What are Lightspeed POS users saying about the software?

Great Product

Pros

Being a Hospitality professional for 20 years I have dealt with numerous POS systems. Kounta is relatively straight forward and has the functionality and flexibility to run your business with ease. The support offered by Kounta day and night has been at an exceptional standard. The understanding and support during setup, implementation and to now has been a suprise in this all to modern world. This holistic approach will keep Kounta ahead of the pack for quite some time.

Cons

Some of the language with respect to Hospitality is not not necessarily how we refer to how things are done in my experience however it is only a minor issue.

Fantastic POS

Pros

Lightspeed is very reliable, easy to program good functionality. In 3 years our POS has not crashed or stalled. Customer support is remarkable. The team is knowledgeable and professional. My questions are answered the same day.

Cons

Most of the reporting is very good. I would like more one page style reports, for example all servers that worked yesterday lists total sales, category sales, average check. I can get this information but each server is listed separately so analysis is time consuming.

Best POS I've used

We wanted a simple to use, reliable and feature rich application and Lightspeed delivered, only wish we could write our own extensions a little easier.

Pros

The ux is absolutely straightforward and intuitive, you hardly even need the manual from set up to production

Cons

API behind a pay wall. As a software developer who casually wrenches and has set up lightspeed in multiple businesses, I'd have liked to get in deeper on the nerdy side. From a regular user perspective that's not an issue though.

Horrendous POS System.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS!!! MOVE ON TO THE NEXT!

Pros

Nothing to say here. There is nothing good about this system except for the promptness of my customer service, who usually has bad news. But as I now understand my customer service rep doesn't ACTUALLY work for Kounta, she works for the company that sold it to me. I wish they would have sold me one of their other POS options.

Cons

Server level order control is an upgrade, they don't tell you that when purchasing, even though that is one of the most basic things. Check splitting is the most laborious I have ever experienced, if you have a table that needs multiple splits get them a refill of their coffee because it will take a while. No over all system close out, no way to re-open a check. In lieu of that simple option they have a refund button, but, guess what if you had multiple pay types IE Cash and CC that doesn't work, can only refund whole amount to one pay type, which then screws up the server report(one of the biggest reasons to have a POS system) Integrated credit card system has worst customer service ever. If you need to get someone after 9 good luck. Randomly loses checks! Have no idea how that happens but if you are on a check and the system reloads(which it does a lot) bye bye order!

Makes Perfect Sense!

We have been using Lightspeed for 2+ years now and absolutely love it! We are able to utilize many of their components to assist us not only in the basics (inventory, sales) but analytics and E-Comm. LS staff are very knowledgeable, friendly and quick to respond to our needs.

Pros

We are able to customize according to our needs. We utilize many of the components and are constantly learning.

Cons

Sometimes we have recommendations and submit them.

Lightspeed POS for Restaurant

Overall, our experience has been great, but no software is perfect. Their rates are comparable, but the customer support is phenomenal.

Pros

Lightspeed is sleek, very professional look and feel. Although it does take a number of buttons to run through a transaction, it's definitely an upgrade to what he had prior. The loyalty program integration is amazing, as customers earn points on the spot without any manual entry.

Cons

Although not directly related to POS, their payment processing dose not allow partial refunds which causes us headaches at times.

Lightspeed is an excellent partner to us

Lightspeed is a true partner with us at Campus Towers. With their programs we have a reliable easy to use program. We are very satisfied with the service provided.

Pros

Lightspeed is so easy to use. The simplicity of the program makes it so efficient for even my newest team members to use. We would be lost without it. The service team is outstanding to work with. The reliability is outstanding.

Cons

Actually we are very satisfied with the services that we are receiving from Lightspeed.

Not worthed as the expensive price

I know amount that i calculate manual in every type of payment are balance or not because kounta showing it amount minus or over, so we can double check before we accept to close cashier or shift.

Pros

Display of the pos is look modern and kounta can create recipen and inventory and back office. Pso system complet with back office.

Cons

Actually they have good features in back office for reporting. But not as good as inventory system by itself. First, POS system not completly all transaction is automaticly show in the report when want to do closing cashier (shift), like we need to do manual calculated some other transaction except cash like card and gofood payment as i used to. Because you have to submit all your type of payment on closing time then you will get report that will show your manual calculted are balance or not, split bill need to do by amount not by item, mostly apps that i was using were by item. Second, we need to buy with additional charge to get more features that we can see more details report (like insight and purchase) and that is expensive. If you dont buy, you will not get clear report as you need for analyzing restaurant performance. Third, menu item that you sell and item only you use for recipe are the same product list. Fourth, service charge and tax calculations are confusing to get the right amount. Every report that you want to dowbload as csv as not that correct way as csv.

