Matching Your Shopify Sales Summary to Shopify's Finances Summary
Most lines on Bookkeep's Shopify Sales Summary journal entry match Shopify's Finances Summary report exactly. A few are expected to differ, and each one differs for a specific accounting reason.
This article walks through every line, tells you which ones should tie out to the penny, and explains the ones that will not.
Before you start: which Sales Summary do you have?
Bookkeep has two Shopify sales entries, and both are called Shopify Sales Summary. This article describes the newer one. There are two ways to tell them apart:
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Look at the document number on the entry in your accounting platform. The newer entry's document number begins with BKShopify. The original begins with BKShopSum.
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Look for a Cancel Reversals line. Only the newer entry has one. It also has Return Fees, Duties, Cash Clearing, Other Receivables, Orders Marked Paid and Exchange Rate Differences.
If your entry has a Shopify Pending Payments Balance line instead, you are on the original. Most of this article still applies, but the sections on sales tax and cancelled orders do not — see Shopify Accounting Automation for how the two differ.
Where to find Shopify's report
In your Shopify admin, go to Analytics → Reports → Finances Summary and set the date range to the single day you are reconciling. Bookkeep posts one entry per day, so comparing a day to a week will never tie out.
Line by line
| Line on your entry | Shopify's Finances Summary | Should it tie out? |
|---|---|---|
| Gross Sales | Gross sales | Yes |
| Discounts | Discounts | Yes |
| Returns | Returns | Yes |
| Shipping Income | Shipping charges | Yes |
| Tips Collected | Tips | Yes |
| Gift Cards | Gift card sales, less gift cards used as payment | Usually — see Gift cards below |
| Marketplace Tax Withheld | The portion of Taxes filed by the sales channel | Yes |
| Sales Tax Collected | Taxes | Only if you had no cancelled unpaid orders — see Sales tax below |
| Shopify Payments Balance, PayPal Payments Received, Cash Clearing, Manual Payments Balance, Third Party Gateway Balance | Payments by gateway | Only if no tax is withheld — see Payments by gateway below |
| Return Fees | Return fees | Not checked automatically |
| Duties | Duties | Not checked automatically |
| Cancel Reversals | No equivalent | Bookkeep only |
| Other Receivables | No equivalent | Bookkeep only |
| Orders Marked Paid | No equivalent | Bookkeep only |
| Exchange Rate Differences | No equivalent | Bookkeep only |
The lines that will not match
Sales tax
Your Sales Tax Collected line will usually be lower than Shopify's Taxes figure. The difference is the tax on orders that were cancelled without taking any money.
Shopify's Finances Summary keeps those orders at full value, tax included. Bookkeep takes the tax back out, because you should not owe a tax authority for tax that was never collected. Everything else about the order — the sale, the discount, the shipping — stays exactly where Shopify has it, so tax is the only figure that differs from Shopify's report.
You can prove the difference without adding anything up yourself. Download the day's source data files (Activity view → select the entry → Source Data) and open the summary sheet. Three rows there do the reconciliation for you:
- Tax on cancelled orders with no net payment — the amount taken back out
- Orders with reversed tax (count) — how many orders caused it
- Sales tax per Shopify (journal entry + reversed) — what Shopify's Taxes figure should read
There are matching rows for marketplace tax if a channel withholds tax on your store. See Shopify Source Data Attachments.
Payments by gateway
If a marketplace withholds sales tax on your behalf — TikTok Shop, Facebook and Instagram, or channels connected through Shopify Marketplace Connect — your payment lines will be lower than Shopify's.
Shopify reports what the gateway collected before the withheld tax came out. Bookkeep books the withheld portion to Marketplace Tax Withheld and takes it off the gateway that collected it, so the money is only counted once.
To compare, add Marketplace Tax Withheld back to the gateway lines. If no marketplace withholds tax on your store, your payment lines tie out exactly.
Do not add Marketplace Tax Withheld to Sales Tax Collected when you compare. Bookkeep's Sales Tax Collected line already includes the withheld portion, and so does Shopify's Taxes figure. Marketplace Tax Withheld is the offsetting entry that moves the withheld part back out, so that what remains on your sales tax account is only the tax you are responsible for remitting. See Shopify Sales Tax Withheld.
Return fees and duties
Bookkeep posts both, but Shopify's reporting data does not expose either one, so Bookkeep has nothing to check them against. A difference on these lines will not be flagged automatically. If either looks wrong, contact support and we will trace it against the underlying orders.
Gift cards
Bookkeep posts one net figure on the Gift Cards line: gift cards issued, less gift cards redeemed as payment, less any discount given on a gift card. Shopify splits these across two places in the Finances Summary, so you have to net them yourself before comparing.
One genuine difference: Shopify's net sales from gift cards excludes manually issued gift cards and discounted gift cards. Bookkeep includes both, because the liability to your customer is real either way.
Stores selling in more than one currency
Bookkeep posts a separate journal entry for each currency a day's orders were placed in. Shopify's Finances Summary reports a single figure converted to your store's currency.
Compare the entry whose currency matches, not the sum of all of them.
Faire commissions
On Faire orders, the commission and payment processing fee are taken out of Gross Sales — and out of Returns, where a fee is refunded — so the entry matches how Shopify reports the same day. There is no separate fee expense line on this entry. See How Faire Fees and Commissions Impact Your Accounting.
The four lines Shopify has no equivalent for
Other Receivables, Orders Marked Paid, Exchange Rate Differences and Cancel Reversals have no counterpart in the Finances Summary, because that report has no concept of money you are owed. They are what makes a day's sales and a day's payments balance when the two do not happen on the same day.
Understanding Payment vs. Sales Differences in Shopify with Bookkeep covers these in depth.
Still not matching?
If a line that should tie out does not:
- Check the date range. Shopify's report must be set to a single day, matching the entry's date.
- Check the currency. Multi-currency stores get one entry per currency.
- Check you are comparing the right entry. The document number begins with BKShopify.
If it still does not reconcile, contact support@bookkeep.com with the date and the two figures, and we will trace it down to the order.