Harbortouch Lighthouse – Complete Management System

Harbortouch Lighthouse is a cloud-based business management system that offers an extensive reporting portal for its customers. The Shift4 Payments Company launched it and has continued to be useful to its users by providing features that are critical to the growth of any business.

Founded in 2017, Lighthouse 3.0 is a complete solution for customers utilizing it for payment processing. It eliminates the need for a back-office PC by allowing users to access information directly through any internet-connected device. The system has several relevant features that have improved stability and reliability.

One of its best features remains to be accessibility. Lighthouse POS gives customers easy access to their business using any computer or mobile device regardless of physical location. Through the POS, merchants can monitor business development and progress by gaining valuable insights at a glance. The reports are accessed directly through the POS. They are usually in the form of payment processing information, and daily business transactions such as deposits and bank checks acceded, daily sales analysis and employee reports.

Harbortouch Lighthouse allows business owners to work remotely and manage their businesses on their terms. It is installed for free on Harbortouch’s POS systems and produced to cater for all companies.

Harbortouch Lighthouse provides a marketplace for its users to access third-party Apps that integrate effortlessly with their current payment solution and POS. Some of the features that are already accessible to its users include online ordering and reservations, employee management, and social media tools.

The company has plans to expand these features to provide additional tools in the future. Lighthouse focuses on filling in the gap of business flexibility and remote management in an era of high business competitiveness. In addition to the full range of features, Lighthouse has dramatically improved its back-end infrastructure by making it more secure and scalable to its users.

Harbortouch Lighthouse Features

The management system offers advanced reporting capabilities with several relevant features, as discussed below.

Social Media Tools

Social media has created a new and smart platform for merchants to grow their businesses, mainly through marketing. Lighthouse POS enables merchants to easily link their social media accounts and profiles to their companies.

Through the reports, business owners can track their business reputation, the performance of their content, schedule posts, and manage all their visibility from a central account. Lighthouse also enables the firm to manage their online reputation through ratings and reviews.

Remote Access

The lighthouse management system has a feature that allows merchants to access and operate their POS remotely regardless of their location.

By logging into the system, merchants can make changes such as editing/updating menu items, changing food prices, or adjusting the quantities available.

Customer Engagement Tools

Customers are the bone of every business. The customer engagement tool provided by Lighthouse POS enables merchants to keep abreast of customer feedback and experience. The tool allows users to set up welcome and promotional emails for its customers and alert them of any offers or discounts.

Overall, this in-built tool helps increase customer loyalty and overall experience with the business through customer surveys and follow-ups.

Customizable Dashboard

The lighthouse management system presents its users with a custom-built dashboard that has multiple widgets relevant to any business. Some of the information provided on the panel include payment plans, employee clock-in analysis, labor statistics, email campaigns, and social media updates.

The dashboard also contains a segment that displays contact details for the technical experts and customer care, plus the phone number for Harbortouch sales representatives’ personnel. 

POS Marketplace

One of the unique features offered by Harbortouch Lighthouse is the POS marketplace. Marketplace allows merchants to quickly download and access universal Apps that integrate well with the POS. Some of the popular applications include Fisherman, Sling, Door Dash, Uber Eats, and Virtual Teaching.

Employee Management and Scheduling

Managing employees in any business can be an uphill task, especially with the changing shifts that are common in the hospitality industry.

Lighthouse, however, makes it easy for business managers to manage and schedule their employees by using this feature.

The feature provides an in-built calendar and shifts management tool that uncomplicates the otherwise hectic and time-demanding task. Besides, this feature eases communication by allowing managers to send bulk messages to employees instantly within a click of a button.

The manage employee page on the dashboard is divided into active and inactive employees, thereby allowing managers to deactivate the inactive employees who no longer work for the organization.

The feature enables managers to edit employee information such as name, payroll number and contact details, security privileges, which allows the manager to change employees’ permission accessibility to the POS and the jobs segment, which can be edited based on the daily tasks at hand.

Reports and Analytics

Lighthouse POS has an excellent feature that is simple to use and equally important. The data reports and analytics feature, make it easy for business owners to access detailed, yet analytical reports that are crucial in making day to day business decisions.

The wide range of data reports gives considerable insight into any business voids, challenges, and strong-points that need to review. The system has an additional feature that allows users to schedule automatic email reports on their favorite analysis. The reports include:

Sales Reports

These reports enable businesses to keep track of daily sales essential for the success of any business. The sales reports provide a functional analysis of what sells and what doesn’t, which allows companies to focus on the essential items.

Labor Reports

Labor costs can be a considerable expense and need monitoring if a business is to succeed. When the labor costs are high while revenue is low, companies can quickly close down. The labor reports are hence valuable in monitoring costs and identifying what needs cutting down.

Menu and Product Reports

The menu reports give a good overview of the fast- and slow-moving food items for restaurants, which in turn informs changes in the menu.

Processing Data

Data collection on transaction history related to the business are analyzed based on the preferred period, which could be daily, weekly, or monthly.

Hospitality Financial Overview

The lighthouse management system has a feature that provides merchants with a summary of business activities over a specified period. The report provides an extensive breakdown of the sales, any tips from your guests, discounts, and any other transactions. The information is in the form of tables, charts, or graphs.

Benefits of Using Lighthouse

  • The management system has a fraud- monitoring and reporting function, which protects businesses from losing any revenues. The feature keeps track of all payments and gives alerts whenever it detects any unusual transactions.
  • The easy-to-use interface and terminal make it convenient for Lighthouse users. Business owners and employees do not have to spend a lot of time mastering their usage. New employees quickly familiarize themselves with Lighthouse within a short time, allowing them to focus on other essential duties. Identifying and editing errors happens effortlessly.
  • The lighthouse management system supports a range of payment options such as in-store, gift cards, and mobile transactions. Merchants are, therefore, able to give their buyers extensive options making it even more convenient.
  • Managing transactions of all revenues are centralized when using Lighthouse. Businesses that have outlets in different locations have the advantage of accessing their daily income from one central location, making it easy, fast, and highly convenient. Time spent on doing monthly reconciliations reduces significantly.
  • Lighthouse users have access to a batch of tools and assistance whenever they need support. The company offers a 60-day free trial period to enable users to familiarize and learn the system without incurring any additional costs.
  • Lighthouse has a multi-usability function that allows multiple users at the same time with no added costs. This feature is consummate as it does not set a limit on how many users can access the system at a go.
  • The management system has a pre- and post-settlement audit function that is ideal for accounting purposes.
  • The lighthouse management system allows customers to gain easy access to the Harbortouch resource center. Through the system, users can get access to demonstration videos, reference guides, and communicate with the technical support team through the live chat feature. The support center provides users with a navigation tab that allows users to search for solutions to any problem.

Conclusion

Merchants can use Lighthouse to access a wide range of functions and features based on the business specifications.

Although a relatively new system, the Lighthouse management system is gaining attraction among new users due to the increased benefits it entails. It is affordable, reliable, and easy to install and ideal for all restaurant businesses regardless of size.