Overview
Customers who haven’t bought from you in a while are sometimes made inactive in QuickBooks Online to keep the customer list tidy. If one of them orders again in Shopify, Convert inactive customers to active when posting new orders to accounting lets weintegrate make the QuickBooks customer active again and record the sale under them, so the order syncs without you having to step in.
Example: you made Jane Doe (jane@example.com) inactive in QuickBooks after a quiet year. She places an order in your Shopify store. With the box ticked, weintegrate finds her by email, makes her customer record active, and records the sale under it.
The box is unticked to start with, and it’s available on every plan. It covers customers only: items have their own box on the Item Matching tab, explained in Convert inactive items to active.
Quick setup
- Open the settings.
- After setup: go to Connections, click Edit Settings on your Shopify store, open the Customer Matching tab, and switch to Advanced at the top right.
- In the setup wizard: on the How should we match customers? step, switch to Advanced at the top right.
- Scroll down to the checkboxes near the bottom, just above Update customer address in Accounting from newly received orders?
- Tick Convert inactive customers to active when posting new orders to accounting.
- Click Save (or Continue in the wizard).
The setting is shown in Advanced only, and it works with both Match each customer and Bulk, use one default catch-all customer. It applies to orders synced after you save. If you switch back to Simple, the box keeps the value you saved.
Which customers it covers
| Customer | Made active again? |
|---|---|
| The customer found by your Match on fields (primary match) | Yes |
| The customer found by your secondary match (Try a secondary field if above doesn’t find match) | Yes |
| The customer found by one of your Advanced rules | Yes |
| Your Default catch-all customer, when you use Bulk, use one default catch-all customer | Yes, on orders that have a customer |
| Your Use Default Customer customer (Select Default from QBO), used when a customer isn’t found | No. Keep it active |
| The customer in If Create New failed, Select Default from QBO | No. Keep it active |
| A customer weintegrate creates for you (Create New) | Not needed: new customers start active |
A few more things to know:
- Orders without a customer (for example, some point-of-sale orders) recorded as invoices go to a default customer you chose, and that customer isn’t checked. Keep your default customers active.
- Customers made inactive after you connected: this is what the setting is for. A customer that was already inactive when you connected QuickBooks Online to weintegrate isn’t found at all, so the order follows your If Customer is not found then setting instead. Make that customer active in QuickBooks Online once, and later orders find them.
- Order updates and refunds don’t make customers active. An order that’s already in QuickBooks keeps its customer, and a refund uses the customer from the original sale.
- Unticked: weintegrate doesn’t change the customer. QuickBooks Online normally won’t accept a sale for an inactive customer, so that order doesn’t sync.
For your accountant / bookkeeper
weintegrate marks the QuickBooks customer active. Their name, contact details, terms and history stay as they are, and the sale is recorded under them as usual. Once active, the customer shows in customer lists and on sales forms again. If you’d rather keep a customer retired, leave this box unticked and send their orders to another customer, for example with an Advanced rule (Professional plan or higher, and included with your Free Trial; see Set unique customer matching with Primary Match).
Troubleshooting
An order didn’t sync, and the customer it needs is inactive in QuickBooks.
Tick Convert inactive customers to active when posting new orders to accounting and click Save, or make the customer active yourself in QuickBooks Online. Either way, later orders for that customer sync under them.
I can’t find the checkbox.
It’s shown in Advanced only. Switch to Advanced at the top right of the Customer Matching tab, or of the How should we match customers? step in the wizard, and scroll down. If the Advanced rules editor is open, click Exit Advanced rules first.
I ticked the box, but an inactive customer still wasn’t made active.
Check which customer the order used. Your Use Default Customer customer, the If Create New failed, Select Default from QBO customer, and the default customer used for orders without a customer aren’t covered, and a customer that was already inactive when you connected QuickBooks Online isn’t found at all. Make those customers active in QuickBooks Online yourself. Also check that Automatically Create Customers and Items in WeIntegrate from Accounting is ticked: it’s how weintegrate learns that you made a customer inactive in QuickBooks. See Automatic creation of customers and items in weintegrate from Accounting.
My inactive customers are being made active, but my items aren’t (or the other way round).
Customers and items have separate boxes. The item box is on the Item Matching tab: see Convert inactive items to active.
Click here to learn about Updating Customer Addresses when integrating Shopify with QuickBooks Online.
Related topics
- Setup Shopify integration with QuickBooks Online customer matching: customer matching in the setup wizard
- Select bulk or unique customer matching in QuickBooks Online: Match each customer or Bulk, use one default catch-all customer
- Set unique customer matching with primary match between Shopify and QuickBooks Online: the Match on fields and Advanced rules
- Add secondary match to customer matching between Shopify and QuickBooks Online: a second try when the first match finds no one
- If Shopify customer not found in QuickBooks Online, auto-create a new customer in QBO: Create New and If Create New failed, Select Default from QBO
- If Shopify customer not found in QuickBooks Online, use a default customer in QBO: Use Default Customer
- While integrating Shopify to QuickBooks Online, update customer address: Update customer address in Accounting from newly received orders?
- Convert inactive items to active: the same setting for items, on the Item Matching tab
- Automatic creation of customers and items in weintegrate from Accounting: keeps weintegrate up to date with changes you make in QuickBooks Online