Hardware for Lightspeed Retail and Lightspeed Restaurant

The device the till runs on decides most of it

Before choosing a single peripheral, settle what the till itself is. A tablet counter and a full POS terminal lead to different scanners, different printers and different mounting — and switching later means re-buying peripherals rather than swapping one box.

• doneTablet counter — a Bluetooth scanner in HID mode, a network or Bluetooth receipt printer, and a drawer opened by the printer.
• doneFull POS terminal — USB throughout, more ports, easier to service, better suited to high-volume sites.
• doneFixed counter with a queue — a hands-free presentation scanner beats a handheld every time.
• doneMulti-site — agree the peripheral list before site one, not after site four.

How a scanner reaches Lightspeed

Barcode scanners present themselves as keyboards. In HID mode the scanner types the barcode into whichever field has focus, so it works in the till screen, in the back office and in a browser with no integration and no driver. That is why most of the compatibility question turns out to be a non-question, and why the decision that matters is form factor rather than brand.

• doneCorded USB — cheapest and most reliable where the till never moves.
• doneBluetooth HID — the right answer for a tablet, and for walking the floor during a count.
• donePresentation or sweep — hands-free at a busy counter, and it reads phone screens for loyalty and vouchers.
• doneCheck phone-screen reading explicitly. Cheaper scanners struggle with it, and customers will present barcodes on glass.

Receipt, kitchen and label printing are three different jobs

Hospitality sites get caught out here more than anywhere else. The receipt printer at the counter, the order printer in the kitchen and any label printing for prep or shelf edge are separate devices with separate requirements — and a kitchen is a hostile environment for a thermal printer.

• doneReceipt — thermal, compact, network or Bluetooth for a tablet till.
• doneKitchen — impact dot-matrix, because thermal paper darkens and fades in heat and steam.
• doneLabels — a separate thermal label printer for shelf edge, prep or dispatch.
• doneCash drawer — opened by the receipt printer over RJ11, so it needs no connection to the tablet at all.

What to tell us so the quote is right first time

Send the shape of the site rather than a parts list. If you already have a parts list, send it anyway and we will sanity-check it against the workflow.

• doneRetail, hospitality, or both, and how many tills per site.
• doneTablet or full terminal at the counter.
• doneWhether orders route to a kitchen or bar.
• doneNumber of sites, and whether they must all be identical.
• doneWho installs and supports it once it lands.

Straight answers on the limits

The things worth knowing before you spend, including the ones that are not in our interest to tell you.

• infoLightspeed publishes its own supported-hardware list. Plenty of kit works perfectly well without being on it, but the list decides who helps you when something misbehaves.
• infoA tablet till constrains your peripheral options more than a full terminal does. Decide that first, because kit bought for one rarely suits the other.
• infoThermal printers do not belong in a kitchen. If order tickets are fading, the printer type is wrong, not the paper.
• infoLightspeed is a point-of-sale and retail system, not a warehouse management system. Multi-aisle picking and bin locations need a different tool.
• infoAcross more than a handful of sites, the hardware standard matters more than any individual device choice. Changing it later is the expensive part.

Common questions