Good POS for smaller business

Pros

Cloud based with handheld hardware options

Cons

NOt able to expand out into any CRM functions

POS

Overall a great product that we continue to use at our cafe.

Pros

When I was tasked with setting up a Point of Sale system in 48 hours I thought it was impossible but when I found Kounta it was easy to set up and integrate into our credit card machine in a matter of hours.

Cons

The most challenging thing that I found was I could not email the monthly receipts to my accounting team and would need to give them the main control to the platform if I wanted them to be able to access that directly.

Highly adaptable and intuitive POS

Kounta as a POS system has been able to grow with us, providing flexibility and ease of use that is a massive relief when you have the pressures of an expanding business to contend with. The ability to simply add or subtract registers, combined with the functionality of a internet based system makes change relatively pain free. Wireless waiter stations, Albert pay terminals, Bluetooth printers (which I don't have but am excited about and will probably get), its all so easy to use. Why pay thousands of dollars in cabling, installation costs and labour in setting up your system? Good question - i'm not sure! Just research what you want - call Kounta, put it in and download the software... add your products, tailor it the way you want, and go for it!

Pros

Ease of alteration and basic use for staff

Cons

The back end of product input is a little cumbersome - a simply category/sub-category/sub-sub category system works best. Sometimes this is represented by Department/category/sub-category either way, it is far more flexible for product input, button organisation and more granular for reporting.

Industry standard POS software with learning curve

Mostly positive. There is a leaning curve. Gets the job done and is industry standard for bicycles.

Pros

This software is the industry standard in the bike industry. Most common item are in their database and it does everything that it needs to do. There is a learning curve and it is not clear, to me, if cloud backup is available for records. I have read about integration with quick books but have yet to explore this feature.

Cons

Searchable help, including FAQ, while using would be helpful. Item names appear partially when searching until you click on them. This makes it hard to differentiate between 2 similar items.

LightSpeed Success

LightSpeed support is superior to all other product support I am getting both from a business standpoint as well as personal. Their response is quick and understandable.

Pros

Easy to use backed up by professional support. Conversion and training was excellent.

Cons

Consignment reporting requires a couple extra steps from my previous product.

Great POS system for small retailers

I'd recommend Lightspeed to anyone. I've used the cloud-based platform in a baby boutique and a home/gift shop. It's served us well in both settings. All our employees have been able to use the system without difficulty and the analytics have given us an advantage in managing operations.

Pros

Back-end setup is pretty simple and user interface for point of sale is easy and forgiving. Our '72 year old non-computer literate' retail associate was able to master it in no time. Customer support is also top notch.

Cons

There are a few small issues - refunds are a multi-step process, and setting up the ecom website didn't feel as intuitive as it could be. (I did talk with customer service about this. They agree the process could be streamlined and are in the process of rolling out a new setup process shortly.)

Kounta review from a "cloud integrator" perspective

I am a cloud integrator and have implemented a number of Xero + POS add-ons. I select Kounta for my customers purely on its hospitality focus and it's table management add-on. I have been really impressed with how it handles the concept of modifiers and how smooth the integration is with Tyro electronic payments. However, I feel that there is a lot of navigating around the 'back office' to get what you need to get done. The CSV data importers are good, but I still found I had to do many repetitive updates manually via the user interface that the importer didn't support. The user interface is a bit big and boxy for my liking but understandably some see this as a benefit if working off a tablet in a cafe most of the time. The client registration process was a bit tedious (maybe at least for us implementers/advisers) but when up and running my customers love the product. The POS register is really powerful and soon after becoming power users the only niggling complaint I get are small enhancements to customisations which are unfortunately locked down in the product anyway. e.g. layouts on receipts, dockets, shortcuts panel, etc. I have also been really impressed with Kounta's email support and communication on release notes. You can really tell they are working hard in making this product better and better. Personally, I would like to see more flexible pricing plans for store owners that have multiple (small-sized) cafes, which will hopefully encourage the greater use of bump screens for the Kitchen/Brewster and mobile registers where waiting staff can take orders + electronic payments at the table. Maybe I am just over the little pad and pencil. In short, I am a big fan of Kounta POS in food & beverage. Totally recommend.

