Set Unique Item Matching between Shopify and QuickBooks Online

marc · January 2, 2021, 10:37pm

Overview

With Match each item, every product on a Shopify order is recorded in QuickBooks Online under its own item, so your QuickBooks sales reports show exactly what you sold, product by product. weintegrate finds that item for you automatically by comparing one field from the Shopify order line, such as the SKU or product name, with one field on your QuickBooks Online items. Set it up once and each order line is matched to its item automatically, with no re-keying. If the product isn’t in QuickBooks yet, weintegrate can create a new item for you or use a default item you choose, depending on your If Product is not found then setting.

Item matching is set separately for each Shopify store you connect. Two stores can match items in different ways.

Recording every order line under one QuickBooks item instead? That’s Bulk, use one default catch-all item, and you can skip this guide. See Select bulk or unique item matching in QuickBooks Online.

Quick setup

Open the settings.
- In the setup wizard: choose Match each item on the How should we match your products? step. You set it up on the next step, How should we match products?.
- After setup: go to Connections, click Edit Settings on your Shopify store, open the Item Matching tab and select Match each item at the top.
Pick what to match on. Under Match on — which identifier lines up?, choose a field in the SHOPIFY dropdown and the QUICKBOOKS dropdown.
- SKU ↔ SKU is usually the most reliable choice when your products have SKUs in both systems. Example: an order line for SKU MUG-100 is recorded under the QuickBooks item whose SKU is MUG-100.
- Use Product Name ↔ Product Name when your products don’t have SKUs, or when your QuickBooks item names are the same as your Shopify product names. Example: an order line for Blue Coffee Mug is recorded under the QuickBooks item named Blue Coffee Mug.
- Pick the pair that matches how your items are already set up in QuickBooks Online. Not sure? Open a few items in QuickBooks and check whether the SKU or the name holds the value you see in Shopify.
- SKUs or names that don’t line up exactly — for example, sending a whole range of SKUs to one QuickBooks item? Use Advanced rules (Professional plan or higher, and included with your Free Trial), explained in Advanced rules further down this guide.
Choose what happens if a product isn’t found. Switch to Advanced at the top right, then set If Product is not found then to Create New or Use Default Item (explained below).
Click Save (or Continue in the wizard).

That’s it. A matched line is recorded under that QuickBooks item. Otherwise If Product is not found then applies.

Your options explained

Simple and Advanced view

The Simple / Advanced switch at the top right changes what you see:

Simple shows the Match on dropdowns.
Advanced also shows If Product is not found then, gift cards, classes, inactive items and the Advanced rules button.

Match on

Dropdown	What it means	Options
SHOPIFY	The detail weintegrate reads from each Shopify order line	Product Name, SKU, SKU + Variants
QUICKBOOKS	The item field it looks for in QuickBooks	SKU, Product Name

QuickBooks Online items have no UPC or barcode field, so UPC isn’t a Match on choice. If your store was set to UPC, the dropdown shows UPC (not supported) with the message UPC is not a supported way to match items. Choose Product Name, SKU or SKU + Variants before saving. Pick one of those to save your settings.

SKU + Variants uses the SKU followed by the variant title, for example MUG-100 Blue / Large. Use it when your QuickBooks items are named or numbered that way.
You can mix fields. SKU under SHOPIFY with Product Name under QUICKBOOKS looks for a QuickBooks item whose name is the Shopify SKU.

If Product is not found then: Create New

weintegrate creates a new QuickBooks item and uses it on the order. It is set up from your Match on choices, so the next order for that product finds it:

With SKU under QUICKBOOKS, the Shopify value you picked under SHOPIFY becomes the new item’s QuickBooks SKU.
With Product Name under QUICKBOOKS, that Shopify value becomes the new item’s name.

Field	What it does
Create Item as	Inventory Item or Non Inventory Item. If inventory tracking isn’t available in your QuickBooks company, it is locked to Non Inventory Item with the note Only Non Inventory Items can be created — inventory tracking isn’t available in this QuickBooks Online company.
Income Account	Where the item’s sales are recorded.
Inventory Asset Account	Shown only when inventory items can be created.
Expense Account	Where the item’s cost is recorded.
Set Sales Description as / Set Purchase Description as	Item Description (the Shopify product description) or Item Name (the product title on the order).
Taxable	Marks the new item as taxable.
Assign Class to New Item	Gives the item a QuickBooks class, chosen in Set Class as. Only when your QuickBooks company has classes.
If Create New failed, Select Default from QBO	A safety net. If QuickBooks refuses to create the item, the line is recorded under this item instead, so your order is still recorded.

