Lightyear slowness is usually caused by one of four things:
A browser or cache issue.
A network or firewall restriction.
Excessive active account data.
Temporary platform incident.
You can identify the cause and resolve most issues yourself.
š Note: Check whether Lightyear is experiencing a known platform incident before working through local fixes. Go to System Uptime to see reported incidents and scheduled maintenance. If a platform incident is confirmed, no local action is needed on your side, the Lightyear team is already working to restore normal performance.
Your internet speed
While your internet speeds may generally be fine, external factors can cause them to fluctuate and sometimes run slower than usual. Doing a quick speed test will let you know if you're experiencing general internet issues. If this is the case, we advise speaking to your ISP for more information.
Firewall or antivirus restrictions
If your internet speed is normal and the issue persists across multiple browsers, a firewall or antivirus on your network may be blocking or throttling Lightyear's data. This is most commonly seen when invoices load quickly for other users on different networks but are slow only for you.
Check with your IT team to ensure Lightyear's domains and IP addresses are whitelisted. You can find the relevant addresses in our Whitelisting our SPF records & IP addresses article.
If you use a VPN, temporarily disconnect it and test Lightyear again, as VPN connections can add latency that slows app performance. If slowness affects one user but not others on the same account, try accessing Lightyear from a different device to confirm whether the issue is device-specific.
Browser cache
A stale or corrupted browser cache is one of the most common causes of Lightyear slowness, especially after a recent app update. Clear your browser cookies and cache, then reload Lightyear. Google Chrome is the recommended browser for the best Lightyear experience, if you are using another browser, switch to Chrome and test again. See How to clear your cookies and cache for the full steps.
Viewing an especially large bill
If the bill you're trying to view has multiple pages or the map that's applied is extracting a large number of lines, this can cause the system to slow down until Lightyear loads all the data that needs to be presented. We're continuously taking steps to improve this, but just be aware that larger bills may take longer to load.
Accounting data
This includes your Suppliers, GL Codes and Tracking Categories. If you have a large number of these, this can cause the app to slow down in the Approvals and Processing tab, as Lightyear needs to load all of these before you would be able to assign them to a bill. Consider making inactive or deleting any Suppliers, GL Codes or Tracking Categories you no longer use.