When the quote and the Shopify order disagree: what drifts after conversion

After a quote converts on Shopify, four records describe the same deal: the accepted quote, the draft order, the order, and whatever the ERP or CRM holds. They stop agreeing in a small number of documented ways - a draft edited after conversion, a draft still open after its order exists, a draft deleted or purged after a year, an order edited, cancelled or refunded, a buyer-requested change, a tag list overwritten by a connector. Each drift is detectable by comparing two specific fields, and each field has one owner. Reconciliation is choosing those owners and checking the pairs on a schedule.

This page is the catalogue of what drifts after the draft exists, how to detect each case, how to repair it, and who owns which field from conversion on. Creating exactly one draft is covered in how one accepted quote becomes exactly one draft order; what breaks at conversion is in the 17 failure modes; a price that was wrong from the start is diagnosed in why a quote converts at the wrong price. "Reconciliation" here means quote-to-order data, not payout or bank reconciliation.

Everything about Shopify below was checked against Shopify's own pages on 9 October 2026 at API version 2026-10; sources are at the end.

The four comparisons

What drifts, and how to catch it

Grouped by when it happens. "Source of truth" is the record that wins from conversion on.

Before the order exists

#	What drifts	Cause in Shopify	Detect	Repair	Source of truth
1	The draft's lines or totals versus what was accepted	Staff edit the draft after conversion; updating tags overwrites the whole list	draft_orders/update payload totals against the totals stored at conversion; DraftOrder.tags against the tags you wrote	A commercial change is a new proposal or counter-offer and a new draft, with the old draft deleted; a logistics change is recorded	The accepted version, until payment
2	The draft is still open although its order exists	An update while a checkout was in progress unlinked the checkout: the order is created, and "the draft will remain open even after the order is created"	An order carries your conversion attribute, but DraftOrder.order is null or the status isn't COMPLETED	Link the order by the attribute; a person deletes the stale draft	The order
3	The quote points at a draft that no longer exists	Staff deleted it	draft_orders/delete; as a backstop, draftOrder(id) returns nothing	Mark the draft lost; confirm no order carries the attribute; re-create or close	Shopify
4	The same, after a year	Drafts created on or after 1 April 2025 are deleted after a year without an edit	draftOrder(id) returns nothing - Shopify doesn't document whether the purge sends a delete webhook	Decide well before the year whether the deal is lost or re-quoted	Shopify
5	The invoice went out and was never paid	An order exists only once the draft is paid or completed	draftOrders(query: "tag:… status:invoice_sent") plus age	Chase, extend, or delete the draft and close the quote - together	The draft's status
6	The quote expired, the draft is still payable	A draft has no deadline other than the purge	The quote is expired while DraftOrder.status is OPEN or INVOICE_SENT	Delete the draft when the quote expires, or don't expire quotes after the invoice	Choose one - but only one
7	A paid order the quote layer or ERP doesn't know about	Webhook delivery isn't guaranteed	draftOrder.order is set but no order id is stored; or orders(query: "tag:… updated_at:>…") against stored ids	Replay through the same webhook handler (the sweep)	The order

After the order exists

#	What drifts	Cause in Shopify	Detect	Repair	Source of truth
8	The order's lines or total versus the accepted version	The merchant or another app edits the order: Shopify says an app-created draft's order "can be edited in your Shopify admin, and by other apps"	orders/edited; Order.edited; originalTotalPriceSet against currentTotalPriceSet	Record the reason on the order; don't rewrite the quote; the ERP follows the order	The order for fulfilment and invoicing; the quote for what was agreed
9	A pending buyer change the ERP or warehouse doesn't see	From 2026-10, a buyer can request removal of unfulfilled lines	requested_order_edit/* webhooks; Order.requestedOrderEdits	Hold fulfilment while it's pending; accept or decline; an accepted request arrives as an order edit	The order
10	The quote shows a live deal, the order is cancelled	Cancellation is "irreversible"	orders/cancelled; cancelledAt	Record it per order; the quote stays the record; a re-quote is new	The order
11	Amounts after refunds and returns	Refunds per line or shipping; returns	refunds/create; returns/*; currentSubtotalPriceSet	The ERP's credit note comes from the refund, not from the quote	The order's refunds
12	Fulfilment state copied in several places	A warehouse or ERP writes fulfilments into Shopify	fulfillments/*; displayFulfillmentStatus	Don't mirror fulfilment into the quote layer	The warehouse or ERP, through Shopify