Most account dropdowns also offer Auto create for me, which creates a suitably named account or item in QuickBooks for you. Click here to learn about Auto-Creating a New Item in QBO.

If Product is not found then: Use Default Item

Products that aren’t found go to the one item you choose in Select Default from QBO. Products that are found are still matched individually.

For your accountant / bookkeeper
Select Default from QBO and If Create New failed, Select Default from QBO list Inventory and Non-Inventory items only. Auto create for me there creates a Non-Inventory item named WI Catch All Item (offered only while your QuickBooks company has no item with that name). Its income account is your existing account named Sales of Product Income (or Sales, when created from If Create New failed, Select Default from QBO); if there is none, WI Sales of Product Income is used, and created if needed. An item made by Create New uses the Income Account, Expense Account and, for an Inventory item, the Inventory Asset Account set above. If a product matches a QuickBooks Bundle (Group) item, the line is recorded as a bundle line.

Gift cards

A gift card sale is money you owe the customer until they spend the card. So gift card lines skip item matching, Match on and Advanced rules, and always go to the item in Map Gift Cards to.

The list shows QuickBooks Service items only.
Auto create for me creates a Service item named WI - Gift Cards.

Learn more in Map Gift Cards to Other Current Liabilities product from QBO.

For your accountant / bookkeeper
WI - Gift Cards is a Service item whose income account is a liability account, WI Gift Card Liability, so gift card sales increase a liability rather than income. If you choose your own item, point it at an Other Current Liability account for the same result.

Classes

Track classes in QuickBooks Online puts a class on the order lines. The box can be ticked only when your QuickBooks company has classes. Set Class as offers:

Assign Class from QBO Products: the class saved on the matched QuickBooks item. A line whose item has no class gets none.
Use Default Class: one class you pick in Select Default From QBO, on every line.

See Set to track class.

Inactive items

Convert inactive items to active when posting new orders to accounting makes an inactive QuickBooks item active again so the order can use it. This covers a matched item, your Use Default Item item or your gift card item. Unticked, inactive items are left as they are. It covers items only; customers have their own box on the Customer Matching tab. See Convert inactive items to active.

Troubleshooting

Products keep being created as new items in QuickBooks.
Your Match on pair isn’t finding the existing items. Check that the field you chose holds the same value in both systems, for example that your QuickBooks items really have the Shopify SKU in their SKU field. If they differ in a predictable way, add an Advanced rule (below).

Advanced rules: when SKUs or names don’t line up exactly

You only need these if the standard Match on dropdowns can’t line up your records. Match on finds exact matches only. Rules help when, for example, QuickBooks names or SKUs carry extra text around the Shopify SKU, or a range of Shopify products should go to one item.

Plan note

During your Free Trial, Advanced rules are fully available. The editor shows: Advanced rules are included with your Free Trial. Professional or higher plan required to use them when you subscribe.
After you subscribe, Advanced rules need the Professional plan or higher. On a lower plan the button is disabled; hover it to see Available only with Professional and higher subscription plans.
On a plan without Advanced rules, your saved rules are kept and listed read-only under Saved advanced rules, and orders use the standard Match on settings. After you upgrade, open the Item Matching tab, click Save, and wait for the rules to show Active.

Everything else in this guide works on every plan.

How rules work

Rules are tried before your Match on dropdowns. Rules are tried top to bottom; the first rule that finds an Accounting record is used, even if Match on would have found a different item.
If no rule finds an item, your Match on dropdowns are used. If those find nothing, If Product is not found then applies.
While rules are in use, the Match on dropdowns are locked. They still act as the fallback and name any item Create New makes. Delete all your rules to change them.

In the editor, “Sales Channel” means your Shopify store and “Accounting” means QuickBooks Online.

Set up a rule

On the Item Matching tab (or the wizard’s products step), switch to Advanced and select Match each item.
Click Advanced rules, below the Match on dropdowns. The editor, Match on — Advanced rules, opens in place of the standard fields.
Click Add Rule. You can add up to 10 rules. The footer shows No rules yet, or a count such as Rules: 2 / 10.
Line 1, When Sales Channel field: pick Product name, SKU or SKU + variant. Then pick a condition (equals, starts with, contains, ends with, matches wildcard), or no condition to try the rule on every product. Type the text in Text to look for.
Line 2, Match Accounting field: pick Name or SKU, a comparison (same list as above) and the text to compare with. Type fixed text such as Wholesale Goods, or click Use Sales Channel value to search with the value from line 1. It inserts {source}, which stands for that value.
Use the arrows on each rule to change its order.
Click Exit Advanced rules, then Save (or Continue in the wizard). You can’t leave the editor while a rule has a problem; the rule is marked so you can fix it.

