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Why an order won’t post to QuickBooks

An Order Exception is what TruSync creates when it can’t post an order to QuickBooks automatically. Most of the time something about the order isn’t mapped yet, but an exception can also mean QuickBooks refused the posting outright.

Common causes

TruSync deliberately doesn’t guess at a mapping to keep the order moving — an incorrectly auto-mapped order just creates rework later when you have to find and fix it in QuickBooks. Instead, the order waits as an exception until you resolve the underlying mapping.

Not to be confused with Needs Listing

An order exception always involves a real order that is waiting to post.

A QuickBooks product with no matching product on your store is a different thing entirely — no order is involved, and nothing is blocked. That appears under Products → Needs Listing, not here. See Needs Listing.

Getting notified

You’ll receive an email when a new order exception is created, so you don’t have to check the dashboard proactively.

If exceptions go unresolved and nothing posts to QuickBooks for a day, TruSync sends a second, separate email: a stalled sync warning naming the date of your last successful posting and how many orders are being held. It’s sent once a day while the stall lasts, and it goes to the same Alert Recipients as exception notifications.

After three days the warning escalates and explains what the stall is costing you. Held orders never reach QuickBooks, so the on-hand quantity there stops coming down for anything you sell. If inventory sync is on for that store, TruSync refreshes your storefront quantities from QuickBooks — which means your storefront can be reset to a quantity you no longer have, and an item can be oversold. Clearing the held orders stops it.

The stalled sync warning only goes out while orders are still arriving, because it is about your store having stopped posting. A store that keeps posting normally never triggers it.

A third email covers what neither of the other two can see: an order that has been held a long time on its own. If an order is still waiting after a week, TruSync emails you naming it, the reason it’s held, and how long it has been that way. It repeats after a month, after three months, and quarterly after that — deliberately rare, because the point is that a forgotten order gets mentioned at all, not that it’s mentioned often. Clearing the exception stops it.

That one does not depend on anything else happening. An order held on a product you only sell occasionally can sit for months while every other part of your sync looks healthy, and this is the email that finds it.

All of these emails go to everyone listed under Alert Recipients in Settings → Sync Settings, and the same toggle there turns them off. Alert Recipients is a list — add the person who runs the storefront as well as your accountant, since a held order usually needs the storefront side to fix it. Don’t leave it empty: TruSync looks for a store contact as a last resort, but it may not find one, and nobody is told.

Resolving an exception

  1. Open Order Exceptions from your TruSync dashboard.
  2. Open the exception to see what’s unmapped.
  3. Add the missing mapping (payment method, tax jurisdiction, or product) from Settings.
  4. TruSync syncs the order once the mapping is in place.

When QuickBooks rejected the posting

An exception labelled QuickBooks Error is different: nothing on your side is unmapped, so there’s no mapping to add and the steps above won’t clear it.

It means QuickBooks declined the document TruSync tried to create — most often the credit memo for a cancelled or refunded order. The exception shows the message QuickBooks returned.

Some of these clear on their own terms: a validation complaint you have since fixed in QuickBooks, a permission that had lapsed, or a brief QuickBooks outage. Once that’s sorted, press Retry on the exception and TruSync tries the order again. If it fails the same way, or the exception has no Retry button, the cause isn’t something a second attempt can change. The button is left off only when TruSync knows that, and the exception shows the reason instead. In either case, contact support and include the order number. The original sale stays in QuickBooks and is unaffected; what’s missing is the cancellation or refund that offsets it, which means that order’s total is still counted as revenue until it’s posted.

When an order’s line items don’t add up

An exception labelled Order Total Mismatch means TruSync built the QuickBooks transaction for a new order and its total came out different from what the customer owes. The exception shows both figures. TruSync holds the order and posts nothing, because a transaction with the wrong amount in QuickBooks is harder to put right than an order that is waiting.

Nothing is unmapped, so there is no mapping to add, and nothing is wrong in QuickBooks. Don’t edit the order in your store to try to clear it. This is a problem on TruSync’s side of the sync, so contact support with the order number.

