Question

PayPal Transfer from Foreign Currency Causing Major Issues on Multicurrency Account

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
March 19, 2026
2 replies
17 views

My business earns a lot of money in USD, but since I'm from the UK, I obviously use GBP. Whenever I transfer money from PayPal to my Bank account, it first converts to GBP and then sends it.

My setup looks like:
- Integrated PayPal account using QuickBooks Integration with PayPal - This is a GBP Account
- PayPal USD account to the Bank Accounts so I can track all the USD expenses and payments in the same PayPal account (since integration isn't multicurrency).
- Business Bank Account where I transfer the PayPal money into

What's happening is that if I set transactions as a transfer from Bank Account and say it comes from the PayPal GBP account, it works fine. It's GBP to GBP. However, whenever I try to set a transfer from my PayPal USD account to the PayPal GBP account, it converts the USD to GBP exactly, so $100 = £100, which is obviously wrong. But here is the major problem: I can't correct the values in my account history in the Chart of Accounts because if I correct them there, they will repost the incorrect values again after I've corrected them, meaning I have duplicated transfers (with the one added again being wrong again)! I really can't fathom why it would repost the same transaction after it's been corrected. Each transfer should be assigned a unique ID in the database and then linked to the two accounts using the correct table for USD or GBP, which is set in the account, so that if it's corrected in the account history, it's adjusted in both accounts where the transfer took place. So I'm guessing this is an SQL issue, with the databases wired incorrectly somehow?

The logical way I wanted to do this was to go through the Integration Transactions, but it doesn't let me select the deposit account as my PayPal USD because it's a foreign currency. That would have solved all the issues, and then I could simply exclude the transaction from the PayPal USD account and edit the transaction values in the account history to ensure the USD values match.

The system is making it really hard to automate, which should be a simple procedure. We literally get all USD and GBP values from PayPal as exact figures. If you want to integrate with PayPal, why is it failing so badly at using its API?

The only solution I can see is to automate the transfers, go into the account history on the PayPal GBP account, correct all the values, go into the PayPal USD account, undo all of the PayPal transfers, and then exclude them. It's absurd.

If there is a workaround to automate this, I would greatly appreciate it if someone could provide a working system.

QuickBooks Online

J

JaneDave_I

QuickBooks Team

Hello, Dave. The PayPal app currently lacks a multi-currency conversion feature for all transactions and reconciliations when connected to QuickBooks. Thus, the reason why you've encountered such conversion issues is. For further information, you can refer to the PayPal FAQs article. Please note that, although this document was written for the US region, the workflow is identical for UK accounts.

The duplicate entries are occurring because QBO’s sync logic interprets your manual changes as missing data. To correct this perceived error, the system automatically re-imports the original transactions to fill the gap.

It's worth noting that your suggested workaround is spot on. Another option you may also consider is setting up a Clearing Account to act as a buffer. Since the app’s sync logic doesn't monitor this type of account, you can make changes manually without triggering those duplicate repairs or automatic reposts. Instead of a direct USD-to-GBP transfer, just use a PayPal Exchange Bridge account to catch the funds in the middle and keep everything clean.

Here is how to manage the workflow:

Step 1: Record the GBP Side (Banking Feed)

In your GBP feed, categorise the incoming transaction as a Transfer FROM the PayPal Exchange Bridge account. Accept the GBP amount exactly as it appears.

Step 2: Record the USD Side (Manual Feed)

In your PayPal USD account, record the exit of funds as a Transfer TO the PayPal Exchange Bridge. When QuickBooks asks for the exchange rate, enter the rate that results in the exact GBP amount that arrived in your bank. From there, both your PayPal USD and GBP balances will be accurate, and the Exchange Bridge balance will net out to zero.

To stop the sync engine from reposting duplicate transactions, please note that you shouldn't delete the Register first; instead, you can follow this specific order:

Go to the Banking Feed or App tab and find the incorrect transactions.
Move these entries to the Excluded tab. This tells the sync engine to ignore these specific Transaction IDs.
Now that they are excluded, you can safely go to the Account History or Register and delete the old, incorrect entries.

By using the Bridge account, you bypass the app's cross-conversion limitations and keep your sync logic from triggering duplicates.

Let me know how it goes for you.

SIAB

Level 2

@DaveBal

Another option, use a 3rd party paid connector to reconcile multi currency transactions from PayPal.

Step 1: Record the GBP Side (Banking Feed)

Step 2: Record the USD Side (Manual Feed)

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