The button then shows your rule count, for example Advanced rules (3). Next to it you’ll see Rules activating… this can take a few minutes after saving, then Active. Rules are used once they show Active; until then, orders use your standard Match on settings.

Examples

1. Send a range of products to one item. Wholesale SKUs start with WH- (like WH-MUG-100):

When Sales Channel field SKU starts with WH-
Match Accounting field Name equals Wholesale Goods

Every WH- product goes to Wholesale Goods. Other products keep using Match on.

2. Gift wrap options. Gift Wrap - Red, Gift Wrap - Gold… all go to one item:

When Sales Channel field Product name contains gift wrap
Match Accounting field Name equals Gift Wrapping

3. QuickBooks names start with the SKU. Items are named like MUG-100 Blue Coffee Mug, so an exact SKU match never works:

When Sales Channel field SKU with no condition
Match Accounting field Name starts with {source} (click Use Sales Channel value)

SKU MUG-100 finds the item whose name starts with MUG-100. Check it first with Test a value and Preview.

Put your most specific rules first. A narrow rule (example 1) belongs above a broad one (example 3).

Rule details: wildcards, limits and edge cases

Capital letters don’t matter. blue mug finds Blue Mug.
With matches wildcard, * stands for any run of characters (or none) and ? for exactly one character.
Each text box takes up to 100 characters.
On the QuickBooks side you can use up to 3 * wildcards (* and ? side by side count as one). To search for a real * or ?, put a backslash in front of it: \*. On the Shopify side a backslash has no special meaning.
A value inserted with Use Sales Channel value is always matched exactly as it is, even if it contains * or ?.
Hover the help icon next to the text box for examples.
With starts with, contains, ends with or matches wildcard, more than one QuickBooks item can match. The editor reminds you: More than one Accounting record can match this rule. The first one alphabetically by name is used.
If a rule has a condition or uses Use Sales Channel value, and the product lacks the detail it needs (for example, no SKU), the rule is skipped and the next one is tried. A rule with no condition and fixed text is tried for every product.
Two identical rules aren’t allowed. Change or delete one of them.
Rules can find inactive QuickBooks items too. Turn on Convert inactive items to active when posting new orders to accounting to have them made active automatically.

Testing and previewing your rules

Test a value: type a value Shopify could send, such as a SKU. The editor lists the rules whose Shopify condition it meets (Rules that would apply: …), or says No rule applies to this value.

Preview: each rule has a Preview button, and Preview all rules runs the whole list in order. It searches your QuickBooks items and lists what it finds:

Column	Shows
QBO ID	The item’s ID in QuickBooks, so you can find it there
Chosen match	A check mark on the item an order would actually get. When several items match, the first by name is used
Rule	Which rule found the item, for example Rule 2. Preview all rules shows the items of the first rule that finds any
Name	The QuickBooks item name
Type	Service, Inventory, Non-Inventory, Bundle or Category
SKU	The QuickBooks SKU
Active	Yes or No

A rule that uses Use Sales Channel value or has a Shopify condition needs a Test a value entry before it can be previewed. Preview all rules needs one when any of your rules does.
The first preview can take up to a minute: Preparing preview: indexing your Accounting items. This takes up to a minute the first time.
If you change a rule or the test value after previewing, the result is marked out of date. Click Preview again.

Advanced rules troubleshooting

The Advanced rules button is missing.
Switch to Advanced and select Match each item. The button isn’t shown for Bulk.

The Advanced rules button is grayed out.
Your plan doesn’t include the feature: hovering shows Available only with Professional and higher subscription plans.

My rules say “Rules activating…” for a long time.
Activation normally takes a few minutes. If it stays this way, contact weintegrate support.

A rule matched the wrong item.
Preview that rule with a real SKU or product name in Test a value. If several items match, the first one alphabetically by name is used. Make the rule more specific, or move a more specific rule above it.

The note says the rules “were written for a different Accounting company”.
Rules belong to the QuickBooks company they were created for. If you reconnect to a different company, the old rules are kept but not used. Delete them all and click Save first, then create your new rules and Save again. New rules added before that first save stay tied to the old company.