Accounting for Processing Fees from PayPal & Stripe in the Transaction Sheet

Hi all…just curious what other Tiller Transaction sheet users do when their CC processor (PayPal, Stripe, etc.) reduces the full invoice amount billed by a processing fee and Tiller records the reduced deposit amount?

I understand that we can manually add a new transaction entry to reflect the processor fee like a bank fee expense, but is there a more elegant and automated solution to handle this type of transaction?

Thanks…Jim

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This is a great question. I’m curious as to what other people have come up with. Personally, I do create that extra transaction and break them out between the gross payment and the PayPal fee. I also break my pay out between gross and all deductions, so this would save a lot of time if there’s a better way!

@randy, does the Amazon importer handle this case well for PayPal?

I do these things manually on the transactions tab and would be interested in any process that could automate it.

Good question, @heather. Paypal’s CSV report includes the following columns:

  • Gross
  • Fee
  • Net

As built, the Paypal workflow in the Amazon Line Item Importer adds just a single row for each line item into the Transactions sheet. The add-on maps the Net value to the Amount column in Transactions.

The Paypal fee is captured in the Metadata column— which uses a JSON format— and could be recovered with formulas or scripts.

Randy

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Bumping this thread. I have quite a few sales through PayPal and Stripe and manually adding each transaction’s fee to Tiller is quite annoying. Are there any more elegant solutions out there? Also, are there any plans to add Stripe as an account we can connect automatically?

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Hi Suzzanne and Blake,

Given I run into the same gross up issue when processing Stripe and wage income transactions, I developed a simple Google Apps Script that I invoke from the Tiller Transaction sheet to gross up the target transaction amount (via a formula so the original data is saved) and insert a new expense row right below the original income transaction to balance out the revised up income transaction value.

It’s a work-in-progress and will require you to input your defaults via Google Script editor, but I can provide guidance via a Zoom call and/or help video. Anyway, let me know if this tool is of interest to you.

Cheers…Jim Koch

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This sounds like a great Show & Tell share, @informedhousehold… if you’d be willing to write it up.

For Paypal, @syada, do you use the Tiller Money Feeds integration or the Line Item Importer workflow? If you use the latter and you can find the transaction fee field in the PayPal CSV, I can add it to the data reported in the Metadata column of the reporting output. You’d still need a script or workflow to move it from the primary transaction row to a split but the data would be included in the sheet on import at least.

Unfortunately, there are no imminent plans to provide automated Stripe reporting.

Hi Randy,

I hadn’t seen the Tiller Show and Tell before. After reviewing the Mobile Dashboard Script submission, I understand what documentation and packaging you are looking for. So in my spare time, I’ll get logged into GitHub and documented in various forms for submission to your S&T list.

Thanks…Jim

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Killer, @informedhousehold. Can’t wait to see what you’ve built!

Hi @randy , for Paypal I use the feed integration. But if you want me to help identify the field where Paypal keeps the fees, let me know and I can see where it is.

And thank you Jim @informedhousehold - i am keen to see what you’ve come up with in your Show and Tell!

In the meantime, for Stripe, I’m currently looking at an integration tool like Zapier to see if we can make this more automatic. Luckily I only have a few transactions at a time for now, but as my business grows I want to make sure my systems are in place to handle extra sales through Stripe.

was this ever submitted?