The virtual bookkeeper's guide to understanding PayPal

[@tinavlassie5303]

This was so tremendously helpful. I feel like I have a much better understanding and you're so right, PayPal is very convoluted. I took your advice and downloaded the CVS file as the statement isn't helpful at all. Thank you again.

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Glad it was helpful!

[@pcrose5163]

This solved a very annoying problem I had in my own books! And I am in a much better position after watching this video.

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Glad to hear that!

[@Jameenadams]

Thank you Veronica! This was perfect.

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Glad it was helpful!

[@SuzanneGarcia-Misa]

Hi, Thanks for the very helpful info. I’m new to QBO and I’m trying to match my Credit Card feed to my PayPal feed. My transactions aren’t finding a match. They don’t have the exact same date. They are off by one day. You mentioned if the dates aren't the same they not find the match....Where/ How do I edit the date so I can Match them? Right now the transactions are in the REVIEW section. Thanks.

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

There is a setting in the Banking Transactions window that allows you to turn on the editable date field. It is the gear icon in the middle of the banking page.

[@luoyangwang422]

You should show us the big window, full screen in QBO, so we can know where that small windows come from. Right? Thank you

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Hi. I'm sorry if the video wasn't helpful.

[@mattd7770]

Hi Veronica! Can you please explain exactly how you connect the clients PayPal accounts using QBOA? Thanks!

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

You can connect QBO (not QBOA) to PayPal in the bank feeds.

[@purvigandhi7534]

Very well explained which gives full clarity. Really appreciate your efforts.

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Thank you!

[@ExtraNullByte]

Great video! love how easy it is to understand. One question though, say my business deals with micro transactions and there's 100s if not 1000s of incoming small payments, do I need to categorize every single one of those or can they be batched on daily or weekly bases and recorded as a single income? thanks!

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

If you work with micro transactions, it's best not to connect PayPal to QBO. You can use the PayPal monthly summary to record one entry per month.

[@THISLITTLEHOUSEOFMINE]

Good Morning, First THANK YOU for your video training, it's been so helpful!! I need a bit more help. I have followed all the correct steps of connecting PayPal to my QB online account. When my transactions pulled in, I have transactions which are "Account Hold For Authorization" and "Reversal of General Account Hold" How do I post these?? Also, just to make sure, most of my transactions come into the feed with the Description showing the "Customer or Vendor's Name"....These would be showing the transactions which went straight through PayPal ONLY, is that correct? Hope you can help me a bit further. Thank You, Blessings, Tammi

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Hi Tammi. For transactions held by PayPal and released from hold, we record them to a clearing account called "PayPal hold clearing". It is a current asset account.

[@thundercookietv569]

Thank you for this!!! Now my problem is that it doesn't get the feed for the other currency transactions in my Paypal (same Paypal with USD)

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

You're welcome. Foreign exchange transactions in PayPal are very tricky.

[@Craigpyrog]

This is great and all of your videos are very helpful. However I cannot find anything relating to managing multi currency PayPal in QBO. Is this something you could cover?

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Hi Craig. I have that on my list. Thanks for the suggestion.

[@straightlinesteve]

@@5MinuteBookkeeping im looking for the same thing too, be great if theres a way to just use the monthly summaries to bring data into QBO rather than every single transaction, nightmare with high volume

[@ColorJoyLynnH]

@@straightlinesteve I don’t know if it would help you at all, because I’m using Quicken rather than QuickBooks. What I do if I download the CSV file and I use the data menu in excel to sort and then subtotal. At that point I can entermy handful of subtypes of income without having to input the whole thing a line item at a time. I hand enter these items, but for me it is working. For me the currency conversions are the difficult part. I could balance until I started dealing with the UK and EU.

