Is it possible to test migration on Shopify Plus Sandbox first?

[jessschnehageRG]

Is it possible for us to have the Quickbooks Desktop Connector app installed on a Shopify Plus Sandbox store? 

We are looking to complete the migration in a test environment prior to doing so on the active merchant store. I understand that a unique store ID is required to use the above app. 

To clarify - I am wondering whether we'll be able to use our store ID from the main store in order to associate the app to our sandbox plus store first?

[kgirrard]

We did this, but it hasn't ended well. When we attempted to move from the test store to a production version, the data behind the Quickbooks Desktop Connector didn't get cleared so we're stuck with a store we can't sync to Quickbooks, and can't use. It's been a week and support hasn't been able to fix this (it got handed up to the QDC developer, Shoppinpal, now called @Anonymous).

We loaded sales history using a private app, and Shopify claimed this prevented them from simply reseting the store.

I will say that we learned a lot while using the test store, and that Shopify was willing to issue a new Unique ID so we'd have access to the QDC and Stocky apps. It just became seriously broken somewhere along the way.

[SteelHead]

Thanks for sharing your experience.  I have been trying to figure out a way to create a test environment - with no help from Shopify support.  I can't believe they did not prepare for people who want to test/train on the POS before going live.

[jessschnehageRG]

Thank you for the feedback, it's really good insight to have.

Was the test store you used another Shopify store? Asking because Shopify has since confirmed a sandbox isn't possible because you need to have a unique store ID to speak to Quickbooks (I'm still not clear this is necessary though, as we already have the file export from QB as provided by our client so as far as I can tell just need the connector app and Stocky). 

Based on your experience, it seems inadvisable to connect QB to the test store at all due to avoid complications when wanting to perform migration on the actual production store (existing). 

Appreciate the feedback! 

[kgirrard]

We did import to a different store. Initially Shopify was going to reset the store when we were ready to start over, but that wasn't possible so we started with a new store.

The real problem has been the Quickbooks Desktop Connector. It looks now like the company file we were testing against (a copy of our real company file) shared the same company id. The data in the QDC is keyed to this and exists outside of the store, so has haunted us as we tried to create new stores (two and counting).

If you aren't interested in testing the connection to Quickbooks, I'd just skip that final integration step, but importing data does require the QDC and can't be repeated in the same store.

The Unique ID is required to get a store that has the Stocky and Quickbooks Desktop Connector apps installed, and we've had to request multiple new ones, despite Shopify's reluctance to issue them.