Any suggestions for UK businesses - program seems quite American

[Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd)]

On 26 November 2016 at 08:39, Colin Law <clanlaw at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 26 November 2016 at 01:37, Dr. David Kirkby - Kirkby Microwave Ltd <
> drkirkby at kirkbymicrowave.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
>> I need to work out how to handle PayPal, but I'm pretty sure that must be
>> answered in the lists or documentation, so I'm not going to ask that.
>>
>
> If a payment through paypal goes straight to your current account then
> that is no different to a bank transfer as far as GC is concerned. However
> if you have a paypal acct and the money goes into there and later is
> transferred to your bank (or you buy things from you paypal acct) then the
> paypal acct should be setup as another bank type account in GC.
>
> Colin
>

Thank you Colin,

I have tried, with 98% success, to withdraw any money from the PayPal
account into my bank account. Then when I purchase something, the money is
withdrawn from my bank account. But there are two problems with this.

1) I can't guarantee that the odd mistake has not happened, and I have paid
for something, not realizing there's money in the account.

2) Sometimes an amount could be "withheld" in the PayPal account, if
someone makes a complaint about an item sold.

3) Currently I'm arranging for PayPal to convert payments in other
currencies to GBP. It is very rare that I sell anything in GBP, but there
is some people (almost exclusively Americans), what really want to pay in
USD. In fact, I have in the past put our calibration kits on eBay in USD,
and a much higher price than the GBP price. Some Americans will buy in USD,
despite it will cost them less to pay in GBP.

4) If I take money in USD, it would be sensible to keep it in USD, as I
often buy things in USD. But converting things from USD to GBP and back
again, just increases the fees PayPal charge, as they make money on the
currency conversion both ways. This is something I need to discuss with my
accountant, as I do intend selling more in USD, simply because of many
Americans can't seem to comprehend using any other currency.


I must say, the support on here seems very good. I'm impressed!

I think what I will do is first of all set up GnuCash to do my personal
banking. That's less complicated, and doesn't need so many categories.
Also, if it all goes wrong, its no big deal.

Dave