cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
WyrtWicce
Level 2

QuickBooks isn't finishing PayPal refunds

Greetings! I was helping a friend with her books in QBO today, and encountered a confounding issue. 

Background: She was prepaid for services for an event that she had to cancel on, and has since issued refunds to all of the clients. So that part is done. She does not invoice customers since the services are small, so she used her PayPal business account to receive the payments directly, then transferred them to her checking account. In PayPal, she issued these refunds from her checking account to the customer. In PayPal, all of these refunds show up correctly and both accounts are balanced properly. Her PayPal account is synced to her QuickBooks Online account, and both are up-to-date.

The Issue: In QuickBooks, these refunds are sitting in purgatory in her PayPal account register and there doesn't seem to be a way to tell QuickBooks that they were already issued to the clients. There is no invoice to consult. The PayPal account balance shows as correct on the main Banking tab, but the bank register shows a balance that needs to be reconciled. Each refund is there, but in QuickBooks the transaction stops at PayPal, not at the client it needs to go to.

The Question:  What is the fix for this? We've tried issuing a Credit Memo experimentally for one client, but that just messed up her Accounts Receivable (that transaction was then deleted and it's fine now). We've gone to Edit a refund transaction in the PayPal bank register, but there wasn't much there to help. Is this a Journal Entry fix? How does she now tell QuickBooks, without goobering anything up, to move each of these PayPal refund transactions out of the PayPal register and back to the client, so that the PayPal register shows the correct balance? I'm hesitant to retro-create an Invoice for these clients in case that creates doubles of each of these refund transactions and therefore compound the issue.

Thanks so much for the help in advance! Sorry I cannot provide screenshots of the problem, as I do not have permission to access these books on my own or share their contents. 

5 Comments 5
AlexV
QuickBooks Team

QuickBooks isn't finishing PayPal refunds

Hello WyrtWicce!

 

You don't really need to create an invoice or any transaction in QuickBooks Online since you linked the Paypal account. All you need is to categorize the downloaded transaction.

 

When the transactions appear on the Banking tab, select one to expand the view. Then, choose the Categorize button, select a Vendor/Customer (payee) and Category to classify them. Once done, simply select Add so they'll be added to your client's book.Capture.PNG

 

Once done, you can now reconcile the account.

 

If these transactions have been added already, you can edit them in the register. From there, you can assign a payee/customer. Check this article for more details: Find, review, and edit transactions in account registers.

 

I added this link for your reference on what to do with the downloaded transactions: Categorize and match online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.

 

Leave a comment below if you need more help with these Paypal transactions. I'll assist you!

WyrtWicce
Level 2

QuickBooks isn't finishing PayPal refunds

Thank you for your reply! This is what I had thought to do at first, but this is not how it appears in my friend's bank register. It's difficult to explain, but it appears as gray not green, and there are a very limited number of fields. Even clicking Edit doesn't bring up as much as what you pictured. On that note, towards the bottom instead of having two buttons which are Split and Add, there are 4-5 including Edit. Does it just appear differently for a PayPal account?

Mich_S
QuickBooks Team

QuickBooks isn't finishing PayPal refunds

Thanks for keeping us updated about your concern, @WyrtWicce.

 

I've figured out how to modify your Paypal refund transaction in QuickBooks Online.

 

The refund transaction will automatically go to the bank register after it is added from the For Review tab. As a result, my colleague @AlexV's troubleshooting procedures are no longer applicable. Don't worry, I'll teach you how to make changes to the transaction in the bank register:

 

  1. From the left pane, open the Accounting menu.
  2. Go to the Chart of Accounts page.
  3. Locate and open the bank register by clicking View register.
  4. Look for the refund transaction to edit.
  5. Open it and select Edit.
  6. Change the payee/customer to the right one.
  7. Once done, click on Save and close.

 

For your convenience, please see the photos below.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm also adding this article about handling Paypal transactions: Learn how to connect and manage PayPal app transactions.

 

 

You can always get back to us if you need more help with QuickBooks and banking. We're always willing to help. Take care.

WyrtWicce
Level 2

QuickBooks isn't finishing PayPal refunds

Sorry for the delayed response. I finally have more information now.

 

So, the balance for PayPal in QuickBooks, in Banking, shows 0 as it should. My client is closing out their PayPal account and PayPal shows $0 in there as should be. In the CoA, however, it shows a negative balance. It looks as though there were some things attempted before I got here. The information on the .CSV I received also does not match what I'm seeing: many refunds do not show up in the PayPal bank register in QBO, for example. Should I try re-reconciling from scratch with a new beginning and ending balance and upload the .CSV file I have? 

ChristieAnn
QuickBooks Team

QuickBooks isn't finishing PayPal refunds

Hi there, WyrtWicce.

 

I appreciate you for coming back to the thread to add further clarification about your concern, WyrtWicce. I'll ensure to share some details on why there is a negative balance. Then, make sure that all your entries will appear the way you need them.

 

When there is a negative balance in the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks online, the column next to it (Bank Balance) shows the same figure but as a positive (so no minus sign). There are a few different reasons why a real-life bank account balance could be different from QuickBooks Online’s bank balance. One of them is may have some outstanding transactions in your Downloaded Transactions area that haven’t yet been assigned to an account in your QuickBooks Online. These Downloaded Transactions will not have been included in the register balance and can also cause a discrepancy between the balance in QBO and your bank balance. 

 

On the other hand, yes, you can re-reconciling from scratch with a new beginning in QBO. However, you'll have to undo all the reconciled transactions if needed. Please note that removing the transactions from the reconciled period might affect your beginning and ending balance on the previous and future reconciliations. I recommend reaching out to an accountant to help you identify the best way on how to delete previous bank reconciliations.

 

Then, certainly, you can always upload the CSV file you have because the information on it does not match. Please double-check the column headings and data. If you select the three-column format, make sure the Date, Description, and Amount columns on the CSV correspond to the columns and order in QBO. This is to ensure that all of your bank transactions are reflected in the QuickBooks system.
 

Lastly, I'm adding this article to view different details on how to find transactions in your account registers so you can review or edit them: Find, review, and edit transactions in account registers.

 

Feel free to get back to this thread if you have additional questions about your bank entries. We're around 24/7 to help you. Take care!

Need to get in touch?

Contact us