How do I access the SFTP server and retrieve my reports?

You can retrieve the reports using any SFTP client. While you can use WinSCP or the Linux command lines to retrieve the reports, you may also subscribe and access these reports through the merchant reporting portal.

Access through the Reporting Portal

Here's how to access SFTP reports through the Reporting Portal: 

1. Contact us to enable a subscription for your desired reports. 
2. Log in to your PayPal account. 
3. Click "Activity" at the top of the page.
4. Click "All Reports" under "Reports".
5. Toggle the slider bar to "Switch to classic view".
6. Select "Request Report" on the left side menu.
7. Select the desired report from the drop-down menu.
8. Select the desired date from the calendar.
9. Check the box to "Deliver to Merchant Portal".
10. Click "Request Report".

Using WinSCP

Before you begin, ensure WinSCP is downloaded and installed on your computer, and you've created an SFTP user ID and password.

1. Click New.
2. Create a login to a new site with the following information:
   • Protocol: SFTP
   • Hostname: reports.paypal.com for the live environment or reports.sandbox.paypal.com for the sandbox environment.
   • Port number: 22
   • Username: The SFTP username you were assigned when you created the account.
   • Password: The password for the SFTP user that you created. The password isn't automatically generated and is set separately from your PayPal account password.
3. Select Login. After logging in to the server, your local files are shown in the left pane, and the SFTP server files are shown in the right pane.
4. In the right pane, select ppreports > outgoing and move any reports to your local files.
5. To log off and end the session, select Session > Disconnect.

Using Linux command line

The following instructions were performed on a Linux machine running Red Hat version 9. Check the help for the sftp command on your installation if the following commands don't work.

1. From the command prompt, type sftp username@reports.paypal.com.
2. Enter the password that you created for the SFTP user.
3. After you're logged in to the server, navigate to the report directory using the following command: cd ppreports/outgoing.
4. Type ls to list the files in the directory.
5. Download report files using get FILENAME. For example, get STL-20230711.01.002.CSV.
   • Note: Files are downloaded to the local machine directory you were in before you ran the SFTP command.
6. To log off and end the session, type exit.

Note: Command line SFTP supports wild card operators. For example:

• To download all settlement reports on the server, type get STL-*
• To download all reports for July 2023, type get STL-202307*

SFTP Reports