Once the cause is fixed, press Re-send on the exception (or ask Trudy to re-sync the order). TruSync reads the order again and posts it if the figures now agree. If they still disagree, the order is held again and a new exception appears.

Currently this check applies to Shopify orders, including stores whose prices already include tax such as UK, EU, Australian and New Zealand stores.

When an order’s payment method doesn’t match its payment reference

An exception labelled Payment Method Mismatch means the way TruSync recorded the order was paid contradicts the payment reference that came with it. For a Shopify order, a reference beginning pi_ is only ever issued by Shopify Payments, so an order recorded as PayPal that carries one is contradicting itself. The reverse also counts: an order recorded as Shopify Payments whose reference doesn’t begin pi_. The exception shows the recorded method and the reference.

TruSync holds the order and posts nothing, because the payment method decides which QuickBooks deposit account the sale is booked to. A receipt posted under the wrong method lands in the wrong account, with no error to tell you.

Nothing is unmapped, so there is no payment method mapping to add or change, and nothing is wrong in QuickBooks. Don’t edit the order or your payment mappings to try to clear it. This is a problem on TruSync’s side of the sync, so contact support with the order number.

Once the cause is fixed, press Re-send on the exception (or ask Trudy to re-sync the order). TruSync reads the order again and posts it if the two now agree. If they still disagree, the order is held again.

An order with no payment reference at all, such as a manual or free order, is never held by this check. Currently it applies to Shopify orders only.

When your store doesn’t say how an order was paid

An exception labelled No Payment Method means your store sent a paid order with a non-zero total but no payment method, so TruSync can’t tell which QuickBooks deposit account the money belongs in. It holds the order and posts nothing rather than put the sale in a default account you never chose.

Nothing is unmapped, so there is no payment method mapping to add. Open the order in your store and check its payment. Once it shows a payment method, press Re-send on the exception (or ask Trudy to re-sync the order) and TruSync posts it. If the order was paid outside your store, dismiss the exception and record the sale in QuickBooks yourself.

An order you keyed into your BigCommerce admin yourself isn’t held as No Payment Method. It is held as Invoice or Sales Receipt? instead, which you answer with a button. See the section below.

This is different from an unpaid checkout. A BigCommerce order left in Incomplete status never reaches this check: TruSync ignores it until the shopper pays. An order placed at checkout that isn’t paid yet posts as an Invoice, which has no deposit account, so it isn’t held either. And an order with nothing owing, such as a free order, posts normally with no payment method. The exception is an order keyed into your store’s admin, which is asked about instead, whether or not your store marks it paid; see the section below.

Currently this applies to BigCommerce, Shopify and WooCommerce stores. Amazon, eBay and Walmart orders post as Invoices or settle through the marketplace, and Wix orders aren’t held for a missing payment method, so none of them raise this exception.

When you keyed an order in yourself

An exception labelled Invoice or Sales Receipt? means an order was typed into your store’s admin and carries no payment method. Your store marks such an order paid, but that only records that someone entered it, so TruSync holds it and asks. It would rather ask than guess at a receivable or at a bank account the money may never have gone into. Nothing is posted to QuickBooks until you answer.

This is a change. Before it, an order keyed into your store’s admin with no payment method was handled by your store’s paid flag: if the store marked it paid, TruSync held it as No Payment Method; if it didn’t, TruSync posted it as an invoice to your generic customer without asking. Now neither happens. TruSync asks, for every such order with an amount owing. If an order like this used to go through on its own and now stops, that is why: nothing is broken, and it is waiting for your answer. Only orders keyed in by hand with no payment method and an amount owing are affected.

Press Choose document. Choose Invoice on terms if the customer is on account and pays later, or Sales receipt if the money is already in hand. A sales receipt also needs the account the money landed in; pick it from your bank accounts and Undeposited Funds. TruSync doesn’t choose one for you.

