Getting started with Lightspeed
Two parts, no data migration, no IT department. Your shop account takes about 5 minutes. The Lightspeed connection is one guided flow where you mostly confirm screens that are already filled in.
Start Free TrialWhat You Need
If you can log into Lightspeed as an owner or admin, you have everything required.
A Lightspeed R-Series Account
Trail Hits™ Hub connects to Lightspeed Retail R-Series. Your existing account, your existing data. Nothing gets migrated or exported.
An Owner or Admin Login
The Lightspeed connection step is admin-only. Techs and sales staff join later, imported straight from your Lightspeed staff list.
About 20 Minutes Total
Part 1 takes about 5 minutes. Part 2 is a guided flow: the sync does the heavy lifting while you confirm pre-filled screens.
Part 1: Create Your Shop Account
About 5 minutes, and you do not need Lightspeed open for any of it.
Confirm Your Profile
A short AI-assisted welcome wizard fills in your shop profile from your website: name, contact info, hours, logo. You confirm instead of typing.
You're In
Your shop account is live. When you are ready, an admin connects Lightspeed in Part 2.
Part 2: Connect Lightspeed
One guided, full-screen flow. Set aside about 15 minutes. While the initial sync runs, Hub prepares suggestions for the later screens, so the mapping steps open already filled in and you confirm rather than configure. The flow is resumable: save and exit anytime, pick up where you left off.
Connect your Lightspeed
One OAuth sign-in authorizes the connection. Nothing in Lightspeed moves or changes. The requested scope is employee:all.
Watch your shop come in
The initial sync pulls your customers, work orders, and labor catalog automatically, with live counts on screen. No CSV files, no manual entry.
Choose your mode
Read-only or read-and-write. Read-only is pre-selected because it is the default for every new shop. More on the difference below.
Confirm your statuses
Every Lightspeed status you use, including custom ones, arrives pre-matched to a lane in Hub. Glance down the list, adjust anything that looks wrong, confirm. Your statuses stay your statuses; nothing in Lightspeed is renamed or restructured.
Confirm labor categories (read-and-write only)
If you chose read-and-write, Hub pre-checks the Lightspeed categories that hold your labor so estimates quote what your POS charges. Read-only shops skip this step entirely.
Confirm your team
Your Lightspeed staff list is imported and pre-selected. Uncheck anyone who should not have Hub access, confirm the rest. No retyping names and emails.
Tell us how your shop runs
A short, plain-language chat: what you service, how work moves through the shop. It tunes Hub's suggestions to fit your shop. Optional, and skippable.
Verify and go live
See your real work orders and customers in Hub before you finish. If it looks like your shop, you are done. Read-only shops are effectively live at this point.
Read-Only vs Read-and-Write, Honestly
You choose how Hub touches your POS. Every new shop starts read-only. Read-and-write is a deliberate opt-in you make when you are ready, not a box you accidentally leave checked.
Read-only (the default)
- ✓ Hub reads your work orders, customers, and labor from Lightspeed
- ✓ Powers the Hub app and the customer-facing Trail Hits™ app
- ✓ Never writes anything back to Lightspeed
- ✓ Live after connecting, syncing, confirming statuses, and verifying
Read-and-write (the opt-in)
- ✓ Everything in read-only, plus Hub pushes estimates and labor into Lightspeed
- ✓ You additionally confirm labor categories during onboarding
- ✓ You set your Lightspeed defaults: Register, Employee, Shop/location, Tax Class
- ✓ The status a pushed work order receives comes from your status mapping, not a separate setting
What Hub Touches in Lightspeed, and What It Never Does
The integration is non-destructive by design. Lightspeed stays your source of truth for sales, inventory, and reporting.
What Hub will do
- Read customers, work orders, statuses, labor, and staff
- In read-and-write mode: create work orders for bikes checked in through Hub
- In read-and-write mode: add approved estimate labor and parts to the Lightspeed work order
- In read-and-write mode: append the inspection link to the work order note and sale note
What Hub will never do
- Write anything to Lightspeed in read-only mode
- Overwrite your notes: every note write is append-only, so existing shop notes are never lost
- Write work order status back to Lightspeed: your statuses stay authoritative in your POS
- Touch your sales, inventory, or reporting
One tip before you connect: use a dedicated API user
Create a staff account in Lightspeed named something like "Trail Hits API" and run the OAuth connection while signed in as that user. The connection is tied to the Lightspeed session that authorized it, so a dedicated account keeps it stable when you and your staff log in and out of lightspeedapp.com on the shop floor.
It takes two minutes in Lightspeed and saves you from ever wondering why a connection needs re-authorizing.
Where to Get Help
Your 30-day free trial includes two 1-hour onboarding sessions. Connect Lightspeed on day one and we will walk it through with you, statuses and all.
Ready when you are.
Start the trial, connect Lightspeed, and see your own shop in Hub before you decide anything.
Trail Hits™ Hub
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