Inventory mismatch between QuickBooks and my store

If your storefront quantity and QuickBooks quantity on hand don’t agree, here’s what to check.

Confirm the product is mapped

Inventory sync only works for products mapped to a QuickBooks item. An unmapped product’s storefront quantity won’t be touched by TruSync.

Confirm Sync inventory adjustments is ticked

In Settings → Sync, Sync inventory adjustments must be ticked for the store. Unticked, TruSync doesn’t write any quantity to that store, so its quantities stay wherever they are and drift from QuickBooks. Pressing Sync All Inventory or Fix All tells you that’s the reason: “Inventory sync is turned off for this store”. Tick it and run Sync All Inventory to bring the store back in line.

Confirm the QuickBooks item is an Inventory item

TruSync pushes quantity on hand, and QuickBooks only tracks quantity on hand for Inventory items. A product mapped to a Non-inventory or Service item has no quantity in QuickBooks to push, so TruSync leaves its storefront quantity alone.

Open Products and services in QuickBooks and check the Type column. If every item is Non-inventory or Service, inventory sync isn’t doing anything on this store — which is expected, and common when another system manages your stock.

Give it a moment

QuickBooks quantity changes propagate to your storefronts on TruSync’s regular sync cycle, not instantaneously — a mismatch that resolves itself within a short window is expected, not a bug.

Check whether orders are being held

This is the cause that looks least like an inventory problem, and it’s the one most likely to cost you stock.

If an order can’t post to QuickBooks — an unmapped payment method, an unmapped product, an unmapped tax jurisdiction — TruSync holds it on the Order Exceptions page rather than guessing. A held order never reaches QuickBooks, so QuickBooks never counts that sale and quantity on hand never comes down for it.

Because TruSync refreshes your storefront quantities from QuickBooks, a held order means your storefront is repeatedly set back to a quantity that doesn’t reflect what has sold. If orders stay held for days, that quantity drifts further from reality every day, and items can be oversold.

The signs are specific:

• A QuickBooks quantity that hasn’t moved in days even though the product is selling.
• Storefront quantity that appears to go back up after a sale.
• A “Last sync” date on your dashboard that is older than your most recent orders.
• Orders waiting on the Order Exceptions page.

Open Order Exceptions. If orders are waiting there, clear those first — the quantities correct themselves within minutes of the held orders posting. See Resolve an order exception.

Don’t try to correct the quantities by hand while orders are held. QuickBooks is the stale side in this situation, so pushing its quantities out to your storefront puts back stock you’ve already sold, and editing your storefront directly is overwritten on the next sync.

Check for a recent manual change

A manual inventory adjustment, bill, or other transaction directly in QuickBooks changes quantity on hand the same as an order does, and will propagate to your storefronts. If you weren’t expecting a quantity change, check QuickBooks for a recent transaction on that item.

You can tell at a glance whether TruSync wrote it. Every Inventory Quantity Adjustment TruSync posts carries a memo naming TruSync, the store and the reason — “TruSync inventory sync — Shopify - Fine Teas — bulk inventory sync” — and a document number starting with TruSync-INV-. An adjustment without those came from somewhere else: someone in QuickBooks, or a tool you used before TruSync.

Fix a mismatch from the Inventory Mismatches panel

The Inventory Mismatches panel lists every mapped product whose storefront quantity and QuickBooks quantity on hand disagree, and offers to settle each one in either direction.

On an individual row, Use QBO writes QuickBooks’ quantity on hand out to your storefront. Use Store does the opposite — it posts an inventory adjustment in QuickBooks so QuickBooks matches the storefront. That adjustment is memoed as a bulk inventory sync, so you can find it again later.

Fix All does the same thing for every row the panel is currently showing. It only touches those rows — a panel showing 12 mismatches syncs 12 products, not your whole catalog.

