While Integrating Shopify to QuickBooks Online, Update Customer Address

marc · December 31, 2020, 1:32am

Overview

Customers move, and they don’t always tell you. Update customer address in Accounting from newly received orders? lets weintegrate keep your QuickBooks Online customers’ addresses current: when a Shopify order is matched to a customer you already have in QuickBooks, we copy the order’s address onto that customer.

Example: your QuickBooks customer Jane Doe has an old billing address on file. She places an order with her billing and shipping address set to 123 Main St, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. With the box ticked and Bill to AND Ship to address selected, Jane’s customer record in QuickBooks Online gets 123 Main St as both its billing and its shipping address.

The box is unticked to start with. You choose which address to update in the Accounting dropdown that shows once you tick it.

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 to the bottom of the customer settings.
Tick Update customer address in Accounting from newly received orders?
In the Accounting dropdown that appears, pick which address to update (see the table below). Bill to AND Ship to address is selected to start with.
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.

The Accounting dropdown

Option	What changes on the QuickBooks customer
Bill to AND Ship to address	Its billing address is replaced with the order’s billing address, and its shipping address with the order’s shipping address
Bill to address	Only its billing address, replaced with the order’s billing address
Ship to address	Only its shipping address, replaced with the order’s shipping address

What’s copied: the street lines, city, state or province, ZIP or postal code, and country. The customer’s name, company, email and phone number stay as they are.

If the order has no billing or shipping address (an in-store sale often has no shipping address, for example), that part of the customer’s address is left as it is.

Which customers it updates

The order’s customer is…	Address updated?
Found by your Match on fields or Advanced rules (primary match)	Yes
Found by your secondary match	Yes
Your Default catch-all customer, when you use Bulk, use one default catch-all customer	Yes, on every order
Created by Create New	Not needed: a new customer is created with the order’s billing and shipping addresses whether or not the box is ticked
Your Use Default Customer customer (Select Default from QBO), used when a shopper isn’t found	No
The customer in If Create New failed, Select Default from QBO	No

A few more things to know:

New orders only. Changes to an order that’s already in QuickBooks, and refunds, don’t update the customer’s address.
Orders without a customer (such as some in-store sales) don’t update any customer.
If QuickBooks doesn’t accept the address change, the order still syncs and the customer keeps its old address. The next order for that customer tries again.
Your sales receipts and invoices carry the order’s own billing and shipping addresses (when the order has them), whether this box is ticked or not.

Using one catch-all customer (Bulk)? Think before ticking this. With Bulk, use one default catch-all customer, every order is recorded against the same customer, so each order replaces that one customer’s address. It ends up showing the address from the most recent order.

For your accountant / bookkeeper: weintegrate updates only the customer record: its Billing address and/or Shipping address in QuickBooks Online. It doesn’t change sales receipts or invoices already in QuickBooks.

Troubleshooting

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 to the bottom. If the Advanced rules editor is open, select Exit Advanced rules first.

I don’t see the Accounting dropdown.
It shows only while Update customer address in Accounting from newly received orders? is ticked.

A customer’s address in QuickBooks didn’t change.
Your Use Default Customer customer and the If Create New failed, Select Default from QBO customer aren’t updated. In the Accounting dropdown, Bill to address leaves the shipping address alone, and Ship to address leaves the billing address alone. An order without that address leaves it as it is, and orders already in QuickBooks before you saved don’t update it.

My catch-all customer’s address keeps changing.
That’s this setting at work with Bulk, use one default catch-all customer. Untick Update customer address in Accounting from newly received orders? and click Save, then set the catch-all customer’s address back in QuickBooks Online.

Click here to learn about setting the Refund from account default when integrating Shopify with QuickBooks Online.