Of the three, Lightspeed Retail is the only one that publishes UK pricing in pounds (£75, £149 and £189 a month) and the only one with a native Xero link, but it is a generic till with a basic services module rather than a jewellery system. The Edge is the deepest jewellery product of the three and the hardest to run from Britain: it is installed on a Windows workstation and your own server, sold on a one-off licence that its own site will only quote through a calculator, and links to QuickBooks. Jewel360 is The Edge's cloud rival, from US$199 a month, with serialised stock, repairs, appraisals and memo arriving on its Core plan. None of the three publishes anything about the VAT margin scheme, the reverse charge on scrap gold, or VAT-inclusive receipting, which is where a UK jeweller's evaluation should start.
The head-to-head table
As of August 2026, from each vendor's own pages unless marked.
| The Edge | Jewel360 | Lightspeed Retail (X-Series) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Abbott Jewelry Systems, USA; launched 2002; "4,000+ active stores" | Rain Retail Software LLC, Provo, Utah; "500+ independent jewelers nationwide" | Lightspeed Commerce, Montreal; UK site and UK pricing page |
| Hosting | On-premise. Windows workstation plus a server with at least 16GB RAM and 500GB disk; SQL edition for wireless networks | Cloud; runs on existing computers, tablets and phones | Cloud |
| Published price | None on the vendor site - a calculator that ends in a quote. Directories list a one-off licence from US$3,500 (Software Advice, Capterra) to US$4,600 for Basic single-store (G2) | Startup US$199 a month; Core and Plus on request; US$750 setup fee, rebated after go-live | Basic £75, Core £149, Plus £189 a month on the UK page, which adds that "prices can vary" by industry |
| Contract | One-off licence; ongoing support and renewal terms not published | No long-term contract, per Jewel360's own comparison pages | Annual and monthly options; UK annual discount not published |
| Card payments | Integrated payments module; rates not published | Integrated processing on all plans, "custom-quoted" | Lightspeed Payments; UK rates quoted individually, not published |
| Serialised one-of-a-kind stock | Yes | Yes, Core plan and up (with stone management) | Serial numbers recorded against a SKU |
| Repairs and custom | Yes - barcoded envelopes, text and email on completion, Geller's Blue Book pricing | Yes, Core plan and up - job templates, stage notifications, photos | Basic services module; not built around jewellery jobs |
| Appraisals | Yes | Yes, Core and up | No |
| Layaway / deposits | Yes, per directory feature lists | Yes, per directory feature lists | Yes - layby, documented |
| Memo and consignment | Not listed on current site pages | Yes, Core and up | No |
| E-commerce | Own e-commerce module; Punchmark integration | Native website; Shopify sync on Plus | Built-in eCommerce on all plans |
| Accounting | QuickBooks | QuickBooks (Plus) | Xero (native) |
| Tax model | US sales tax; no VAT statement found | US sales tax; Avalara on Plus; no VAT statement found | UK VAT rates supported as a generic tax setting |
| Margin scheme, reverse charge, stock book | No | No | No |
| UK support hours | Not published | Not published | 24/7 chat and phone |
What do US jewellery systems get wrong about UK VAT?
Four things, and they are structural rather than settings you can toggle.
They compute tax on the price, every time. A US register adds sales tax to the ticket. A UK jeweller selling a second-hand piece bought from a member of the public accounts for VAT on the margin only, under the VAT margin scheme, and paragraph 5.3 of VAT Notice 718 says the sales invoice must not show VAT separately. Neither The Edge nor Jewel360 publishes a margin scheme function, and Lightspeed's tax settings are per-product rates. The usual workaround is to set the item to zero tax and compute the margin VAT in a spreadsheet. That works until an inspector asks for the stock book.
They do not keep a stock book. Notice 718 paragraph 5.2 requires, for each margin scheme item, a stock number, purchase date, purchase invoice number, purchase price, seller's name, description, sale date, sales invoice number, buyer's name, selling price, margin and VAT due. The Edge and Jewel360 both serialise stock, which gets you the first half. Neither links the purchase record to the sale record in the form the notice requires; you will be exporting and re-keying. Our piece on stock book requirements lists the fields.
They treat part-exchange as a discount. Under Notice 718 paragraph 13.6 the full selling price includes the part-exchange allowance, and the allowance becomes the unalterable purchase price of the piece taken in. A till that nets the trade-in off the sale understates your margin on the outgoing piece and leaves the incoming piece without a purchase price.
They assume tax is added at the counter. UK retail prices are VAT-inclusive by law for consumer sales. US systems default to tax-exclusive ticketing; check on the demo that both the screen and the receipt can show the inclusive price and back out the VAT, and that the VAT summary on the receipt is correct for a 20% standard-rated piece sitting in the same basket as a margin scheme piece.
