All things Shopify and commerce
Hi all, apologies in advance for this long post however I feel the context is relevant. just reaching out to see if theres anyone else out there as disappointed as I am on what appears to be a decision by Shopify to cease support of the script that connects Shopify to the AccountEdge accounting package.
To frame my situation - I'm a small business owner that's been using MYOB/AccountEdge on a Mac for over 14 years. I grew the business with AE software and had reached the stage where I began to believe I had to create an e-commerce store to expand the reach of my company. Not sure exactly when it was announced, however 4 years ago I learnt AccountEdge could connect to Shopify and would sync online sales/inventory with AccountEdge negating the need for double entry, this as you might imagine was huge news for smaller businesses.
After careful research I signed up for the Shopify service, purchased the recommended POS hardware through Shopify and set about developing a store. Regrettably my research didn’t reveal the difficulties involved in setting up an e-commerce store in the Caribbean however thats a topic in its own right.
But it doesn’t end there, in early 2020 AccountEdge (having been purchased by "Priority Software" a seemingly large ERP software company) decided they were no longer upgrading Accountedge for Mac citing
AccountEdge is not and will not be Catalina-compliant
We are disappointed to share that we will not be able to offer a Catalina-compliant version of AccountEdge - now or in the future. In the end, AccountEdge’s 30-year-old codebase proved too outdated to establish compatibility with Apple’s newest operating system. In spite of a multi-year project that involved a team of developers and analysts, it’s a project we will not be able to complete."
While I expected something insidious would ultimately arise out of the acquisition, this was not what I was expecting and effectively has prevented me from upgrading my Mac OS for the last 3 years. For if that were to occur I would be locked out of my accounting files and left unable to conduct business.
Of course since then I've been searching for a suitable alternative to AccountEdge that was capable of handling manufacturing of inventory while syncing with Shopify. Quickbooks Online scammed me into arranging a consult over the phone and signed me up for an annual subscription to be able to ACCESS their support, only to determine that QBO cannot handle the inventory manufacturing I required (despite asking at the outset). Through my own research I eventually learnt that if i switched to a PC that QB desktop could achieve my manufacturing goals. However I would need an add-on app that costs annually more than the Quickbooks subscription, of course. Which ultimately lead me back to AccountEdge subscription for PC which entails significantly less stress, in that I wouldn’t need to convert my account package files to QB.
So just last week I bit the bullet and decided to purchase a PC and switch to the AccountEdge subscription for PC. Despite the now muted pain of working on a PC I was actually reasonably happy with the performance of the program on the platform. However I soon realised one significant issue remained. After migrating my account files I realised AE was not able to communicate with Shopify? When I contacted AE support I was informed... There was nothing they could do about it.
The explanation given was:
"Shopify decided that they did not want to integrate with any software that was not web-based. The decision was made suddenly, without notice. This effectively killed the sync script we initially created, while leaving us no time to develop a solution before the decision went into effect. As soon as we were aware of this, we started working on a web-based replacement version, but new scripts take time to develop.
We submitted our newer web-based script recently for Shopify's approval. Hopefully, we'll have a replacement option soon, but we don't know how long it will take to get approved or how many revisions it will take. We understand that this is not a firm release date, but this is the most up-to-date information we have available."
Seriously... WTF
I'm sincerely hoping someone from Shopify reads these discussions because after 4 years of paying a subscription and investing in equipment, trying to find an accounting package that integrates with Shopify, still not having an operational store.... This really doesn’t sit well with me
I can't imagine I was the only one using the AccountEdge Shopify Link, can anyone else please share their experiences because these companies are outright playing with peoples livelihoods and are taking the people that support them for granted, I am hoping this is a gross misunderstanding and a Shopify representative will respond to bring clarity to the situation as I am sure your goal is to assist people with developing their businesses rather than assisting with destroying them. I am sick and tired of the big company attitude that more and more of us are being subjected to.
Small businesses cannot grow into bigger businesses if they do not receive support???
Please share your story if you too have been impacted by this incredibly corporate decision - IT IS UNACCEPTABLE
I have the same issue. The landscape for accounting solutions for small e commerce businesses is an absolute disaster imo. It seems very strange that there isn't a solution for Shopify - Account Edge integration after more than a year of it not working.
Were you able to find a solution?
Well, we couldn't find an external solution, so we built our own script in Python to enter Shopify and Amazon sales into Account Edge. It took a couple weeks to get done.
Thank you for posting. We are currently running the desktop AccountEdge with the unsupported link to Shopify. The link continues to work but I am concerned about the future. If Shopify is only going to connect with cloud-based products, does this mean we will also need to change AE to their web version?
I had to switch to PC Desktop AE however have been unable to reconnect to Shopify since switching. Could you possibly expand on how you're linked please?
Were you able to find a solution?
Is it still working for you?
Well our connection was working until yesterday some time. If anyone has tried using Zapier as an interface, I would love to hear how it went.
From what we saw, Zapier had limited connections available between Shopify and Account Edge so wasn't going to be very useful.
