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Can't see my latest PayPal transactions

mm Member Posts: 1

Connected to PayPal without any issues. The problem is that I don't see the latest transactions.

Do I assume correctly that the integration is supposed to keep the books up to date? Are the transactions synced on some sort of a schedule? Or not at all?

Thanks!

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edited August 29, 2018 in API & Integrations Technical Support

Comments

  • CharlotteCharlotte Member Posts: 671 admin

    Hi M, thanks for posting! The Paypal integration should update on a regular basis - typically every 24-72 hours. If this isn't happening, you may want to try clearing your cache and cookies. If issues with the connection persist, you can also choose to upload a transaction export from Paypal, which is a very easy process.

  • singledadsingledad Member Posts: 6

    I just wanted to confirm I have the same issue as well. The PayPal integration doesn't seem to work for me beyond the initial setup and import. No new transactions show up, even after waiting 2-3 days and clearing browser cache and cookies.

    Since the initial integration works just fine I know what you're thinking. You may think just deleting the integration and reintegrating periodically, only importing the new transactions you need would be a good idea. It is not. ;) You'll likely end up with two PayPal accounts and duplicate transactions you'll have to delete.

    For the foreseeable future it looks like the only solution is to upload a transaction export from PayPal that you manually import as a bank statement. Not as easy but easier than typing things in manually as you go I suppose.

    edited January 12, 2018
  • singledadsingledad Member Posts: 6

    Just wanted to update that after playing around with things and chatting with support there might be one other way to manually force the PayPal integration to refresh. You can try attempting to 'refresh' the connection and manually update your PayPal transactions using the following instructions:

    Go to Menu and click "Integrations", then click the pen icon to the right of the Paypal integration to edit that connection. When you open this window you will be able to adjust the date in the "Download all transactions starting" field to import from one day prior to the date you currently have listed. Doing this will act as a manual refresh and prompt the system to pull any transactions that have not been automatically imported.

    For example, suppose the existing "Download all transactions starting" date in the example above was 1/16/2018. Using the method above you'd enter the date of 1/15/2018 to import transactions from. In this scenario Wave should pull all new transactions from 1/15/2018 EXCEPT any of the current day's transactions.

    I've noticed no matter what I do I can't get the current day's transactions to import into PayPal this way. For some reason you have to wait a day or two to get them in. Or manually enter them if you prefer.

    Of course, you need to exercise caution and common sense. You'll need to be careful to watch for duplicate transactions. It is always possible something could go wrong. You may want to experiment with a test account/business first. but. This solution isn't ideal but it might be a bit better solution for those not thrilled with downloading and then importing PayPal CSV files.

  • MultiamoryMultiamory Member Posts: 2

    I have not been able to get Paypal to sync for a while now. Even the trick of setting the date differently doesn't do anything. Lately, when I delete my integration and try setting up a new one, it doesn't upload ANY transactions except for a "starting balance" which doesn't even seem to be accurate.

    On top of that, I haven't found a good way to manually export transactions from Paypal so they upload nicely to Wave. I am getting really frustrated to the point of needing to find an alternative to Wave if this isn't resolved. Can somebody from support please help me with this?

  • AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Hi @Multiamory.

    I'm sorry to hear you're having issues uploading transactions from PayPal. There are a few reasons that might have caused this.

    • Paypal operates like many other major financial institutions and only allows for transactions of the past 30-90 days to be imported. If you set up your Paypal integration recently, transactions older than 90 days won't appear.
    • Recurring payments, like subscriptions, won't be imported to Wave. This is due to how Wave's integration system works.
    • New transactions after your Paypal integration is set up may take a few days to show up. Anything extremely recent might just not have been processed yet.
    • You can only ever import a Paypal transaction once. If, for example, all your Paypal transactions were deleted manually, and you disabled your Paypal integration, past transactions would not be re-imported if you reactivated your Paypal integration.

    These are known quirks of the PayPal integration. We are working on improving the PayPal integration and on better communicating its limitations, but they aren't simple fixes.

    To upload your Paypal statement as CSV, you'll have to follow the instructions found here. You'll have to modify the file manually for it to conform to the format, but this shouldn't be too time-consuming. The first step will be to download your PayPal history here and then format the .csv file so that it fits the format below:

    01/01/2018, Description 1, -250
    01/02/2018, Description 2, 550.50
    01/02/2018, Description 3, -120.75

    Note that if you do go this route, you'll also need to make PayPal's merchant fees into their own transactions.

    Let me know if you encounter any issues, I'm happy to help.

  • SarahSarah Member Posts: 10

    Should the paypal transactions automatically import once the account is connected? I don't see a place to "refresh connection" like we do with bank connections.. Please let me know!

  • AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Hi, @Sarah.

    Yes and no. As mentioned in my previous reply, there are a few reasons why transactions could fail to make it through. If you're looking for brand new transactions, they can take a few days to process.

    Can you tell me a bit more about your missing transactions? I might be able to help.

  • SarahSarah Member Posts: 10

    Hi Alexia,

    I connected my Paypal account about a month ago and imported all 2018 transactions up to that date. That worked well but no new transactions have imported since the first time I connected the account.. I thought they would continue to import automatically? If not, how do I refresh to get the new transactions synced?

    Thanks for your help

  • AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Hi, @Sarah.

    Are these transactions recurring? Subscriptions and other similar transactions won't upload to Wave. Otherwise, I would try removing your connection on the Integrations page and adding it again. The transaction should be uploaded automatically, with a bit of a delay, but won't in a few cases, as explained in one of my previous replies here. Let me know if that helps!

  • SarahSarah Member Posts: 10

    Yes, this helps. Thank you!

  • AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Happy to help, @Sarah!

