Opening a register in Lightspeed is the first and most crucial step in your daily operating process. It marks the beginning of your sales day, creates an accurate starting point for your cash float, and ensures all transactions are correctly tracked and reconciled. This guide provides a clear, step-by-step process to help you efficiently open your register and begin serving clients.

Overview

Following the One Poolwerx Way for financial management, opening a register each day is mandatory for maintaining accurate financial records. It creates a definitive timestamp and a starting cash balance, which is essential for reconciliation at the end of the day. Without an open register, you cannot process cash transactions, and any payments received will not be properly recorded against your daily takings. The opening balance for a new day is typically the closing balance from the previous day's successful register close.

1. Log into Lightspeed.
2. Click the Shopping cart ? icon, then click Sell.
3. Click Switch under the outlet and register name in the top left corner of the screen.
4. Click Switch Register which will open a dialogue box.
5. Click the outlet, and then the register you want to open
6. Enter your float in the Opening Float field.
   • Note: Use the Notes field to outline the cash denomination breakdown (e.g., 10 x $10, 5 x $20) for clarity and easier reconciliation.
7. Click Open Register.

Key Considerations & Best Practices

Float Accuracy

Always ensure the opening float amount entered into the system exactly matches the physical cash in the drawer. This is critical for preventing reconciliation errors at the end of the day.

Assign Responsibility

Make it a best practice to assign the opening and closing of the register to a specific team member, or members, to ensure consistency and accountability.

Daily Checklist

Utlise the prepared Daily Operational Checklist to establish the routine. This ensures it is not overlooked, which could impact your ability to trade and accurately record transactions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my register open, unexpectedly, since I closed it last night?

This can happen when an external payment is applied to a client invoice in a way that syncs back to Lightspeed. The system automatically re-opens the register to account for the payment posting on an "On Account" sale. This commonly occurs in three scenarios:

1. Xero Payment Sync: A payment is manually applied to a client invoice in Xero, and this payment syncs to Lightspeed after the register has already been closed.
2. Vital Quote Approval: A client approves a quote that has a deposit dictated. The approval triggers the deposit invoice to be created and synced to Lightspeed after the register has already been closed.
3. Vital Payment Link: A client uses the payment link to pay a deposit or job invoice after the register has been closed for the day.

What should I do if a register opens unexpectedly?

You will need to treat the register as if it were a new day and close it at your earliest convenience to re-establish a clear break between business days.

Related Guides & Next Steps

What's Next: Once you have completed your day's trading, you will need to close the register. See our guide on Closing a Register.

Deep Dive: For an overview of the full process, see our guide on Register Management.