We were using the legacy connector to our desktop version of AccountEdge. Today, it quit working for no apparent reason, this seems to be it. Luckily, I am already in process of moving our entire operation over to Odoo for ERP and e-commerce. This just puts it into high gear.
Same exact thing happened to us today. We have stayed with the older 2022 legacy version using the connector to our desktop version of AccountEdge and up until today it has worked 100% fine. Have you tried anything to make it work?
Only rebooted the system, no change. I only use the connector to import orders, I have too many other changes to risk a sync and turning everything into a mess. We will just manually input orders until our Odoo integration is ready.
We rebooted as well and no change. A synch does sound risky. I was wondering if unlinking the store and then linking it back might fix it? I talked with AE tech support but they have not been helpful.
It might...but I can't afford the risk of it forcing a sync. If you try it, please let us know the results.
ok and do you know if there is a way to import orders from Shopify into AE via csv file?
It does appear possible, but I have never tried it:
https://support.mightymerchant.com/importing-customers-and-orders-into-accountedge
We are a small business too and dealing with the same issues. We feel frustrated and betrayed. We launched our Shopify store a year ago after literal years of hard work and now we are back to square one. We are going to look into some solutions mentioned in this discussion and in a few other forums and if any work I'll be sure to report back.
Please let me know what other forums are discussing this because the more knowledge we have the better. I'm aware of this forum https://community.shopify.com/c/technical-q-a/accountedge-connector-issues/td-p/2183019
You are not the only one. We purchased AccountEdge Pro, (Network version, 5 Users, 8,000+ inventory items, and the need for a new website), a couple of years ago, for the simple reason that it could integrate with Shopify. We went live with the accounting software 2 years ago, (helluva a lot work!), and live with our new Shopify website just over a year ago, (even more work!). The investment was substantial for us, (we are not a big company with deep pockets), and it has only been the past few months that we started to see an increase in sales and savings in time as sales migrate from phone calls and emails to web orders. Back in May this year, we suddenly found that "Sync Items" would hang-up, (new items sent to the website, updated pricing, items deleted from the website, etc), a nightly ritual. No warning or heads-up from AE. And no solution from AE support, just some finger-pointing to Shopify, who inexplicably decided to stop supporting non-web-based connections from integrating. Our solution to this problem was to open Task Manager and "End Task". This continues to work today. Oddly the Sales "Process Web orders" continued to work since May as well, but stopped working as of August 16th 2023. We are now faced with manually entering our web sales into AE. This has prompted a scramble here, which includes potentially abandoning both AccountEdge and Shopify, (both have let us down). Simple business thinking... if they don't support us, why would we support them?
SAME PROBLEM here! I don't mind having to enter the sales manually but I will never be able to track the inventory from items sold in store through the day to what is available online.
And this is the way my day started. I was unaware of any issues after 3 years of setting up my shopify store and account-edge which I have been a user of since the beginning. I am blown away and somewhat devastated, I have no idea how I am going to rebuild it. This was the only way to track inventory between a webstore and a physical location that worked. I received an email from accountedge this morning and did a little google to see if it was indeed real. What is the solution?
Odoo does everything that AE and Shopify does and so much more, all in a tightly integrated single platform. I know of several small businesses who have gone or are going to this platform, myself included.
Hope is on the way! I’ve been working with another app developer and his app “EasyCSV” looks like it will gives us a way to export and import. Did some initial testing today and I have high hopes we will get all the kinks worked out this week. Stay tuned!
We found a temporary solution until AccountEdge comes up with their new connector (they say it could be late this year or early in 2024). We are now using "EasyCSV" and I can't say enough good things about the developer, Max. He helped us and now should be able to help other AccountEdge sites using a similar configuration.
Thanks for sharing. Are you using "EasyCSV" to import the orders into AccountEdge from Shopify?
Yes. We have EasyCVS dropping the exported orders to a OneDrive shared folder where employees can pick it up and import them.
it's almost as if I wrote this. I have been an MYOB/Accountedge MAC user since 1993. I have to do manual entries now.
Completely agree! It's a shame that AccountEdge didn't see this coming and have a web based connector ready. I run three businesses that use AccountEdge and are connected to Shopify. We've been patiently waiting and manually syncing transactions. If AccountEdge doesn't release a solution by year end we will be forced to switch accounting software.
Any more update on this?
Last time I asked (within the past 2 weeks) AE said they are still on track to release a new connector at the end of second quarter of this year.
So they just gave me the same run around. Is there a way to talk to the developer team in the US? I remember doing it before they were bought out. Now its India only.
Any update on the Shopify-Accountedge connector? This has been ridiculous.
I called and they gave me the exact same line as they gave me last year! 😞
I to have been waiting for a repair to accountedge connect and have not upgraded my software or my website for fear of losing hundreds of staff hours in entering inventory. My unsupported account edge connect has continued to work updating inventory levels from in store purchases and I manually enter all online sales. I would have continued on this way but today I see a notification in my Shopify account that the app account edge connect will be fully removed from Shopify in October 2024. That is devastating. I can’t afford to start from scratch. What is the solution?
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