The live import of account statements (connection to Xentral and pickup of statements at the push of a button) is possible for bank accounts with FinTS and HBCI4PHP as well as PayPal. Here, the statements of the last X days can be picked up. Only one user may be stored per account, otherwise double bookings will occur. Please do not create a business account more than once. These settings are only relevant when fetching the account statement live (e.g. PayPal). Bookings can be picked up directly in an automated way at the push of a button.
The following settings are relevant here:
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Type → Account: PayPal (API)
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Live-Import active → Check mark activates Live-Import (Precondition: correct entry of API data at "Access Data Live-Import)
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Access data live import → API code for live import (can be found in your PayPal account → instructions see below)
These fields are required as a minimum:
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API_USERNAME → PayPal API Username (can be found in your PayPal account → see below for instructions).
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API_PASSWORD → PayPal API Password (can be found in your PayPal account → see below for instructions)
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API_SIGNATURE → PayPal API Signature (can be found in your PayPal account → see below for instructions)
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API_DAYS → individual setting option (collection of the last X days → can be set individually, the daily quantity of transactions must be taken into account. for large quantities, the server timeout may have to be changed)
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API_ALLPAYMENTS → Optional (can also be omitted): value "1" means that both income and expenses are collected. Without this line (API_ALLPAYMENTS=>1;) only revenues will be collected.
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With the parameter API_DAYS=>5; the collection would be from 20/08/2021 to today. //Increase from the date of the last pickup.
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With the parameter API_MAX_DAYS_BEFORE=>1; the collection would be made from 08/14/2021 to today. //subtract from the date of the last pickup
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With the parameter API_DAYS_WAIT=>1; one would let the collection take place from 08/15/2021 to 11/10/2021. //Deduction from the current day
To be entered in xentral in the Access data live import area:
API_USERNAME=>XXXXXXX; API_PASSWORD=>XXXXX; API_SIGNATURE=>XXXXXXXXXX; API_DAYS=>5; API_ALLPAYMENTS=>1;
Note
The arrow is an "equal" sign and "greater than" sign.
If PayPal repayment from xentral is used, the following information must be entered in the PayPal business account (API):
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API_CLIENTID
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API_SECRET
You can get the ClientID and the Secret in your Paypal Live-Account. Generally you can either create a new app or get the API credentials for an existing app (AppCenter → Manage your apps → API credentials).
Note
If you want to connect the PayPal Plus payment method in xentral for incoming payments in addition to the PayPal Plus business account, you need to generate another API entry in the PayPal Plus account. It is important that API_CLIENTID and API_SECRET are not identical in the business account and in the payment method. For the API information, simply generate 2 entries in the PayPal Plus account under Rest API → Create App.
The live import picks up the revenues of the last X days. Expenses can also be imported via the .csv import. With expenses, PayPal creates a lot of cross-bookings (e.g. checks and currency conversions), which are not filtered out in the live import and .csv import. These postings can either be booked away to a "transitory items account" or be booked as import errors.
You can get the data for the PayPal Api via your PayPal account. Detailed instructions on how to request an API authorization with signature or certificate can be found here.
The live import fetches the last X days. Larger periods can also be imported manually. The following files can be downloaded directly from your PayPal account and imported into Xentral (in the payment inbox for the account: PayPal (API)):
In the PayPal account, the files can be found here: Activities → Download Transaction List. The following PayPal export types are suitable here:
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Completed payments (CSV, comma separated) → Cash receipts/balances e.g. from store payment transactions.
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Credit-relevant payments (CSV, comma-separated) → Payments from your PayPal account from PayPalPlus
PayPal charges a transaction fee for every incoming payment. These fees don't affect the paid amount, but need to be reported in your accounting export. In Xentral the fees are treated as a separate property and are automatically matched to a contra account of your definition.
To activate the automatic matching, you need to enter a Default contra account in the Account-specific settings area of your PayPal business account. Optionally, you can also select a Default cost center for the fees. The relevant account and cost center will then be automatically assigned to the fee entry in Receipt of payment.
