Syncing inventory levels from QuickBooks Desktop to Shopify

MyWorks supports syncing inventory levels from QuickBooks Desktop to Shopify. Each time your Web Connector runs, we check the QuickBooks stock level of every product you have mapped, and update Shopify wherever the two don't match.

Nothing has to change in QuickBooks first. Products you have just mapped are picked up on the next Web Connector run, so there's no need to adjust quantities in QuickBooks to bring their levels across.

And, when orders are placed on Shopify, those will correctly reduce inventory in QuickBooks as we sync the order into QuickBooks.

There's a few factors to keep in mind before enabling inventory sync - in MyWorks Sync > Settings > Automatic Sync. We'll sync inventory for any products that meet the below conditions:

Once the above conditions are met and inventory sync is enabled in MyWorks Sync > Settings > Automatic Sync, we'll start syncing inventory levels: from QuickBooks to update Shopify to match. If you're not managing inventory in a Shopify or QuickBooks product, we won't sync inventory for that product.

MyWorks also supports customizing how inventory is synced in the below ways:

All of these options live in MyWorks Sync > Settings > Inventory & COGS, under Inventory Levels.

When you have more than one location in Shopify, MyWorks has strong support to sync inventory levels from QuickBooks to Shopify.

If you don't have separate Inventory Sites in QuickBooks, MyWorks syncs inventory by changing inventory for one Shopify location to result in the total inventory in the Shopify product (across all warehouses) matching the QuickBooks inventory level. You can choose which Shopify Location we sync inventory changes to, by selecting it under Sync inventory to Shopify Warehouse in MyWorks Sync > Settings > Inventory & COGS, under Inventory Levels:

Once set, inventory would sync like the below example:

Starting: QuickBooks has 12 in stock, and the Shopify product also has 12 total:
Location 1 - 3 in stock
Location 2 - 4 in stock
Location 3 - 5 in stock
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Then: QuickBooks changes to 14. We'd update the Shopify location set in our settings above - which for example, is Location 2. This would result in this Shopify product having:
Location 1 - 3 in stock
Location 2 - 6 in stock
Location 3 - 5 in stock

MyWorks supports syncing either the Available inventory level or the Quantity on Hand inventory level from QuickBooks items into Shopify. This is set with QuickBooks inventory calculation format in MyWorks Sync > Settings > Inventory & COGS, under Inventory Levels.

The “Available” Inventory level in QuickBooks is made up of the Quantity on Hand level, minus any inventory used in Sales Orders.

Shopify keeps two quantities for each product at each location: On hand, the stock physically there, and Available, which is On hand minus any stock committed to unfulfilled orders or marked unavailable. When MyWorks syncs a QuickBooks inventory level to Shopify, it writes the QuickBooks figure to one of these two. Choose which with Shopify Inventory Field to use when syncing inventory in MyWorks Sync > Settings > Inventory & COGS, under Inventory Levels.

Available is the default and is right for most stores. Orders sync into QuickBooks as they are placed, so the QuickBooks level already reflects them and matches what Shopify has left to sell.

Choose On Hand if your orders only sync into QuickBooks once they are fulfilled. Until then QuickBooks still counts that stock, so its level matches Shopify's On hand rather than its Available. Writing it to Available would let Shopify sell stock that is already committed.

Good to know: Shopify does not accept an On hand quantity below zero. With On Hand selected, an item that is negative in QuickBooks is left unchanged in Shopify. The exception is the Available Inventory calculation format above - there a negative means the stock is fully committed, so Shopify is set to 0. On the Available field a negative QuickBooks level syncs as-is, since Shopify allows overselling there.

MyWorks also supports syncing the “Max Available to Built” quantity for Inventory Assembly items from QuickBooks to Shopify so that Shopify reflects the most that can be sold for that particular item in QuickBooks. Turn on Use "Max" inventory value when syncing inventory for Inventory Assembly Items in MyWorks Sync > Settings > Inventory & COGS, under Inventory Levels.

By default, MyWorks will update the Shopify product inventory so that its total matches the total inventory for that item in QuickBooks (unless Shopify Locations/Warehouses are mapped to individual QuickBooks inventory sites).

This means that if a Shopify product has 3 locations, MyWorks will update the inventory of the selected location, to ensure the total of that product across all locations matches QuickBooks. For example, if there's 100 in stock in each of the three locations in Shopify, and the QuickBooks product has 350 in stock, MyWorks will update the selected Shopify location to 150.

However, there may be cases where MyWorks shouldn't factor in the inventory in other Shopify locations when syncing inventory; and this can be set with Exclude Shopify Warehouses when syncing inventory in MyWorks Sync > Settings > Inventory & COGS, under Inventory Levels, as shown below. Any warehouses/locations set here would not be included in the inventory calculation we make as we update the Shopify product inventory from QuickBooks.

Similarly, Exclude QuickBooks Inventory Sites when syncing inventory in the same section leaves out any QuickBooks Inventory Sites or Bins you choose when we calculate the inventory level to sync to Shopify. Both options are shown while Shopify Warehouse to QuickBooks Inventory Site mapping is turned off.