Background information about Credit/Debit lines
You may see that your Shopify payouts sometimes include a Debit and/or a Credit transaction lines, and we have listed below the common transaction scenarios where they would likely appear.
Before we dive into those scenarios, it is important to first understand what these transactions mean.
Credit transactions in Shopify represent an amount that was added by Shopify to your payout.
Debit transactions represent an amount that was deducted by Shopify from your payout.
While the order and other details for these transactions are available on the Shopify admin frontend, in the raw data that we receive via the Shopify API (Application Programming Interface), these will show only as Credit or Debit without any other details (order id, transaction id) - making it very difficult to determine what they relate to.
Example of how we see any Credit line in the raw data:
Example of how we see any Debit line in the raw data:
In the raw data that we receive via the Shopify API, there are no details about the orders or transactions the Credit/Debit relates to. There is also no identifying information about the type of Credit/Debit or where it comes from. The raw data just shows both as 'adjustment'.
We recommend reaching out to Shopify support and requesting for the data that is available on the Shopify Admin frontend to be also made available via the API. This will streamline the automation of the accounting process.
Integrations and transactions that were identified behind Credit/Debit lines thus far
From hundreds of Shopify accounts reviewed by A2X, we have been able to determine certain integrations or unique transactions that stand behind Credit or Debit transaction lines.
Credit transactions
1) Facebook Marketplace integration
Shopify is Integrated with the Facebook Marketplace as a Sales channel. The Credit transactions in the Shopify payout were identified as "Channel Promotion Credit" from Facebook. It is unclear as to whether these are Advertising/ Promotional expenses charged by FB or an amount that is due from FB.
2) Shop Cash rewards by Shopify
Shop Cash are incentives given to the customer/buyer who uses the Shop App and checks out with Shop Pay. (Learn more) These rewards are paid for directly by Shopify to the seller in their payout, and are identified as "Shop Cash Credit"
3) Shopify Protect for Shop Pay
Shopify Protect offers chargeback protection from fraud. When a chargeback is made on protected order, the amount of the chargeback and the fee that was debited from your payout is immediately reimbursed to you by Shopify in the form of Credit.
4) Shopify refunding fees
The seller has Shopify deducting shipping fees, etc. from their payouts and there was a refund on one of those.
5) Miscellaneous
A random adjustment was processed by Shopify.
Debit transactions
1) Facebook Marketplace integration
Shopify is Integrated with the Facebook Marketplace as a sales channel. The Debit transactions in the Shopify payout were identified as "Sales tax sent to Facebook & Instagram". This represents the Sales tax that is withheld by FB for a taxable order.
2) Shopify subscriptions
If the seller has their Shopify subscription charges deducted from their Payout, instead of directly charging their nominated credit card account, these are shown as Debit in the Shopify payout.
As mentioned, the details of each scenario mentioned above are currently not available in the Shopify payout file that A2X captures via their API.
Those transactions are simply mentioned as Credit and Debit in the Shopify payout file. While A2X would like to provide a more accurate description of these line items, we are limited to the data that we can get from the Shopify platform.
Reaching out to Shopify support about this would make them aware of the limitations you are experiencing when accounting for these transaction lines and there is a big chance they would consider making more details available through their API.
If you have any questions or need assistance with these transactions, please contact our support team who will be more than happy to assist.