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Match store products to QuickBooks items

Product matching is how TruSync links a product on your store to the item it should post to in QuickBooks. Until a product is matched, orders containing it can’t post, so Products → Unmapped is the list to work through when you first connect a store.

How matching works

Choose Auto-Match on the Unmapped Products panel and TruSync tries three things, in this order, against the items already in your QuickBooks:

  1. The product’s SKU, against a QuickBooks item’s SKU — and, if nothing matches there, against a QuickBooks item’s name. Plenty of merchants put the part number in the item name rather than the SKU field, so both are tried.
  2. The product’s full name, against a QuickBooks item’s name.
  3. The product code at the start of the product name. If your product is called DF800-4-DX TARAMPS 4CH X 200 W RMS, TruSync takes DF800-4-DX and looks for a QuickBooks item with that SKU or name.

Matching is case-insensitive, and the first step that finds a match wins.

You can also match a single product yourself at any time. Choose Match on its row, search your QuickBooks items, and pick the right one.

Telling Amazon sizes and colors apart

Amazon lists each size or color of a product as its own row, and the product names can be identical. For Amazon products, TruSync shows the option in smaller text under the product name on the Unmapped Products list and when you choose Match on a row — for example Large, or Large / Navy when both a size and a color apply.

Use that text to match each size to the right QuickBooks item. A product with only one version, such as a “One size fits all” item, shows no option text.

TruSync keeps the full Amazon product name and the full option text, however long they are, instead of cutting them short. A long name may wrap onto more than one line.

eBay listings with several variations

An eBay listing that offers several variations, such as sizes or colors, appears on the Unmapped Products list as one row per variation, not one row for the whole listing. Each row shows the variation’s values in smaller text under the product name, for example Small / Red, and carries that variation’s own SKU, price and quantity.

Match each row to the right QuickBooks item. Orders are matched by the listing and the variation’s SKU, so a variation’s order lines find its row.

A variation with no SKU on eBay doesn’t get a row, because an order line can’t be matched to it. Add a SKU to the variation on eBay, then choose Refresh products. If none of a listing’s variations has a SKU, the listing shows as a single row.

Refreshing the product list

TruSync keeps its own copy of your store’s product list so the Unmapped Products panel opens quickly. It reads your store again when you first connect and when TruSync starts reading new details about your products, such as the Amazon size and color text above.

If you’ve added or changed products on your store and don’t see them yet, choose Refresh products on the Unmapped Products panel. TruSync reads your whole product list from your store again, which can take a minute on a large catalog, then shows the updated list.

Refreshing is safe to repeat. It adds products that are new, updates the name, price, and option text on the ones TruSync already has, and never changes a mapping you’ve already made.

Why a missing SKU matters

Storefronts let you leave a product’s SKU blank — Shopify in particular, and it’s a perfectly legitimate way to run a catalog. But a blank SKU has nothing for step 1 to compare, so on a catalog with no SKUs the first and most reliable step can’t do anything at all.

That’s why step 3 exists. When the SKU is blank, the product code at the front of the product name is usually the same code your QuickBooks item is named after, so TruSync falls back to it.

After a run, the results panel tells you how many products this applied to — for example “1,053 products here have no SKU set in your store, so we matched on the product code at the start of the product name instead.”

Filling in SKUs on your store is worth doing if you can. It makes matching exact rather than inferred, and it keeps working for products you add later, without depending on how a product name happens to be written.

Why a product is still unmapped

After a run, the results panel names each reason separately, because they need different things from you.

Several QuickBooks items matched. TruSync found more than one plausible item and deliberately stopped rather than pick one. A wrong match posts your sales to the wrong item, and that’s harder to unpick later than a row left undone. This applies at every matching step: two QuickBooks items sharing a SKU stop a SKU match just as surely as two similarly-named items stop a product-code match. Choose Match on the row and pick the right item.

The only QuickBooks item that matched is inactive. The item exists, but it’s inactive in QuickBooks, and a mapping to an inactive item fails every time an order syncs. Make the item active again in QuickBooks, or choose Match on the row and pick a different item.

No QuickBooks item matched. TruSync recognised the product’s code but there’s no item in QuickBooks behind it. Either create the item — Create in QuickBooks on the row, or Push All to QuickBooks for the whole list — or, if you don’t sell that product through QuickBooks, select the row and choose Hide Selected to take it off the list.

Neither a SKU nor a recognisable product code. There’s nothing to match on. Choose Match on the row and pick the item by hand.

You may also see that some products weren’t checked in a given run. That isn’t a verdict on them — choose Auto-Match again and it carries on where it left off.

Hiding products you no longer sell

A catalog usually carries lines you’ve retired — an old gift range, or an earlier version of a product you’ve since replaced. Those have no item in QuickBooks because you retired them there too, so they sit on the Unmapped Products list forever, making the list look like work when it isn’t.

