Paypal and categories

Nils

I have Quicken for Windows and when I download my paypal account to Quicken, the category assigned is the transfer to the bank account to which Paypal is linked to. When I view my bank account, it has as category the Paypal transfer. So how do I assign the category for which I want the deposit assigned to i.e. COG for business or personal purchases.

I have Quicken Classic Business & Personal R54.16

Boatnmaniac

Yeah, Paypal payments, when the funds come from my checking account, have always been cumbersome for me, too. That is because the payments are actually just a pass-through transactions and not a real Paypal transaction (even though they should show up as purchase activity in Paypal). So, Paypal does not download a 2nd separate transfer (from checking) transaction. This results in only 1 side (the payment) of the total transaction being downloaded.

What I generally do is enter the category information into the payment transaction that is downloaded from Paypal. Then when the transaction is later downloaded into my checking account I enter the transfer category (to Paypal) in that transaction. It's not ideal but it works.

Another thing I have sometimes done instead: When the Paypal transaction is downloaded, I enter the category information into that transaction. Then I will manually enter a separate transfer transaction into my Paypal account and when the transaction gets downloaded for my checking account it will get matched to that previous manually entered transfer transaction.

Boatnmaniac

Yeah, Paypal payments, when the funds come from my checking account, have always been cumbersome for me, too. That is because the payments are actually just a pass-through transactions and not a real Paypal transaction (even though they should show up as purchase activity in Paypal). So, Paypal does not download a 2nd separate transfer (from checking) transaction. This results in only 1 side (the payment) of the total transaction being downloaded.

What I generally do is enter the category information into the payment transaction that is downloaded from Paypal. Then when the transaction is later downloaded into my checking account I enter the transfer category (to Paypal) in that transaction. It's not ideal but it works.

Another thing I have sometimes done instead: When the Paypal transaction is downloaded, I enter the category information into that transaction. Then I will manually enter a separate transfer transaction into my Paypal account and when the transaction gets downloaded for my checking account it will get matched to that previous manually entered transfer transaction.

Nils

Thanks for clarifying. It seems that Quicken should make that addition as many avenues now exist like Paypal where it is a "pass thru" account. Our accounts need the categories for better tracking and that is the entire purpose of Quicken (to track the flow of funds).

Boatnmaniac

What gets downloaded from the financial institution is solely owned by the financial institution. At present, Paypal is not downloading that information into Quicken so there is nothing for Quicken to "manage" regarding it. The things I mentioned that I do allows for categorization so it shows up in Quicken reports and planning tools. What is missing is the flowthrough transfer of the funds from the checking account.

dsaunderswa

I hope it's OK if I tagalong with this "PayPal and Categories" discussion. I'm brand new to this community so let me know if there's a preferred way to post my particular question. Here goes:

I use PayPal mostly as a "pass thru" account for a small business I have. Some people use PayPal to pay for services for which I've created Quicken Invoices. In the Quicken Invoice, I indicate when I receive payment via PayPal by showing my PayPal account in the "Deposit to." I simply deposit their payment from PayPal to my checking account. Very easy system to keep track of invoices and payment . . . UNTIL I download PayPal transactions into the Quicken register for my PayPal account and try to figure out what the column headings mean. The "Payee" is obvious WHEN it matches the name of the person on my invoice, but sometimes the word "Withdrawal" is used in the "Payee" column? I wonder if "Withdrawal" is used if I have not created the invoice before I receive the payment. And, I'm confused about the words "Payment" and "Deposit." Does "Deposit" refer to money deposited into Quicken from my client? or does it refer to money I transfer (deposit) into my checking account?

Whatever clarification any of you can offer, I will appreciate

(Windows Classic Business & Personal, Windows 10 (Release 54.16))