Merchant Sheets syncs your orders from January 1, five years before the year you connect your store. A store connected in October 2026 gets every order back to January 1, 2021.
Where to see your start date
Each store on Data Connectors shows its start date under its sync status, such as Order history from Jan 1, 2021.
How the start date works
The start date is set once, when you first connect the store, and it doesn't move after that. Every sync adds new orders and keeps the ones you already have, so your history grows over time.
Updating your Shopify keys keeps the same start date. Disconnecting a store deletes its data, so if you connect it again, it gets a new start date based on that day.
What the start date covers
The start date applies to orders and everything tied to them:
Orders and order lines
Refunds
Fulfillments
Discount use on those orders
Data that isn't limited by date
Products, discount codes, and locations sync in full, whatever their age. Inventory shows your current stock levels at each sync, because Shopify shares current levels only.
Why there's a start date
Five years covers year-over-year, seasonal, and trailing-12-month reports with room to spare, and it keeps your first sync fast. Without the read_all_orders permission, Shopify would share only the last 60 days. Shopify permissions we ask for, and why explains that permission.
Older orders don't count toward your plan's monthly order limit. Only orders placed in the current billing month count, so the first sync never adds overage.