A common question we hear as our users consider syncing their orders to QuickBooks is the decision of whether to sync a Shopify orders as individual transactions - a Sales Receipt or an Invoice - or, syncing a day's orders as a single Daily Summary (as a Journal Entry) to QuickBooks. This setting can be controlled in MyWorks Sync > Settings > Order tab.

The best answer to this is to consult your bookkeeper on their recommendation - and/or check your existing QuickBooks company to see how you've been accounting for orders up to this point: whether as a sales receipt, an invoice + payment, or as a single daily summary/journal entry.

Need some orders to sync as one type of transaction, but others as a different type of transaction? That's easy to accomplish as well by using Shopify Order Tags!

Overview

From a reporting point of view in QuickBooks, there's a few differences in how orders sync:

Syncing orders as individual transactions (Invoices or Sales Receipts)

• Pros: This can give you the most detailed level of data in QuickBooks, allowing you to leverage QuickBooks reporting as much as possible. Especially when managing individual products/inventory in QuickBooks, this allows you to accurately track COGS in QuickBooks as each order occurs, while also managing inventory smoothly in QuickBooks and having it sync back to Shopify.
• Cons: If you normally have several thousand orders each month, it can be less convenient to have this ongoing volume of transactions present in QuickBooks and growing as each month passes. Especially if you're not tracking individual products in QuickBooks, or need extra detailed reporting in QuickBooks; syncing as a Daily Summary can be a better option.

Syncing orders as a single daily summary

• Pros: This can be most helpful when dealing with a larger volume of orders each month: several thousand or more. With this approach, all of a day's transactions would be recorded in QuickBooks in one journal entry - as totals, while still separating the different areas of data: product sales, shipping, discounts, sales tax, COGS, refunds, gift cards, and more. 
• Cons: Because this is a single daily transaction in QuickBooks that records totals, not individual transactions; some level of detail won't be present in QuickBooks in the way it would be if orders are syncing as an individual transaction. However, all the totals would still be reflected in QuickBooks in exactly the same way as if each transaction was present in QuickBooks.

Syncing Orders as Sales Receipts

A Sales Receipt is like an invoice + a payment all rolled into one. Therefore, syncing an order as a sales receipt will record the sale in QuickBooks while also recording the payment into the correct (mapped) bank account in QuickBooks. This is usually a typical representation of a Shopify order - where the order is placed and paid for all at once. 

This is the default setting for MyWorks Sync but can be changed in our Settings. 

Syncing Orders as an Invoice + Payment

An invoice in QuickBooks represents a sale you've made that hasn't yet been paid. The invoice is displayed in QuickBooks as "Open" until a payment is added to the invoice.  

This approach is most helpful if some Shopify orders are placed but not yet paid. In these cases, MyWorks would sync just an open invoice into QuickBooks.

If the Shopify order were then paid later, a payment for the invoice would also be synced over along with the invoice to QuickBooks. Or, if the invoice in QuickBooks is paid at a later point, MyWorks can update the Shopify order to be marked as paid. 

Syncing Orders as a Daily Summary

A daily summary in QuickBooks is a single transaction - a journal entry; that records the total of all sales & transactions that occured in that day. Although this records only the totals for the day; these are separated by QuickBooks account type to still accurately separate different types of sales/transactions, including:

• Payments (separated by payment method)
• Sales of Products (to a single income account, or separated by Shopify Collection)
• Shipping Income
• Discounts given
• Sales Tax
• Refunds (separating product, shipping, discount & sales tax)
• Cost of Goods Sold
• Accounts Receivable (unpaid orders & orders paid later)
• Gift Cards (to a corresponding liability account)
• Tips