PayPal Import

Overview

Import transaction data from PayPal CSV exports. Handles payments received, fees, refunds, and currency conversions. PayPal CSVs include many transaction types — this skill filters to financially meaningful entries and maps them to Open Accountant's format.

Wilson Tools Used

• transaction_search — check for duplicates against existing transactions
• categorize — assign categories to imported PayPal transactions
• export_transactions — export reconciled PayPal data

Column Mapping

PayPal CSV Column	Open Accountant Field	Notes
Date	date	Transaction date (MM/DD/YYYY format)
Time	—	Not stored, date is sufficient
Name	description	Counterparty name
Type	—	Used for filtering (see workflow)
Status	—	Only import Completed transactions
Gross	amount	Transaction amount before fees
Fee	amount (separate row)	PayPal fee (negative = expense)
Net	—	Calculated, not stored directly
Transaction ID	reference_id	PayPal transaction ID for dedup
Currency	currency	3-letter ISO code
Subject or Item Title	notes	Optional detail

Workflow

1. Ask the user for the PayPal CSV file path.
2. Parse the CSV (PayPal uses comma-separated with quoted fields).
3. Filter by transaction type:
   • Import: Payment Received, Mobile Payment, Website Payment, Invoice Received
   • Import: Refund, Reversal, Chargeback
   • Import: Subscription Payment
   • Skip: Transfer to Bank, Bank Deposit (appears in bank import)
   • Skip: Currency Conversion (handled as part of the parent transaction)
   • Skip: Authorization, Pending, Temporary Hold
4. Filter by status: only Completed transactions.
5. For each payment received, create two transactions:
   • Revenue: gross amount (positive), category "Revenue:PayPal"
   • Fee: fee amount (negative), category "Fees:Payment Processing"
6. For refunds/reversals, create a negative revenue transaction.
7. For currency conversions: attach the conversion rate to the parent transaction notes.
8. Deduplicate using PayPal Transaction ID.
9. Preview and confirm import.

Without Wilson

To work with PayPal exports manually:

Downloading from PayPal

1. Log in at paypal.com
2. Go to Activity (top navigation)
3. Click Statements > Activity download (or Reports > Activity download in business accounts)
4. Select date range (max 1 year at a time)
5. File type: CSV
6. Click Download
7. For business accounts: Reports > All reports > Transactions > select date range > Download CSV

Manual Processing in a Spreadsheet

1. Open the CSV. PayPal CSVs use the encoding Windows-1252 — if you see garbled characters, re-open with UTF-8 encoding.
2. Filter Status: Keep only "Completed" rows.
3. Filter Type: Remove "Transfer to Bank," "Bank Deposit," "Currency Conversion," and "Authorization" rows.
4. Split revenue and fees:
   • For each payment, the Gross column is revenue and the Fee column is the PayPal fee.
   • Create a new row for each fee with the negative fee amount.
5. Handle refunds: Refund rows already have negative Gross amounts. Keep as-is.
6. Currency conversion: If you received a payment in EUR but your account is in USD, PayPal creates two rows — one in EUR and one with the USD conversion. Use the USD row and note the original currency.
7. Summary formulas:

   Gross Revenue:  =SUMIFS(Gross, Type, "Payment Received", Status, "Completed")
   Total Fees:     =ABS(SUMIFS(Fee, Type, "Payment Received", Status, "Completed"))
   Total Refunds:  =ABS(SUMIFS(Gross, Type, "Refund", Status, "Completed"))
   Net Revenue:    =GrossRevenue - TotalFees - TotalRefunds
   Fee Rate:       =TotalFees / GrossRevenue * 100
   

Reconciliation

• PayPal transfers to your bank should match the sum of Net amounts between transfer dates.
• If they don't match, check for held funds, disputes, or currency conversion differences.

Important Notes

• PayPal CSV encoding can cause issues. If the file won't parse, try saving as UTF-8 first.
• PayPal date format is MM/DD/YYYY (US accounts) or DD/MM/YYYY (international). Wilson auto-detects based on account locale.
• "General Payment" type in PayPal can be either sent or received — check the sign of the Gross amount.
• PayPal business accounts have more detailed CSVs than personal accounts. The column mapping above covers both.
• Do not import "Transfer to Bank" rows — these are the PayPal-to-bank transfers that appear in your bank statement.