Shopify bookkeeping: orders and payouts.

Before you start

To connect Shopify you need a role in Imprest that can connect apps: owner, admin, accountant or bookkeeper. If you work at an accounting firm, you also need to be assigned to the client.

On the Shopify side, you approve Imprest in your Shopify admin. Imprest asks to read your orders, products, inventory, customers and Shopify Payments payouts, balance and disputes. It never changes anything in your store.

You can connect more than one store to the same company.

For the bookkeeping behind it, with a worked week you can check, see how to record Stripe and Shopify payouts.

Connect your store

1. In Imprest, open Apps and choose Add a connection.
2. Find Shopify under Sales and choose Connect.
3. Imprest sends you to Shopify. Pick your store and approve the app. You don't type a store address.
4. If you belong to more than one company in Imprest, choose which company this store's sales belong to.
5. You're back in Imprest with the message Shopify connected. The first import can take a few minutes.

You can also start from Shopify: install Imprest from your Shopify admin and sign in when asked. Imprest picks up where you left off.

Finish setup

Open the Shopify page in Apps and choose Integration Settings. Imprest starts you on the Recommended settings. Choose Customize to change them.

Set up your Shopify Payments balance

1. A banner says your Shopify Payments balance isn't set up in your books yet. Choose Answer.
2. Imprest asks which account in your books this is. Link it to an account you already keep, or add it as a new account with a start date and opening balance.

Imprest reads your Shopify Payments history first. Until that's done, the banner says so and setup waits. Orders paid with Shopify Payments wait until the balance is set up, then post.

Choose where other payments land

Under How customers pay, choose an account for each other way your customers pay, such as cash, manual payments, PayPal or another payment provider. Gift cards go to Gift Card Liability unless you change it. An order paid a way with no account yet waits, and the section shows how many orders are waiting. Once you choose an account, those orders post.

Bring in older orders

Shopify shares your last 60 days of orders. To go further back, open Order history, pick a date in Import orders from, and choose Import older orders. Shopify asks you to approve access to your older orders.

How orders land in your books

• Sales. Each paid order is recorded as a sale, with sales tax kept as a liability. With the Recommended settings, discounts show on their own line and shipping is part of the sale.
• Shopify Payments. The money lands on your Shopify Payments balance account, and the fee Shopify keeps goes to Payment Processing Fees.
• Other payment methods. Each lands in the account you chose for it. Nothing sits in a catch-all clearing account.
• Refunds. Each refund is tied to its order. A full refund reverses the sale and its tax.
• Payouts. A payout is recorded as a transfer from your Shopify Payments balance to your bank, and matched to the deposit on your bank feed.
• Disputes. A chargeback is booked as a loss, with its fee, and booked back if you win. Disputes are listed under Revenue, and you respond to them in Shopify.

Orders dated before your balance's start date aren't booked again: their money is already in the opening balance.

Day to day

Imprest checks Shopify for new orders, refunds and balance activity about every 30 minutes. To check right away, open the Shopify page and choose Sync now.

In Integration Settings, under Money coming in, choose whether orders post straight to your books or wait for your review. With the Recommended settings, orders post on their own, and large orders and any order Imprest is unsure about wait under Pending on the Transactions tab.

Payouts are on the Payouts tab. Imprest matches a payout to your bank by the last digits of the account Shopify paid into. If it can't find exactly one match, the payout waits for you.

To stop syncing for a while, choose Pause sync in Integration Settings, and Resume sync when you're ready.

Common problems

• “Shopify needs you to approve updated permissions.” Choose Reconnect and approve the app again in Shopify. Until you do, some orders and payouts may not come in.
• An order is waiting for a payment method. Choose an account for that payment method under How customers pay. The order posts once you do.
• An order is waiting for your Shopify Payments balance. Set up the balance from the banner in Integration Settings.
• Shopify charged a different amount than the order says. The order waits for you to review it before it posts.
• A refund went back through more than one payment method, or in another currency. Imprest asks you to record that refund by hand.
• Your access doesn't include connecting apps. Ask an owner, admin, accountant or bookkeeper on the company to connect or reconnect Shopify.
• The last sync failed. The connection shows Needs attention. Open Integration Settings to review it, and choose Reconnect if Shopify asks.

Disconnect

1. Open the Shopify page in Apps and choose Integration Settings.
2. Choose Disconnect, then Disconnect integration to confirm.

Imprest stops bringing in new orders, refunds and payouts. Everything already in Imprest stays. Disconnecting here doesn't remove the app from Shopify; uninstall it in your Shopify admin if you want to. Uninstalling the app in Shopify also disconnects it in Imprest. If you install it again later, the same connection comes back with its history.