The screen opens with your last answer selected and says so. It is a starting point, remembered for your store and not per customer, and nothing is recorded until you press the button. Your answer applies to this order only, and the order posts by itself once you’ve answered. An invoice is written when the order ships. If the buyer isn’t matched to a QuickBooks customer yet, you’re asked who they are next, as in the section below. See Invoice a customer on account.

You can also ask Trudy. She explains the held order and records your answer once you’ve told her which document and which account.

An order keyed in by hand that already carries a payment method isn’t asked about; it posts by your payment method mapping like any other.

When a customer on terms isn’t in QuickBooks

An exception labelled Customer Not Found only happens on orders using a payment method you’ve marked as invoiced on terms in Settings → Payments. Those orders are invoiced to the customer’s own QuickBooks record rather than the generic customer, so TruSync has to know exactly who the customer is.

TruSync keeps a list pairing each billing company with the QuickBooks customer you invoice it to. The first order from a company that isn’t on the list is held, because TruSync never picks a customer from a name. Press Match customer on the exception and either:

Either way, the answer is saved and the order is invoiced, along with any other held order from the same company. The next order from that company needs nothing from you, and you never need to rename a customer in QuickBooks. You can see every saved answer, and correct one, in Settings → Customers on Terms. Correcting a buyer there doesn’t release an order that’s already held: re-send it from here.

If the customer you matched has since been made inactive or deleted in QuickBooks, the exception says so and you choose another. Re-send puts the order back through once you’ve reactivated the customer in QuickBooks. See Invoice a customer on account.

When QuickBooks already has the order

When QuickBooks already holds the order’s document, TruSync doesn’t post a second one, and it doesn’t raise an exception either. If the order was written by a connector you used before TruSync, the document is linked to the order and the sync history says Adopted existing Invoice #SPFY100242 already in accounting system. Nothing was waiting on you, so there’s nothing to clear and no email.

Other connectors often add their own prefix to the order number, for example SPFY100242 for order 100242. TruSync adopts a document as the same order only when all of these are true:

A Duplicate Document exception appears when TruSync found a document that might be the order’s but one of those checks failed, so it can’t adopt it safely:

In both cases the order is held and nothing is posted, because posting beside a document that is probably the same sale would count it twice. The exception lists the documents TruSync found. Check which one, if any, belongs to the order, correct or remove the wrong one in QuickBooks, then resync the order.

A Duplicate Document exception can also mean the document number is already used by a different kind of document in QuickBooks, such as a refund receipt.

The existing document can be a sales receipt or an invoice. TruSync goes by whichever type it actually is in QuickBooks.

Orders on terms are also matched by purchase-order number

A previous connector doesn’t always number its documents after the order. Some use a timestamp, which no order number will ever match. For an order on a payment method you’ve marked as invoiced on terms, when no document matches by number, TruSync also looks for an invoice that carries the order’s purchase-order number. It reads the invoice’s message and its Reference Number custom field. It adopts the invoice, and posts nothing new, only when all of these are true:

An order with no PO number, or a blank one, is never matched this way. Orders that aren’t on terms aren’t either. If the invoices in the date range around the order are more than TruSync can read in one pass, it doesn’t match on the PO number and posts the order as usual.

What TruSync won’t change on an adopted document

Once TruSync has adopted a document a previous connector wrote, it leaves that document alone. Two things follow from that, and you’ll see them on the order rather than as a mapping you can fix:

Both are deliberate. TruSync didn’t write the original document and doesn’t hold the customer or settlement details behind it, so voiding or replacing it would risk changing figures it can’t verify.

Adopted orders do still reconcile against payouts. The adopted document is linked to the order, so a payout covering that order matches normally.

FAQ

An exception says Invoice or Sales Receipt?. What do I do? That order was keyed into your store’s admin and has no payment method. Press Choose document, say whether it’s an invoice on terms or a sales receipt, and for a receipt which account the money landed in. The order posts once you’ve answered. See Invoice a customer on account.

Do I need to resolve exceptions in order? No, resolve them in whatever order makes sense — mapping one payment method or product often clears several exceptions at once.