Great system

Pros

Great easy system to use. Easy to change payment methods and products and downloading and updating on excel also possible. Just starting to sync with Xero so that’s good too. Customer support really has improved massively since we started using it 2 years ago. I would recommend as a good all rounder.

Cons

Reporting in close detail has been a tricky one but with Kounta insights it seems to be improving although I think it’s still work in progress.

Absolutely fantastic product, team, and set up.

While originally using a completely outdated and problematic POS system, we were put in touch with the team at Kounta. They were explained as being the most genuine team in the business, but always on hand to help and with a system which really spoke for itself. Not only was the recommendation totally correct, I am now the one spreading the word of just how simple the transition was, and how happy we are with the product. Not only is it a really easy system to set up and organise, especially with the helpful team over at Tech Panty - a shout out to Andy who is such a 'yes-man' and always on the problem solving case - , we were completely changed over on such a tight time limit with absolutely no stress from our end. We've been up and running for a few weeks now, and staff members who were completely dedicated to the old systems are now totally sold on the new system Kounta has provided. It is an easy system to set up, use on a day to day basis and fills all of the reporting tick boxes you can have. The fact that these teams have worked in hospitality really shows through the product; it's set up like it has been trialed for a number of years with all issues that could have arisen already ironed out. 10/10.

Pros

The ease of use, and the simplicity of the screens.

Cons

Nothing.

Kounta for Cafe Use

We have found Kounta to be excellent for our cafe. Staff need no maths skills to operate it easily. the addition of photos makes product selection fast and accurate. The only thing to watch is disgruntled staff that have been removed from rosters........they can sabotage the system by changing or deleting things. My advice, once they have been given notice immediately remove their access to Kounta and give them other duties until their time has been completed.

Pros

Overcomes the issue of staff not being able to read or do any math. Provides multiple copies of invoices so that service can easily be tracked. Allows lots of options to modify products which gives each client an individual experience.

Cons

Takes ages to set up if you have hundreds of products and options......but it is worth doing.

It is the only cloud based pos for hospitality I think we could use and run our business

It allows us to easily manage customer transaction and to report on total sales and products in a really efficient way. We've grown in our understanding of our business enormously just reusing kounta

Pros

The sales transaction from start to checkout is great. The printing of customer orders in multiple locations plus the kitchen. Modifier are also the best in the market.

Cons

Scales and scanner integration for use with a retail store. Scales can't be and scanner with Windows is clunky

Awsome POS system! Easy for staff, easy for management. Outstanding customer service!

Pros

Can manage from anywhere. Easy to update products on prices on the spot. Great reporting and crm. Love that you only have to use functions that you require.

Cons

I would like to be able to view only POS from device which is not assigned as register. Also, not sure if already available, but we would like to be able to process gift certificates through the till easily.

Great Customer support

Immediate customer support is a huge plus

Pros

Ideal for hospitality..providing hospitality POS solutions that were once considerably more expensive. Understands the Australian market. Great customer support. Was having a problem at 7:30 am on a Saturday morning and got an immediate response from a real human. Big ticks for that! Easy to update and maintain.

Cons

a little bit steep for a new business. But overall a great piece of software..the retail capacity is limited but works well for a cafe with a few retail items.

Count on Kounta

Kounta is the best point of sale. I have set up five different POS systems since 2000 and Kounta is by far the best and most flexible. Our business could not have grown as quickly, successfully or efficiently without it. Absolutely love the production printing set up. Nothing compares. Team this with Tyro EFTPOS and it's a total winner for fast bar service.

Pros

Production printing and cloud operation

Cons

Needs a cash-out facility

Works well and very simple to use.

Ease of use. Good reporting.

Pros

It's ease of use is the most compelling feature. The reports are reasonably comprehensive too. Great for a hospitality start-up.

Cons

There are occassional troubles with printing, where the software somehow loses the fixed IP address of a printer. This is usually temporary, however. It's need to be connected to the Internet is also a con. Whilst it works a little offline, it does become unusable quickly.

Kouta is pretty good

Kouta is a smart point of system sale, Kounta has the most amazing customer services

Pros

Kounta system is very smart and easy to follow.

Cons

* It seems a little pricy, we are in NZ and it's in AUS dollars excl GST. * it needs wifi connections to run all the time. (perhaps it's the trend of our world now :) One questions in the meanwhile: is there a function to retrieve how many dishes of an item we have sold in a period of time? many thanks!

Great product

Pros

Easy to use Easy layout to navigate Colour coafing Can add photos of products Lots of addon options

Cons

Cost for multiple registers No learning platform for new staff Addons can be costly Account customer function could be better