How do I link Lightspeed to Rocketspark?

Disclaimer: Lightspeed used to be Vend, we have updated the wording throughout the Rocketspark system. 

Linking Lightspeed to your Rocketspark eCommerce website using our direct Lightspeed integration allows you to import and sync your products and stock levels from Lightspeed to your online store (Rocketspark), as well as push your online sales to Lightspeed where they can be managed in an all in one streamlined system.

First, make sure you have a Lightspeed account:

Before you get started, you'll need to make sure you have a Lightspeed account. Visit their website to sign up: https://secure.vendhq.com/signin/

Next, go to the Lightspeed Settings area in the Dashboard:

This is where you can control all the settings for the Rocketspark and Lightspeed connection.

1. Log into your Rocketspark Dashboard.
2. On the menu (left-hand side of the page) click on "Manage Store" 
   
3. From the sub-menu, choose “Lightspeed Settings”.
   

Section 1: Connect to Lightspeed

The first phase involves connecting your Rocketspark site with Lightspeed. You’ll find this section under the Lightspeed logo, and it must be completed first.

1. Click the green button titled “Connect to Lightspeed.
   
   
2. A window will appear, headed “Connect to Lightspeed Retail (X-Series)”. Proceed as prompted:
   
   
   
   
3. Click "Allow Access". The pop-up window will disappear, returning you to your Dashboard, which will refresh at this point. Your Rocketspark site is now connected with your Lightspeed account. To disconnect the two at any stage, simply flip the green toggle that you can now see, which will then prompt a confirmation box to appear.
   
   

Section 2: Send order information to Lightspeed

This section contains settings for handling your order information, which you'll need to complete if you want online orders to be pushed to your Lightspeed account (if you don’t want orders pushed to Lightspeed at the moment, you may wish to skip this and move onto Section 3). For this section, choose from the following menus:

1. “Set your payment type”. Select from the menu the payment type you want to be used for your online shop sales. This menu is drawn from a list of payment types available on your Lightspeed account. For online sales, you will generally want to select “Credit Card” or some other web-only payment type.
   
   
2. “Set your register”. Select from the menu the register through which your online shop sales are to be placed. We recommend that you add a register in Lightspeed to put your website sales through. You could call this register "Rocketspark" or "Web Sales" etc...
   
   We recommend setting up a new register in Lightspeed in the outlet you want to link to Rocketspark. This is because sales received in Rocketspark after you close your register for the day will re-open the register. Setting up a separate register helps to ensure all your reporting is clear and your physical store registers aren't re-opening.
   
   
3. "Sale status" This controls the status of the orders that are pushed through to Lightspeed from Rocketspark. By default, this is set to CLOSED.
   
   It is recommended that you use CLOSED in most circumstances. Setting this to ON ACCOUNT will push the orders through to Lightspeed without a payment assigned to them, which allows payments to be manually reconciled in Xero.
   
   
4. “Set your Lightspeed tax rates”. Select the best sales tax rate from the menu for each of your shipping countries. We do our level best to apply the best tax rates when you connected, but these may need adjusting. The taxes can also be adjusted on Taxes page but the actual percentage values are pulled in from Lightspeed.

Note: You can add, delete, and edit payment types, registers, and tax rates from your Lightspeed account under the “Setup” menu.

Section 3: Import products from Lightspeed

This phase involves bringing products from your Lightspeed account to your Rocketspark site. For this section, choose from the following menus:

1. "Select a stock location". Select from the menu the Lightspeed location you want to be used for your product stock levels when importing to Rocketspark.
   
   
2. "Default shipping rate". Select from the menu the default shipping rate to be applied to all imported products. This is an optional feature. (You can manage shipping rates here: Dashboard > Store Settings > Shipping.)
   
   
3. "Enable Digest". This enables a daily email summary of changes that have happened to your website due to updates from Lightspeed. This includes Products added, Products deleted, Products back in stock, Brands added as hidden, Categories added as hidden and Tags added as hidden. Learn more about the daily digest email.
   
   
4. "Product Status". Control the status of all new imported products from Lightspeed when brought into Rocketspark. Leaving this as auto is the default option. Alternatively set all imported products to be hidden on your online store until manually marked as For Sale.
   