What the result of a sync says

When a sync finishes, TruSync reports what it did and why it skipped what it skipped, for example “Synced 7 items. 3 items skipped: 3 linked to a QuickBooks item that doesn’t track quantity (Non-inventory or Service).” If nothing could be sent, it says so plainly — for instance that every product is linked to a Non-inventory or Service item, which holds no quantity on hand. That’s a property of how your items are set up in QuickBooks, not a fault, and syncing again won’t change it.

Wait for a running sync to finish

Only one inventory sync can run on a store at a time. While one is running, the panel shows how far it has got — “Syncing inventory from QuickBooks to store… 120 of 570 items” — and the Fix buttons are unavailable until it finishes.

If you click Fix All while a sync is already running, TruSync tells you so rather than starting a second one: “An inventory sync is already running for this store (120/570 items so far). Wait for it to finish before starting another.”

A large sync takes a few minutes. It runs on TruSync’s servers rather than in your browser, so closing the tab does not stop it — the progress stays visible when you come back, and the sync finishes either way.

A sync that stopped responding

If a sync stops reporting progress — usually because it was interrupted partway through — the panel replaces the progress bar with “This sync stopped responding” and makes the Fix buttons available again, so you’re never left watching a number that has stopped moving.

You can try again from there. The interrupted sync may still be holding the store’s lock, in which case TruSync says so: “The previous inventory sync stopped responding (120/570 items so far) but still holds this store’s lock, so a new one can’t start yet. The lock clears on its own within 90 minutes.”

Nothing is lost either way. Whatever the interrupted sync managed to write is already correct, and re-running it picks up the rest.

Multiple stores sharing one item

If more than one store maps to the same QuickBooks item, a sale on one store updates QuickBooks, which then pushes the new quantity out to every other store sharing that item — not just the one the sale happened on. A mismatch across stores usually means one of them isn’t mapped to the same QuickBooks item as the others.

FAQ

Why did my storefront quantity change without an order on that store? Check QuickBooks for a manual adjustment or a sale on a sibling store mapped to the same item. TruSync’s own adjustments are memoed with the store and the reason and numbered TruSync-INV-…, so an adjustment without that memo came from somewhere else. See Inventory sync.

Does TruSync ever write inventory changes directly from an order, bypassing QuickBooks? No — every inventory update to a storefront goes through QuickBooks’ quantity on hand first, regardless of what caused the change. This is why a held order affects your inventory and not just your books: until the order posts to QuickBooks, there is nothing for TruSync to push out.

QuickBooks has been showing the same quantity for days, but the product is selling. Why? Almost always because those orders are being held. Check Order Exceptions — an order that can’t post to QuickBooks doesn’t decrement quantity on hand, so the number sits still while the product keeps selling.

Can I oversell because of this? Yes. Your storefront quantity is refreshed from QuickBooks, so while orders sit held, your storefront is being set back to a quantity that doesn’t account for those sales. Clear held orders promptly — TruSync emails you when orders are waiting, and again if nothing has posted to QuickBooks for a few days.

If I fix the mismatch manually in my storefront, will TruSync overwrite it? Yes, on the next sync — QuickBooks’ quantity on hand is the source of truth, so fix the discrepancy in QuickBooks instead, or use Use Store on the Inventory Mismatches panel, which posts the storefront quantity into QuickBooks for you.

Does Fix All sync my entire catalog? No. Fix All syncs only the mismatched products the panel is listing at that moment.

Why did clicking Fix All seem to do nothing? A sync was probably already running. TruSync refuses a second one and shows the running sync’s progress instead — wait for it to reach the end before starting another.

Why is Fix All greyed out? An inventory sync is running on this store and still reporting progress. The buttons come back when it finishes — or sooner, if it stops responding.

Do I have to keep the page open while a sync runs? No. The sync runs on TruSync’s servers. Close the tab or navigate away and it carries on; reopen the panel to see where it got to.

What does “This sync stopped responding” mean? The sync was interrupted partway through. What it had already written is correct; run Fix All again to finish the rest. If its lock is still held, TruSync will tell you and say when the lock clears.