Overview
When you stop selling a product, you might make its item inactive in QuickBooks Online to keep your product list tidy. If that product sells again in Shopify, Convert inactive items to active when posting new orders to accounting lets weintegrate make the QuickBooks item active again and record the sale under it, so the order syncs without you having to step in.
Example: you made Blue Coffee Mug (SKU MUG-100) inactive at the end of the season. A shopper orders one from your Shopify store. With the box ticked, weintegrate finds the item, makes it active, and records the order line under it.
The box is unticked to start with, and it’s available on every plan. It covers items only: customers have their own box on the Customer Matching tab, explained in Convert inactive customers to active.
Quick setup
- Open the settings.
- After setup: go to Connections, click Edit Settings on your Shopify store, open the Item Matching tab, and switch to Advanced at the top right.
- In the setup wizard: on the How should we match products? step, switch to Advanced at the top right.
- Scroll to the bottom of the item settings.
- Tick Convert inactive items 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 item and Bulk, use one default catch-all item. It applies to orders synced after you save.
Which items it covers
| Item | Made active again? |
|---|---|
| The item found for a product by your Match on fields | Yes |
| The item found by one of your Advanced rules | Yes |
| Your Use Default Item item (Select Default from QBO), used when a product isn’t found | Yes |
| Your Default catch-all item, when you use Bulk, use one default catch-all item | Yes |
| Your gift card item (Map Gift Cards to), with either matching choice | Yes |
| The item in If Create New failed, Select Default from QBO | No. Keep it active |
| Items you choose on other screens, such as a shipping item | No. Keep them active |
A few more things to know:
- Order updates: when a product is added to an order that’s already in QuickBooks, its item is checked and made active the same way. Lines already on the QuickBooks document keep their item and aren’t checked again.
- Items that were already inactive when you connected: this works for items you make inactive after connecting QuickBooks Online to weintegrate. An item that was already inactive when you connected isn’t found, so its lines follow your If Product is not found then setting instead. Make the item active in QuickBooks Online once, and later orders find it.
- Refunds don’t make items active.
- Unticked: weintegrate doesn’t change the item. QuickBooks Online normally won’t accept a sale recorded under an inactive item, so that order doesn’t sync.
For your accountant / bookkeeper
weintegrate marks the QuickBooks item active. Its type, SKU and accounts stay as they are, and the sale posts to that item’s income account as usual. Once active, the item shows in product lists and on sales forms again. If you’d rather keep an item retired, leave this box unticked and point the product at another item, for example with an Advanced rule (Professional plan or higher, and included with your Free Trial; see Set unique item matching).
Troubleshooting
An order didn’t sync, and the item it needs is inactive in QuickBooks.
Tick Convert inactive items to active when posting new orders to accounting and click Save, or make the item active yourself in QuickBooks Online. Either way, later orders for that product sync under it.
I can’t find the checkbox.
It’s shown in Advanced only. Switch to Advanced at the top right of the Item Matching tab, or of the How should we match products? step in the wizard, and scroll to the bottom.
I ticked the box, but an inactive item still wasn’t made active.
Check which item the line used. The If Create New failed, Select Default from QBO item, and items chosen on other screens such as a shipping item, aren’t covered. An item that was already inactive when you connected QuickBooks Online isn’t found at all. Make those items active in QuickBooks Online yourself.
My inactive customers are being made active, but my items aren’t (or the other way round).
Customers and items have separate boxes. The customer box is on the Customer Matching tab: see Convert inactive customers to active.
Click here to learn about Updating Customer Addresses when integrating Shopify with QuickBooks Online.
Related topics
- Convert inactive customers to active: the same setting for customers, on the Customer Matching tab
- Setup Shopify integration with QuickBooks Online item matching: item matching in the setup wizard
- Set unique item matching between Shopify and QuickBooks Online: the Match on fields and Advanced rules
- If Shopify item not found in QuickBooks Online, auto-create a new item in QBO: Create New and If Create New failed, Select Default from QBO
- Use Default Item: recording products that aren’t found under one item you choose
- Map Gift Cards to Other Current Liabilities product from QBO
- Set to track class
- Manage use of item class by each store connect settings