Managing Products and Services with Synder

Accurate product and service management is critical to maintaining clean and reliable books. Each product is linked to an income account, which directly impacts your income statement. To ensure accurate sales tracking, it’s essential to configure Synder to consistently use the correct products, with appropriate types and associated accounts.

This guide covers how product and service settings work in Synder’s Per Transaction sync across QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, and Xero. You’ll learn what happens when a product isn’t yet in your books and how to configure Synder to avoid creating unexpected items.

Overview

QuickBooks Online : Managing products and services with Synder

How Synder records products in your transactions

In Synder’s Per-transaction settings, you can choose how your products are recorded in QuickBooks Online. There are two main options:

Use a common product/service name – All transactions will use one generic name (like “Generic Item”), which simplifies reporting if you’re not tracking inventory or COGS.

Use the original product/service name and SKU (if any) – Synder will look for a matching item in your QuickBooks Online product list, using the product name or SKU.

If a match is found:

The item is simply mapped to the existing item in your books and no new item is created.
Inventory quantity and COGS will be updated if it’s an inventory item.

If there’s no match, you can decide how Synder should handle it:

Create the item automatically in QuickBooks Online
Cancel the transaction
Map the product to an existing item using Product Mapping

Creating products that don’t yet exist in QuickBooks Online

If you’re syncing sales for items that aren’t in your books yet, Synder can create them automatically. You’ll be able to define the type of product and configure the accounts associated with it.

Creating items as Non-inventory or Service

To create products as Non-inventory or Service, just select the appropriate type in your settings. You’ll be also prompted to assign:

Income account – where sales revenue will be tracked;
Expense account – the account to l be used in your bills/purchase orders if you order these items from a vendor.

These types are great for digital goods, services, or items you don’t physically track.

Creating items as Inventory

If you want new items to be created as Inventory in your books, set the product type to Inventory in the settings. This will unlock additional required fields:

Income account: Tracks the sales of inventory items.
Cost of Goods Sold account: Tracks costs associated with your sold inventory items. (COGS)
Inventory start date: Defines when inventory tracking starts for the new product. Please note that sales transactions dated before this start date won’t sync properly. Learn more here.
Initial Quantity on Hand: Sets the starting inventory quantity Synder will use for this product.
Inventory Asset account: Tracks the value of purchased inventory.
Inventory adjustment account: Records inventory adjustments (e.g., shrinkage or write-offs).

Preventing new items from being created

However, if you want full control over what gets into your books, you can tell Synder not to create new items. Just enable the “Cancel synchronization” option in the settings.

With this option on, any transaction containing an item not yet present in your books will be automatically canceled. Synder will then send you an email notification, so you can review and decide whether to:

Adjust your product mapping
Reconfigure your settings
Add the product manually to QuickBooks Online

You can learn more about this here.

Product Mapping

If you sell multiple product variations (e.g., “Red Apple” and “Green Apple”) but want to map them to a single item in your books (e.g., “Apple”), or if product names vary across sales channels and don’t match those in your accounting system, Synder’s Product Mapping feature provides the solution you need.

To set it up:

Go to Settings → Product Mapping
Click + Add line
Match each product variation from your sales platform to a single product in QuickBooks Online

You can do this separately for each connected sales channel.

Handling missing product names

If a transaction doesn’t include a product name, which is sometimes the case with platforms like Stripe, Synder offers two workarounds to ensure proper processing:

Assign a fallback item – Synder will use a generic name like “Stripe Product” for any unnamed product.

Use the transaction description as the item name – Just enable this setting in your Product settings, as long as the item name is included in the transaction description.

And that’s how product and service handling works in Synder with QuickBooks Online!

QuickBooks Desktop : Managing products and services in Synder

How Synder records products in your transactions

In QuickBooks Desktop, Synder offers the same flexibility when it comes to recording items:

Common product/service name – All transactions will use a generic item, keeping things simple.

Original product/service name and SKU (if any) – Synder searches your QuickBooks Desktop item list for matches based on item name or SKU.

If Synder finds the item in your books:

It maps the product, and no new item is created.
For inventory items, Synder updates COGS, inventory value, and quantity accordingly.

Additionally, you can enable the option to prioritize SKU over item name. When this setting is active, Synder will use the item’s SKU instead of its name for matching purposes.

If no match is found, then you have options to:

Let Synder create the item
Cancel the sync for that transaction
Use Product Mapping to link it to an existing product

Creating products that aren’t in QuickBooks Desktop yet

Synder can automatically create new products during sync, with customizable settings that let you control how they’re generated.