International & Customs
How do I account for it when my US Shopify store sells and my Canadian or UK warehouse ships?
Accounting for it when one entity sells the order and another entity ships it.
Last updated September 16, 2026
Two companies, two books, one customer. The storefront does not decide who owns the inventory.
How the intercompany dropship posts
If US Co takes the Shopify order and CA Co (or UK Co) holds the stock, you have an intercompany dropship. US records the customer sale. CA records an intercompany sale to US at a transfer price and relieves its inventory. US records intercompany COGS. At consolidation you eliminate the internal sale. If you skip the intercompany invoice, one entity has revenue and no COGS, the other has a stock-out and no sale. This is not a domestic warehouse transfer. Same US entity, two buildings, is a different post: transfer order, in-transit, receipt, no bill. Here there is a second company, so there is a bill.
Ownership is a legal fact
Who owns the units until they ship is a legal fact, not a Shopify location. A CA 3PL on the US books is still US inventory sitting in Canada (and may already have triggered GST/HST or VAT). That is not this journal. A CA or UK entity that owns the stock is this journal. Do not invent a second company in the chart of accounts just because the building is abroad.
Transfer price policy and FX
Transfer price needs a policy (landed WAC plus a markup, or a shared service fee). Pick one and use it every time. Below WAC is a gift you will explain twice. Do not invent a markup percentage because a blog used one. FX: each entity's base currency must match its reporting currency before the first intercompany receipt. Rate updates do not revalue stock already on the shelf. The customer invoice is in the selling entity's currency. The intercompany invoice is in the currency the policy names. Those can differ.
Returns and matching period locks
Returns go back to the node that can receive them. A US refund against CA stock you never received in CA is invisible inventory again. The intercompany side has to reverse too, or CA still shows a sale it no longer shipped. Lock both entities' periods on the same night or one side backdates the other. Do not run this as a month-end spreadsheet of "US sales that shipped from CA." That file is how you miss a week of orders and invent COGS. The transfer should post when the warehouse ships, same as the customer shipment. If US dropships from CA and also holds US stock, routing has to name the entity, not just the building. This is accounting mechanics, not tax advice. GST, HMRC, and transfer-pricing documentation are a tax conversation on top. Permanent establishment is a legal conversation. Neither is solved by the invoice, and the invoice is still required.
Connect Claude or ChatGPT to your Fulfil data with the Fulfil MCP, then run this prompt on your own numbers.
You are the controller for a US parent with a CA or UK warehouse entity. Here is: order_id, selling_entity, shipping_entity, sku, qty, customer_price, shipping_entity_wac, transfer_price, ship_date, currency. [paste] Produce: 1. Journals on US and on CA/UK (sale, intercompany, COGS, elimination). 2. Orders with no transfer price or a transfer price below WAC. 3. Returns that refunded in US but never received in the shipping entity. 4. FX or base-currency mismatches. This is accounting mechanics, not tax advice.
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