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 will try to apply e-service tax rules.
• If any item requires shipping, the order is classified as physical and the standard product type is used.

Your account's default product type

Even when an order is detected as digital, the e-service classification only applies if your Quaderno account's Default product type is set to a digital category (e-service, e-book, or SaaS). If your account is set to Good or Service, Quaderno will fall back to standard to avoid an invalid tax combination.

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.

Using Shopify's own tax calculation

By default, Quaderno recalculates taxes using its own engine. If your account has the Use Shopify taxes option enabled on your Shopify integration, Quaderno will use the tax rates already calculated by Shopify's checkout instead.