Skip to main content

How Tracking Works in Xero and QuickBooks

How to track your Amazon Marketplace data separately

Daniel Little avatar
Written by Daniel Little
Updated this week

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.

A screenshot of the "Tracking Codes" tab within a financial integration application, likely "LINK MY BOOKS," which is used for Xero integration.  The page provides an explanation of the feature: "You can use the Tracking Codes feature of Xero to easily break down your data inside Xero by sales channel or marketplace. This works by assigning a tracking code to each marketplace. Link My Books then adds this tracking code to each line of the settlement invoices/bills sent to Xero allowing you to easily breakdown your sales/fees by marketplace directly inside Xero (for example you could run a P&L statement and breakdown by marketplace to show your true profit by marketplace)."  There's also a note: "If you don't have any existing tracking codes in Xero, (Click Here) to create some using our defaults."  Below this, a list of Amazon marketplaces is displayed on the left side, each with a dropdown menu for selecting a tracking code:  Amazon.co.uk: "AMAZON MARKETPLACES : AMAZON..."  Amazon.it: "AMAZON MARKETPLACES : AMAZON..."  Amazon.de: "Choose Tracking Code..."  Amazon.fr: "AMAZON MARKETPLACES : AMAZON..."  Amazon.es: "AMAZON MARKETPLACES : AMAZON..."  Amazon.nl: "AMAZON MARKETPLACES : AMAZON..." (partially visible)  At the bottom right, there are two floating icons: a gift box and a question mark/help icon. The top tabs show "Transaction Grouping," "Cost of Goods Sold," "Xero Settings," "Automation," and "Tracking Codes" (currently selected).             Video  Deep Research  Canvas

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.

A screenshot of the "Tracking Classes" tab within a financial integration application, likely "LINK MY BOOKS," which is used for QuickBooks integration.  The page provides an explanation of the feature: "You can use the Classes feature of QuickBooks to easily break down your data inside QuickBooks by sales channel or marketplace. This works by assigning a class to each marketplace. Link My Books then adds this class to each line of the settlement invoices/bills sent to QuickBooks allowing you to easily breakdown your sales/fees by marketplace directly inside QuickBooks (for example you could run a P&L statement and breakdown by marketplace to show your true profit by marketplace)."  There's also a note: "If you don't have any existing classes in QuickBooks, (Click Here) to create some using our defaults."  On the left side of the page, there's a list of Amazon marketplaces (Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.ca, Amazon.es) each with a dropdown menu labeled "Choose Tracking Class...".  On the right side, a red box contains an important message: "IMPORTANT: QuickBooks Classes only works if you have QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced". Below this, there's a heading "How does class tracking work?" and a link to a help article: "Learn more about how QuickBooks Class Tracking works in this help article."  At the bottom right, there are two floating icons: a gift box and a question mark/help icon. The top tabs show "Transaction Grouping," "Cost of Goods Sold," "Automation," and "Tracking Classes" (currently selected).

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.

Additional Resources

Did this answer your question?