Select the rows you don’t want to see and choose Hide Selected. They come off the list. Tick Show hidden at the top of the panel to see them again, and Unhide Selected to bring any of them back.

Hiding only changes what the list shows you. It does not change how your orders are handled, and it never deletes anything.

That means you don’t have to be careful about it. If you hide something and it does sell later, that order waits as an order exception the same as any unmapped product, and the row reappears for you to match. Match it, and the order posts on its own — you don’t have to go back and find it afterwards.

The one thing hiding won’t do is make orders flow. If a product is one you still sell, match it rather than hide it.

Which kind of QuickBooks item Push All creates

Push All to QuickBooks and Create in QuickBooks make an Inventory item only when all three are true: the product is physical, your store tracks its stock, and your QuickBooks plan supports Inventory items (Plus or Advanced). Anything else is created as a NonInventory item.

So a product your store doesn’t track — Shopify’s “don’t track quantity”, or a digital or service product — becomes a NonInventory item on every plan, and every product does on Simple Start or Essentials, which can’t hold Inventory items at all. If TruSync hasn’t recorded your plan yet it checks it with QuickBooks first, rather than assuming.

When Trudy runs Push All she tells you how many items came out as Inventory and how many as NonInventory, and why.

What matching never does

FAQ

I ran Auto-Match and nothing matched. Is it broken? Usually not. Check whether your products have SKUs — if they’re blank, the SKU step has nothing to compare, and matching depends on the product code at the start of each product name. The results panel after a run tells you how many products have no SKU set.

Do I have to set SKUs on my store? No. Matching works without them, using the product code in the product name. Setting them makes matching exact rather than inferred, and it keeps working for products you add later.

Will Auto-Match create duplicate items in my QuickBooks? No. Matching only ever links to items that already exist. Items are created only when you choose Create in QuickBooks or Push All to QuickBooks.

I chose Inventory, but Push All made NonInventory items. Why? Choosing Inventory can’t override two facts: whether your store tracks the product’s stock, and whether your QuickBooks plan supports Inventory items. A product that isn’t physical or isn’t tracked on your store is created as NonInventory on any plan, and every product is NonInventory on Simple Start or Essentials. Trudy tells you the split and the reason after each Push All.

Several of my Amazon products have the same name. How do I tell the sizes apart? Look at the smaller text under the product name on the Unmapped Products list, such as Large or XLarge. It comes from the size and color on your Amazon listing, and each row is a separate size. The SKU column also tells them apart.

My eBay listing has sizes. Why are there several rows for it? Each variation of an eBay listing is its own row on the Unmapped Products list, with its values such as Small / Red in smaller text under the name. Match each one to its QuickBooks item. A variation with no SKU on eBay gets no row; add a SKU on eBay and choose Refresh products.

I changed a product on my store but the Unmapped Products list still shows the old details. How do I update it? Choose Refresh products on the Unmapped Products panel. TruSync reads your store’s product list again and updates the rows. It doesn’t change any mapping you’ve already made.

My Amazon products don’t show the size or color text under the name. What do I do? Choose Refresh products on the Unmapped Products panel. Rows TruSync saved earlier don’t have the option text until the list is read from Amazon again. Products with only one version never show any.

Can a product match a QuickBooks bundle? Yes. Bundle (Group) items are ordinary match targets, and orders containing them post to QuickBooks as a bundle line, which QuickBooks expands into its component items on its side.

Can I re-run Auto-Match safely? Yes. It only looks at products that are still unmapped, and it never changes a mapping you’ve already made.

Auto-Match used to match a product and now it doesn’t. What changed? TruSync no longer picks between QuickBooks items that both answer to the same SKU or name, and it no longer matches an item that’s inactive. Both used to produce a mapping that looked fine but was arbitrary, or that failed on every order sync. The results panel now names the row and the reason, so choose Match on it and pick the item you want.

A product matched the wrong QuickBooks item. How do I fix it? Open Products → Mapped, find the product, and remove or change the mapping. Orders that already posted aren’t changed retroactively — see Order exceptions.

What happens to orders containing an unmapped product? They wait as an order exception until the product is matched, then post automatically. See Resolving an order exception.

My unmapped list is full of products I stopped selling years ago. Do I have to match them all? No. Select them and choose Hide Selected to take them off the list. Nothing is deleted, and Show hidden brings them back whenever you want.

If I hide a product and someone buys it, what happens? The order waits as an order exception, exactly as it would for any unmapped product, and the product reappears on your list so you can match it. Once you do, the order posts by itself. Hiding changes the list, not your orders.

Does hiding a product stop it syncing? No. Hiding affects only what the Unmapped Products list shows. To stop an order waiting, match the product to a QuickBooks item.