And for anyone with a scrap tray: the sale of scrap gold to a refiner at metal value is a reverse charge supply under section 11 of VAT Notice 701/21, with prescribed invoice wording. None of the three will produce that invoice.
What do they get wrong about repairs?
Less than about VAT, but two things matter.
The repair modules are good. The Edge prints barcoded envelopes, pulls the job up on scan, and sends a text or email the moment the job is finished. Jewel360's Core plan has job templates, notifications at each stage and photo uploads. Lightspeed's services module tracks a job but was not designed for the bench.
The gap is what a repair is. In a SKU-and-quantity system, a customer's ring in for a claw retip is either booked into stock (wrong - it is not your asset, and it corrupts the insurance count) or held only on the job record. UK jewellers block policies cover customers' goods in trust on a separate basis from stock, and the schedule often carries a lower limit than you assume. You need a single count of customer property in the building, by value, at any moment. Ask each vendor to show it.
The second gap is the VAT on workshop labour against a margin scheme piece. Service and parts on a second-hand watch you are selling do not reduce the taxable margin - the input VAT is reclaimed separately - so the system must hold the repair cost on the piece for your real gross profit while keeping it out of the margin calculation. A US system has no reason to separate the two.
Which one should a UK jeweller actually pick?
If you want one of these three, the honest ranking for a UK shop is Lightspeed, then Jewel360, then The Edge - which is the reverse of their depth as jewellery systems.
Lightspeed is priced in pounds, supported around the clock, has layby, serial numbers and a native Xero feed, and runs in a browser. It will not do appraisals, memo or a real repairs bench, and it knows nothing about the margin scheme. For a jeweller selling new stock with a web shop and a couple of branches, it is a reasonable till.
Jewel360 is the best jewellery functionality you can get without buying a server. The entry price is public (US$199 a month), the Core plan is where the jewellery features live and its price is not public, and the US$750 setup fee is rebated once you go live. What is missing for the UK is everything in the VAT section above, plus any published statement that the company supports UK customers, bills in pounds or answers the phone in UK hours. It is operated by Rain Retail Software, the same Utah company behind RAIN POS.
The Edge is the incumbent for a reason - the repairs, custom and appraisal workflow has been refined since 2002 - but it is installed software. You are buying Windows hardware, a server, a licence whose price the vendor will not print, and ongoing support on terms that are not published either, for a product whose accounting link is QuickBooks and whose tax model is American. We found no published UK customers and no VAT statement.
If none of the three passes the VAT test, the UK-built alternatives are Clarity & Success, Jewel-Master and Milleso; our UK jewellery software comparison covers them. Milleso is our product: it decides the VAT treatment at intake, keeps the stock book from the same record, does part-exchange the way paragraph 13.6 wants, holds customer property separately from stock, and exports to Xero and Sage, at £99 or £249 a month ex VAT. It has no US tax model and no multi-store yet, so if you are a US shop or a UK chain, it is not your answer.
Five questions to ask on the demo
- Sell a margin scheme ring and a new standard-rated chain in one basket. Show the receipt. Is VAT shown on the ring line?
- Print the stock book for the ring, with all twelve Notice 718 fields, from the system.
- Take a £200 part-exchange against the sale. Show the purchase price recorded for the incoming piece.
- Show the total value of customers' property in the building right now.
- Raise a refiner invoice for 40 g of 9ct scrap with the reverse charge wording.
Ask for the answers in writing. A vendor who answers "we have customers in the UK who manage" is telling you there is a spreadsheet.
What we could not verify
- The Edge licence and support renewal prices. The vendor site publishes none; the US$3,500 to US$4,600 figures come from Software Advice, Capterra and G2.
- Whether The Edge or Jewel360 has any UK customers, GBP billing or UK support hours. Nothing published.
- Jewel360 Core and Plus prices. On request only.
- Lightspeed UK annual-billing discount and card rates. The UK pricing page shows monthly prices and no rates; rates are quoted per account.
- Whether The Edge's current version still lists memo and consignment. Not on the pages we read; older directory listings mention it.
Sources
- The Edge - pricing, requirements and repairs and custom
- The Edge on Software Advice and Capterra - one-off licence from US$3,500, on-premise
- Jewel360 pricing, Jewel360 vs Lightspeed (vendor comparison; US prices) and Jewel360 press release
- Lightspeed Retail UK pricing, X-Series layby, X-Series serial numbers and X-Series Xero integration
- The Margin and Global Accounting Scheme (VAT Notice 718) - GOV.UK, paragraphs 5.2, 5.3 and 13.6
- Gold acquisitions, imports, investments and VAT (VAT Notice 701/21) - GOV.UK, section 11
This is general information, not a recommendation to buy any product, and not tax advice. Vendor pricing and features change without notice; every figure above was checked against the linked page in August 2026 and should be re-checked before you sign. Milleso is our product and is named with that disclosure. Take VAT questions to your accountant.