[@straightlinesteve]

@@ColorJoyLynnH thanks for the advice, thats exactly what i ended up doing in the end 😊, i just used the financial report data since i was never using it for expenses it was more of a clearing account

[@JenniferMeyer-bu4oq]

I have my first client also using PayPal credit along with his paypal account. Any advice or suggestions to help make that flow into this mix of paypal bank easier? It definitely adds to the pain of paypal!

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Hi. We havent' worked with any clients using PayPal credit. But PayPal is a pain from a bookkeeping stand point!

[@zenfulbookkeeping354]

Thank you so much for this video. I am dealing with Paypal statements right now and it is quite a struggle.

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

You're welcome. Glad it was helpful. PayPal is very confusing.

[@ColorJoyLynnH]

You are not alone. PayPal is the worst part about accounting.

[@1978Gail]

Thank you - this was so helpful to me!!! :)

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Glad it was helpful!

[@natalielindouglas8721]

Thanks for the video. Is it possible to set up separate paypal accounts for the same business?

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Yes, absolutely as long as you use different email addresses.

[@ladyaries5169]

thank you so much it really is helpful.

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

You're welcome!

[@fficsori7453]

Thank you, it really is helpful. Quick question. The PayPal account connected to QBO pulled some 250 transactions. All the withdrawals to bank account were transfers to the business owner's personal bank account because they just got a business checking account so no money was transferred to the new business checking account that's linked to QBO, and of course, the personal bank account is not linked to QBO. So I'm guessing I wouldn't mark withdrawals as transfers but categorize them, correct?

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Hi. You are right, they are not transfers. They would be categorized as owner draws or distributions.

[@florak1087]

Hi Veronica! I am a follower. I have a question. I am helping a friend out with his books and I was looking to clean up his accounts when I found a PayPal fee in his QBO category, Meals and Entertainment. How would that happen? This is a mystery for me (and probably others)so if anyone can answer it, I would appreciate it.

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Transactions are usually categorized incorrectly in the bank feeds or by using incorrect rules in the bank feeds. QBO does not automatically categorize transactions.

[@sarahbullen-webb7589]

Hi Veronica, do you have a video explaining how to reconcile your Paypal account when you have part payment from your checking account and part payment from your paypal balance?! Currently trying to reconcile a month with this and very confused! Thanks very much, Sarah

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Hi Sarah, yes that is very confusing. I don't have a video on this yet.

[@sarahbullen-webb7589]

@@5MinuteBookkeeping and mines coupled with a currency conversion! Nightmare! It I think I’m muddling my way though... 😂

[@winesap2]

So helpful! Thank you so much!

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Glad it was helpful!

[@ileanavilchis554]

Do you know what are all the reversals? or credits? There are a lot of transactions that cancel each other. What is "Account Hold" HELP PLEASE!

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Many online sellers have their funds held by PayPal when they first start selling. Sometimes, funds will be held by PayPal when there is a dispute.

[@LisaSunde]

This video came up on a search for how to understand Venmo recording in Quickbooks Online. Since there is no sync for Venmo, everything needs to be manually added. Is there a video for this?

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Hi. I don't have a video for this. But, if you're working with Venmo, you will see the Venmo transactions in the banking transactions in QBO (the bank feed). You would need to assign the proper categories to Venmo transactions from the bank feed. Be sure to use Venmo for business.

[@galaxycurls3919]

I wish you could explain more when there is a sales receipt vs a deposit for PayPal. It looks like my transactions went to undeposited funds as well, and I cannot match them there. Also, it looks like they duplicated, I see them as transfers posted to the bank account which is good, but then they are pending as deposits for the full invoice amount under bank deposit. Wondering if I just have to clear them.

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

You would use a sales receipt if you want to track an income transaction for every customer. On the other hand, you would use a Deposit if you don't need to track transactions by customers. If you are using customer invoices, then you might have to customize your workflow to post customer payments correctly. Without knowing more details, I can't give you specifics for how you would customize your workflow.

[@DreamFirms]

Awesome vid, everything was discussed clearly!

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Glad it was helpful!

[@jackielouradam4808]

Great and educational video.

