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Digilocker
Digilocker
August 21, 2022
Question

Paypal expenses and multi-currency problem

  • August 21, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

Hi, I'm just after a bit of advice.

I work as a graphic designer, so occasionally have to purchase things in USD for assets, brush packs etc..  I now try to avoid PayPal because of the problems below, but sometimes it is unavoidable & does not help with the situation of clearing my last years books.

As reported so many times on here, PayPal transactions that are in USD are synced through as GBP.  So a $20 purchase is downloaded from PayPal as £20 instead of (currently £16.90).

This didn't use to be an issue because a couple of years ago I simply recorded the expenses on my current account against the PayPal transactions in my current account (which are all in GBP).  The slight issue there was having my PayPal account in QuickBooks itself I was never

1. Able to reconcile it
2. Had to always search my PayPal account to find what the transactions were actually for because in my bank feed they only show as "Paypal"

So 2 years ago I started marking them as transfers in my current account, then highlighting the expenses in PayPal instead.  This worked ok until I was totally unaware that the GBP amounts were incorrect because it was pulling the USD values.

So now I am pretty stuck I have about 2 years worth of accounts reconciled in my current account as transfers and a PayPal account that has the wrong figures to mark as transactions.  If I had know this was a problem I would never have used my PayPal account in QuickBooks but I see no workaround.

Has anyone else had this problem and what is the best fix.  Just remove my PayPal account and go back to recording how I used to?
or 
Somehow manually update all the PayPal figures to the correct GBP amount? 


1 reply

DivinaMercy_N
DivinaMercy_N
August 21, 2022

Hi there, @Digilocker. I'm here to ensure you'll be able to fix your PayPal transactions in QuickBooks Online (QBO). Follow along below to get this done right away.

 

When entering transactions with foreign currency, you can only use the home currency bank account or the bank whose currency corresponds to the invoice/bill. Then, to facilitate movement between the two different foreign currencies, you'll need to create a dummy bank account in the home currency. For more info, feel free to visit this article (this is for ZA but the process is still applicable in the UK): Receiving and making payment for a foreign invoice/ bill with a foreign currency. 

 

On the other hand, you can also manually record the transactions in QBO with the correct values. Then, exclude those PayPal transactions that will show on the bank feeds. 

 

Once everything is fine, here's an awesome resource that you can use as a guide in reconciling your account: Learn the reconcile workflow in QuickBooks. 

 

I'd love to know how this goes. I'd appreciate any details you can provide. If you have any other concerns about managing multicurrency transactions in QBO, feel free to leave a reply below. I'm always ready to lend a hand to ensure your queries are addressed. Have a good day ahead and take care. 

    Digilocker
    DigilockerAuthor
    August 22, 2022

    Thanks I don't think the first option is even something that is available to me, because my account is Quickbooks Starter, and I was told that multi-currency is only available in the higher tiers.

    I think part of the problem (& not really your issue at Quickbooks) is also that Paypals activity center is so slow, and doesn't seem to work like traditional bank statements so the reconciliation process is also a lot more difficult.  Thanks for the article.  I may try and attempt it one day.  I do wish (& think that the whole process of this problem with PayPal should be highlighted more to users that choose to use the bank feed feature)  it certainly would have made me have second thoughts about using it - & I would have moved a lot of my transactions over from paypal to my business account a lot sooner had the issue been made more prominent.  I think there really should be a warning in the UI telling people this before setting it up, as it is not always easy to catch these transactions.  It is quite common now to have to pay for certain subscriptions or goods in $ or € and disappointing that Quickbooks doesn't facilitate this properly without a lot of heavy lifting. 

    A
    Ashleigh1
    August 22, 2022

    Hello Digilocker, multi-currency is only available within either our essentials account or our plus account. If you have our simple start account it is not available feature to us. Thanks for the feedback on this, we will be sure to pass it on to the relevant team. 
     

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