Problems with the PayPal feed

[Vince_Corbin]

The new release of PayPal software, to implement the Interchange Plus fee structure (on 23th or 24th June), has thrown up a couple of very interesting problems!!!

I have just finished my 2nd long conversation with PayPal today and they have acknowledged that the following are real issues. But they maintain that neither of these are a problem with the PayPal system and that it will be up to QuickFile to provide a resolution for them. I completely disagree with them about this, but I suspect that they are not about to rush out a sensible workable solution anytime soon.

They have suggested that I turn off the Interchange Plus fee structure and return to the Blended fee structure, with the hope that this will fix (hide!) the problems going forward, but they can’t give me any guarantees for this (particularly Issue 2).

Issue 1
When a customer makes a payment this transaction appears in the account (as previously).
At exactly the same time a 2nd transaction removes the payment.
2 days later a 3rd transaction returns the payment.
Although the payment is now correctly showing in the accounts, trying to reconcile between QuickFile and PayPal has become impossible!!!
This is because, during those 2 days, the account balances in PayPal do not add up correctly and therefore will not reconcile with QuickFile.

Example
Closing Balance on the 23rd June was £1,164.42
The next 2 transaction are:

• 24 Jun 2016, Payment from Susan Taylor, £14.00, -£0.65, £13.35, £1,177.77
• 24 Jun 2016, Withdraw to --, -£14.00, £0.00, -£14.00, £1,164.42
  That last balance is actually correct (at least as far as PayPal is concerned) BUT when looking at the Fees and the Net payments you would expect the balance to be £1,163.77

Issue 2
Closely related to Issue 1. But when doing refunds!
So the Refund is issued and shows in the account (as previously).
At the same time a 2nd transaction is created, shown as a “Fee reversal from PayPal”. This transaction is “informational only” according to PayPal and MUST NOT affect the balance!!!
Since the PayPal upgrade I have issued 2 refunds 25th June & 1st July both have resulted in QuickFile adding “Money In” transactions, £0.30 & £1.09 respectively. Meaning that the account balances between PayPal & QuickFile are now permanently out of sync by £1.39.

I have CSV transaction downloads that show the problem in detail if required.

Vince

[QFMathew]

Hi Vince

We’re going to have to take a look at this and come back to you. However, it may not be until tomorrow. As you started this topic, any updates we post should trigger an email to save you continually checking back.

[Vince_Corbin]

OK. Thanks.
Please don’t hesitate to ask for any further information if needed.

I have also found out that our accountant had experienced these same problems with another client.

[Glenn]

Hi Vince, we’ll have a look at this as soon as we can allocated developer resources to it.

Unfortunately the PayPal feed contains a lot of detail that needs to be heavily sanitised for bookkeeping purposes. We have a myriad of rules to ignore internal adjustments, holds and currency adjustments. We may need to rethink how we handle these rules and perhaps let the user decide what filters they’d like to apply, it seems to be getting more complex as PayPal introduce new activity.

For now we will have a look at your examples and see what can be done.