Shipping costs that post themselves to QuickBooks.

Courier bills as expenses, shipping charged to customers as income, VAT on the right line — created when the parcel is booked, not rebuilt from PDFs three weeks later.

Connect QuickBooks
What syncs

Exactly what lands in your ledger.

No summary journals at month-end. Each entry is created when the event happens, referenced to the waybill that caused it.

BookingBill or expense against the courier vendorCategorised to your freight expense account with the waybill as the memo
Customer shipping chargeInvoice or sales receipt lineMapped to a shipping income item, linked by order number
Courier statementReconciliation matchStatement lines matched to bookings by waybill; variances held back for review
VATTax code per lineStandard-rated 15% or exempt, per courier
Cancellation or claimVendor creditReverses the original expense once the courier settles
Reconciliation

Courier invoice versus the rate you booked.

The reason shipping costs are hard to control isn't the rate you booked — it's the rate you got billed. Motho compares the two on every line so over-billing is caught in the same week it happens, not at year-end.

  • Courier statements are matched line by line to bookings using the waybill number.
  • Every variance shows booked versus billed with the rand difference, ready to query.
  • Re-weigh disputes carry the original dimensions captured at booking as evidence.
  • Phantom lines — billed parcels with no matching booking — are listed separately.
  • Only approved lines flow through to QuickBooks; disputes stay out of your books.
Setup

Connecting QuickBooks

You cannot break your chart of accounts: Motho writes only to the accounts you nominate, and never creates or edits one.

  1. Step 01

    Connect with OAuth

    Sign in to QuickBooks Online through Intuit's own consent screen and pick the company file. Nothing else to configure at the QuickBooks end.

    scope: com.intuit.quickbooks.accounting

  2. Step 02

    Map accounts, vendors and items

    Nominate the expense account for courier costs, the income item for shipping charged out, and the tax codes. Courier vendors are matched to your existing vendor list, or created once with your approval.

    e.g. Freight & Delivery · Shipping Income · VAT 15%

  3. Step 03

    Review, then automate

    Entries post as drafts for review while you build confidence. Flip to automatic posting per courier when you're happy with the mapping.

FAQ

QuickBooks and shipping, answered

Does this work with QuickBooks Desktop?

No — QuickBooks Online only. The integration is API-based and Desktop has no equivalent cloud endpoint we can post to reliably.

How is South African VAT handled?

Courier services post at the 15% standard rate against the tax code you nominate, with non-vendor couriers posted as out-of-scope. Your VAT return picks the entries up like any other bill.

Which QuickBooks plan do I need?

Any plan that includes bills or expenses and invoicing — Essentials and above. Simple Start lacks bill entry, so expenses post instead of bills, which most sole traders find perfectly adequate.

What happens on refunds and returns?

A return leg posts as its own expense against the same order, and a courier claim payout posts as a vendor credit, so the true cost of a failed delivery sits in one place.

Will it create accounts I didn't ask for?

Never. Motho writes only to accounts and items you nominate during mapping. The only object it may create — with your explicit approval — is a vendor record for a courier you haven't traded with before.

Can I split shipping cost by channel?

Yes, using QuickBooks classes or locations if you have them enabled. Each booking carries its source channel through to the posted entry.

Works alongside

Works with your Shopify + QuickBooks stackXero instead of QuickBooksZoho BooksPricing

Get shipping costs into QuickBooks automatically.

Connect in a couple of minutes and post your first bill today.

Start shipping with Motho