What Landara picks up automatically
Which Shopify actions flow into your cost ledger on their own, which ones need a step from you, and how to tell the difference.
Updated 2 August 2026
Once Shopify is connected, most of your cost ledger fills itself in. Landara listens to your store and costs each movement as it happens, so you are not entering anything twice.
This page is the honest list: what arrives on its own, what still needs a step from you, and the handful of things that look automatic but are not.
Arrives on its own
| What you do in Shopify | What Landara does |
|---|---|
| A customer places an order | Records the sale and costs it against your FIFO layers |
| You fulfil an order | Records the outflow at the location it shipped from |
| You cancel an order | Removes the movement so it stops costing |
| A customer returns something | Puts the quantity back and credits the cost it was charged |
| You complete an inventory transfer | Moves the cost with the stock, at the same value |
| Stock levels change at a location | Shows it on Reconcile for comparison. Never costed on its own |
You do not need to press sync, open the app, or be logged in. If your store is busy overnight, the ledger is current when you open it in the morning.
Shopify owns the quantity. Landara never keeps a competing stock number, it only attaches a cost to the movements Shopify reports. That is why the two can never drift apart on quantity.
Needs a step from you
These are the ones where Landara genuinely cannot know the answer.
| What you do | Why it needs you |
|---|---|
| Receive a purchase order | Shopify does not know what you paid your supplier, or what the freight was. Import the PO or a shipment |
| Set an opening cost | A product with no cost in Shopify baselines at zero, so its sales cost nothing until you set one |
| Resolve a stocktake or reconcile difference | Landara can show you the gap. Whether it is shrinkage, damage, or a move is your call |
| Write down aged stock | A value judgement, not a movement |
| Post a journal to Xero or QuickBooks | Always yours to approve. Nothing reaches your books without you |
Looks automatic, but is not
Two cases catch people out, and both are worth knowing before you rely on them.
Adjusting quantity at two locations is not a transfer. If you reduce stock at one location and raise it at another, Shopify reports two unrelated level changes. Landara sees no connection between them, so on Reconcile it reads as stock lost at the first location and new stock found at the second. Use Shopify's Transfers feature, or record the move in Landara. See moving stock between locations.
A product with no cost per item costs nothing. Landara has no way to invent a figure, so it seeds the layer at zero and says so. You will see an amber note on the Cost Layers page counting the layers with no cost yet. Sales of those products report zero COGS until you set one, which is usually the reason a COGS figure looks too good.
If your COGS report looks unexpectedly low, check Cost Layers for the "no cost yet" note before anything else. It explains most of these.
Checking that something arrived
Every movement Landara costs is visible, so you never have to take this on trust.
- Go to Dashboard → COGS → Ledger and search the SKU.
- Each row is one movement, with its date, location, quantity and the cost layer it drew from.
- If a movement is missing, it did not reach Landara. Re-check the action in Shopify, or reconcile.
Nothing is ever costed twice. Each movement carries a unique key from Shopify, so if Shopify sends the same event again after a hiccup, Landara recognises it and does nothing.
