Why is my Shopify payout smaller than my sales?

Shopify Payments takes its fees and any refunds, adjustments and reserved funds before it pays out. The payouts export lists each, and the journal entry gives each its own line, so the payout total matches the deposit.

Why record payouts as a journal entry instead of importing every sale?

Your bank receives one deposit per payout, already reduced by fees and refunds. If each sale goes into the bank account separately, the bank feed shows one deposit you cannot match to dozens of entries. A journal entry per payout records gross sales, fees and refunds in their own accounts, and a bank line of exactly the deposit amount.

What happens to failed payouts?

The sales, refunds and fees inside a failed payout are still recorded, but no money reached your bank, so the journal keeps that amount in the clearing account. When a later payout shows it as a Retried Amount, it comes out of the clearing account again instead of being counted as income twice. Scheduled and in-transit payouts are left out until they are paid.

Which accounts should the journal entry use?

Every account named in the file has to exist in your QuickBooks chart of accounts already, so set the account names in the options to the ones you use: sales, fees, payments you sent, the clearing account for money still held by the platform, the bank account that receives transfers, and the card account for payments the export clearly marks as paid from a card. This is not accounting advice; ask whoever prepares your return if you are unsure.

Shopify Payments payouts to a QuickBooks journal entry

In short: Shopify Payments' payouts export has one row per payout: charges, refunds, adjustments, reserved funds, fees and the total sent to your bank. A payout journal entry records each payout as what it was: money received as gross sales, fees and refunds on their own lines, and only the amount that actually reached your bank on the bank line, balanced to the cent. Drop the file below. It is converted on your device and never uploaded.

Convert your file

Shopify payouts to QuickBooks journal entry

Choose file

payouts_export.csv

Your file stays on this device

It is read and converted by this page, inside your browser. Nothing from the file is uploaded, and the converter keeps working offline once the page has loaded.

1. Export the file from Shopify Payments

In Shopify admin open Finances, then Payouts.
Choose the dates and click Export.
Upload the downloaded CSV here.

Why a raw Shopify payouts export fails in QuickBooks Online (journal entry import)

The deposit from Shopify is charges minus refunds and fees, plus or minus adjustments. Entering the deposit as income understates sales and hides the fees. A journal entry per payout records each part and puts exactly the payout total on the bank line.

Importing every sale from a payment platform straight into the bank account never matches the bank, because the platform pays out one net amount after taking its fees and refunds. The usual fix is one summary journal entry per payout (or per month when the export does not link sales to payouts): gross sales counts only money received, payments you sent get their own line, fees on a payout or instant transfer are expensed so the bank line is only what arrived, payments the export clearly marks as funded by a card go to a card account instead of the bank (unclear funding labels go to the bank, with a note), and a chargeback you win reduces refunds. You then match the bank line against the deposit in your bank feed.

What is unusual about the Shopify payouts file

One row per payout with Charges, Refunds, Adjustments, Reserved Funds, Fees, Retried Amount and Total.
Each paid payout becomes its parts plus the payout itself, so the Shopify balance nets to zero for every payout.
A failed payout's sales, refunds and fees are kept and stay in the Shopify balance; a later Retried Amount is paid out of that balance, not booked as income. Scheduled and in-transit payouts are left out.
A row whose columns do not add up to its Total is left out with a note.

What QuickBooks Online (journal entry import) requires

Each entry shares one Journal No. and date, and its debits equal its credits.
Lines show gross sales (money received), refunds, fees, taxes, payments you sent (on their own line, not deducted from sales), transfers between the platform and your bank (booked as transfers, never as income or expense), and the deposit that hit your bank.
Account names must match your chart of accounts exactly; subaccounts as Parent:Sub.
Up to 1,000 lines per file (we split bigger files without breaking an entry).

2. Before and after

Before: the Shopify Payments payouts CSV as downloaded

Payout Date,Status,Charges,Refunds,Adjustments,Reserved Funds,Fees,Retried Amount,Total,Currency
2023-05-30,paid,53.96,-7.99,0.00,0.00,2.46,0.00,43.51,USD
2023-04-27,paid,75.91,0.00,10.47,0.00,4.33,0.00,82.05,USD
2022-11-21,failed,0.00,-179.54,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,-179.54,USD
2022-11-20,paid,1200.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,35.10,0.00,1164.90,USD

After: what QuickBooks Online (journal entry import) receives

After: shopify-payouts-journal-payout-2022-11-20-to-2023-05-30.csv
Journal No.	Journal Date	Account Name	Debits	Credits	Description
BR-20221120-1	11/20/2022	Sales of Product Income		1200.00	Gross sales - Shopify payout shopify-payout-2022-11-20-USD
BR-20221120-1	11/20/2022	Bank Charges & Fees	35.10		Fees - Shopify payout shopify-payout-2022-11-20-USD
BR-20221120-1	11/20/2022	Checking	1164.90		Deposit - Shopify payout shopify-payout-2022-11-20-USD
BR-20221121-1	11/21/2022	Sales of Product Income	179.54		Refunds - Shopify activity not yet paid out
BR-20221121-1	11/21/2022	Uncategorized Asset		179.54	Taken from Shopify balance - Shopify activity not yet paid out
BR-20230427-1	04/27/2023	Sales of Product Income		75.91	Gross sales - Shopify payout shopify-payout-2023-04-27-USD

Synthetic sample data that follows the real export layout, not a real account. The "after" output was produced from it by the same converter this page runs.

3. Import the converted file into QuickBooks Online (journal entry import)

Make sure every account named in the file exists in your chart of accounts (or change the account names before downloading).
In QuickBooks Online go to Settings (gear) > Import data > Journal entries.
Upload this CSV and map Journal No., Journal Date, Account Name, Debits, Credits, Description and Name.
Review and import. Each payout (or month) becomes one balanced entry.

Questions

Why is my Shopify payout smaller than my sales?: Shopify Payments takes its fees and any refunds, adjustments and reserved funds before it pays out. The payouts export lists each, and the journal entry gives each its own line, so the payout total matches the deposit.
Why record payouts as a journal entry instead of importing every sale?: Your bank receives one deposit per payout, already reduced by fees and refunds. If each sale goes into the bank account separately, the bank feed shows one deposit you cannot match to dozens of entries. A journal entry per payout records gross sales, fees and refunds in their own accounts, and a bank line of exactly the deposit amount.
What happens to failed payouts?: The sales, refunds and fees inside a failed payout are still recorded, but no money reached your bank, so the journal keeps that amount in the clearing account. When a later payout shows it as a Retried Amount, it comes out of the clearing account again instead of being counted as income twice. Scheduled and in-transit payouts are left out until they are paid.
Which accounts should the journal entry use?: Every account named in the file has to exist in your QuickBooks chart of accounts already, so set the account names in the options to the ones you use: sales, fees, payments you sent, the clearing account for money still held by the platform, the bank account that receives transfers, and the card account for payments the export clearly marks as paid from a card. This is not accounting advice; ask whoever prepares your return if you are unsure.