If you have done some research already about how to connect Shopify to Xero, you will see that there are many options on offer. The two connections we use here at CloudCounting are the Xero Integration by Bold app for small order Shopify stores and A2x for stores with more than 20 orders per week.
Here at CloudCounting we have many eCommerce clients using the Xero Integration by Bold. It is a free app that is downloadable in the Apps section of Shopify, and it works reasonably well for small order Shopify stores (less than 20 orders per week).
** Please note ** If you have a Shopify Store with more than 20 orders per week, you may wish to consider the A2x Xero Shopify Sync instead of the native Shopify Xero App. Read on here for our review of the A2x App which also connects Xero to Shopify.
Syncing Xero and Shopify – using the Bold App
The Good
- The Xero Integration app by Bold is free for less than 30 orders per month! For more than 30 orders, there is a tiered pricing plan that you must subscribe to.
- The Xero Integration by Bold app has a lovely integration, whereby each customer invoice is created in the Customer’s name, the Shopify invoice number is entered in the reference, and the payment reference is noted as the payment type (i.e. Paypal, Shopify, afterpay, eBay, etc..)
- The Bold Shopify app also pushes in their fee (only for the Shopify payments) associated with each payout, as a spend money transaction. For the other payment gateways, you must still manually enter the merchant fee.
- Shopify creates credit notes for customer refunds and other adjustments
- When tax rates are set up correctly in Shopify, the integration for BAS works very well
- You can map different payment bank accounts in Xero for the various payment options offered in your Shopify store.
- You are given the option to manually or automatically sync your orders from Shopify to Xero
The Bad
- There is no intelligence in Xero to match a bank deposit with a subset of Shopify invoices and the related payout fee.
- For Shopify stores that have more than 10 sales per day, the Shopify to Xero data can push too much detail to Xero and matching could become time consuming
- There is no integration between Shopify and Xero for inventory – so only sales get synced, not cost of sales.
- Orders cannot be synced more than once to Xero, so if a change is made in Shopify, the change does not find its way to Xero.
The Ugly
- Xero Integration by Bold does not offer a batched payment option, so for high volume stores (more than 50 invoices a day) the sync may not be an option as you will spend too much time matching payment gateway deposits to invoices in Xero.
- There is no option to toggle payments on or off so all payments are synced to Xero.
- Open (unpaid) Shopify orders are not synced to Xero, ever.
Matching unreconciled bank transactions with the Shopify Bold Sync
The process involved here requires some training, but once we show you how to match you should be able to do most of the data entry yourself. Be careful not to code your bank transactions directly to sales, because if you do your revenue will show up as doubled – you must MATCH each bank deposit to the net result of the payout figure (individual invoices, less adjustments, and payout fees).
We offer remote training using Zoom to clients to show you how to bookkeep using Xero and Shopify, and after this we can coach you to answer questions, and assist you with BAS and Tax Returns. Click here to book a session today. We send you a video of the session so you can watch back in your own time and this saves you having to take notes during the session.
Please watch our video here to demonstrate how the sync works
We specialize in eCommerce and work with clients all over Australia. We would be delighted to assist in any way we can!
Is there a better way to send information from Shopify to Xero?
Yes! We have worked with all sorts of apps that sync data between Shopify and Xero, and our recommendation is A2x. Please read this article to learn more about how this Saas tool works.