Organizing inventory makes it easy to identify and report on which kinds of items sell best, to sort and view specific groups of items, and to set up items for ticket printing. After assigning items to departments, categories, and suppliers, you can manage these groups and use them to filter, search, and export from the Item List.
To learn how to organize item shortcuts on the register, visit our Item Shortcuts article.
Watch our Organize Inventory video:
Table of Contents
Departments and Categories
To understand how departments and categories in Lightspeed Retail impact inventory management, let’s define what they are, look at a few examples, and review how they are used.
Departments are groups of items used for organizing inventory, reporting, and ticket printing. Categories are subgroups within departments. Each department has a unique set of categories. Note: Departments and categories cannot be renamed, only deleted.
Examples of departments and their categories:
Department
Categories
Hot Drinks
Coffee, Tea, Cocoa
Entrées
Burgers, Pasta, Chicken
Men’s Clothing
Pants, Dress Shirts, Sweaters
Organize inventory items into departments and categories to:
Quickly filter, sort, bulk edit, or export a specific set of items from the Item List.
Filter the Sales by Item report to only display certain types of items.
Assign collections of items to Printer Groups for ticket printing instead of doing so one item at a time.
If you have questions about departments and categories, visit our Inventory FAQ.
Suppliers
To understand how suppliers in Lightspeed Retail impact inventory management, let’s define what they are, look at a few examples, and review how they are used.
Suppliers are the vendors from whom the business gets its items.
Examples of items and their suppliers:
Item
Supplier
Bottled Water
Grocery Supply Co.
T-Shirt
USA Shirts
Sheet Set
Bedding and More
Assign suppliers to inventory items to:
Filter the Item List for items from a particular supplier, or search for a specific item by its supplier ID.
See which suppliers’ products generate the most sales for a single location or across all linked locations using the Sales by Supplier report.
Assign items to departments, categories, and suppliers to organize the inventory of the business from BackOffice or the Retail POS (S-Series) app (employees with the relevant BackOffice permissions only).
To update several existing items at once from the Item List, we recommend using Bulk Edit.
For larger inventories (50+ items), we recommend using Bulk Management to create or modify items.
For businesses with multiple linked locations, item assignments must be managed separately for items in each linked location.
Visit the Item List in BackOffice or from the Retail POS (S-Series) app (employees with BackOffice permissions only).
In BackOffice, click ‘Items’ and select ‘Item List’.
In the Retail POS (S-Series) app for iOS, tap ‘Manage Items’ on the Main Menu. For the Retail POS (S-Series) app for Android, tap ‘Setup’ on the register menu, then select ‘Manage Items’.
Choose a 'Department' or select ‘Add a new department’ from the drop-down to create a new one.
Changing the department an item is assigned to will also update it in some historical reporting. To learn more, visit the article for a specific report from our BackOffice support page.
Choose a 'Category' or select ‘Add a new category' from the drop-down to create a new one.
Changing the category an item is assigned to will also update it in some historical reporting. To learn more, visit the article for a specific report from our BackOffice support page.
Choose a ‘Supplier’ or select ‘Add a new supplier’ from the drop-down to create a new one.
Changing the supplier an item is assigned to will also update it in some historical reporting. To learn more, visit the article for a specific report from our BackOffice support page.
View all existing departments and categories, see how many items are assigned to each, and delete those that are empty all from the Departments & Categories page in BackOffice. Note that departments and categories cannot be renamed, only deleted.
In BackOffice, click ‘Items’, then ‘Departments & Categories’.
Click to Enlarge
Scroll down to view information about each department and category.
Click to Enlarge
Each section begins with the name of a department (e.g. ‘Bakery’) followed by: Category | Name of each category within the department. Item Count | Number of unique items assigned to each category. To view the specific items in each department or category, follow the steps here.
To delete an empty department or category, click ‘Delete’, then 'Yes' to confirm the deletion.
If a department or category contains items, first follow the steps here to reassign the items.