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Thanks for watching!

[@jenniferjohnson7527]

This is awesome. My prospect isn't official yet and I'm not exactly what her situation with PayPal but this is going to be a big help to me. Is it possible to get a written transcript of the video? Thanks for 5MB, it has been wonderful to have everybody's experience and knowledge available to me!

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Hi Jennifer. I'm glad this was helpful. I don't provide transcripts of my videos. You can turn on the captions and see if that helps you.

[@jenniferjohnson7527]

@@5MinuteBookkeeping Good idea! I saved the video, so I can start and stop while I take notes. I learn by visual and actually doing. Thanks again for such amazing reference materials!

[@monicasymchych3712]

@@jenniferjohnson7527 if you saved the video you can then use rev.com to transcribe it. They charge by the minute, but it's a great tool to have when you need/want a written version of the video.

[@WBIGTVBuffalo]

Very helpful. Another idea just occurred to me. I think I will get my company a second paypal account and use one account for purchases only - and always via credit card, never from balances. Balances will probably only accumulate from refunds. I will let them sit there until EOY and then transfer any refund balances to bank to zero out the paypal account if required. Then my second paypal account will be used strictly for collecting money from sales, paypal Here point of sale activity, invoicing, collecting tips and donations, etc. Then I can ignore all paypal purchases and just go by my credit card transactions. What do you think? By the way, I am not using quickbooks or any other software, I simply use a spreadsheet to prepare my taxes. Thanks! ~Howard. Buffalo, NY

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Glad it was helpful. Yes, most definitely set up a separate PP account for our purchases and fund them with a credit card. And you are right, you will see all your PP purchases on your credit card account and don't have to connect that PP account to QBO.

[@WBIGTVBuffalo]

@@5MinuteBookkeeping OK. I will do that asap. Thank you for the affirmation, 5 Minute Bookkeeping Goddess!

[@monicasymchych3712]

Hi, thank you for sharing! My client uses A2X (yah!) with shopify for shopify payments and I was wondering how this process would change (or if this process would change) because we use A2X? My client just started accepting paypal as a form of payment on her website and it's already getting messy. I have setup a clearing account for paypal payments in QBO (Shopify Clearing Account - Paypal) and mapped it accordingly in shopify.

[@monicasymchych3712]

Also, do you suggest setting up Afterpay and Amazon Payments as bank accounts as well?

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

I don't recommend setting up payment processors as bank accounts. I set them up as clearing accounts with an account type of "Other Current Assets".

[@CourtneyDancer222]

When using Shopify & A2X, do you recommend connecting the Paypal account to QBO or not? If so, would any of the information in this video change?

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

When using PayPal, I do not recommend connecting the PayPal account to QBO. In that case, I recommend entering a monthly summarized journal entry using the PayPal monthly statement.

[@allinstrideaz]

Thank you for this video! I have a specific workflow question for you. My client invoices her customers in QBO. The customer then pays that invoice through PayPal. My client goes into the invoice and receives the payment putting PayPal as the payment method and undeposited funds to the deposit account. Then, my job as the bookkeeper is to go into the bank feed and match when the PayPal transaction posts to the bank feed. I go into the PayPal bank feed and match the transaction to the one she deposited into undeposited funds. Then when she transfers the income from PP to her bank account, I transfer from the PP bank feed to the bank account bank feed. I then go into the bank feed and match that transfer. Is this the proper workflow? Because when I go into undeposited funds, it shows the deposit as a lesser balance and as soon as I match the PP bank feed transaction, it shows as a more balance in undeposited funds, thus resulting in a higher undeposited funds account situation. I hope this makes sense. I have been trying to figure out the proper workflow for this client for months and I just can't seem to get it right on the books. However, my reconciliation are all perfect. Thanks!

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

It sounds like you have the right work flow. I am not sure why the balance in Undeposited Funds is doing what you are describing. Take a look at what's in Undeposited Funds (+ > Make Deposit) and see if everything looks OK after you finish making an entry.

