PayPal auto feed / balancing issues

Support
1

Hi there,

I know that PayPal issues are a recurring thing in the forum, I now would like to add to the number of them myself. I have a number of issues when trying to reconcile the PayPal account in QF. It is all set to auto feed so one would think there should be no problems at all. I know PP statement are a thing of their own so I would just like to say quickly that I do not blame anyone ( or envy the job of the person who has to deal with it).

  1. There are a number of transactions which does not change the balance on the PP statement but they are imported into QF. The one that is most frequent is the Cancelled Fee. They are listed as a separate item on the PP statement but as I have said they do not have an effect on the balance so I don’t know if these could be just ignored (not to import them to QF). There are other “one off” transactions that are the same and make balancing a bit of a headache every know and then. Would it be possible to apply a filter to make sure that any transaction that has no effect on the PP balance would not be imported into QF, please?

  2. Transactions that are “Update to Reversal” or “Update to eCheque Received” do not get imported to QF but they change the balance on the PP statement. They are usually “Reversals” if that helps. Would it be possible to import them as well, please? Or are they not imported for any particular reason?

  3. Lines that are type “Temporary hold” are imported as Net amount (and all the others as Gross). Is there a reason behind? Not sure what happens to the fees. Are they excluded from your daily fee calculations? Oh, and some of these transactions do not get imported at all.

  4. Daily fees. I have different amounts deducted in QF than what is on the PP statement, so I still need to total up for the month, compare the two amount and enter a balancing figure manually. Are the figures debited/credited for the day they relate to, or would they “overlap” between days?

These are the things that come to mind this time, I would be happy for any help, or explanation if I’m doing something wrong.
Thanks in advance,
Csaba M.

2

The way PayPal handle internal adjustments is very difficult to translate into an accounting system. Unfortunately it is not as simple as just excluding specific entries and the feed may need to be manually pruned to work correctly. For that reason if you have a lot of cancellations and reversals it’s better just to avoid the feed altogether and bulk log your sales.

We do currently apply some filters to the raw PayPal feed to make it more workable. The biggest problem however is that PayPal tend to report an entry on the feed for one day but that record can change a week or more later. As it’s completely impractical for us to poll every account 1-3 weeks back every 24 hours we just take what comes in within the last 24 hours and apply the updates.

Also PayPal use a large number of different status and payment type variables, some we will see only on seldom occasions. Each new status and type combination need to be treated differently.

I’m happy to discuss any specific cases with you but you would need to PM me examples from your account so we can see in practice what is happening.

3

It is just as I have expected - a can of worms, PayPal style. :sweat_smile:
As we have a great deal of transactions every month through PP it is still more convenient to use the feed setting and then try and straighten it out, I was just hoping against hope that a solution would be available. Just as you have said they use so many types and statuses in their transactions that it is sometimes just impossible to track it all, not to mention when they display an amount and then change their balance with a different amount.
I appreciate your time and comment,
Csaba M.

1 Like
4

I appreciate your understanding. If there is a particular scenarios that regularly crops up send me some detailed examples on your account and we can certainly look at applying additional filters to handle this better if at all possible.