and compare the performance of all your stores and sales channels.

4. Handle cash securely 

Cash payments, petty cash withdrawals and opening and closing float balances from Lightspeed will automatically sync to Xero. This reduces the risk of cash going missing, as you can easily view any discrepancies between banked cash deposits and daily cash totals sent to Xero.

5. Streamline time-consuming accounting tasks

There are so many other benefits to integrating Lightspeed and Xero, which are guaranteed to save you time, ensure accuracy and boost efficiency. These include:

• Bulk account payments: Pay off multiple account sales or layaways against a single customer in a single transaction in both Lightspeed and Xero.
• Stock orders: Send supplier inventory orders from Lightspeed to Xero as accounts payable invoices. You can also track and reconcile any outstanding purchases within the platform.
• Integrated retail: Invoice your customers from either Lightspeed or Xero, receive payments and manage balances on either platform.
• Account mapping: Use product-level account codes to assign the sales and purchases of products to specific accounts in Xero.
• Easily manage customers and suppliers: Sync your contacts between Lightspeed and Xero. Any changes you make to customer information in Lightspeed will automatically update in Xero.

Not a retailer? Xero is also made for hospitality businesses

Xero is used by thousands of businesses in Australia and across the globe, making it an excellent option for restaurants and other hospitality businesses looking to improve their financial management and gain better visibility into their business.

Some of the key benefits of Xero for restaurants include:

• Streamline your finances: send invoices, pay bills, manage bank reconciliations, claim expenses and accept payments through Xero’s easy-to-use platform. 
• In-depth analytics: access real-time financial data to gain a snapshot of your financials.
• Manage payroll: pay your staff, report payroll details to the ATO, automate tax and pay superannuation.
• Access from anywhere: Xero’s cloud-based software allows you access to your restaurant’s financial data from anywhere, as long as you have access to a device with an internet connection.
• Integration with other apps: integrate with other apps, such as your POS system, to provide a seamless workflow.
• Inventory management: track inventory levels, set reorder points, and generate purchase orders to better handle your food and supply costs.
• Detailed reports: track cash flow, metrics and the financial health of your restaurant with detailed reports that empower you to make more informed decisions.

Lightspeed and Xero: what do retailers think?

On paper, the benefits of integrating Lightspeed and Xero are clear, but what does the integration look like in action? We spoke to three retailers to find out more.

Easy accounting for online and instore

When Walter Jacobs, Co-founder of Aero Bowls, was looking for a new POS platform, he wanted something that would work with his existing integrations, including his eCommerce site and Xero accounting system.

“Lightspeed combined with Xero or Shopify is pretty hard to beat,” comments Walter. 

With Xero and Shopify integral to running Aero Bowls, the seamless integrations Lightspeed has with these platforms made Walter’s life easier and gave him more clarity on the financial ins and outs of his business. 

Aside from their in-store sales, Aero Bowls online sales have taken off, and the Xero integration ensures that all of his sales are reconciled no matter which channel they have come through. 

“We’re getting a lot of internet orders now, much more than we’ve ever had,” explains Walter. “So that eCommerce integration is fantastic. And then, of course, it sends all the information to Xero.” 

No more double-handling data

Similar to Aero Bowls, Bungalow Trading Co. operates both a physical store and an eCommerce website. When Anna Chisholm, Owner of Bungalow Trading Co., was in the market for a new POS platform, she also wanted a system that could seamlessly integrate with her existing software.

Moving to Lightspeed gave Anna the opportunity to do just this, and she integrated her eCommerce platform and Xero accounting software with her Lightspeed retail POS.

For Anna, having all of her systems integrated and talking to one another is invaluable. Not only does it ensure accuracy, but it also saves her precious hours manually transferring data from one platform to another.

I loved the idea that they talked to each other. I didn’t want to be downloading data from one place and then uploading it into another.”

Secure, accurate accounting

Mick Smith, Finance Director at Smith’s Garden Centre in the UK, doesn’t use a bookkeeper–instead, he trusts Lightspeed and Xero to crunch the numbers and ensure all tax liabilities are covered.

I don’t employ a bookkeeper. Lightspeed and Xero are my bookkeepers. They do the tax work for me and everything,” explains Mick.

For Mick, it’s imperative that all of the business’s financial information is accurate and that he can access historical data when needed.

“It integrates through Xero… The whole thing is seamless. The information is accurate, and it’s spot on. It’s historic. We know what went through the account in the past, too. It brings everything all under one roof. I’m really pleased with it.”

Another key thing Mick loves about Lightspeed and Xero’s integration is the security it provides. 

“Security is very strong. Everything’s under control. There’s nothing going missing. I just see it come through to Xero, and I can see the sales figures on a daily basis. They’re updated, which is great. It makes my job on PCI compliance much easier as well. It’s cut down work for me and limited any potential risk, so I’m very happy with that.”

Lightspeed and Xero

No matter if you’re running one store or a multi-site operation, Xero and Lightspeed are there to make your life easier. From managing payroll to tracking sales and providing insights into the financial health of your business, your POS and accounting software are designed to save time and boost efficiency.

If you’d like to learn more about Lightspeed and Xero, get in touch, and one of our team members will be happy to answer your questions.