The New QBO Connect to PayPal App

Intuit has been developing a new API that includes a 'rest' workflow alternative.  Murph actually wrote about QuickBooks Development Future-API V4 as part of his coverage of last year's QuickBooks Connect. That was a fairly informative, but mostly generic article.  However, he also wrote another (companion) article titled 'Just Imagine - QBO Staged Transactions' actually a day prior to his API article in which he gave us a glimpse of something entirely new that Intuit was developing as part of the API V4.  As it turns out, this 'rest' or 'staged transaction' alternative to the traditional way developers have interacted with QuickBooks Online is the foundation upon which the new QBO Connect to PayPal App has been developed.

This new integration was recently featured in both Intuit's 'In the Know' webinar, and the Woodard Monthly Member webinar, but most QuickBooks Online users and even their ProAdvisors have not seen it.  The good news is that I have attempted to capture the highlights of this new App to share with you, our Insightful Accountant readers.

Tony Chang, a Senior Product at Intuit demonstrated the new App that syncs your PayPal transactions to QuickBooks Online more reliably than ever before, in part because it puts you in the drivers seat using the 'staged transaction' technology afforded by API V4.

If you used the previous PayPal App you know it was hard to use at best! And many of us regretted ever connecting it because it was impossible to control or edit. This is why I am so blown away by the new App, because it is so very different and better!

Old vs New

Let’s compare the old and new PayPal apps. Unfortunately the limited graphics capabilities we have in these articles don't permit me to give you a true side-by-side visual comparison so you will have to settle for a narrative comparison of one product to the other.

One of the reasons PayPal was so hard to import was because PayPal has a variety of offerings including; Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Internet Retailer, loans and even bank accounts which made it very tricky to integrate.

The New Connect to PayPal integration has eliminated the need for two different PayPal apps. Previously, if you used PayPal to pay vendors there was an A/P app and if you used PayPal for sales then there was the A/R app. Most of us only used the A/R app which was clunky and hard to control. 

Previously there were two main ways to get your data into QuickBooks from PayPal (shown in the illustration below). You either used Sync with PayPal or Bank Feeds.

Oh, there were 3rd-party connectors and Apps out in the marketplace that gave you more control, but why pay for an App when you can get one free, right?

The new integration is completely redesigned into one app. One of the greatest redesign features is visibility of A/R, previously A/R happened behind the scenes and was almost impossible to use because of a lack of control.

This new Connect to PayPal App offers a better way with seamless, smart and simple integration of your PayPal transactions into QBO. Best of all the integration is 'transparent' and 'controllable, all because of the 'staged transaction approach.'

So you are probably wondering what this 'staged transaction' thing is all about.  Well it,, and the new App, work like bank feeds to make integration of transactions into QBO more user friendly (and giving us greater control) how the integration takes place. 

With the new PayPal App the transactions come into the bank feed like interface where they can be reviewed and edited before they are actually posted into QuickBooks.

It's like a whole new world...for the first time your PayPal Fees will be visible in your importable transactions, this means that we can actually match the bookkeeping to the bank statements for our PayPal transactions.  Let me put it this way, with this new App there won't be any guessing about recording fees, thanks to the 'smart integration' that help you match 'gross sales' to the 'net deposit' by tallying the difference between the PayPal invoice and the money collected.

Now we can even configure our default accounts, and define how we want a transaction to post (as either a Deposit or a Sales Receipt).  Just take a look at some of the other benefits this new App offers for both our clients, and we as their ProAdvisors and Accountants.

While the previous app was pushing transactions out-of-view (and perhaps out-of-mind) thus making them hard to track and edit, this new Connect to PayPal app gives us the ability to view, edit and monitor each and every transaction.  They even thought to include 'batch undo' in the feature set in case there are issues with a group of transactions.

The bookkeeping will make sense because with this new App we can match PayPal transactions against existing Invoices in QBO or create Sales Receipts when we are collecting payments via PayPal.  And as I said earlier, because the fees are clearly visible in the matched up data our bank balances and PayPal statements will match as well. 

You will view the details of any transaction from the memo to the transaction type and transaction ID.  Even products and shipping are brought into QBO as separate lines within the transaction.  So let's look a little closer at these details.

Review your PayPal transactions in the Banking section, and then add or match them to your books:

  1. You will choose the Transaction Type,
  2. The Memo link to the PayPal transaction is clearly visible
  3. Both the Gross sale and Net amount are shown, but you can get the details including the fees by moussing over the Net Received amount

You can open the transaction by clicking on the Details button next to the green 'Add' button. You can see the details in the corresponding Sales Receipt below.

As with bank feeds this feature will also 'develop the smarts' over time, learning how transactions should be posted...it's the benefits of 'artificial intelligence' that will streamline the tedious task of bookkeeping.

All of this sounds great, and it is, but it isn't quite as simple as perhaps it seems from this short article.  You will want to check out all of the details about exactly how it works, what it takes to connect and set-up the App with QBO, configuring the necessary settings, how to handle historical transactions, when and how frequently you should sync PayPal with QBO, how expenses paid with credit-card or bank account are handled, and connecting with Multiple PayPal accounts, among other topics that can be found within Intuit's official 'Connect to PayPal Guide'.

But, from the looks of this integration it’s going to be the BEST of everything we have been asking for, and just as Joe Woodard said during the webinar, “The more automated we are the more time we have available to add additional value as the advisor”.

If you are wondering about availability of this new App, you can get it 'now' if you are a QuickBooks Online user in the USA. Simply go to the PayPalConnect webpage at the Intuit QuickBooks App Center to get started.

QBO users in Canada, Australia and the UK will be able to sign-up for the 'Beta' version of the App either later this month (May 2018) or in June.  Intuit has yet to announce a roll-out, even in Beta, for users in other countries being served by QuickBooks online.

Personally, I can’t wait to use this great new App.