A possible customer of my new eCommerce Integration business popped up with an interesting problem: how to have orders that are entered into QuickBooks Desktop automatically create matching entries in ShipStation.
“How can I get my orders from QuickBooks into ShipStation without my staff manually retyping them?”
What is ShipStation?
It is a one-stop order shipping interface for shipping your physical outbound orders that can in turn talk to all the actual couriers so you don’t need to deal with them individually. It connects to Royal Mail, Hermes, DPD etc.
Connecting ShipStation to QuickBooks Desktop
There isn’t a direct way of connecting them together, so that means we need something to do the work of pulling orders out of QuickBooks and pushing them into ShipStation.
Here’s two pieces of software that can connect the two systems together:
Connex
- https://www.shipstation.com/partners/connex-quickbooks/
- https://www.syncwithconnex.com/
- Connex is a bit like Codeless BPA in that it enables a flow of orders, but specific to QuickBooks rather than having many connectors on both sides.
- This page lists exactly what pieces of data will be transferred: https://help.syncwithconnex.com/hc/getting-started-with-shipstation
- ShipStation help page on Connex for QuickBooks
- The base price for Connex is $199/month at time of writing.
Codeless BPA
- https://www.codelessplatforms.com/business-process-automation-platform/
- Codeless has a ShipStation connector
- BPA Platform starts from £175/month billed annually.
- We’d need to do some investigation of the method of integrating QuickBooks Desktop with Codeless BPA.
Connex versus Codeless
Both Codeless BPA and Connex have similar monthly costs, and both will need setting up, so choosing which to go with is going to come down to which option fits your businesses needs better now and in the longer term. Connex will solve the immediate problem, but Codeless has more connections you can use in the future.
DBSync
- https://www.mydbsync.com/workflow/shipstation-quickbooks-integration
- Cloud and On-Premise offerings.
- “Chat for pricing”
Unify by Webgility
- ShipStation integration: https://www.webgility.com/integrations/shipstation
- QuickBooks desktop integration: https://www.webgility.com/integrations/quickbooks
- From $39/month billed annually at time of writing.
- ShipStation integration help page.
Automate.io
TradeGecko (retired)
- This is being retired, but mentioned for completeness.
- https://support.tradegecko.com/hc/en-us/articles/201825933-ShipStation-Integration-Setup-Guide
To integrate now, or to change technology?
As everything moves to the cloud it’s worth considering whether to invest further in your existing desktop-based technology choices, or to take the opportunity to move to cloud based accounting and ERP systems before looking to connect them together.
Get in touch
Did I miss an option? Let me know!
Can I help you or someone you know with something? Reach out!