What’s new in March: Easier tipping, split bills on mobile POS, smarter insights and more!
March 20, 2025
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Spotlight of the month:

Make it easier for your customers to tip

We’re all about making tipping easier for a smoother payment experience and helping your staff get more tips. 

Two new ways to boost tips and revenue:

 

  • Suggested gratuities on receipts: Display suggested gratuities, including fixed amounts, percentages, or a combination with customizable thresholds, on printed or digital receipts.
  • Advanced calculation for suggested gratuities: Choose how tip suggestions are calculated, either before/after taxes or before/after discounts on the POS, printed receipts and Lightspeed Tableside handheld.

To activate this feature: Back Office > Configuration > Configurations > Payment tab > enable “Show suggested tips” in Tips section

Get started now
POS Experience: easier bill splitting, group discounts, and combo review 

Effortlessly divide checks by seat or cover on the handheld POS

It’s now easier to manage group payments from anywhere in your venue on our handheld POS, Lightspeed Tableside.

Whether your guests are at the bar, table or patio, splitting the check is effortless with one device in your staff’s pocket—ensuring a smoother payment experience for your customers while saving time for your staff!

What’s new? 

  • Previously, Advanced Bill Split was only available on iPad, and mobile devices were restricted to a simple split option in the checkout flow.
  • You can now divide checks by seat or cover on iPad and Lightspeed Tableside handheld, streamlining the payment process and enhancing operational efficiency.

To activate this feature: Back Office > Configuration > Configurations > Payment tab > Payment Options, select “Enable advanced check splitting“.

 

Gain more control of your discounts

Enjoy more flexibility with your discounts and apply them faster on the POS. In just one tap, you can now apply a discount to all items within an accounting group—for example, adding a 10% discount to all drinks on the check while excluding food items from the discount.

To activate this feature: Back Office > Configuration > Settings > Discounts > Select the applicable accounting group(s) when you edit or add new discounts.

Help servers save time and avoid order errors in combos

You and your team can now edit or change combo selections before the order is sent to the kitchen. Simply tap the Pencil button and use the Review Combo action to reveal the combo and make any changes.

This update applies to version 25.2.1 and up.

Kitchen Display System: more accuracy and efficiency 

Improve order accuracy with advanced production instructions

Add custom production instructions to streamline kitchen workflows and minimise errors. Plus, ensure customer safety with clear, automatic allergen highlights on kitchen tickets so your team never misses an allergen.

Once a production instruction is selected for a specific menu item, it will automatically appear in the ordering flow and show on the KDS ticket.

Try Lightspeed KDS for free for 30 days: go to your Back Office home page to start the free trial!

Already using KDS? Follow the instructions here to add production instructions.

Boost kitchen efficiency with consolidated items list

Reduce prep time and allow batch preparations for faster service. You can now group identical items from all tickets into a consolidated list, allowing your chefs to prepare items in batches, significantly reducing prep time and boosting kitchen efficiency. 

The items lists can be found in the top right corner of the main screen on KDS. By clicking on the items list you will then be able to combine the same items from the main screen and display them in a list format on the right.

Try Lightspeed KDS for free for 30 days: go to your Back Office home page to start the free trial!

Reporting: receive key business metrics daily via Email

Access key insights from each day's service in your inbox

The automated Daily Summary email provides comprehensive insights into your daily operations metrics.

The email contains a snapshot of your key insights, ensuring you have access to timely and actionable data, including: 

  • Net sales
  • Gross sales
  • Repeat guests
  • Order trends
  • Top-selling categories
  • Staff performance
  • and more!

To schedule your Daily Summary email: Back Office > Configuration > Settings > Reporting automation > Select “Daily summary” under the report dropdown.

Online Ordering: explore new channels and holiday hours

Get more traffic to your online ordering store

Enable pickup and delivery within Google Search and Google Maps through the new Order with Google integration and Order Anywhere. 

What’s new?

  • Reach new customers: Guests already searching for food on Google can view your Order Anywhere menu and place an order with just a few taps
  • Unlock a new ordering channel: Tap into the millions of customers ordering food through Google Search and Google Maps
  • Offer a seamless ordering experience: Conveniently allow customers to place orders to grow your reach and revenue

How to get started:

  • Step 1: Sign in to Order Anywhere > Integration > click “Set up Order with Google” 
  • Step 2: Select the order profile that you want to show up on Google (e.g. pickup, delivery)

Try Order Anywhere for free: go to your Back Office home page to start the free trial!

Set up holiday hours with greater flexibility

Plan ahead and enjoy great flexibility during popular holidays and notable dates to ensure your customers enjoy a seamless ordering experience.

Whether you want to open late on special occasions to capture more revenue or close during a holiday to enjoy some time off, you can now set your amended hours ahead of time and the changes will automatically update in your Order Anywhere store.

Let’s say it’s Mother’s Day, and you want to extend your Order Anywhere hours to include breakfast. You can now make an exception and offer pickup and delivery before 11 am.

What’s new?

  • Set specific hours for holidays
  • Set up multiple special hours
  • Close your business for special dates and prevent orders from coming in on those specific dates 

Please note that orders already in the system before setting a holiday won’t be auto-cancelled.

To edit your holiday hours: Sign in to Order Anywhere > Settings > Business Hours > Holiday hours

New integrations for hotels and fine dining restaurants

Track the status of your PMS transactions and identify if they’ve failed

Calling all hoteliers! It’s now possible to track the status of each PMS transaction and identify which transactions have failed due to errors, ensuring a smoother tracking process and easier financial reconciliation.

What’s new? 

  • Prior to this update, the Back Office PMS Postings page only supported server-side (cloud) PMS integrations like Mews and Apaleo
  • Now, anyone using Lightspeed and an integrated PMS can see their transactions on the PMS Postings page

How to get started: Back Office > Integration activity > PMS Postings

New KDS integration designed for fine dining restaurants

News for fine dining restaurants – Lightspeed Restaurant (K-series) is now integrated with Annoncer, the KDS that tailored specifically for the needs of fine dining restaurants.

This intergration allows all order data to flow from Lightspeed Restaurant POS to Annoncer’s KDS, helping you manage menus with multiple courses, and offering insights into all reservations.

To set up the integration: follow the instructions here