The shape of the deal and its keys

#	What drifts	Cause	Detect	Repair	Source of truth
13	"The quote has one order, it should have two"	Partial acceptance or split conversion makes one draft per group; lines left for later are still open, not declined	Converted groups against stored order ids; each order's subtotal against its accepted lines	Reconcile per group; open lines aren't missing	The quote layer for which lines are open; the orders for what was bought
14	The quote total doesn't match the ERP's amount	The draft and order are in the presentment currency; shopMoney is converted	Compare the quote with presentmentMoney only	Book from one side deliberately	Presentment money
15	The order is no longer recognisable as from the quote	Tags overwritten by a full-list write; the attribute or note edited	orders(query: "tag:…") against stored ids; Events triggers on order.tags and order.customAttributes	Restore from the quote record; integrations add tags with tagsAdd, never by rewriting the list	The quote layer, which wrote the keys once
16	The buyer's identity changed after conversion	A contact removed, a location deleted or changed, customers merged	company_contacts/delete, company_locations/delete, customers/merge against stored ids	Before payment, re-create the draft for the right location; after, fix the customer master, not the order	The ERP's customer master, or Shopify - one of them
17	A connector rewrites fields the quote layer owns	Two writers on one field	Field-level Events triggers; diff against what the quote layer wrote	Restrict the connector to its own fields	One writer per field
18	An integration missed quote-layer events	At-least-once, out-of-order delivery; an endpoint down	Gaps in the event sequence; deliveries the sender gave up on	Replay from the events feed, then from the API	The quote layer's event log
19	A reconciliation job reports "all good" on old orders	Apps see the last 60 days of orders unless they have read_all_orders	The job's scope against the order's age	Request read_all_orders, or reconcile within the window	-

Who owns which field after conversion

ERP, CRM and PIM integration patterns has the ownership table for the life of an integration. This one starts at the moment the draft exists:

Field	Owner after conversion	Everyone else	Why
Agreed lines, quantities, unit prices, terms, version	The quote layer - the sealed accepted version, never edited	Read for audit	It is the record of the agreement; a sent proposal is locked
Which lines are still open	The quote layer	The CRM reads it as pipeline	Not converted, and not lost
The draft's content until payment	The quote layer wrote it once; staff edits are exceptions to record	The ERP ignores drafts	The draft is payable - changing it changes the deal
The order's lines, quantities and totals	The Shopify order	The ERP and warehouse read; the quote layer doesn't mirror	Edits, refunds and returns happen on the order
Payment and refunds	Shopify	The ERP books from refunds; the quote layer records end states only	Money moves on the order
Fulfilment	The warehouse or ERP, writing into Shopify	The quote layer: nothing	One writer
Invoice, ledger, credit notes	The ERP or accounting system	-	Shopify isn't the ledger
Linkage keys - the quote's tags, conversion attribute, note line	The quote layer writes them once	Others append with tagsAdd	Updating tags overwrites the list
Company, location, contact	The ERP's customer master or Shopify - one of them	The quote layer reads	One writer
Quote status after conversion	The quote layer, derived from Shopify's order events	Integrations read	Derived, never the other way round

The rule that falls out of it: never write order changes back into the quote. The quote is what was agreed; the order is what is being fulfilled and paid. When they differ, record why on the order.

Events or webhooks for this

Shopify's Events became generally available with API 2026-10 as the successor to classic webhooks, and classic webhooks keep working. Events has topics for orders, refunds, returns, fulfilment orders, companies and customers, with triggers on individual fields - order.tags, order.customAttributes, order.lineItems.quantity among them - which suits rows 8, 15 and 17. It has no draft-order topic, so rows 1 to 6 still need the classic draft_orders/* webhooks. Shopify doesn't document Events' delivery guarantees, so keep the reconciliation job below whichever you use.

A reconciliation job you can copy

Run it on a schedule, against the stored ids, inside the order-access window:

1. Drafts you created and haven't seen paid: draftOrders(query: "tag:<your-tag> updated_at:>…"). For each, status and order: an order without a stored id is row 7; a missing draft is row 3 or 4; an old INVOICE_SENT draft is row 5 or 6.
2. Orders that carry your key: orders(query: "tag:<your-tag> updated_at:>…"). Compare originalTotalPriceSet with currentTotalPriceSet (row 8), check cancelledAt and the financial status (rows 10, 11), requestedOrderEdits (row 9), and that the tags and conversion attribute are still there (row 15).
3. Outside systems: for each order, the ERP's amount against presentmentMoney (row 14), the number of orders against converted groups (row 13).
4. Scope: without read_all_orders, only the last 60 days of orders are visible (row 19).