[@allinstrideaz]

​@@5MinuteBookkeeping I think I figured it out. I am not sure what happened, but it looked like maybe I was backward on a few transactions. Once I backed everything out and re-started my workflow process, the balances in undeposited funds fixed themselves. Thanks for giving me the confidence to know I was on the right track!!! I really appreciate it.

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

@@allinstrideaz You're welcome. Glad you figured it out.

[@carolinepartridge4088]

Thank you that was really helpful. You mentioned that sometimes "Paypal doesn't always bring in all the data into QBO" - do you know why this is or if there is a workaround for this please?

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

I don't know why the PayPal data isn't always downloaded to QBO. The only workaround I have found it to enter the PayPal transactions in summary using a Journal Entry and not synching QBO to PayPal. That is the method that I currently use.

[@carolinepartridge4088]

Okay, thank you.

[@kimtriplett8228]

@@5MinuteBookkeeping Can you do a video or do you have one already on how you do these journal entries instead of linking paypal?

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

@@kimtriplett8228 I don't have a video yet. I am planning to do an e-commerce accounting course later this year that will show how to do the journal entry.

[@shinybubbles5644]

I use Quickbooks desktop and have an issue with paypal for that I couldn't figure it out. We have some customers payment in paypal and since we usually transfer the money to the bank then if there's a purchase made through paypal then paypal will reach out to our credit card company since we usually don't have much money left in paypal account. Then there were months that we did not transfer the money right away and a purchase was made and used the balance in paypal. Now my issue is, the payments of customer seating in the undeposited funds in Quickbooks I cannot deposit as there's no more to deposit, only a few left on the paypal account. The purchase made was enter as a bill in Quickbooks and it's seating at the Pay Bill window. We do not have Paypal Account entered in Quickbooks. Everytime we have to receive a payment from customer that pays through Paypal, we will choose payment method "direct payment" and when we want to deposit this payment to the bank account, from "make deposit" window in Quickbooks, we will choose deposit to "bank" and enter the paypal merchant fees on the line after the customer payment. As much as possible we don't want to create a Paypal Account added in our Chart of Account as we do not want this showing in our Balance Sheet as we really don't maintain balance in Paypal Account. Is there a way I deposit the payment to the bank without creating a Paypal Account in Quickbooks and also how I can pay the purchase that seating in the Pay Bill window as there is no option for Paypal Account. I am glad that I found your youtube video and I'm hoping I can find solution to this issue :(

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Hi. I don't work with QuickBooks Desktop.

[@amandawigman6567]

Do you have any tips to get rid of duplicates? I found your video too late and I have many duplicates.

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Hi Amanda. You can use a deleter app, like SAASant, to delete duplicated transactions.

[@joshuathabeast]

What about if you sell something through ebay and they collect sales tax on that transaction. Paypal will add the sales tax to your transaction as income. Then there will be a separate paypal transaction as an expense for ebay taking that sales tax money. Would the best thing to do is make an expense account for the salestax that ebay is collecting? Or is there a way to separate the sales tax from the initial transaction so it doesn't count as income?

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

In that scenario, you could make an entry in QBO to reduce sales income and increase sales tax liability by the amount of the sales taxes (you can use a Journal Entry). Then you would enter the sales tax paid to the sales tax liability account.

[@joshuathabeast]

@@5MinuteBookkeeping That makes sense thank you! I have another question. If you want to take inventory assets purchased by the business for personal use by the owner. Can you credit the inventory assets and then debit them to say the Owner's Pay? Or is there another way of doing it?

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

@@joshuathabeast You can, if you're tracking inventory at a summary level in QBO (not tracking inventory items in QBO).

[@betsyr2]

great video - thanks!

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Glad you liked it!

