If Shopify Customer Not Found in QuickBooks Online, Load Sales into Bulk Customer in QBO

marc · December 30, 2020, 4:48am

Overview

When a customer on a Shopify order isn’t found in QuickBooks Online, If Customer is not found then decides what happens. With Use Default Customer, weintegrate records the sale under one customer you choose, so no customer is added for each shopper.

This setting is for Match each customer only. weintegrate finds each shopper’s customer by comparing one field from the Shopify order, such as the email address, with one field on your QuickBooks Online customers (Match on). If no customer is found, it can create a new customer for you (Create New), or use a default customer you choose (Use Default Customer, this guide).

Shoppers who are found keep their own customers, unlike Bulk, use one default catch-all customer, which records every sale under one customer. See Select bulk or unique customer matching in QuickBooks Online.

Quick setup

Open the settings.
- After setup: go to Connections, click Edit Settings on your Shopify store, open the Customer Matching tab, switch to Advanced at the top right and make sure Match each customer is selected.
- In the setup wizard: on the How should we match customers? step, switch to Advanced at the top right.
Set If Customer is not found then to Use Default Customer.
In Select Default from QBO, choose the customer. It’s prefilled with WI Catch All Customer if you have it, otherwise with Auto create for me, which creates it.
Click Save (or Continue in the wizard).

That’s it. From the next synced order, shoppers who aren’t found are recorded under your default customer. Orders already in QuickBooks are not changed.

Example: you match on Email ↔ Email, and jane@example.com isn’t a QuickBooks customer. Her sale is recorded under WI Catch All Customer, with jane@example.com as the billing email.

Your options explained

Field	What it does	Options
If Customer is not found then	What happens when no QuickBooks customer matches the shopper.	Create New (the default) or Use Default Customer.
Select Default from QBO	The customer for shoppers who aren’t found. Shown only with Use Default Customer.	Your active QuickBooks customers, or Auto create for me, which creates a customer named WI Catch All Customer.

Auto create for me is offered only while QuickBooks has no customer named WI Catch All Customer (otherwise pick that customer). It’s created at Confirm & save on Review & finish setup in the wizard, or at Save on the Customer Matching tab, and usually takes 30–90 seconds. Please don’t refresh the page meanwhile.
Select Default from QBO shares its value with Default catch-all customer in Bulk, so switching between the two keeps the same customer picked.
Each Shopify store can have its own default customer.

Use Default Customer or Create New? Use Default Customer keeps your QuickBooks customer list as you set it up, with no customer added per one-time shopper. Create New gives every shopper their own customer, so reports show sales customer by customer.

What a sale under the default customer looks like

Only the Customer is shared. Each sales receipt or invoice still carries the shopper’s email as the billing email, and the order’s billing and shipping addresses when they differ from the default customer’s. The default customer’s own address is never changed, even with Update customer address in Accounting from newly received orders? ticked (update customer address).

Keep your default customer active in QuickBooks. Convert inactive customers to active when posting new orders to accounting reactivates customers found by your Match on fields or Advanced rules, but never the default customer.

Click here to learn about Converting Inactive Customers to Active when integrating Shopify with QuickBooks Online.

Orders without a customer

Orders with no customer skip matching: a sales receipt has no customer, and an invoice, which needs one, uses the customer in Select Default from QBO (with Create New, it uses If Create New failed, Select Default from QBO instead).

For your accountant / bookkeeper: This setting changes only the Customer on the document, never amounts. WI Catch All Customer made by Auto create for me has Display name and Company name both set to WI Catch All Customer. Refund receipts and credit memos use the same customer as the original sale.

Troubleshooting

Shoppers I already have in QuickBooks are going to the default customer.
Your Match on pair isn’t finding them: check the chosen field holds the same value in both systems (for example, the shopper’s email in the customer’s Email field). See Set unique customer matching with primary match between Shopify and QuickBooks Online, or add a secondary match.

I can’t find my customer in Select Default from QBO.
Only active customers are listed; type the name to search. A customer just added in QuickBooks appears once weintegrate picks it up; see Automatic creation of customers and items from Accounting (General Settings).

I can’t save, or Continue is greyed out.
Select Default from QBO is empty (- Select from List -). Pick a customer or Auto create for me.

I don’t see If Customer is not found then.
Switch to Advanced at the top right and select Match each customer (with Bulk, every sale goes to the catch-all customer). Simple hides this setting; stores start on Create New, and a store set to Use Default Customer keeps that choice.

Advanced rules

To send certain shoppers, such as one company’s email domain, to a particular customer instead of the default, use Advanced rules (Professional plan or higher, included with your Free Trial: “Advanced rules are included with your Free Trial. Professional or higher plan required to use them when you subscribe.”). Rules are tried before If Customer is not found then; see Advanced rules in Set unique customer matching with primary match between Shopify and QuickBooks Online.