How Tracking Works in Xero and QuickBooks
Tracking in accounting software allows you to categorise income and expenses by different parts of your business — such as sales channels, product types, or regions — giving you more detailed and insightful financial reports.
This article explains how Tracking Categories work in Xero, how Classes work in QuickBooks, and how to set them up in Link My Books to get the most value out of your financial data.
Whether you use Xero or QuickBooks, setting up tracking correctly will help you better understand performance across your business.
Tracking in Xero
Tracking Categories in Xero let you assign a category to each invoice we send over from Link My Books. This enables you to run Profit & Loss and other reports in Xero, broken down by marketplace.
If you're already using tracking categories in Xero, you can link those same ones in Link My Books.
If you're not using them yet, we can automatically create them for you with a single click inside Link My Books.
You can now assign two tracking options to each marketplace for Xero. Learn more
Tracking in QuickBooks
Tracking Classes in QuickBooks work in a similar way — allowing you to categorise transactions by marketplace, region, or any other segment that matters to your business.
If you already have classes set up in QuickBooks, you can assign them to each marketplace in Link My Books.
If not, you can set them up directly through Link My Books in just a few clicks.
How to Set Up Tracking in Link My Books
Step 1: Go to the Settings > Settlement Settings page in Link My Books.
Step 2: If you don't already use tracking categories (Xero) or classes (QuickBooks), click the setup link:
For Xero: Click the "Create Tracking Categories" link
For QuickBooks: Click the "Create Classes" link
Once you've clicked the link, refresh the page to see the newly created options.
Step 3: If you already have tracking set up in Xero or QuickBooks, use the dropdown menus to assign the appropriate tracking category or class to each marketplace.
My QuickBooks Classes aren't showing in Link My Books
If you've turned on Classes in QuickBooks but they don't appear in the Link My Books dropdowns on the Settlement Settings page, run through this checklist in order.
Confirm Classes exist in QuickBooks. In QuickBooks Online there isn't a single "turn on Classes" toggle — Classes are simply a list you create. Go to Settings > All Lists > Classes in QuickBooks and make sure the classes you want are actually in the list.
Refresh the QuickBooks cache in Link My Books. Go to Settings > Account Settings, choose your bookkeeping account, and click Refresh QuickBooks Cache.
Assign each class to a marketplace. On Settings > Settlement Settings, use the dropdown next to each marketplace and pick the class. Creating the classes in QuickBooks isn't enough on its own — Link My Books needs to know which class to apply to each marketplace.
Refresh any unsent settlements. The class assignment only flows through to settlements that haven't been sent yet. From the Settlements page, use the action menu to refresh any pending settlements so the new class assignment is picked up before sending.
⚠️ Already sent the settlement?
Settlements already sent to QuickBooks won't pick up the new class. You'll need to void the journal in QuickBooks, then rollback and refresh the settlement in Link My Books before resending. All three actions are available from the settlement's action menu.
Is QuickBooks Location tracking supported?
Link My Books only supports Class tracking for QuickBooks. There is no Location option for QuickBooks, and there is no confirmed timeline to add one.
For Shopify specifically, location-by-warehouse or physical store data is not included at the settlement level, which is why we cannot track by Location.
💡 Want to request Location tracking?
Submit it on our feature requests page and you will be the first to know if it's added.
Additional Resources
QuickBooks: QuickBooks Guide: Set Up and Use Class Tracking
If you have any questions about this article or feedback on how we could make it better please reach out to the support team via the blue chat icon on the bottom right of the page or via email to [email protected].