How to Import PayPal Transactions into QuickBooks (CSV, QBO and IIF)
PayPal behaves like a bank account with a twist: every sale comes with a fee, money moves in and out of your bank, and some activity is in other currencies. The cleanest setup is a separate PayPal bank account in your QuickBooks chart of accounts, with PayPal activity imported into it. Here is how.
Step 0: create a PayPal account in QuickBooks
Add an account of type Bank named PayPal (one per PayPal currency if you hold several). Transfers between PayPal and your checking account then become simple transfers between two bank accounts.
Option 1: connect PayPal
In QuickBooks Online, go to Banking → Bank transactions → Connect account, search for PayPal and sign in. PayPal activity then arrives in For review like any bank feed. If the connection is unavailable for your account or breaks, use the file route below.
Option 2: download the Activity report from PayPal
PayPal’s Activity download report covers up to 12 months per download and goes back up to seven years. It can be exported as CSV, TAB, PDF, QIF, and — for US accounts — IIF (QuickBooks Desktop).
- Sign in at paypal.com on a computer and open Activity.
- Click the download icon, choose Custom or See more reports, then select the Activity download report.
- Pick the transaction type (Balance affecting is the usual choice for bookkeeping), the date range and the format CSV.
- Create the report and download it. Large reports can take a while; PayPal emails you when it is ready.
Convert the PayPal CSV to QBO
QuickBooks Online can upload a CSV, but PayPal’s export has many columns (Gross, Fee, Net, Balance, emails, transaction IDs…) and needs careful mapping. Converting to QBO avoids that — and the resulting file works in QuickBooks Desktop too.
- Drop the CSV into the CSV to QBO converter.
- The converter picks Date, Name and the Net column (the amount that actually hit your PayPal balance after fees) automatically and never uses the running Balance column. Check the preview.
- Choose Checking as the account type (it is a bank-type account in QuickBooks) and download the
.qbofile. - Import it into your PayPal account: QuickBooks Online Banking → Link account ▾ → Upload from file; QuickBooks Desktop File → Utilities → Import → Web Connect Files.
Net vs gross and PayPal fees
Importing Net keeps your PayPal balance correct with one line per transaction, but hides fees inside sales. If you need fees as an expense:
- switch the Amount column in the converter to Gross, and
- record fees separately: either a second import where you map Fee as the amount, or one monthly journal entry for total PayPal fees from the report.
Pick one method and stick to it, so balances reconcile month to month.
Option 3: QIF or IIF from PayPal
- QIF is an old Quicken format that QuickBooks no longer imports for bank transactions. If that is what you downloaded, convert QIF to QBO.
- IIF (US accounts) imports straight into QuickBooks Desktop registers, without review and without duplicate protection. Read QBO vs IIF before using it, and back up the company file first.
Things that trip people up
- Pending, denied and authorization rows. Only Completed transactions change your balance. Remove other statuses from the CSV, or choose Balance affecting when creating the report.
- Currency conversions. Multi-currency activity shows conversion rows in each currency. Filter the CSV to one currency per import, and use one QuickBooks account per currency.
- Transfers to your bank. They appear in PayPal as money out and in your checking feed as money in. Categorise both sides as a transfer between the two accounts, not as income or expense.
- Overlapping dates. Start each import the day after the last PayPal transaction already in QuickBooks.