Analogous to PayPal, PayPal Plus statements can also be fetched via the account setting. The API settings will be supplemented by the API fields, so that the transaction numbers from PayPalPlus are fetched into the bank account.
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Bank statement is fetched classically with API from Paypal
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Paypal Plus typically delivers only the TransactionID and not the PaymentID
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To resolve this correctly you can also define a PayPal ClientID account from PaypalPlus in the data structure at Paypal
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To fetch account statements you have to define API_CLIENTID and API_SECRET via API
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Afterwards it will be tried to convert the PaymentID from the TransactionID automatically.
Exemplary specification for PayPalPlus (sufficient, if only PayPalPlus is used; you can read here how to find out your client ID and secret):
API_CLIENTID=>xXxzeUgKDsabRXBimeYKkLnnMpspMCgAP4HRmo8MHFzBPS; API_SECRET=>xXxLyf-fPPdyNVAPNj-3wiCvySZafkeBnAKcFkdF6g-5uG8eD97zTog5SPsFY;
Specification for PayPalPlus+PayPal (if mixed payments from PayPalPlus and PayPal are used → fallback for possibility of both account payment entries):
API_USERNAME=>meinusername.firma.de; API_PASSWORD=>xXxT6Z4EFCVPSL; API_SIGNATURE=>xXxafvPMMu5vafX7W3Z32VgvmJqvWcKJ3XQ; API_DAYS=>2; API_ALLPAYMENTS=>1; API_CLIENTID=>xXxzeUgKDsabRXBimeYKkLnnMpspMCgAP4HRmo8MHFzBPS; API_SECRET=>xXxxyf-fPPdyNVAPNj-3wiCvySZafkeBnAKcFkdF6g-5uG8eD97zTog5SPsFY;
Manual import of .csv files: The live import picks up the last X days. Larger periods can also be imported manually. The following files can be downloaded directly from your PayPal account and imported into Xentral. A fixed format is preset in the background so that the transaction file can be imported directly in the payment inbox for the PayPal account.
1: Date 2: Time 3: Time zone 4: Name 5: Type 6: Status (e.g. Completed) 7: Subject 8: Currency 9: Gross (total amount) 10: Fee (PayPal fee) 11: Net (amount minus fee) 12: Note (note of the buyer) 13: From e-mail address 14: To e-mail address 15: Transaction code 16: Payment type 17: Counterparty status (e.g. US Verified) 18: Address status (e.g. Outside USA) 19: Item description (e.g. Order) 20: Item number 21: Amount for shipping costs 22: Insurance amount 23: Sales tax 24: Option 1 - Name 25: Option 1 - Value 26: Option 2 - Name 27: Option 2 - Value 28: Auction Site 29: Buyer ID 30: Item URL 31: Offer end 32: Txn reference identifier 33: Invoice number 34: Individual number 35: Receipt number 36: Credit (PayPal account balance after each payment) 37: Address line 1 38: Additional information 39: City 40: State/Province/Region/County/Territory/Prefecture/Republic 41: ZIP CODE 42: Country 43: Telephone number
You can check the following settings:
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Collection of the last X days → If the collection takes place via button, it could be that the collection was not complete. You can collect the days further back retroactively in the bank account via the days setting. If the time is too far back, a subsequent import via CSV is possible.
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Process starter for collection → Activate the process starter in the PayPal business account in xentral to automatically collect the account data:
The settings are ideally: Collection of account statements 1-2x per day, collection of the last 1-2 days (Make this setting in the live import of the account taking into account the amount of postings, if necessary, 1 day is also sufficient).
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CSV Import → Post-import of transactions from PayPal over the missing period. PayPal already has the format set in xentral, you can find the info for CSV in the PayPal account description.
Warning
Switching between live import and CSV may result in duplicate bookings. xentral filters out only completely identical bookings. If you change the format of the bank or the import channel, there are usually differences in the booking information, so that the bookings are not recognized as duplicates. In this case you should select the import period without overlap if possible. Duplicate bookings can be posted to "Import error".