The default ‘General’ department and ‘General’ category within each department cannot be deleted.
Department and category names cannot be edited. Instead, assign all items to a different department or category, then delete the empty one.
Manage Suppliers
View a list of existing suppliers, add new suppliers, edit supplier names, and delete suppliers all from one BackOffice page.
For businesses with multiple linked locations, the same set of suppliers is used for each linked Lightspeed Retail store. The Supplier List for each linked location is identical, and adding, renaming, or deleting a supplier in one location will automatically make that change in all other locations. Item assignments must be managed separately for items in each location.
In BackOffice, click ‘Items’, then ‘Supplier List’.
Click to Enlarge
(Optional) Repeat step 3 in each other linked location to assign the supplier to items in those locations.
For help switching between linked locations in BackOffice, visit our Multi-Store Management article.
Rename a Supplier
*Renaming a supplier will also update its name in historical reporting. To learn more, visit the article for a specific report from our BackOffice support page.
Note: If a supplier has items assigned to it, deleting it will automatically unassign the items. Follow the steps here to assign the items to a new supplier.
If you have multiple linked locations, the supplier will be deleted from all linked locations automatically.
The Item List shows every stock item added to inventory with details such as cost, margin, and quantity on hand. From BackOffice or the Retail POS (S-Series) app (employees with BackOffice permissions only), browse items, search, sort, and filter to find specific items, customize which details are displayed, view individual variants, add new items, edit existing items (one at a time or in bulk), and export the items displayed.
Visit the Item List in BackOffice or from the Retail POS (S-Series) app (employees with BackOffice permissions only).
In BackOffice, click ‘Items’ and select ‘Item List’.
In the Retail POS (S-Series) app for iOS, tap ‘Manage Items’ on the Main Menu. For the Retail POS (S-Series) app for Android, tap ‘Setup’ on the register menu, then select ‘Manage Items’.
For numeric filters, select an operator option and enter a value. Learn about each operator option below. Numeric filters include ‘Cost’, ‘Price’, ‘Quantity’, ‘Margin’, ‘Markup’, ‘Recommended Order’, and ‘Reorder Trigger’.
Equals | Show items that are equal to the entered value.
Greater than / Less than | Show items that are more or less than the entered value.
Greater than / Less than or equal to | Show items that are more or less than the entered value or equal to it.
In range | Show items that are between two entered values or equal to either one.
For alphabetical filters, search, then check or uncheck boxes if necessary. Alphabetical filters include ‘Item’, ‘Department’, ‘Category’, ‘Supplier’, ‘Supplier Item ID’, ‘SKU’, ‘UPC’, and ‘Unit’.
For option-based filters, check or uncheck boxes. Option-based filters include ‘Discountable’ (yes or no), ‘Taxable’ (yes or no), ‘Track Quantity on Hand’ (yes or no), ‘Register Status’ (active or inactive), and ‘Price Type’ (fixed, at the register, or unit price).
If editing the item, make changes and select a save option.
Updating the name, department, category or supplier for an item will also update this information in some historical reporting. To learn more, visit the article for a specific report from our BackOffice support page.
To delete the item, click ‘Delete’, check the box to delete the item in all linked locations (optional for multi-location accounts), and select ‘Continue’.
If a deleted item is re-added later, labels printed for the original item must be reprinted. Deleted items appear on sales reports for dates prior to deletion but not on certain other reports. Visit our Inventory FAQ to learn which reports are not supported.
Deleting items in all linked locations is available for merchants with multiple linked locations and is only visible to the Business Owner in BackOffice.
Click ‘Export to CSV’ or ‘Export to Excel’ to export your inventory to a .CSV or .XLSX spreadsheet file.
The exported file will contain all data displayed on the Item List, including active columns and filters.
.CSV files are plain text, readable in many different spreadsheet programs, and used for Bulk Management. .XLSX files support text formatting and other additional features, are readable in Microsoft Excel and supported programs, and cannot be used in Bulk Management.
Item List exports can only be performed from a web browser on a computer.
