Lightspeed Retail already imports purchase order lines from a spreadsheet. R-Series takes a CSV or XLSX of up to 500 items per file, and X-Series takes a CSV with SKU and Quantity. What neither does reliably is read the order confirmation or invoice your supplier emailed as a PDF. Upload that document here and get the item numbers, UPCs, descriptions, quantities and unit costs back as CSV or Excel, ready for the Lightspeed import screen.
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Lightspeed has a solid purchase order module and a bulk import. The retyping happens before the import: supplier order confirmations, invoices and packing slips arrive as PDFs, and the Lightspeed import only reads a spreadsheet laid out its own way.
Lightspeed will take 500 purchase order lines from a CSV in one go. Your supplier sends a PDF order confirmation, an invoice or a packing slip. Somebody still has to turn that document into rows, and that somebody is usually the store owner after closing.
R-Series matches rows on System ID, Vendor ID, UPC, EAN, Custom SKU or Manufacturer SKU. A mistyped UPC matches nothing, so Lightspeed creates a brand new item instead of adding stock to the one you already sell.
The X-Series purchase order CSV needs a SKU that already exists in Retail POS. Supplier documents carry the supplier item code, so a file keyed straight from the confirmation fails wherever the two numbers differ.
An R-Series import file is capped at 500 items, one vendor per file, and one import at a time per store. A big apparel or bike preseason confirmation has to be split into several files and loaded in sequence.
PurchaseOrders is a document data capture layer. It reads the supplier order confirmation, invoice or purchase order you received and returns structured rows you load through the Lightspeed purchase order import. It does not connect to Lightspeed, does not hold your Lightspeed login, does not create products and does not create or receive orders. Your catalog, your matching rules and your receiving stay in Lightspeed.
Supplier item code, UPC or EAN where printed, and description return in their own columns, which is what the Vendor ID, UPC and Description columns in the R-Series template expect.
Quantity, unit of measure, unit cost and extended amount return for every line. A 300-line preseason confirmation becomes 300 rows in one pass, ready to split into 500-item files if it runs longer.
The header and the full line table show on screen before download. That is the moment to spot a case price that should be a unit cost, before it lands in your average cost.
CSV goes straight into the Lightspeed import screen. Excel is easier when you add a SKU lookup for X-Series. JSON and the API suit a store group that already scripts its product and order loads.
In Lightspeed Retail R-Series you create the order first and import into it. Go to Inventory, then New Order, choose the vendor, pick the shop in the Location dropdown if you run more than one store, and click Save Changes. Then click Import, tick Update existing items if you want the file to overwrite item details, click Upload CSV File, match your column headings to Lightspeed fields under Assign columns, and click Import Items to Purchase Order. Lightspeed says the job can take several minutes and that it is safe to leave the page. If the upload fails, the page states the problem and you correct the file and upload again.
Lightspeed publishes two templates, one for single-currency shops and one for multicurrency shops, and warns you not to edit, add, delete or reorder the columns. The columns are Order Qty, Unit Cost for single-currency stores or Vendor Cost when multicurrency is on, System ID, Vendor ID, UPC, EAN, Custom SKU, Manufacturer SKU, Description and Price. Leave System ID blank for new items and Lightspeed assigns one. Vendor ID is the supplier part number, which is exactly what most supplier confirmations print, so it is the column that does the most work. Description must be unique across items, and Price is your retail price, not the cost.
For every row, Lightspeed checks for a match on System ID, Vendor ID, UPC, EAN, Custom SKU or Manufacturer SKU. Any single match means no new item is created, and the existing item is updated only if you ticked Update existing items. No match means a new item is created with the purchase order vendor as its default vendor. That is convenient for new season product and dangerous for typos: one wrong digit in a UPC and you have a duplicate item on the shelf and in your reports. A new Vendor ID for the selected vendor is added to the item either way, whether or not you chose to update existing items.
An R-Series import file holds a maximum of 500 items. A purchase order belongs to one vendor, so you need a separate import file for each vendor, and Lightspeed allows only one purchase order import at a time per store. A 1,200-line preseason confirmation therefore becomes three files loaded one after another. If you buy the same item from two vendors, the item can sit in both vendor files.
Lightspeed Retail X-Series imports into a purchase order from a CSV with four headers. SKU and Quantity are mandatory, Handle and Supply price are optional, and both SKU and Handle must match a product already in Retail POS. If you picked a supplier on the order, every product in the file has to carry that supplier. Start from Inventory, then Stock control, click Order stock, fill in the supplier and outlets, choose Import via CSV and click Import CSV. Unlike R-Series, the X-Series CSV does not create products, so new lines have to be added to the catalog before the order import.
Supplier confirmations print the supplier item code, not your SKU. On R-Series that is fine because Vendor ID is a matching column. On X-Series the CSV wants your SKU, so a file built straight from the supplier document fails on every line where the two differ. The fix is a lookup: export your product list with supplier codes once, match the supplier code column from the extracted order against it, and write the SKU into the import file. Do that in a spreadsheet you keep, and every later order from that supplier takes seconds.
Lightspeed lists the usual culprits in its own cleanup steps. UPCs and EANs turn into scientific notation such as 4.001E+11, leading zeros drop off 12-digit UPCs, cells contain N/A, rows spill into other columns, and line breaks hide inside cells. Each one causes a failed row or, worse, a new item that should have matched. Extracted data that never passes through a copy and paste from a PDF avoids most of these, but check the UPC column before you upload.
