Bookkeep QuickBooks +Sales Tax

Bookkeep Shopify Accounting and Inventory Experts

Bookkeep posts daily summary journal entries to your accounting system: sales, tax, cost of goods sold and payouts, split by sales channel, location or market. It also reconciles payouts order by order. Its full listing name, Bookkeep Accounting+Inventory, explains the rest: purchase orders, receiving and a managed sales tax service sit alongside the ledger work.

On a Bookkeep Shopify project, merchants hire for the decisions behind those entries: chart-of-accounts mapping, how to segment channels and POS locations, when revenue counts, and how far back to post history. Since Shopify retired Stocky, purchase order set-up has joined the list. The usual hire is an accountant who works with Shopify stores, plus an inventory specialist when the purchase order module is in scope.

When the listing below has no fit, the bookkeeping, accounting and tax services linked further down take on Bookkeep set-ups too.

A useful brief names your accounting system and plan, your sales channels and POS locations, the month history should start from, and whether purchase orders are moving across.

The decisions behind every Bookkeep entry

Every Bookkeep entry follows rules set once at the start, and those rules outlast whoever chose them. Most of the work is getting them right.

Mapping and segmentation. Sales, tax, COGS and payouts mapped to the right accounts, then entries split by sales channel, app and Shopify POS location. Payouts aren't channel-specific, so they map once at the parent level while the sales underneath split out.

Revenue recognition. Bookkeep can recognise revenue by fulfilment status rather than order date. An accountant should decide whether that suits the business. Pre-orders and slow-shipping products are where the two methods drift furthest apart.

Deposits across banks. Reconciling payouts by order and splitting deposits across several bank accounts, buy-online-pick-up-in-store and gift card transactions included. Gift card money needs particular care, because it stays a liability until a customer redeems it.

History and group set-ups. Back-posting historical journal entries, and structuring the books for franchises or groups with more than one company.

Sales tax onboarding. Getting the managed sales tax service running, from registrations to calculations and filings, with Shopify data clean enough that what gets filed matches what was collected.

Purchase orders and receiving. Setting up the inventory side with weighted average, last cost or true landed cost, often for merchants leaving a retired or outgrown inventory tool. Inventory is priced separately from the accounting plans, so confirm it's in scope.

Hiring for Bookkeep: what to check first

The best Bookkeep hires talk about journal entries before they talk about the app. Look for that in the first conversation.

Ask for a sample entry. Request a mock daily journal for one real day of your sales, split the way they'd propose. A sample entry reveals their thinking on channels, tax and COGS faster than any portfolio.

Ask about Managed Markets. If you sell internationally through Shopify Managed Markets, ask whether they've posted those orders before and how they'd treat the tax.

Ask them to pick a cost method. Weighted average, last cost and landed cost produce different margins. A good specialist recommends one for your products and says why.

Know the vendor programmes. Bookkeep runs a partner programme for Shopify agencies, implementation and POS partners, and a separate one for accounting firms. It publishes no tiers, so ask Bookkeep directly if partnership matters to you.

Red flags. Planning to post history during the free trial, which isn't possible, or promising your full Stocky purchase order history inside Shopify.

Start with one channel. A small paid task, mapping and posting a week of entries for a single channel, shows their method before the full build.

Bookkeep Shopify setup notes, from Connect Intent to Stocky

Connection order matters. Bookkeep's own guide has you create the Shopify Connect Intent inside Bookkeep first, then install the app from the Shopify App Store. Skip the first step and you are working against the vendor's documented process from day one.

Managed Markets orders. Bookkeep captures Shopify Managed Markets sales in the normal ecommerce journal entry. Channel-liable tax is recorded as Sales Tax Withheld, and fees sit on the deposit entry. Your accountant should agree that treatment before the first international month closes.

Stocky is gone. Shopify retired Stocky on 31 August 2026. Bookkeep's listing advertises free migration from Stocky. Shopify's own guidance is that historical purchase orders can't be imported into Shopify, so Stocky history won't reappear in Shopify's native purchase orders. Ask Bookkeep exactly which Stocky records its migration carries into its own module before you rely on it.

Plan limits shape the quote. Mid-market and enterprise accounting systems need the Growth plan or higher. Historical journal entries are billed per entry and can't be posted during the 14-day trial, so back-posting waits until you're on a paid plan.

Two plan line-ups. The App Store lists four plans while bookkeep.com lists six. Budget from the vendor site, and check which plan your accounting system needs before an expert starts.

Ledger and stockroom projects on Bookkeep

Bookkeep has two halves, the ledger and the stockroom, and different people often handle each. These are the jobs on both sides.

Daily journal design

Accounts, tax and COGS mapped, with entries split by channel, app and POS location

Historical back-posting

Past journal entries posted after the trial, scoped against per-entry billing

Post-Stocky purchase orders

Inventory module set up with the history question settled first

Landed cost receiving

Weighted average, last cost or true landed cost chosen and configured

Sales tax onboarding

Registrations, calculations and filings handed to the managed service

Franchise and group books

Several companies or franchise locations posted to the right ledgers

Before you install the Bookkeep app: common questions

What do Bookkeep journal entries look like in my books?

Daily summaries rather than a line per order. Each carries sales, tax, COGS and payouts, split by whichever channels, locations or markets you chose at set-up. Your accountant sees totals that tie back to Shopify without thousands of order lines to scroll. When a figure looks wrong, the order-level payout reconciliation is where to trace it.

Is the Bookkeep app enough, or do I still need an accountant?

The app posts entries. It doesn't choose your chart of accounts, revenue policy or cost method, and those choices decide whether the numbers mean anything. Bookkeep runs a separate programme for accounting firms, which tells you who it expects to be involved. Even a light-touch review at month-end beats nobody looking.

Does Bookkeep file my sales tax for me?

It offers a managed service covering sales tax registrations, calculations and filings. Treat that as a service you sign up to, separate from the journal posting. The expert's job is getting Shopify data and tax mapping clean so what gets filed matches what was collected. Ask who handles notices and amendments before you commit.

Who should I hire for Bookkeep, an accountant or an inventory specialist?

It depends which half of Bookkeep you use. For the accounting side, hire an accountant who is used to how Shopify pays out. For purchase orders and receiving, you want someone who has set up landed cost and receiving workflows before, usually an inventory or operations specialist. Larger set-ups often need both, briefed separately.

Does Bookkeep handle Shopify POS sales?

Yes. The App Store listing shows it works with Shopify POS and Shopify Admin, and entries can be segmented by POS location. Before set-up, settle how locations are named and grouped, because that naming becomes the structure your accountant reads every month. Renaming later makes old and new periods harder to line up.