Will future orders with the same issue also become exceptions? Not once you’ve added the mapping — only orders that arrived before the mapping existed need manual resolution.

Why am I suddenly hearing about an order that was held months ago? Because it’s still held. TruSync checks the age of every held order and emails you about any that have been waiting more than a week, then again at a month, three months, and quarterly after that. An order held on a product you sell rarely can sit unposted indefinitely without anything else looking wrong, so nothing else would have mentioned it. Open Order Exceptions, resolve the mapping it’s waiting on, and it posts.

Why did I get an email saying my order sync has stalled? Nothing has posted to QuickBooks for at least a day while orders kept arriving, because orders are being held as exceptions. Open Order Exceptions and resolve the mapping each one is waiting on — the held orders post once you do.

Can unresolved exceptions cause me to oversell? Yes, if inventory sync is on for that store. A held order never reaches QuickBooks, so the on-hand quantity there doesn’t come down, and TruSync refreshes your storefront quantities from QuickBooks — so your storefront can be set back to stock you’ve already sold. See Inventory sync.

Can I dismiss an exception without resolving it? Exceptions represent orders that haven’t posted to QuickBooks yet — dismissing without mapping leaves that order unsynced.

An exception says QuickBooks Error and I can’t find anything to map. What now? That label means QuickBooks refused the posting rather than something being unmapped, so there’s nothing for you to map. If the cause was something you’ve since fixed in QuickBooks, or a temporary QuickBooks problem, press Retry on the exception. If it comes back the same way, or there’s no Retry button, contact support with the order number. See Resolve an order exception.

An exception says Order Total Mismatch. What do I do? TruSync built the QuickBooks transaction for a new order and its total didn’t match what the customer owes, so it posted nothing. There’s nothing to map and nothing to fix in QuickBooks or in your store. Contact support with the order number, and once it’s sorted press Re-send on the exception.

An exception says Payment Method Mismatch. What do I do? TruSync found that the payment method recorded for the order contradicts its payment reference, so it posted nothing rather than book the sale to the wrong deposit account. There’s no payment method mapping to add and nothing to fix in QuickBooks or in your store. Contact support with the order number, and once it’s sorted press Re-send on the exception.

An exception says No Payment Method. What do I do? Your store sent the order without saying how it was paid, so TruSync posted nothing rather than choose a deposit account for it. There’s no mapping to add. Check the order’s payment in your store, and once it shows a payment method press Re-send on the exception. If it was paid outside your store, dismiss it and enter the sale in QuickBooks yourself.

An exception says Customer Not Found. What do I do? The order uses a payment method you’ve marked as invoiced on terms, so it’s billed to the customer’s own QuickBooks record, and TruSync doesn’t yet know which customer the order’s billing company is. Press Match customer and choose the customer, or create a new one from the order’s billing details. TruSync saves the answer and invoices the order, and invoices later orders from that company without asking. No renaming in QuickBooks is needed. A customer shown as Parent:Child is a sub-customer. See Invoice a customer on account.

I switched from another connector and an order shows Duplicate Document. Why? If the document is clearly the order’s, such as SPFY100242 for order 100242 with the same total, you shouldn’t see an exception at all: TruSync links it and moves on. An exception means TruSync found a document it couldn’t safely match, either because the total is different or because more than one document fits. The order is held until you check it in QuickBooks and resync.

I refunded an order from my previous connector and nothing posted to QuickBooks. Why? TruSync adopted the original document rather than writing its own, so it doesn’t hold the customer and settlement details a refund needs. The sync history shows Refund not posted: this order's document was written by a previous connector and adopted. Enter that refund in QuickBooks yourself — until you do, the original sale still counts toward revenue.

A cancelled order still shows as revenue in QuickBooks. Why? If the cancellation couldn’t post, the original sale stays in QuickBooks with nothing offsetting it, so the order still counts toward revenue. Check Order Exceptions for a QuickBooks Error on that order.