PayPal beginning balance

Hello there, mayrag2013.

When you add your PayPal account to QuickBooks Online, you'll need to select a day for you to start tracking your transactions and manually enter your real-life bank balance. You likely missed adding the balance reason for it not to appear.

Make sure you don't have an opening balance on your register. Here's how:

1. Click on Bookkeeping and hit Chart of accounts.
2. Locate the account and choose Account history from the Action column.
3. Browse for an opening balance entry. In the Payee Account column, it should say Opening Balance Equity, and in the Memo column, it should say Opening Balance.

If there's an opening balance entry, don't go further. Just take note of the date and amount. Then, refer to your bank statements to ensure the balance is accurate.

If not, record the date and amount of the earliest transaction in the account by creating a journal entry (JE).

1. Go to + New.
2. Select Journal entry.
3. Type in a date that comes before the oldest transaction in the account. This will be the opening balance date.
4. Go to the first row under the Account column, and tap the dropdown menu to choose the account you want to enter the opening balance for.
5. Add a note in the Description field so you know what the journal entry is for.
6. Navigate to the second row under the Account column, tick the dropdown and choose Opening Balance Equity.
7. Use your bank statements to fill in the opening balance. Enter the balance of your real-life account for the date you picked as the opening balance. You'll need to add both a debit and a credit to keep things accurate.
8. Type in the debits and credits based on the type of account you entered on the first line. Note: It's advisable to reach out to your accountant to know what accounts you can use and to keep your books in order. See this for more details: What to do if you didn't enter an opening balance in QuickBooks Online.
9. Once ready, click on Save and close.

Finally, let's mark the JE as reconciled to prevent it from showing up on a future reconciliation:

1. Go to Bookkeeping and select Chart of accounts.
2. Locate the account and hit Account history from the Action column.
3. Browse for the journal entry you just created. Select it to expand the view.
4. Click the box in the tick column until you see an R. This reconciles the journal entry.
5. Once done, hit Save.

That should do it! You can continue balancing your accounts in QBO.

Feel free to explore our banking help page for more useful tips and video tutorials.

You can always get back to us if you need more assistance regarding banking or QuickBooks. We'll make sure to respond as soon as we can. Take care!