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Connect PayPal

PayPal, read as earnings rather than as a second bank.

Sales, refunds and payouts to your bank become ledger lines. What you spend from the same PayPal is left alone.

Your own REST app credentials, with Transaction Search switched on.

The credentials you give us

A REST app in your own PayPal, and one checkbox.

No review queue and no waiting: the checkbox is a setting, not an application.

What to createIn developer.paypal.comA REST app on your normal Live account. You paste its client id and secret
The one settingEasy to missTransaction Search has to be enabled on that app. It is a checkbox on the app itself, not a review and not a support ticket
Checked before it is savedNot on the first syncThe credentials are tried against PayPal first, so a wrong pair never reaches the database
Where they liveAfter they are acceptedEncrypted at rest, and never returned by our API again

What lands, and what is ignored

An earnings mirror, not a full PayPal ledger.

Reading it as both a till and a wallet would double count your spending.

  • Counted: completed money in, as daily sales; refunds, subtracted from their day; transfers out to your bank, as payouts
  • Ignored on purpose: your own spending, conversions and holds. They belong to the card or bank they touch
  • PayPal serves history in windows of at most a month, so the first backfill walks month-sized steps rather than asking for a year and being refused
  • What PayPal still holds becomes an account, so a payout moves between two accounts you own

Questions

The questions people ask before connecting.

Why does it not import everything in my PayPal?
Because PayPal is often both a till and a wallet. This reads it as an earnings source: money in, refunds and payouts to your bank. What you spend from the same PayPal belongs to the card or bank it touches, so counting it here would double it.
What do I have to switch on?
Transaction Search, on the REST app you create in developer.paypal.com. It is a checkbox on the app itself, not a review and not a support request. Without it PayPal serves no history at all.
How far back does the first sync go?
PayPal serves history in windows of at most a month, so the backfill walks month-sized steps rather than asking for a year and being refused.

Didn't find your answer? [email protected]

Read next: the creator view, payments and approvals.

Start

Connect PayPal, and stop counting the same euro twice.

Platform connections are on the paid plans; the free plan holds the book, manual accounts and imports.