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Lightspeed Launches Integrated iOS Solution with Intuit QuickBooks Online and Planday

Collaborative integration of finance and employee scheduling with cloud-based POS software brings the best- in-service to independent retailers and restaurants
Lightspeed, a powerful cloud point-of-sale system has teamed up with financial software provider Intuit QuickBooks Online, and workforce management platform Planday to bring a full-suite of powerful iOS apps to businesses in the retail and restaurant space, empowering them to grow and thrive.
Together, these three Apple Mobility Partners provide an integrated service offering that supports better business management, from planning finances and organizing work schedules, to simplifying merchant-to-customer transactions.
Retailers and restauranteurs who use this integration can benefit from the value of iOS combined with the respective best-in-class apps, including a seamless user experience that will help them to save costs, reduce time spent on admin tasks and better engage their employees. In addition, with the latest integrations of Intuit QuickBooks Online and Planday, Lightspeed customers using iPhone and iPad will have access to:
Integrated solutions running together exclusively on iOS that provide a clear picture of the overall business, enabling owners to deliver an improved customer experience;
Onboarding for the integrated solution via collaboration between a cross-company team of customer service representatives;
Mobile POS connected to inventory, eCommerce, and back-of-house to take a retail store anywhere or serve customers table-side
HOW THIS BENEFITS CUSTOMERS
Manage and report on all inventory from one centralized location with Lightspeed
Have all the sales information flow automatically from Lightspeed into the proper general ledger accounts in Intuit QuickBooks Online to understand the business at a single glance
Schedule all employee shifts based on expected revenues and manage individual or group communication in one place with Planday
All information around sales and employees’ time and attendance will roll up from Planday and Lightspeed into Intuit QuickBooks Online to run payroll
With the three platforms speaking to each other, it makes the business more efficient and saves time by consolidating reports
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Why is this relationship significant for Lightspeed’s growing global customer base?
“This relationship ushers in a new era of ease and innovation for our customers. With this integration, we are delivering one experience to retail and restaurant customers to help them save time, make more money, and improve data accuracy through automatic syncing of all systems,” said Julian Teixeira, VP of Sales, Lightspeed. “The way retailers and restaurants do business has changed, and a modern-day POS system should support a business owner so they can spend more time focused on their customers.”
What role will QuickBooks play in improving profitability for business owners?
“Maintaining profitable margins for goods and services and ensuring reliable payroll are two key priorities for retail and restaurant businesses,” said Mauricio Comi, Leader of Product Partnerships, Intuit QuickBooks. “This technology solution is especially designed to help alleviate these pain points. With Lightspeed, Planday and QuickBooks, small business owners can gain valuable insights into many aspects related to the performance and health of their business so they can make smart decisions to ensure their growth and success.”
How do retailers and restauranteurs benefit from the integration of Planday?
“Businesses in the retail and restaurant industries need to provide the best possible customer experience, while at the same time staying on top of costs. Ensuring the right employees are in position and with the right team size during busy or quiet periods is key to success, but this has been a real admin challenge for operators. The combined solution represents a significant step in solving this equation with the minimum of effort,” comments Christian Broendum, CEO, Planday.
For additional information on the integration between Lightspeed POS, QuickBooks, and Planday, and how to get started, visit Lightspeed’s restaurant and retail web pages.
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Oil rises on positive forecasts, slow U.S. output restart

By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin
LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices rose on Tuesday, underpinned by the likely easing of COVID-19 lockdowns around the world, positive economic forecasts and lower output as U.S. supplies were slow to return after a deep freeze in Texas shut down crude production.
Brent crude was up 36 cents, or 0.5%, at $65.60 a barrel by 1212 GMT, and U.S. crude rose 39 cents, or 0.6%, to $62.09 a barrel.
Both contracts rose more than $1 earlier in the session.
“Vaccine news is helping oil, as the likely removal of mobility restrictions over the coming months on the back of vaccine rollouts should further boost the oil demand and price recovery,” said UBS oil analyst Giovanni Staunovo.
Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg said optimistic oil price forecasts issued by leading U.S. brokers had also contributed to the latest upswing in prices.
Goldman Sachs expects Brent prices to reach $70 per barrel in the second quarter from the $60 it predicted previously, and $75 in the third quarter from $65 forecast earlier.
Morgan Stanley expects Brent crude to climb to $70 in the third quarter.
“New COVID-19 cases are falling fast globally, mobility statistics are bottoming out and are starting to improve, and in non-OECD countries, refineries are already running as hard as before COVID-19,” Morgan Stanley said in a note.
Bank of America said Brent prices could temporarily spike to $70 per barrel in the second quarter.
Disruptions in Texas caused by last week’s winter storm also supported oil prices. Some U.S. shale producers forecast lower oil output in the first quarter.
Stockpiles of U.S. crude oil and refined products likely declined last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.
A weaker dollar also provided some support to oil as crude prices tend to move inversely to the U.S. currency.
(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London, additional reporting by Jessica Jaganathan in Singapore; editing by David Evans and John Stonestreet)
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UK-Japan trade deal settled nerves for Japanese firms, Honda executive says

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s trade deal with Japan settled the nerves of a lot of Japanese businesses in the United Kingdom and gives them confidence about their future prospects there, a senior Honda executive said on Tuesday.
Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, has since the 1980s made the United Kingdom its favoured European destination for investment, with the likes of Nissan, Toyota and Honda using the country as a launchpad into Europe.
But Britain’s shock 2016 decision to leave the European Union had prompted Japan to express unusually strong public concerns. Their companies and investors warned that a disorderly exit from the EU would force them to rethink their four-decade bet on Britain.
“We welcome very much the Japanese trade agreement which as a Japanese businesses was very welcomed,” Ian Howells, senior vice president at Honda Motor Europe, told a parliamentary committee.
“On the point around confidence, that certainly amongst my peers in Japanese companies was very much welcomed, and probably settled a lot of nerves in terms of their trading prospects in the UK going forward.”
Britain and Japan formally signed a trade agreement in October, marking Britain’s first big post-Brexit deal on trade. It has also made a formal request to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), of which Japan is also a member.
(Reporting by Kate Holton)
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UK retailers see sharp fall in sales and mounting job losses, CBI says

LONDON (Reuters) – British retail sales fell in the year to February as stores cut jobs at a rapid rate, with only supermarkets reporting any growth during the latest COVID-19 lockdown, a survey showed on Thursday.
The Confederation of British Industry’s gauge of retail sales stood at -45, up only slightly from January’s eight-month low of -50. The measure points to falling sales and is below the consensus forecast of -38 in a Reuters poll of economists.
Retailers’ expectations for March – when non-essential shops will remain closed to the public as part of lockdown measures – fell to -62, the lowest since the series began in 1983.
In another sign of a changing consumer habits during lockdown, the survey’s gauge of internet retail sales hit a new record high.
“With lockdown measures still in place, trading conditions remain extremely difficult for retailers,” said Ben Jones, principal economist at the CBI.
“Record growth in internet shopping suggests that retailers’ investments in on-line platforms and click-and-collect services may be paying off, but the re-opening of the sector can’t come soon enough to protect jobs and breathe life back into the sector.”
Job losses among retailers accelerated according to a quarterly question in the survey. For the distribution sector as a whole, which includes wholesalers and car dealers, employment fell at a record rate, the CBI survey showed.
(Reporting by Andy Bruce, editing by David Milliken)