   
5. "Tag syncing".  The standard setting is to sync all products from your Lightspeed account to Rocketspark. However, some stores may only want to display and sell a selection of products on their Rocketspark website. This can be done by firstly tagging your products in Lightspeed with any tag of your liking. On the "Tag syncing" drop-down within Rocketsparks Lightspeed settings page change from Sync all products to Tag syncing, a popup will appear where you can then choose the Tag you'd like to sync. More information can be found in our Lightspeed Tag Syncing Products guide.
   
   
6. Click "Import Lightspeed Products" when you are happy with all the settings and ready to start importing your products into Rocketspark. If you've already done an import an option to Re-Sync all products from Lightspeed is available.
   
   
   • A confirmation box will appear. Click the "Start product import" button to begin the import process.
     
     
     
     
   • A notification will appear informing you that your products are being imported with useful tips for the next steps—you may close this box.
     
     
     
     
   • Back on the Lightspeed Settings page, the status of your import will appear momentarily on the "Import products from Lightspeed" bar. It may take a minute or so for the import to begin showing you progress.
     
     The importing process itself may take several minutes to complete (1300 product variants per hour)—so now might be a good time to grab a coffee :). Once the import status notifies you that the importing process is finished, your products have been successfully imported. For the best experience, we ask that you don’t make any changes at Lightspeed during this import.

Note: You can add, delete, and edit locations and products from your Lightspeed account under the "Setup" and "Products" menus respectively.

How the Synchronisation Works

Now that your Lightspeed and Rocketspark accounts are linked and your products have been imported, it might help you to know a few of the ins and outs of how Lightspeed and Rocketspark are synchronised. 

The following product data is synced with Lightspeed: Title, Descriptions, Variations, Pricing, SKU Codes, Picture (from Lightspeed), Categories (Automatically setup from Product Types in Lightspeed), Tags, Brands, and Stock levels.

Product syncing:

• Products can be updated in Lightspeed will update and be synced to Rocketspark. This is a one-way sync. Updates in Rocketspark will not update in Lightspeed. Lightspeed if your one true source and all products should be updated in Lightspeed.
• Selective Tag Syncing, if Tag Syncing is enabled only products with the specified tag will sync.
• Products added to Lightspeed will be automatically added to Rocketspark.
• Products from Lightspeed are shown in your Rocketspark shop as being For-Sale or Hidden depending on your product status setting. If set to auto, products are only set as For-Sale if there is stock available. If there is no available stock, the product is hidden. The product returns to being For-Sale once stock is replenished in Lightspeed.
• Products added to your Rocketspark shop will not be added to Lightspeed.
• Products deleted from Lightspeed will no longer update products in the Rocketspark shop - these will need to be removed or updated manually.
• Products Inactive in Lightspeed will be hidden on Rocketspark.
• It’s possible to create web-only products on your Rocketspark shop. Just click the “add product” button, fill in the details, and set the green Lightspeed Sync toggle to not sync to Lightspeed.
• If you delete a product from Rocketspark this will not update in Lightspeed.
• For any products, you do not want to sell online, set the “Product Status” menu to “Hidden” on the Rocketspark product page.
• Tags imported from Lightspeed will not automatically appear on the online shop's filter list. If you want the tags to appear, then they must also be set manually to appear (see step 8).
• To assign different shipping rates to different products, visit our “Setting up your Online Shop” guide (start reading at point 5).
• You can have additional product images in your online shop. Rocketspark will attempt to import the images from Lightspeed, but the Lightspeed images will not overwrite any images uploaded directly to Rocketspark. Images uploaded to Rocketspark will not be added to your Lightspeed account.

Sales / Orders:

• When sales are placed at Rocketspark these will appear in Lightspeed, viewable at Lightspeed’s “Sales History”. And stock levels are adjusted at Lightspeed also. You must have "Step 2" in Dashboard Lightspeed Settings complete for this feature to work.
• When sales are placed at Lightspeed, adjustments to the stock levels are updated at Rocketspark. But the orders will not appear in your Rocketspark Dashboard.
• For Website only products, Shipping costs, and Coupons the sale lines in Lightspeed are associated with special products that we set up. Please look out for products called “Web-only sale”, “Shipping” and “Discount”. We create these as needed in your Lightspeed account so we have something to assign the order against. Please leave these in place for the best performance.
• Lightspeed Loyalty, Rocketspark currently doesn't allow the syncing of loyalty credit from online orders, please register your interest in this feature with the support team by sending us an email at support@rocketspark.com.