Know what you have, what it cost, and what’s on the way.

Lightspeed Retail has built-in tools for ordering stock from your suppliers and logging it when it arrives. Keep your stock counts, cost prices and margins accurate automatically — no spreadsheets, no manual catalog edits, no waiting for the next stocktake.

Managing orders in Lightspeed

A purchase order in Lightspeed isn’t formal procurement paperwork. It covers two separate things, and you can use either one on its own.

Receive stock: Log deliveries in Lightspeed as they arrive. Inventory counts and costs update the moment you finalise it. No order needs to exist first, so you can receive against a supplier at any time.
Order stock: Create orders ahead of time and track them through to delivery. You can see what’s on the way, email the order to your supplier straight from Lightspeed, and receive against it when it arrives.

How it works

Ordering and receiving are two halves of the same flow. Receiving works without an order behind it — but placing the order in Lightspeed first is what gives you visibility on stock before it lands.

Create an order

Choose the supplier and the outlet it’s for, then add products.

Use Lightspeed order recommendations to speed up the process.

Send it

Email the purchase order to your supplier directly from Lightspeed, or keep it as your own record if you order by phone or through a supplier portal.

Track it

The order stays open and stock on order shows against those products, so you can see what’s coming before it arrives. Orders can move from sent, dispatched and received.

Receive it

When the delivery arrives, either open the existing order or “receive” order to accurately update inventory levels and costs.

Why use Lightspeed for orders?

Most inventory headaches come from data sitting in one place and sales data in another. When ordering and receiving happen in Lightspeed, both are built from the same records — so what you have, what it cost and what’s on the way stay in sync with what you’re actually selling.

Costs are updated based on the most recent deliveries, not a price entered once and never revisited so margins, COGS and stock value reflect what you genuinely paid
Stock levels update automatically as stock moves, on receipt and on sale, with no separate reconciliation step
See incoming stock and what’s on hand, so reordering is based on your full position rather than a snapshot
Capture landed and foreign currency costs. Freight, duties and handling captured on the order.
Cut the double handling. No exporting reports, no transcribing counts into a spreadsheet, no reconciling later. It’s all updated in one workflow

Which flow is right for you?

If you do this:

Use:

Phone or email your supplier to place orders

Order, then receive. Build the order in Lightspeed, email it to your supplier, track it and receive against it on arrival.

Order through your supplier’s own portal

Receive stock. Keep ordering where you do now, and log the delivery in Lightspeed to automatically update costs and inventory levels.

Have a supplier rep who places orders for you

Receive stock. Receive what gets delivered rather than manually adjusting inventory levels afterwards.

Order for more than one outlet

Order, then receive. Create one order across locations and let Lightspeed handle the distribution and transfers once it arrives.

What’s new in purchase orders

We’ve been working hard to make ordering in Lightspeed faster and more flexible.
Recent additions include:

Min & Max levels

Set ideal minimum and maximum thresholds on your core products so reorder quantities are decided once instead of every time you order.

Learn more

Distributed landed costs

Email the purchase order to your Freight, duties and handling charges are spread across the products on an order, so unit costs reflect what stock really cost to get on the shelf.

Learn more

Edit partially received orders

Deliveries arrive in stages, and orders change. You can now edit an order after it’s been partly received — add lines, adjust quantities, receive the rest when it turns up.

Learn more

Multi-location ordering

Order for all your outlets on a single purchase order. When the delivery arrives at your receiving location, Lightspeed creates the transfers to send stock where it needs to go.

Learn more

Wholesale Ordering

Simplify wholesale buying with Lightspeed Wholesale. Source products from thousands of brands, bring orders into your POS and get products ready to sell with less manual work.

Shop thousands of wholesale brands with NuORDER by Lightspeed. Order from brands you already work with, discover new ones, and browse and compare products across brands in one place. Then sync your orders directly to Lightspeed POS, making it easier to manage wholesale buying from order to sale.
Discover even more products with the new Faire integration. Order from over 100,000 independent suppliers across categories including home, apparel, jewelry, wellness, food, pets, kids and books.
Get products into your POS faster. Import product details like images, descriptions, barcodes and pricing in a click — saving hours of manual entry and eliminating duplicate work.

Try it on your next delivery

Everything here is included in your plan. There’s no setup, and you don’t need an existing order to receive against , the next delivery that turns up is enough to see how it works.

Check out this Merchant Academy course for more information on managing inventory in Lightspeed
Reach out to our friendly support team if you get stuck

Common questions

Why do this instead of just updating inventory in the product catalog?

Editing an inventory level changes the number in Lightspeed but nothing else— so cost price, weighted average cost, COGS and stock value stay as they were. Receiving a delivery via Lightspeed updates all of it in one action, which is what keeps your margin and stock valuation reporting accurate.

Do I have to start placing my orders in Lightspeed?

No, you don’t have to enter orders in Lightspeed. Receiving orders works on its own — you can log a delivery against a supplier without an order existing first. The benefit of having the order in the system is that you have better visibility into what’s been ordered and what is on the way.

My supplier rep places the order for me. Is this still worth using?

Yes. Receive what gets delivered instead of manually editing afterwards, and your costs and stock value update automatically.

Is there anything to set up first?

Products need inventory tracking enabled (this is on by default) and the supplier needs to exist in Lightspeed.

Does it take longer on delivery day?

You’re likely checking the delivery against the packing slip either way. Receiving via Lightspeed replaces that step rather than adding one, and it removes the separate catalog update or stocktake correction later.

How do I create and send a purchase order?

Go to Inventory > Stock control > Order stock. Select the supplier, delivery locations and receiving outlet, then add your products. Once done, it can be emailed directly to the supplier from Lightspeed.