Accounting help - how to track shipping costs with new Managed Payments system

[smw3]

Back in the good ol' days when nearly all Ebay transactions passed through PayPal, it wasn't perfect but I was generally was generally able to keep my arms around shipping charges.  There was sometimes a bit of confusion when FedEx or UPS costs would be charged to my credit card at the end of Ebay's accounting month but it was generally not a problem to tie those charges to specific transactions.

These days, with Managed Payments and a weekly payout to my bank account, I frequently have random charges by Ebay to my credit card and it takes waaaay too much sleuthing to figure out what in the heck they are for.  It's almost always shipping costs for FedEx or UPS but the dates literally never point to a specific transaction and more often than not the amounts don't match either, since if for instance the shipping was $50 but there was $10 or $15 in my account a day or two after a payout they would take that first then charge the difference to my credit card.

Consequently, rarely a week goes by when I don't see random amounts charged to Ebay in my credit card register.  If I wait until my end of the month accounting task to identify all those transactions sometimes it takes more time for just that task than all the other bookkeeping I need to accomplish.  God forbid I should try to untangle any of this stuff months later, such as on April 12 when I'm just trying to complete my taxes and avoid a federal audit because I can't seem to keep track of my income and legitimate business expenses.   It seems like Ebay goes out of their way to keep their account reports as opaque as possible. 

Here is my question.  If a line item in my accounting report is for a $50 shipping label for FedEx or UPS, why can't they in that line item show me that $12 was pulled from my Ebay account balance and the remainder charged to my credit card or bank account?  Is there ANY way I can easily get this information to show up in my Ebay account report so I'm not constantly guessing at what the heck is going on?

[myhomeschooldelights]

@smw3 

I don't know what volume of business you have, so my response may not be usable for you, (my volume is fairly small, but steady, also weekly payouts), but I think it would be infinitely simpler for your accounting to have all shipping labels purchased through eBay drawn from your pending payouts vs your credit card.    All the numbers for accounting are available via the MP financial statements and the Seller Hub sales reports.  I have eBay take postage labels I buy out of pending funds, and of course all fees are already taken out of them for everyone.  Only if you don't have enough pending will they draw on your bank account or credit card depending on your settings.  Perhaps the situation is different for you, but I've never had anything yet charged to a credit card or drawn directly from my bank.    

[smw3]

Thanks for the reply but my issue is specifically when Ebay charges me for shipping within a day or two after a payout when my account has been depleted.  I suppose I should look into whether it's possible to direct Ebay to never payout the entire contents of that fund to me, as in make sure they always leave behind $100 or so to cover pending expenses.

As I mentioned the issue is further complicated because Ebay seems to almost go out of their way to delay billing for shipping expenses so that the date that these mystery charges appear on my credit card never correspond to the date of the sale or the date that I actually printed the label.  Like I said, it's all just completely opaque and a monumental waste of my time.   It was so much easier before Managed Payments.  What's worse is that I try to keep money in my PayPal account just to cover USPS costs but of course it can take up to 5 days for funds to appear in that account after I initiate a transfer from my bank so that can get really messy too if I'm not paying attention or if I have a big day where I print out more than a few labels.  It's all just so stupid.  This is all very basic stuff that shouldn't be so difficult and I can't help but think it's all because both PayPal and Ebay are desperate for every penny they can siphon out of us so if they can keep a few dollars here or there tied up in limbo for a few extra days, multiplied by millions of users, that represents a significant revenue stream for them.  It's not a huge dollar cost to us but it sure is a pain in the butt.

[myhomeschooldelights]

@smw3 

It definitely shouldn't be that complicated.  Although, as I mentioned, I don't know what volume of business you do, so that might account for a different experience.  If there are long periods of time when there no funds in your MP account, even in a pending status, then yes, eBay would have to draw from elsewhere to cover shipping for example since the funds from the sale won't have been cleared yet.   That might render your available funds negative for a day, but you can do that and avoid all the cc charges if you set it up to take from your pending payouts vs PayPal.  It is much simpler.  And the accounting numbers needed are in the MP and SH statements instead of PayPal, CC, and MP.  Additionally eBay recently started offering different payout options.  Perhaps a monthly payout would work better for your needs (or twice a month) because more funds would be available longer in your MP account, presumably meaning fewer charges on a CC.    Ebay does hold funds for longer periods of time if selling activity has been inactive for awhile, so that might be part of the complication for you also.  Not sure.  Sorry I couldn't have been more help.