Sharing WooCommerce order data with your bookkeeper?
Bookkeepers need specific data to keep your books accurate, and your WooCommerce orders are full of it. You'll often need to share this data for reasons such as monthly reconciliation, tax preparation, year-end reporting, or simply giving your accountant what they need to do the job.
In this guide, we'll walk you through the order export process for bookkeeping and also cover some advanced cases.
📑 Table of Contents
Why Your Bookkeeper Needs Clean Order Data
Your bookkeeper's job depends on having the right data, in the right format, at the right time. Clean WooCommerce order data is what makes that possible, and your store already has everything they need.
Here's what you can do with the order export data:
- Share order data with your accountant or bookkeeper
- Sync orders to accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero
- Generate monthly financial reports
- Prepare quarterly or annual tax reports
- Track refunds and adjustments alongside original orders
- Run scheduled reports for stakeholders
- Export for financial audits
- Document refund amounts and reasons
However, getting all of this out of WooCommerce requires more than the built-in export option. To fill this gap, WP All Export lets you export any order data you need in the file format you want.
Below, we'll cover the basic order export process, which takes just a few minutes. After that, we'll cover some advanced bookkeeping workflows to give you a better sense of what's possible using WP All Export.
How to Export WooCommerce Orders for Bookkeeping
Exporting order data for bookkeeping follows the same basic process as any other WooCommerce order export, with a few considerations for capturing the financial details your bookkeeper needs. Here's how it works.
If you want to follow along, you can use our convenient sandbox feature and select WooCommerce Store as the demo type.
1. Start a new bookkeeping WooCommerce order export
In your WordPress admin, go to All Export and click New Export. Choose Specific Post Type, then select WooCommerce Orders from the dropdown. You'll see a summary showing the total number of orders available to export.
2. Add filters to export specific orders (optional)
Bookkeeping exports usually need a specific date range, like last month or last quarter. Expand the Add Filtering Options panel to set this up. You can filter by Order Date using a date range rule, or by order status to include only completed orders.
3. Build your WooCommerce order export file
Click Customize Export File to open the Drag & Drop screen. On the left is your column selection area, and on the right is the Available Data panel with all order fields organized by category.
For bookkeeping, you'll want to focus on the fields your bookkeeper needs, such as order totals, taxes, fees, line items, customer billing info, and payment methods. Drag the relevant fields from the Available Data panel into your column selection area.
4. Choose your bookkeeping order export file type
Expand the Export Type panel near the bottom of the screen. You have two options:
- Spreadsheet: For CSV or Excel. CSV is the default, and you can also pick Excel File (XLS) or Excel File (XLSX) for true Excel output.
- Feed: For XML. Pick Simple XML Feed for standard XML, or Custom XML Feed for full structural control.
Choose Spreadsheet or Feed, then pick your specific format from the dropdown.
5. Configure and run the order export
On the Drag & Drop screen, click Continue to move to the Export Settings screen. Here you can:
- Schedule the export to run automatically through Automatic Scheduling or manual cron jobs
- Adjust Advanced Options like batch size, real-time exports, or splitting large exports into multiple files
- Give your export a custom name
For your bookkeeping export, scheduling is especially useful since you'll want to run it on a recurring basis. When you're ready, click the green Confirm & Run Export button.
6. Download your bookkeeping order export file
Once the export finishes, the Confirm & Run screen will show that your file is ready. Click CSV (or Excel or XML, depending on your earlier choice) to download it.
That's the basic process, and most stores have their bookkeeping data ready in under five minutes.
What WooCommerce Order Data Bookkeepers Need
For accurate bookkeeping, your export should include the following fields:
- Order ID: The unique identifier for each order
- Order date: When the order was placed
- Order status: The current state of the order (completed, processing, refunded, etc.)
- Order total: The total amount of the order
- Subtotal: The order total before taxes and shipping
- Tax total: The total tax amount
- Shipping total: The total shipping cost
- Discount total: Any discounts applied (coupons, etc.)
- Payment method: How the customer paid (credit card, PayPal, etc.)
- Customer billing info: Name, email, billing address
- Line items: Product name, quantity, price per item
- Refund data: Refund amount, refund date, refund reason
- Currency: The currency in which the order was placed
You can easily drag any of these fields from the Available Data panel into your column selection area. For most bookkeeping needs, including the financial fields (totals, taxes, line items), and customer billing info is sufficient.
Advanced Bookkeeping WooCommerce Order Export Workflows
The basic export handles most bookkeeping needs, but there are advanced workflows that save time and improve accuracy. Here's how to handle the most common ones applicable to bookkeeping.
