I’ve got a PayPal Business account and have set up a corresponding one in QF. I have set up an automated feed so that PayPal transactions are automatically imported into Q but nothing is importing. It checks for updates when I click “Import Today’s PayPal Transactions” but comes up saying “No new transactions found today. Please try again later.”
I have checked that the PayPal email address is correct and am using “Create and allocate to clients based on their PayPal email address”
I need to import all transactions from 6th April to present. Should I be importing the old ones manually or should this happen automatically?
The PayPal feed only imports transactions from the point the feed is setup. So unless any new entries appeared on the day you setup the feed the refresh will not return anything.
To get the historic data you can export a CSV statement from PayPal and import it into QuickFile or instead just take the balance of the PayPal account at a given date and enter this as an opening balance on the bank account settings screen for PayPal.
Ok @Glenn thanks for your help. Got that part sorted now but now have a load of tagging to do! When I started my PP account I was using a different debit card and made a few personal transactions. Now that I have linked my business debit card to PP and removed the other one how do I account for the personal transactions in QF when I click Tag Me?
How you tag depends on whether you’re a sole trader or LTD. I would have a chat with your accountant/bookkeeper on that one, it’s not something I can readily advise on.
As a sole trader with any non-business related expenses you have two options.
delete them entirely from the accounts.
Tag them as a transfer to the proprietor drawings account.
With a PayPal account I would just delete them as it’s not so important that your running PayPal balance is correct, any personal expenses in your business current account it’s best to tag them to proprietor drawings.
There’s a good intro guide to sole trader bookkeeping here that may help:
Another thing I’m not sure about - if I have a transaction in PayPal, for example, a payment of £70 to a supplier, if tag this in the PayPal account and then it shows up again in the Current Account (as it was a transfer of £70 from my bank account to my PP account) will QF recognise this or will it think that I have paid out £70 twice?
You simply tag the £70 from your bank account as a transfer to the ‘virtual’ PayPal account. So, when the payment leaves the PayPal account, it should end up as -£70.00, and when you tag the transfer, it should balance and be back to £0.00.
Yes, that part makes sense. I am unsure about is how to tag the corresponding transaction in my QF bank account. So should that £98 in my bank account be simply tagged as a bank transfer from my PayPal account?
To summarise, is this the correct way of doing it?
In PayPal account:
Money In (e.g. £100 payment from customer)
Fees Out (e.g. £2 for PayPal fees, tagged to an invoice, or directly to Banking Charges nominal code)
Money Out (e.g. The remaining £98 which PayPal deposits into your bank account - tagged as a bank transfer) In Bank Account:
Transfer Between Accounts - £98 PayPal to Bank Account
That would be correct. If you created just the money out transaction in PayPal and tag it as a bank transfer, QuickFile will create the corresponding money in transaction in your bank account too
Okay, thanks. I was fine until that last point ! I import my bank statement by CSV file into the bank account, so does this mean I’ll now see 2 of the same transaction?
If the money coming in from PayPal is shown on your statement already, then you, you’ll end up with 2 of the same transaction. In that case, just tag the imported transaction in your bank as a transfer from your PayPal account. Hope that makes sense?
I’m getting a bit lost now. Flip it around as a payment to a supplier and now I’m left with a supposedly unpaid invoice.
As I virtually always transfer any incoming money from my PayPal to my business bank account there is always a balance of £0 and so any payment to a supplier from my PayPal account will be be as a transfer from my bank card. In the example below I paid the supplier £8.99, which PP took from my debit card, so tagged this as bank transfer from Current Account. I then tagged the 2nd one as a payment to the supplier.
This is rather a long winded way of saying “do I just delete the transaction imported from my CSV”?? If so,is this going to mess up figures if I try to reconcile against bank statements?
We rarely look at specific accounting cases here, as you can probably appreciate we don’t have the resources to delve into individual accounts and untangle specific accounting queries.
The basics of making a purchase from PayPal are as such:
Payment initiated on PayPal.
Funds transferred from current account to PayPal account.
Another balancing entry will then appear on your PayPal account going to the supplier, netting off the money received in the last step.
As long as you have this money trail on QF you will be fine.
EDIT:
The £8.99 is already tagged to purchase #QF00125, so I would presume you can delete #QF00042.
@Glenn. Thanks for your help. I’m not asking for help with a specific accounting case, I was simply using that as an example so that I can learn the process and then I can happily do the rest once I know what I am doing.
Yes, it does. Thanks but I’m not sure why I’ve got duplicates. Seems like I just have to delete them and hope that when I’ve finished all this that it actually adds up!!!
