How do I integrate my PayPal Zettle account with QuickBooks?
QuickBooks is a cloud accounting software that makes it easy to manage your books on multiple devices.
How does the integration work?
Once you've connected your QuickBooks account, PayPal Zettle automatically imports your data into the bookkeeping accounts of your choice.
We suggest that you create separate bookkeeping accounts for each set of data, making it easier to get a clear overview of payments going in and out of your PayPal Zettle account and your bank account.
The guide below is a suggestion on how to set up your connection with QuickBooks in the most straightforward way.
To avoid duplicated bookkeeping, it’s important that you only choose one source to integrate with accountancy platforms.
If your business accepts most payments in-store through PayPal Zettle, consider integrating from my.zettle.com.
If your business tends to use more products offered by PayPal, such as the PayPal Business Mastercard or takes mostly online transactions with few payments accepted in-store through PayPal Zettle, consider integrating from PayPal.com.
We’d always recommend chatting with your accountant if you’re unsure how to proceed.
Unsupported plans
Certain QuickBooks plans are not supported on PayPal Zettle because of their limited functionalities. Check if you need to change your plan before connecting to PayPal Zettle.
Not supported on PayPal Zettle:
- QuickBooks Self-Employed for sole traders
- QuickBooks Simple Start for sole traders
- QuickBooks Simple Start for limited companies
QuickBooks Essentials and QuickBooks Plus are supported.
Here's how to connect your PayPal Zettle account with QuickBooks:
- Log in to your PayPal Zettle account.
- Go to your Integrations page and find the Quickbooks integration.
- Click Connect and read the information regarding customers and suppliers.
- Enter your Quickbooks login details, then select which QuickBooks organization PayPal Zettle can access and click Authorize (you can only connect one PayPal Zettle account to one QuickBooks organization).
- Map the Zettle Accounts to your QuickBooks Accounts.
- Choose a start date for when you want to retroactively export data.
- Click Save.
If everything is set up correctly, you'll see your PayPal Zettle data in QuickBooks the following day.
QuickBooks account type mapping
To import the data, specify which PayPal Zettle data goes into which QuickBooks account. Each transaction type can have a dedicated account in QuickBooks.
When does the import happen?
Select up to one year in the past to start the import.
PayPal Zettle automatically imports data to QuickBooks once every night. Once you set up the integration, the first PayPal Zettle data will appear in QuickBooks the next day.
Can I change the start date after setting up the integration?
No, as it would result in duplicated data for overlapping days.
What data is shared between PayPal Zettle and QuickBooks?
When you authorize the connection between PayPal Zettle and QuickBooks, you give permission to QuickBooks to read your PayPal Zettle sales and financial data. You also give permission to PayPal Zettle to read your QuickBooks company, accounts, tax rates, customers, suppliers, invoices, bills, payments, balance sheets and bank statements.
How can I avoid double-counting purchases if I am using a POS other than PayPal Zettle and have already integrated with QuickBooks?
Switch off the “‘Synchronize sales data” option in order to avoid double-counting. In this case, you only need to sync PayPal Zettle fee data to QuickBooks. You can do this by selecting an account for “Zettle fees” to record fees as an expense (bill), and you should also select an account for “Zettle Card Payments” to record payments for the expense. The PayPal Zettle fees are subtracted from card payments upon payout from PayPal Zettle to your bank account.
The data sync has stopped and I’m missing PayPal Zettle data in QuickBooks. What can I do?
Log in to your PayPal Zettle account and go to Integrations. Verify that your connection to QuickBooks is still active, if not, your connection to QuickBooks has been deauthorized – usually due to password or permission change – and you need to connect again.
If your connection is active, go to the QuickBooks settings page and verify that you have a valid account selected for each required field. If an account is missing or has become archived in QuickBooks, you'll see an error message on the field. Make sure to select a new account and save the new settings. The integration will automatically backfill data for the missing period with the new settings from the next day.
If all settings look good on the QuickBooks page in PayPal Zettle, please check your QuickBooks account and make sure that your subscription is active.
How does the data mapping work?
Zettle sales
Account mapping
Switch to sync PayPal Zettle sales data in QuickBooks if you're using the PayPal Zettle app as your point of sale. Switch off if you're using another point-of-sale system (e.g. Lightspeed, The Good Till, Revel) that already syncs sales data in QuickBooks to prevent double counting. With the daily sales recording switched off, the PayPal Zettle integration needs to only record the fees and fee refunds (see below).
Sales are booked on a nominal account in the “Revenue” category. You can select an existing account from the dropdown. If you don’t have an account available, you need to create an account in QuickBooks for this purpose.
How does this data appear in QuickBooks?
PayPal Zettle pushes a single sales invoice to QuickBooks Online each day. This invoice represents all sales made over the course of that day. The invoice will contain one line item for each tax rate the merchant trades in, with this line item representing the total of all sales at that tax rate. If no sales have been made for a given tax rate on that day, the corresponding line item will be omitted.
