How Quaderno determines the product type on Shopify orders

When Quaderno processes a Shopify order, it automatically determines whether the sale is a digital product (e-service) or a physical good. This classification affects which tax rules apply, particularly for cross-border EU VAT on digital services.

How digital vs. physical is detected

Quaderno reads the requires_shipping attribute on each line item in the order:

• If no items in the order require shipping, the order is classified as digital and Quaderno applies e-service tax rules, provided the buyer is in a jurisdiction where digital services are taxed at destination (such as the EU, the UK, or Norway). Otherwise, Quaderno uses standard even if the order requires no shipping.
• If any item requires shipping, the order is classified as physical and the standard product type is used.

Your account's default tax class

Even when an order is detected as digital, e-service rules only apply if your Quaderno account's Default tax class is set to a digital category (e-Service, e-Book, or SaaS). If it is set to Standard, Consulting, or another non-digital category, Quaderno will use standard even if the order requires no shipping.

You can check and update this setting on your account preferences page.

Per-product overrides via SKU

If a Shopify line item includes a SKU that matches a product registered in your Quaderno catalog, that product's configured type takes precedence over both the order-level detection and the account default. This lets you set a specific tax treatment for individual products regardless of how the order arrives.