[@amydavis991]

What do I do when I have already reconciled my bank account for months January-April but am just now starting on entering and reconciling my PayPal account? Do I need to undo the recs on my bank account AND put all the bank account transactions back into the bank feed instead of in the register? I only did a handful of PayPal transactions for the first quarter of 2021 and after that I rarely use it so I just need a solution for the first few months. :(

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Hi Amy. I can't give you a specific answer since I don't know how you recorded those initial PayPal transactions. You would have to determine whether recording the PayPal income for the first quarter will end up causing duplicate income.

[@robinolvera4693]

Thank you for your video. I am still very confused why Paypal only brings in, what they call, gross income less paypal fee when the transaction goes back further than that. The gross is actually the purchase less sales tax plus shipping and maybe a discount. The paypal deposits what they call gross less paypal fee. What about sales tax and possibly a discount? I'm confused by what paypal considers gross sales.

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

That's PayPal for you. Always confusing. Since doing this video, I no longer use the Connect to PayPal app in QuickBooks. I use a journal entry to record summarized transactions into QBO.

[@robinolvera4693]

@@5MinuteBookkeeping Thank you. I just might do the same. Seems the paypal reports would be more beneficial than trying to figure out the download.

[@ellenpolishuk7816]

@@5MinuteBookkeeping Hi there, Are you saying that everything in this video you no longer do ?? Now, I'm super confused. I had a clients paypal connected to QBO last year, and it was a nightmare. I never saw the paypal fees listed in the feed, only the net income amount. Is that because of a setting or ?? so basically, I just went to paypal and got the whole years worth of fees and did a JE at year end so they were captured. (all income was just a simple deposit with no sales receipt).

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

@@ellenpolishuk7816 I no longer use the Connect to PayPal app as I mentioned in the video.

[@TonyNovak]

Fantastic. Thank you.

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Glad you liked it!

[@luxurytaxprep]

Great tips 👍🏽

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Thank you!

[@CustomWeddingGarter]

How do you do it without Quickbooks... I am using EXCEL

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Take a look at paperandspark.com/. They sell Excel spreadsheets for tracking income and expenses.

[@owaisahmed2849]

thank you

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

You're welcome

[@floraphonic]

separate paypal accounts for each website I use? that's ridiculous I would have 14. Im using quickbooks to make it easier not harder lol

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

Wow. You have a lot of websites!

[@floraphonic]

@@5MinuteBookkeeping Ya it sounds like these programs have not yet caught up with the real use cases of having a real online business. Dealing with multiple currencies and various types of sales is apparently too difficult, my type of business is the new norm, pretty disappointing.

[@ColorJoyLynnH]

I still can’t understand why PayPal doesn’t just have a statement that looks like a bank statement. I want to beginning and ending balance, and some sections on deposits, withdrawals, etc. I am a very small one person, a Single proprietor biz, and I use Quicken and have since DOS. I have worked this business numbers in many jobs, and I’m very competent on computers. I’m pretty sure I understand where to do things on Quicken instead of QuickBooks, including the transfer and matching line items. I just can’t figure out how they handle when funds come in from other countries in different currencies, and what the heck it means when they say a line item is pending. I am sitting here right now looking at my downloaded CSV document, and I cannot figure out how the Euro and Great Britain Pounds have affected my balance. It shows conversion of currency unrelated to that money’s arrival in my account. It seems to let me take money out the account then later at Trents late just some of the money that came in from Great Britain. I just don’t understand. I know the rate changes every day. Thank you for letting me know that there is an automatic setting to transfer money to my account every day. I had no idea. I’m stunned to find that you have separate PayPal accounts for incoming and outgoing and a free incoming source. With one of my income sources, we’re talking less than $100 in a year. That seems crazy. I’m less confused now, although still plenty befuddled. I do really appreciate that you let us know that it’s even difficult for a professional. I’m going to look into separating the account at least into incoming and outgoing.

[@5MinuteBookkeeping]

I hear you Lynn and totally agree. I wish PayPal would provide a simple report in one currency. Glad my tips helped you.