Lightspeed has its own answers for some of this. On X-Series, Import from document creates a purchase order from a PDF, JPEG or PNG invoice or packing slip, and the Lightspeed Scanner app does the same from a phone scan. Lightspeed labels both as beta features that may not be available in your account, and every product match still has to be reviewed on a computer. Brands that sell through NuORDER sync purchase orders straight into Lightspeed through PO Sync, which NuORDER describes as free for Lightspeed Retail customers, although the R-Series version is only available to select customers. PurchaseOrders covers the rest: R-Series stores with no document import, X-Series accounts without the beta, suppliers who are not on NuORDER, and anyone clearing a stack of confirmations in one batch. The wider tool choice is compared in purchase order software for Lightspeed Retail.
On R-Series, if you use QuickBooks, the Shipping and Other amounts under Costs are exported to QuickBooks and the Discount percentage is applied to the item unit cost. On X-Series you can record Discount, Total shipping and Total import duty on the order, and with the QuickBooks Online integration you click Send to QuickBooks Online on each received purchase order to post its value to your inventory asset account. If your books need the supplier invoice itself entered as a bill, importing purchase orders into QuickBooks covers the accounting side.
For the retail workflow as a whole, see purchase order extraction for retail. Long preseason confirmations are covered by purchase order line item extraction, and a week of supplier emails clears in one pass with bulk purchase order upload. If you want the raw file first, the purchase order PDF to CSV converter shows the output shape.
Only some of these load in bulk, and only two start from a supplier document. Pick the row that matches where your orders begin.
| Route | What creates the lines | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Manual entry on the order | Staff search or scan each item into the purchase order | Small orders and topping up a few items |
| Reorder points and recommendations | Items at or below their reorder point for that vendor | Replenishing core stock you already carry |
| Spreadsheet import (R-Series) | A CSV or XLSX of up to 500 items per vendor file, matched on IDs and barcodes | Large orders, including new items created on import |
| CSV import (X-Series) | A CSV with SKU and Quantity for products that already exist | Large orders of existing catalog products |
| Import from document or Scanner (X-Series beta) | Lightspeed reads a PDF, JPEG or PNG and you review every product match | X-Series accounts that have the beta switched on |
| NuORDER PO Sync | Orders placed with brands on NuORDER sync into Lightspeed | Brands that sell wholesale through NuORDER |
| PurchaseOrders plus the Lightspeed import | Rows extracted from the supplier PDF, loaded by you through the import screen | Suppliers who email PDFs, on either series, in batches |
Extraction removes the typing. The import, the item matching and the receiving stay inside Lightspeed.
Drag in the order confirmation, invoice or packing slip exactly as it arrived. There is no template to set up and no supplier layout to teach the system.
Tip: Confirmations from several suppliers can go in together.
Confirm item codes, UPCs, quantities and unit costs before export. Fixing a cost here takes seconds. Fixing it after receiving means correcting average cost.
Tip: Watch for case pricing. Lightspeed wants the cost of one sellable unit.
Download the CSV, open the purchase order in Lightspeed, click Import, assign the columns and run it. On X-Series, add your SKU column from a supplier code lookup first.
Tip: Load one small order first and check the matched items before a 500-line file.
Yes. Lightspeed Retail R-Series imports items into a purchase order from a CSV or XLSX file using its own template, up to 500 items per file. X-Series imports products into a purchase order from a CSV with SKU and Quantity columns. In both cases you create the order first, then import the lines into it.
Go to Inventory, then New Order, choose the vendor and location, and click Save Changes. Click Import, tick Update existing items if needed, click Upload CSV File, match your columns under Assign columns, then click Import Items to Purchase Order. The job can take several minutes, and failed uploads show the reason on the page.
The R-Series template uses Order Qty, Unit Cost or Vendor Cost for multicurrency shops, System ID, Vendor ID, UPC, EAN, Custom SKU, Manufacturer SKU, Description and Price, in that fixed order. The X-Series CSV needs SKU and Quantity, with Handle and Supply price optional. SKU and Handle must match existing products.
An R-Series purchase order import file can hold a maximum of 500 items. A purchase order belongs to one vendor, so you build one file per vendor, and only one purchase order import can run at a time per store. Larger orders have to be split across several files.
Because no identifier matched. R-Series checks System ID, Vendor ID, UPC, EAN, Custom SKU and Manufacturer SKU, and creates a new item when none match. A UPC that lost its leading zero or turned into scientific notation in Excel is the usual cause. Fix the barcode column and delete the duplicates.
On X-Series, yes, with Import from document, which reads a PDF, JPEG or PNG invoice or packing slip. Lightspeed labels it a beta feature that may not be available in your account, and every product match must be reviewed on a computer. R-Series has no equivalent, which is where extracting the PDF to CSV comes in.
Yes. Orders you place with brands on NuORDER sync into Lightspeed through PO Sync and appear on the PO Sync tab in X-Series, where one click imports the products with brand images and descriptions. The R-Series integration is only available to select customers. It covers brands on NuORDER, not suppliers who email PDFs.
No. Every SKU and Handle in an X-Series purchase order CSV must match a product already in Retail POS, and if a supplier is set on the order, every product must carry that supplier. Add new products to the catalog first, or create them through a product import, then import the order lines.
No. PurchaseOrders reads supplier documents and returns the data as CSV, Excel, JSON or API output. It does not hold your Lightspeed login, does not create products and does not create or receive purchase orders. You run the Lightspeed import yourself, so your catalog, matching and receiving stay under your control.
The retail capture workflow end to end.
See the CSV output shape.
Capture every line on long confirmations.
Clear a week of supplier emails in one pass.
The QuickBooks side of the same orders.
Supplier identified from the document itself.
The same problem on Viewpoint Vista.
Same fields as JSON for a scripted load.