Scheduling Regular Bookkeeping Order Exports
Bookkeepers work on a regular cadence: monthly reconciliation, quarterly tax prep, and annual reporting. Waiting until the last minute to pull your order data leads to rushed work and missed details. This is where scheduling your exports in advance keeps the data flowing on a predictable schedule.
WP All Export supports both automatic scheduling and manual cron jobs. The Automatic Scheduling service is a paid add-on that lets you set up recurring exports with a few clicks. The plugin handles the timing, the file format, and the delivery. You can have the file emailed to your bookkeeper, saved to cloud storage, or pushed to an accounting platform via Zapier, all on a set schedule.
For most stores, a monthly export works well. You can set it to run a day or two after the month closes, so your bookkeeper has the data ready when they start their reconciliation work. If you need weekly reports for cash flow tracking, you can set that up too.
Handle Order Refunds in Your Bookkeeping Data
Refunds are an inevitable part of any retail business, and they need to show up in your bookkeeping data just like the original sales. Without proper refund handling, your books will show inflated revenue, and your tax filings will be inaccurate.
WP All Export captures refund data as part of the order export. The Refunds section in the Available Data panel includes the refund amount, refund date, refund reason, and refunded line items. Full refunds show as a negative amount equal to the original order total. Partial refunds show as a negative amount for the specific items or the amount refunded.
When you include refund data in your export, your bookkeeper can reconcile the original sales against the refunds, giving an accurate picture of net revenue. This is critical for tax purposes, since most jurisdictions require you to report net sales (after refunds) rather than gross sales.
Export for Tax Reporting
Tax reporting requires specific data: net sales, taxable amounts, tax collected, and refunds that affect the tax base. Pulling this data manually from WooCommerce is tedious and error-prone, especially if you have hundreds or thousands of orders.
WP All Export lets you filter your export by date range, so you can pull exactly the orders you need for a specific tax period (e.g., Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, or the full year). The export includes the tax totals, tax per line item, and refund data, all of which your bookkeeper or tax preparer needs to file accurately.
For quarterly estimates, you can schedule a quarterly export that pulls the relevant period. For annual filings, you can do a year-end export that captures all 12 months. Either way, the data is consistent and complete, which makes tax prep much smoother.
Format Your Data for Specific Accounting Tools
Different accounting tools have different format requirements. QuickBooks expects specific column headers and date formats. Xero has its own import template. FreshBooks and Wave have their own quirks. Getting the format right means less time reformatting and fewer errors during import.
WP All Export lets you customize the export to match your accounting tool's requirements. You can rename columns, reorder them, set date formats, and choose which fields to include. For QuickBooks, you can match their CSV import template. For Xero, you can format the data to match their journal entry import.
The most common format is CSV, which all major accounting tools accept. The key is matching the column headers and date formats to what each tool expects. Once you set up the export format for your specific tool, you can save it as a template and reuse it for every monthly or quarterly export.
Final Thoughts - Exporting WooCommerce Orders for Bookkeeping
Your books are only as accurate as the data that feeds them. Wrong totals mean wrong reports. Missing refunds means overstated revenue. Misclassified taxes mean filing errors. Exporting order data using WP All Export ensures your bookkeeper gets complete, accurate data every time, so the numbers add up the way they should.
Bookkeeping runs on a fixed cadence: monthly reconciliation, quarterly tax estimates, annual filings. The export needs to show up on time, in the right format, with the right data. Once you set it up to run automatically, the data shows up without you thinking about it. Your bookkeeper gets what they need, and you get back to running the store.
Frequently Asked Questions - Exporting WooCommerce Orders for Bookkeeping
How do I handle multi-currency orders in my bookkeeping export?
WP All Export captures the order total and currency code for each order. If your store processes orders in multiple currencies, the export includes both the amount and the currency. On import into your accounting tool, the currency is preserved, so your bookkeeper can reconcile transactions in their original currency without manual conversion.
Can I export orders with custom tax rates or tax exemptions?
Custom tax rates and exemptions are stored as order meta data. WP All Export captures these fields through the Custom Fields section in the Available Data panel. On import, your accounting tool receives the tax details as captured, so your bookkeeper can apply the correct tax treatment for each order.
Can I export orders that include both sales and refunds in one file?
Yes. Since refunds are part of the order data, you can include both refund fields and standard order fields in the same export. The file includes the order data with refund data attached. This is useful for reports that need both the original sale and the refund information in one file for reconciliation.