The create side - the sweep that finds a conversion whose outcome is unknown - is in the idempotent conversion post.

How QuotWay behaves

One implementation, described as it works today:

• What it matches on. Every draft QuotWay creates carries the tags quotway and quotway-<quote reference>, a merchant-only note with the quote reference and version, and one conversion attribute that links the order back to its conversion group. QuotWay never edits, completes or deletes a draft after creating it, and never edits orders.
• What it records. A change to a converted draft's totals is recorded on the quote's activity log, with the before and after amounts. Once a quote is at Order completed, QuotWay records it on the quote when its order is cancelled or fully refunded. Partial refunds, returns, order edits and fulfilment stay on the Shopify order - check the order for those (converting to a draft order).
• Split and partial conversions. Each accepted group becomes its own draft and order; lines the buyer left for later stay open on the quote and can be converted later (partial acceptance and split conversion).
• Missed order webhooks. A sweep checks invoiced quotes after seven days without an order and, if Shopify shows one, replays it through the same handler.
• For integrations. On the Enterprise plan - including during the 14-day free trial - the API's quote object lists the quote's Shopify draft-order and order ids, and a 30-day events feed is the recovery path for missed webhooks (the events feed). Plans are on the pricing page; conversion is described on convert quotes to orders.

FAQ

Why is a Shopify draft order still open after the customer paid?

An update was made to the draft while its checkout was in progress, which unlinks the checkout: the order is created, but "the draft will remain open even after the order is created". Check DraftOrder.order, link the order by your own key, and delete the stale draft.

Is there a webhook for when a draft order is paid?

Not a draft-order "paid" topic. Payment creates an order, so listen to orders/create and match it to the draft with your own attribute or tag; the draft's status becomes COMPLETED and its order field is set. draft_orders/update covers changes to the draft, and Shopify's Events has no draft-order topic at 2026-10.

Should the quote change when the order is edited?

No. The quote is the record of what was agreed; the order is what is fulfilled and paid. Record the reason for an edit on the order and let the ERP follow the order.

How do I detect order edits for my ERP?

The orders/edited webhook, the order's edited field, and a difference between originalTotalPriceSet and currentTotalPriceSet. With Events, a trigger on order.lineItems.quantity does the same for quantities.

What are buyer-requested order edits?

From API 2026-10, a buyer can ask to remove unfulfilled lines from an order. The request arrives as requested_order_edit/* webhooks and is visible on Order.requestedOrderEdits; hold fulfilment while it's pending, and an accepted request becomes an ordinary order edit.

Do unpaid draft orders expire?

Drafts created on or after 1 April 2025 are deleted after a year without an edit. Nothing else expires them, so a quote that expires earlier leaves its draft payable unless you delete it.

Does Shopify Events replace webhooks for reconciliation?

Events is the successor to classic webhooks and classic webhooks keep working, but it has no draft-order topic, so drafts still need draft_orders/*. Shopify doesn't document Events' delivery guarantees, so keep a reconciliation job either way.

Why doesn't the ERP total match the quote?

The quote, the draft and the order are in the buyer's presentment currency; shopMoney is converted. Refunds and order edits change the order's current total. Compare the quote with the order's presentment money and its original total.

Sources

Shopify pages, read on 9 October 2026 at API version 2026-10:

• draftOrderUpdate - an update unlinks a checkout in progress and the draft stays open
• DraftOrder and DraftOrderInput - status, order, tags
• Draft orders - deletion after a year without an edit for drafts created on or after 1 April 2025; payment creates the order
• Order - original and current totals, edited, cancelledAt, requestedOrderEdits
• Edit existing orders - app-created orders can be edited by the admin and other apps; the 60-day order window
• orderCancel - cancellation is irreversible
• tagsAdd - adding tags without overwriting
• Webhook topics and HTTPS webhook delivery - topics; delivery isn't guaranteed
• Events are now generally available and events and webhooks - topics, field triggers, classic webhooks continue
• Release notes 2026-10 - buyer-requested order edits

QuotWay behaviour is described from its public documentation and the app's source, read on 9 October 2026.