[GNC] Reconciling PayPal

[Dr. David Kirkby]

On Wed, 14 Dec 2022 at 03:45, R Losey <rlosey at gmail.com> wrote:

> I assume you can reconcile an asset account like any other bank
> account.... you can tell it the date you want to reconcile, but it lists
> all of the transactions...
>

My understanding is that the purpose of the reconciliation is to enable one
to compare that the balances of two sets of accounts are in agreement. The
most obvious example being that the amount of money that your bank says you
have agrees with one's own records. In order to do that one needs to know
what the bank says your balance is on a particular date. In the case of
reconciling the PayPal account, one would need to know what PayPal says the
balance is.

If I log into my business bank account, personal bank account or credit
card using the mobile app on the phone, I can see what the financial
institutions say my balance is on any date I want. But what PayPal says my
balance is on any particular date is not easy to find. One has to download
a CSV or similar list, and in the case of the CSV file, the balance is the
34th (from memory) column - well away from other numerical data.

Only once I know what PayPal thinks the balance is can I compare it to my
own records in GnuCash, and see if there are any discrepancies.

One's PayPal balance can change, without one making any transactions. I
sold something to an Indian academic, and got credited with £1000 or
thereabouts. I withdrew the money to my bank account. He then claimed some
parts were missing, so put in a claim, wanting extra parts. That made the
balance negative, despite there had been no transaction.

Dave