"Eat out to help out" discount

Uk government has launched a scheme, to go live at the beginning of August, to provide 50% discount, per diner, on hot food items to eat in, up to a max of £10 per diner, Monday to Wednesday. This discount is governement funded and applies to all UK restaurants taking part, almost all of which will.
Currently, as far as I can work out, lightspeed in unable to implement this discount. Given the massive likely takeup, is there any guidance as to how to set up such a discount, or can a special discount category be created to cover this? All UK restaurants using lightspeed will need this very soon.
9 comments
Please Lightspeed, create this button as it would make our life easier to administer this discount.
This is a very critical feature. It would be very helpful to get some guidance on how to manage this without excessive administration. Pease Lightspeed provide some feedback.
Calling support directly will be the quickest way to get an answer on this
Just spoke to Lightspeed Support. Support staff received an e-mail today advising of a new 'reporting feature'. However, this is related to us being able to view the discount on our End of Day Report. But, they have not developed anything to assist us in implementing the Scheme. I really hope they release something soon, otherwise it's going to create a lot of extra work and errors on the way!
Hi gang,
The steps you need to implement are as follows:
Here are the steps in order to setup, use and report on the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme.
SETTING UP THE DISCOUNT (Restaurant Manager)
USING THE DISCOUNT (POS)
REPORTING
Hope that helps!
Lightspeed Restaurant tech support
Lightspeed HQ
Visit our Help Center
Toll-free: 866-932-1801 | Montréal 514-907-1801
Australia: +61-2-8488-3146 | United Kingdom +44-20-3695-9599
Thanks guys for your work so far - this is a useful workaround which will do for now. There are still a few fixes which we need (unless I just can't figure out how to do these, which TBH is likely!):
Do you have any timescales for a full implementation?
Hello James,
Given that the Eat Out to Help Out plan is only short-term for the month of August, Lightspeed will not be altering the product to automate this process. And you are correct. Given that the UK gov't is collecting tax on the full, non-discounted value, we're only using the 50% discount to establish whether the discounted amount is less or more than £10 per head.
If the amount is less than £10 per head, we take note of this amount, remove the discount, proceed to the payment page and use the Eat Out to Help Out payment button to "pay" for this amount, and the remaining amount is what is paid by the customers.
If the amount is more than £10 per head, we again remove the discount and simply use the Eat Out to Help Out payment button to "pay" £10 X the number of heads.
With regards to the other issues Product is aware of these and your comments have been forwarded to them.
I hope this helps.
Lightspeed Restaurant tech support
Lightspeed HQ
Visit our Help Center
Toll-free: 866-932-1801 | Montréal 514-907-1801
Australia: +61-2-8488-3146 | United Kingdom +44-20-3695-9599
Hi,
which reports are best to get the data needed for HMRC?
i used 2 to get all the info.
reports - export data - receipts
reports - export data - payments
is there an easier way?
thanks
Sach
Hi Sachmo,
There is indeed a much easier way to do this, given that we are now using a "Eat Out to Help Out" payment button to record the use of the discount. This can be seen in the Payments & Tips section of the Day Reports, Week Reports, Month Reports and also Summary Reports.
The only thing to be mindful of however is the number of Customers in the totals section. The reason for this is if you've got a table for 4 people and the Eat Out to Help Out payment is just used once, the count of Eat Out to Help Out payments only gives you part of the picutre.
Does that help?
Lightspeed Restaurant tech support
Lightspeed HQ
Visit our Help Center
Toll-free: 866-932-1801 | Montréal 514-907-1801
Australia: +61-2-8488-3146 | United Kingdom +44-20-3695-9599