Rounding
Discounts in PayPal Zettle are applied to the total of the purchase once all the items have been summed up rather than at an item level. As we're splitting out items into VAT Percentage across all sales for the day, discounts need to be applied at the item level which may lead to slight rounding discrepancies compared to applying the discount at the summed level. As per the advice of most accounting packages, we add an invoice line which will be ± 0.01 to bring the total in line with the correct total.
PayPal Zettle refunds
Account mapping
Refunds are also booked on a nominal account of type “Revenue”. It's typical to select the same account as for the PayPal Zettle sales account (see “Sales” above). However, a different account could be used if you want to report refunds separately within QuickBooks.
How this data appears in QuickBooks
PayPal Zettle pushes a single refund receipt to QuickBooks each day. This invoice represents all refunds made over the course of that day. The refund receipt contains one line item for each tax rate the merchant trades in, with this line item representing the total of all refunds at that tax rate. If no refunds have been made for a given tax rate on that day, the corresponding line item is omitted.
PayPal Zettle tipping
Account mapping
PayPal Zettle supports current and bank accounts for all payment accounts. You can select an existing account from the dropdown. If you don’t have an account available, you need to create an account in QuickBooks for this purpose.
How this data appears in QuickBooks
Gratuity is pushed to QuickBooks as part of the daily sales invoice as a separate line item.
PayPal Zettle fees
PayPal Zettle takes a percentage commission on every card transaction processed by the PayPal Zettle card reader.
The fees affect the amount deposited in your bank account, as they're subtracted from the card payment amounts upon payout. As a result, the current account (PayPal Zettle card payments) aren't zero after completing reconciliation against the bank feed. The integration, therefore, creates a purchase invoice in QuickBooks to account for PayPal Zettle fees. The payment for PayPal Zettle fees is applied to the account used for PayPal Zettle card payments.
Account mapping
Fees are booked on a nominal account of type “Expenses” and appear in the Expense section of a profit and loss report. You can select an existing account from the dropdown. If you don’t have an account available, you need to create an account in QuickBooks for this purpose.
How this data appears in QuickBooks
PayPal Zettle pushes a single Bill to QuickBooks Online each day. This bill represents all fees taken by PayPal Zettle over the course of that day. The bill can have more than one line if there are different types of transactions that occur throughout the day.
Fee refunds
How this data appears in QuickBooks
A single bank deposit is pushed each day representing all fee refunds processed that day.
PayPal Zettle deposits
Deposits are the revenue from your sales after deducting any fees owed to PayPal Zettle.
When your money is paid out, your bank processes and deposits it in your bank account. You should reconcile the PayPal Zettle deposit transaction against the deposit amount from your bank statement on QuickBooks.
Account mapping
Deposits are booked on a nominal account that represents the bank account you’ve connected to PayPal Zettle.
How this data appears on QuickBooks
It shows as a transfer from PayPal Zettle's liquid account to your business's bank account.
Zettle payments by card, Alipay and PayPal QR codes
Account mapping
Assign your liquid account to either a QuickBooks current or a QuickBooks bank account. If you don’t have an account available, you need to create an account in QuickBooks for this purpose.
The account configured for PayPal Zettle card payments represents the PayPal Zettle liquid account.
How this data appears in QuickBooks
PayPal Zettle pushes a single payment to QuickBooks per day, per payment type that has been used that day. So if you process 10 card payments and 20 cash payments in one day, 2 payments are pushed. These payments are recorded against the daily sales invoice.
PayPal Zettle invoice
Account mapping
- Invoice payments account – This is a current or a bank account where payments against PayPal Zettle invoices are received. As invoice payments are handled by PayPal Zettle, this account should represent the PayPal Zettle liquid account, and therefore be the same as the card payment account.
- Invoice fees account – This is a nominal account of type "Expenses", and it appears on the expenses section of a profit and loss report. Payment fee transactions are reconciled against this account.
How this data appears in QuickBooks
An invoice is pushed to QuickBooks as normal when an invoice purchase is made, however, a payment isn't immediately pushed against the invoice, so the invoice is displayed with an outstanding balance.
When the customer has made a payment against the invoice, a payment is pushed against the original invoice. This payment is booked against the Invoice payments account, which should match the PayPal Zettle liquid account. This is where invoice payments are paid into. If the payment pays the invoice in full, the invoice is marked as paid in QuickBooks.
Invoice fees are pushed in a similar way to standard PayPal Zettle card fees (see "Fees" above). A bill is pushed with a single line item with the expense account set to the Invoice fees account. A single payment is simultaneously pushed for the full payment of the bill, representing the transfer of money out of the liquid account to pay the fees. This payment is taken from the Invoice payments account.
PayPal Zettle gift cards
Account mapping
- Gift card sales: a nominal account of type “Liability”. The value of this account represents the number of outstanding gift cards.
- Gift card payment: Once a gift card is spent the money goes into sales and the gift card payments account, and out of the liability account.
How this data appears in QuickBooks
Bill in QuickBooks representing a payment using a gift card:
