Paypal Transaction Matching to Bank Account

Paddy

Let's say I have a $25 transaction that is downloaded from Paypal to Quicken and the corresponding payment to Paypal is downloaded to my Bank Account. I need Quicken to match the two. It used to work automatically but I upgraded and now it doesn't automatically do it. I called into support, they said, do this, this and this and it will work and it didn't. How do I set that up? I don't care if it's not automatic, I can match manually.

splasher

When you accept/download the second half of the pair, is when Quicken SHOULD match them, but the first half has to be in its respective register at that point.  Before that point in time, there is nothing to match up to.

 

Boatnmaniac

@Paddy - Transfer categories are identified by the Quicken account name being in brackets.  For instance if the name of your Paypal account in Quicken is "Paypal" and the name of your bank account is "Checking", the transfer category of the transaction in your Paypal account would be [Checking].  That will place a corresponding transfer transaction into your Checking account register with the category of [Paypal].

When your Checking account Paypal transaction gets downloaded Quicken will (usually) match it to that linked transfer transaction.

If you don't do it this way you can end up having two separate transactions (one in Paypal, one in Checking) that are not linked to each other in any way unless Quicken does a good job of identifying possible transfer transactions.  In my experience, Quicken does a pretty good job of detecting possible transfer transactions downloaded on the same day between accounts at the same financial institution (i.e., between a checking and savings account at the same bank) but not so good of a job in detecting possible transactions between accounts at different financial institutions, especially when they were downloaded on different days.  I just find it easier and less frustrating to make sure to enter the correct transfer category during the first download and then not having to worry about it when the 2nd transaction downloads a few days later.

FYI, it's pretty easy to select a transfer category for a transaction.  Just click on the menu drop-down button on the right side of the transaction category field (circled in red), click on Transfers (highlighted in yellow) and then to the right of that select the transfer category you want used.

Paddy

when it works, it looks like this

Sherlock

If you haven't already, I suggest you check the Transfer detection preferences: select Edit > Preferences...

Paddy

That is checked. What I am thinking is there is a delay between my bank and paypal. the transaction shows up in paypal and not in my bank account before I download so there is nothing to detect.

splasher

When you accept/download the second half of the pair, is when Quicken SHOULD match them, but the first half has to be in its respective register at that point.  Before that point in time, there is nothing to match up to.

 

Paddy

I think when Paypal switched to the new processor, they are not as fast at billing my bank account so the expected behavior stopped working.

Boatnmaniac

@Paddy - There will always be a delay in downloads of ACH/EFT transfer transactions between the two financial institutions.  This is because ACH/EFT transfers typically take 1-3 days to be completed by the clearing house. 

When the 1st account downloads the transfer transaction, make sure the category for it is a transfer to the other account.  Then when the 2nd account download occurs, Quicken will usually match it to transfer transaction already in that register.

Paddy

@Boatnmaniac the transaction always downloads first from Paypal to my Paypal account. When the transaction downloads to my bank account, it does not match the Paypal transaction.

I don't understand what you mean by "make sure the category for it is a transfer to the other account."

splasher

@Paddy
I'm curious.  Do you do a lot with PayPal?  Do you receive and spend money via PayPal?
I don't do a lot with PP, just spending when I want an additional buffer between me and the seller, so I may have 5 or 6 a year.  My PP is setup to pass the charges thru to my Discover Card automatically.
Because of that setup and not receiving any funds via PP, I don't even track my PP account, I just record all of the purchases in the Discover account as if PP did not exist.  This saves me a lot of issues with PP not always playing nicely with Quicken from what I hear on this forum.

Boatnmaniac

@Paddy - Transfer categories are identified by the Quicken account name being in brackets.  For instance if the name of your Paypal account in Quicken is "Paypal" and the name of your bank account is "Checking", the transfer category of the transaction in your Paypal account would be [Checking].  That will place a corresponding transfer transaction into your Checking account register with the category of [Paypal].

When your Checking account Paypal transaction gets downloaded Quicken will (usually) match it to that linked transfer transaction.

If you don't do it this way you can end up having two separate transactions (one in Paypal, one in Checking) that are not linked to each other in any way unless Quicken does a good job of identifying possible transfer transactions.  In my experience, Quicken does a pretty good job of detecting possible transfer transactions downloaded on the same day between accounts at the same financial institution (i.e., between a checking and savings account at the same bank) but not so good of a job in detecting possible transactions between accounts at different financial institutions, especially when they were downloaded on different days.  I just find it easier and less frustrating to make sure to enter the correct transfer category during the first download and then not having to worry about it when the 2nd transaction downloads a few days later.

FYI, it's pretty easy to select a transfer category for a transaction.  Just click on the menu drop-down button on the right side of the transaction category field (circled in red), click on Transfers (highlighted in yellow) and then to the right of that select the transfer category you want used.

Chris_QPW

There are a few things to understand about automatic transfer detection.
The first is that it is guess based on the fact that download in one account matches one in another account, but with the sign of the amount reversed.  The second part of this is that there is a number of day limit on this guess.  I don't know the exact limit, 4 days apart still matches, but it is certainly not unlimited.

The second part of this is when the transfer match happens.  It happens when the matching transaction in the second account is download and when that transaction it put into the register.  For the people using automatic transaction entry mode that is just after the download, but for the people that have their transactions going through the Downloaded Transactions tab that isn't until after the transaction is accepted into the register.  This last part is why I say that automatic transfer detection is mostly for the people using automatic transaction entry mode.

Why?
Because it gets back to what @Boatnmaniac said and you have confusion over.

How do you feel about having a transaction in your register that is uncategorized for 4 or so days?  To me that would bug the heck out of me.

Let's go through the process first going through the Downloaded Transactions tab.
In the "first account", in this case the PayPal account.

What people are suppose to be doing is clicking on each transaction, it then shown in the register.  When you get to this transfer transaction clearly the "category" is unknown at this point.  The prudent thing to do would be to enter it as [Checking Account].  Now that means that right away you have the matching transaction in the "Checking Account".  So when the transaction actually comes in Quicken is going to match that transaction.  This isn't "automatic transfer detection" this is Quicken's normal matching of downloaded transactions to transactions already in the register.  Note that this matching happen at while in the Downloaded Transactions tab, which is before the automatic transfer detection.  And once matched there isn't anything for automatic transfer detection to do.

Now let's look at the flow if you have automatic transaction entry mode on.

You download for the first account (PayPal) and you get that same transfer transaction (hopefully not categorized).  Now at this point you should be reviewing your transactions and making sure the categories are correct.  And just like above the prudent thing to do would be to put in the [Checking Account] "category" at this point, so that when the other side of the transfer is finally downloaded it will be matched to this existing transaction that was put in "Checking Account" using Quicken's matching of existing transactions instead of the automatic transfer detection.

So when does automatic transfer detection really apply?
When both sides of the transfer are downloaded in the same session.

This can be either because the transfer is really fast because it is from two accounts at the same financial institution or because you have delayed downloading enough that the "4 days wait" or such has already passed.

mariap

This is very problematic. When a debit and a credit for the same amount are downloaded at the same time, the system should allow the user to
1. choose the correct category
2. When the category of a transaction is incorrectly identified as a transfer, let the user decide whether to delete the corresponding transaction in the second account or not.
I have had lots of problems with this 'feature' and Quicken should try to resolve it.
thanks