  • chrisroysechrisroyse Member Posts: 1

    I am having the same issue. Even after a week they don't show up. It is so bad they should claim this feature is "Beta". It can't be relied on. I have been disappointed weekly with wave.

  • AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Hi, @chrisroyse.

    The PayPal integration is not a beta version, but it does have limitations. In my earlier reply to @Multiamory, in this thread, I mentioned a few reasons why your transactions might not be uploading. Can you let me know if they don't apply to your case? I might be able to help you troubleshoot this issue.

  • JMGJMG Member Posts: 5

    The PayPal problem is becoming a deal breaker for me.

    As everyone knows, there is no such thing as "undo" in Wave, so any time that I make a mistake or change my mind about how I handle a situation, I have to start from scratch with a new business. I have had to do this three times in the last few days.

    Based on @Alexia's reply to @Multiamory, once PayPal transactions are imported by a business, they can never be imported by a replacement business. That is not the case for bank transactions, which can be made to import into the replacement businesses.

    If I only have one chance to import PayPal transactions, and Wave forces me to start over with a new business with great frequency, then I am "finished" with Wave since it can never import my existing PayPal transactions into my present business.

    If I completely start over with Wave using a new email address and totally unrelated login, will it import existing PayPal transactions?

    Please give me a concrete answer about this, because I am running out of time to pick an accounting tool. If Wave will never let me start over and never let me correct problems, then I am finished with Wave.

  • MultiamoryMultiamory Member Posts: 2

    @JMG Yeah, we tried to make Wave work for a couple months but just recently decided it wasn't worth dealing with these paypal issues (and the general lack of control over things like deleting accounts, etc). We decided it was worth paying for Quickbooks instead of spending the hours and frustration to export paypal statements, edit them to match Wave's format, exporting them as a CSV, and then importing them into Wave.

    Our business primarily uses Paypal so this integration was the main issue for us. If it weren't for that, the bank transactions all seem to come in nicely.

    But the way Paypal formats their statements makes it so you lose data that is important to help categorize transactions when you delete the necessary columns to make it work in Wave. Paypal puts the other party's email address in a different column from the transaction description, along with other fields. Not all paypal transactions have information in every column so it becomes really frustrating to try and identify each one. When we have hundreds of transactions in the month, it's just too frustrating.

  • AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Hi, @JMG and @Multiamory.

    While I understand that this is frustrating, it's a limitation of the PayPal integration as it is, and while we do intend to improve on all of our integrations, I don't have details to give about what form that will take.

    With that said, turning a PayPal CSV into one that will upload to Wave should only take a few minutes. Here's what you have to do:

    • Copy the Amount, Description and Date columns into a new spreadsheet.
    • Copy the merchant fee column at the bottom of the Amount.
    • Copy the Date column again and paste it again at the bottom of the Date column. The order of your merchant fee column should match the order of the dates already if nothing was moved around.
    • As a description for your merchant fee transactions, just put in "PayPal Fee", and copy it next to every merchant fee transaction.

    Let me know if you need any help with this. I'd be more than happy to assist.

    edited June 18, 2018
  • AlanSChinAlanSChin Member Posts: 1

    @Alexia : Please confirm or correct the following:

    1) There is no way to "refresh" the PayPal import like with bank account? Surely this isn't a hard feature to implement?

    2) Unique PayPal transactions may take up to a week or longer to appear? And this appearance is completely unrelated to any schedule or control?

    3) Recurring charges will never appear.

    Thank you!

  • CharlotteCharlotte Member Posts: 671 admin

    @AlanSChin to answer your questions, the PayPal integration can sometimes be jumpstarted by clearing your cache and cookies, as with your bank connection, but it doesn't currently have an update button. Typically, PayPal transactions will appear every 24-48 hours, but this can occasionally take a little bit of extra time.

    Yes, it's true that we're currently investigating an issue that prevents recurring charges from appearing. This appears to be the integration attempting to prevent duplicates -- and taking it a little bit too far.

    Given there are some challenges with the integration, I've often recommended uploading your transactions. This should be a quick and straightforward process.

    You would download your PayPal history here and then format the .csv file so that it fits the format below:

    01/01/2015, Description 1, -250
    01/02/2015, Description 2, 550.50
    01/02/2015, Description 3, -120.75

    You can then upload as you would any other transaction CSV. Please let me know if you have any questions. :)

  • MEFinamoreMEFinamore Member Posts: 6

    ugh! love everything about WAVE, but,,, i too have PayPal as the primary way i am paid, and pay for subscriptions...sure hope this won't be a deal breaker :(

  • MEFinamoreMEFinamore Member Posts: 6

    i just tried changing the date in the integration to the day of my last import, and it all updated fine~ including transactions earlier today...

  • arod7533arod7533 Member Posts: 2

    This is still a problem and PayPal is not integrating automatically with Wave. Has there been any updates on this feature request/bug fix? @Alexia @Charlotte

  • AlexLAlexL Member Posts: 2,869 ✭✭✭

    Hey @arod7533 . No updates on this as of yet! If this is still causing you problems, perhaps try importing with Wave Connect. It usually makes this process a lot less of a headache.

  • joesideasjoesideas Member Posts: 4

    I shared this on another thread, there are a few threads about the PayPal connection issues.

    I have some ideas to solve this problem:

    a) What if you had a setting that triggers the PayPal integration with the date of the last PayPal transaction whenever you log in? (taking the manual part out of it)

    b) Or what if you put the paypal integration code (or at least a snippet) on github and let us take a look and try to fix it.

    c) Or, what if you changed the free version from 0 to $1/yr and used those funds to tighten the app up?

    This PayPal issue shouldn't be that difficult. Great app otherwise 👍

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