A common question we hear as our WooCommerce Sync for QuickBooks Online users consider syncing their orders to QuickBooks Online is the decision of whether to sync an order as a Sales Receipt or as an Invoice when using our WooCommerce Sync for QuickBooks Online. This setting can be changed in MyWorks Sync > Settings > Order tab. Read our Settings documentation for more on this.

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

From a sales reporting point of view, it technically doesn't matter. Using either method, the sale will still be recorded to the correct sales account. However, the best method to determine this is by answering the following question:

Do all the gateways in your WooCommerce store collect payment as soon as the order is placed?

• Yes. You should sync orders over to QuickBooks as Sales Receipts.
• No. You should sync orders over to QuickBooks as Invoices + Payments.

Here are the main differences between the two settings.

Orders as Sales Receipts

A Sales Receipt is an invoice + a payment all rolled into one. Therefore, syncing an order as a sales receipt will record the sale, and deposit the payment into the correct (mapped) bank account in QuickBooks Online. This is usually a typical representation of a WooCommerce order - where the order is placed and paid for all at once. The only exception would be someone paying for a WooCommerce order with a Bank Transfer or Cash on Delivery type of gateway - where the payment isn't received at the time of order.

This is the default setting for MyWorks Sync but can be changed in our Settings. Remember that if an order is placed with a Bank Transfer gateway, for example, the sales receipt in QuickBooks Online will reflect that payment has been received when it has not.

This is the default/recommended setting for MyWorks Sync.

Orders as an Invoice + Payment

An invoice in QuickBooks Online represents a sale you've made that hasn't yet been paid. It's displayed in QuickBooks Online as "Open" until a payment is added to the invoice. Therefore, syncing a WooCommerce order as an invoice + payment is acceptable. When the order is placed, it's synced to QuickBooks Online immediately as an invoice.

If the order was paid with a legitimate gateway in WooCommerce (aka Stripe, Authorize.net, PayPal, etc.) - a payment for the invoice will be immediately synced over to QuickBooks Online to close out the invoice.

Otherwise, the payment will not be synced over - and the invoice will accurately remain as open in QuickBooks Online. Read more about syncing over payments for these types of gateways here.