Regards,
At the request of another member I have prepared this thread listing the steps I take (with some screen shots) to create a PayPal date range programmable CSV formatted database that can be opened in a spreadsheet program. The purpose for this database is to be able to sort and group different transactions for tax reporting and other purposes. Additionally, the database returned to your system may also vary with the number of columns and information it contains. Please note that some pages on your computer or lap top may be slightly different than the screens shots of my pages. This post ends with some basic spreadsheet information as it relates to Windows Excel, the program I use but this thread is not intended to go through education on working with spreadsheets. I would encourage members who are not familiar with them to find a friend or family member to work with … it’s not rocket science and the results will be well worth the effort.
Additionally, some members might know other ways of getting to the PayPal page to request the database and are welcome to post them here.
I start with going to the Classic My eBay Selling page, here is the URL link for that.
https://my.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MyEbayBeta&CurrentPage=MyeBayNextAllSelling
- On the Classic My eBay Selling page locate the “Accounts” tab and hover your mouse over the word Account until a list appears
2. On the list go down and click on “PayPal account”
- On the next page that appears there are three PayPal choices, the middle one is PayPal History, click that. You will then go through the PayPal LOGIN page before getting to the next page.
- PayPal will open on the History section and in the upper right hand corner of that page is “Statement” … click on that.
- On the next page are four choice and the top one is “Custom” … click on that.
- The next page is for Reports and the type you want is the “Activity download” … my system opens on that page, click “Activity download” if yours does not … this page has three little windows that allow you to set up the CSV download report. Use the pull down menu in the first window and select “All transactions”. Make sure the one on the right says CSV. The middle one is where you will select the date range you want … click that one when ready.
- A list will appear when you click the center window “Date range” and at the bottom of the list are choices for “From” and “To” … these are the dates you set for your CSV report … click the From choice and using the little double arrows go back in time to the month you want to start with then click on the day of the month you want to start with. Repeat the process for the “To” date and the click the Okay button to finish the date range set up.
- Next you can click the “Create Report” button … and you might notice the orange arrow pointing to the PayPal statement of going back 7 years … impressive.
- After clicking “Create Report” a notification will appear that they are working on it and the top line of reports will say “In progress” over on the right. If it is a big file, like the entire year, it may take a day for it to be returned. If you just want to practice and do last week it will pop up pretty quickly and the “in progress with change to “Download” … once the report has been returned click “Download”
- The next page will be the choice on how to open or save the newly created CSV file … mine is set for Excel as the Default and I open the file right away.
- This screen shot is from a short CSV file I did for another thread covering a few days of sales … just to show what the Sales tax lines look like on my system. This is from Windows Excel and column E was widened to read all the text in it then Sorted A-Z (ascending order). YOUR column for the transaction type may or may not be column E …
From a formula standpoint, you can see that lines (on the left boarder of the spreadsheet) 29 through 40 are for Sales tax AND since they are deductions the values are negative. You can go anywhere on the spreadsheet below all the lines with data and add a formula to total those lines. Click on any cell to land your cursor on it … the specific formula to add lines 29 through 40 in column H where the value is would be (exactly as you see it starting with pressing the = sign … that tells the spreadsheet you are entering a formula:
=sum(H29:H40)*(-1)
The * symbol is Shift 8 on your keyboard and represents the Multiply function. The (-1) Multiplier simply changes the total negative value to a positive number.
You can change the display to include a dollar sign but explaining that goes beyond the purposes of this thread.
@thegouldsonline wrote:I should have checked here first before I spent an hour trying to find it myself! Thanks!
You are more than welcome.
brian@ebay wrote:Thanks for sharing this info, @mr_lincoln!
Hey brian@ebay it's time again to revisit this ... I will be forced in to MP next month and since I have never been given a straight honest answer on MP's historical transaction data going back further then 90 days this is emphasize the importance of a date range programmable database going back as far as a Seller needs to satisfy their tax reporting ... I have to report quarterly this year and the 90 days of MP info is wholly inadequate ... this year (a leap year) there isn't a single quarter with 90 days ... they are either 91 or 92 days. In non-Leap years ONLY 1st quarter is 90 days the other 3 are 91 and 92 ... I don't want to be forced to do a 90 day then a 1 or 2 day report ... THAT multiplies the work required.
I know that until I am in MP my questions won't be given the light of day, which I view as being unprofessional and I see it as eBay trying to shield Sellers who are NOT in the program from all the negative aspects of it ... the lack of transparency is absurd and its like the eBay Support Team has been issued a gag order by upper management when it comes to MP ...
I know you guys told me on more then one occasion that you passed this type of request on to the MP team but I think its pretty obvious they are either incapable of programming for it or they simply don't care and have taken the stance that if you don't like it you know where the door is ... you know, "our way or the highway" ... not a nice way to treat "Business Partners" ... I know in my 40 plus years in industry we never treated people like that NOR were we treated like that.
@chintzefeline The Schedule C pdf version is programmable and you can type the values in or print it out and complete it by hand.
