Oz Round Table
The Oz Round Table boards => PayPal => Topic started by: *Brum6y* on November 21, 2009, 01:19:54 AM
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The title basically says it all.
Volume: 1,000 - 2,000 transactions for the year. (Guesstimate)
... or is it simply a case of month by month, taking as long as it takes.....?
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what do you need
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Working with my seller friend trying to get the data together for their books.
They are getting frustrated at the time it takes to get their Paypal data downloaded, so it can be plugged into their books.
I am told it seems they can only do it month by month and that it takes 10-15 minutes (with all the fiddling around) for each month.
Downloaded to a CSV or Excel format would be the simplest.
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So, I suppose we're looking at a one-step process and/or faster.
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why can they only do month by month ? I dont follow you ... and of course now my pc is on a go slow campaign !!!!!!
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Apparently Paypal hangs when asking it to deliver more than a month's worth...
They tried 3 months and got the 'processing your request' gif spinning in front of them for 20 minutes. When they got fed up, they hit 'refresh' and they were taken back to the login screen for Paypal (suggesting they were logged out for inactivity).
I will admit I've been lazy and haven't tried anything - but they are way ahead of me when it comes to Paypal usage, so I have cheated and have just thrown it up here.
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well in all honesty I dont know why you wouldnt do it at least monthy if not weekly if you were a busines depends how busy you are but most businesses reconcile regulary and paypal should be done no different to say credit card but any how ... just go to my account , click on view all my transactions and a from and to date box will appear and you just key in the relevant dates or select them from the displayed calender and then print off ....
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sorry not explaining very well but pc is really playing up ... as I said it depends what info you require and what format you need to transfer it too ... but a simple copy and paste to an excel spread sheet may do the trick
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This is a hobby that developed after finding local suppliers had a limited range and unlimited pricing.
It's been shoebox bookkeeping so far - except they haven't got a shoebox. That makes life interesting, but when 90% of the data is available online (downloading bank statements, credit card transactions and Paypal data) it's all too easy to let it slide.
Fortunately, they have a pretty keen 'feel' for their financial position, especially as they run it on a cash basis, so they are able to balance ordering, sales, expenses, etc. from an intuitive perspective well enough to continue trading and not go down the gurgler. They successfully ran a convenience store in QLD for some years, so they have the skills.
But there are a few things they need proper accounting to track - and I know it will give some insights into cash flow.
Their priorities have been to try and keep their head above water with eBay's fiddling and trying to get their website up and running. I'm trying to help here, but I'm a novice at web stuff. I've done a 'parking page' for them. Pretty rudimentary, but it has some pics, links and some meta tags that have found their way into Google - so it has got some merit.
The only gripe I have is that their ordering is 95% from the USA and they tend to run on California time..........
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Cut and paste or page by page is a tedious exercise and it has the risk of duplicating or missing out a page - like all manual processes.
I've always tried to automate things as much as possible - since if you do a single global change on 5,000 lines and you get it wrong, you will likely see 5,000 wrong things. It's kinda hard to miss. But if you do 5,000 extraordinarily simple changes, you will be hard pressed to identify a wrong, duplicated or missing entry.
I follow this philosophy wherever possible.
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ok well here is another option
if most sales are paid by pay pal (say 80 -90 %) just down load ebays sales page to say excel showing ebay fees and pay pal fees in the formulas and then just override the transactions that are paid by other method ( the other 10 to 20 %) this way you have got the whole shooting match on one spread sheet , then if you want to transfer to MYOB or similar you only have to put in as singular monthly transaction and have your spreadsheet as idividual split , but no matter how you do it book keeping is always easier to keep a handle on if you do it on a regular basis....and dont complicate a simple task .... not too many years ago all businesses did there bookkeeping using a ruled page and a red and black pen its not rocket science
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Sales are only part of it.
The Paypal balance is used for purchasing as well. It saves the delay of pulling funds out of Paypal before they can be used, plus, Paypal works out to be cost effective for overseas purchases.
But some credit points for thinkin!
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yes , horses for courses so to speak Brumby . you know what info they need and why they need it to best suit their business , but once you see the pay pal account page a man of your talents will work it out in 10 seconds
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Smee - You don't have to convince me... I've been treasurer of a P&C, running everything off an analysis book, cheque book and receipt book. I've also provided IT solutions to the Group Accountant of a financial institution who needed figures up to $1Bn, accurate to the cent.
My friend knows better, too - but they've been flat out with several issues including the business ones of getting the best from eBay. (Is that even possible these days?)
The promise of easy downloads has cushioned the sense of security but, even so, if Paypal were able to deliver what it presents as possible, then this thread wouldn't even have been started. Paypal either hangs behind the scenes or times out on a long transaction - which prevents completion.
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Might need a few more seconds and a couple more cups of coffee. I've not tuned into California time yet....
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But a couple of things have come to mind.... prompted by your input.
Will see if I can get a closer look at their Paypal account.
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good luck
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Brumby, eBay has a free Quickbooks program that integrates with eBay and PayPal. It may be of some help.
the blurb:
Transfer eBay and PayPal data right into QuickBooks-FREE!
Save time and reduce errors. Use the all-new, FREE eBay Accounting Assistant to transfer transaction and fee information from eBay and PayPal, quickly and easily into QuickBooks accounting software.
http://pages.ebay.com/accountingassistant/
I haven't tried it, but I have used Quickbooks and MYOB for many, many years and I would recommend Quickbooks if your friends are looking for a simple-to-use, reasonably priced accounting system.
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do you really reckon than if ebay suggests it that it would actually work ????
sounds like a useful tool if it does though ....
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Should have done some investigation before raising the issue here, but since I did, I should probably fill you in on the outcome...
Decided to remove some questions about machine setup, so I went to the top rated machine I have - Core2Duo, 2GB RAM and 2TB HDD. It has XP SP3 and IE8 with latest updates.
Online viewing (20 transactions at a time) of a whole year's data was delivered in about 20 sec. No way would it download, though. Would go off thinking for a minute or so and then the page would die with a page no longer valid message (I think it was). Worked fine, albeit a bit slow I thought, with six months data, though.
So, note entirely sure what the original problem was, but the data is downloaded.
As for the bookkeeping side of their business, we have been trying to find the time to find the best product for their needs, the time to set it up and the time to load the data - but it seems we are hard pushed to find the time to scratch ourselves.
I'll put up a thread in the Round Table board on this and invite your contributions there. I will give some more detail on what we're after, too.