Connecting PayPal to Mercury Books brings your sales, refunds, fees, and payouts into your books automatically. This article explains what comes in, how it posts, and what to watch for.
Connecting PayPal
- Go to Accounts in Books
- Click Add account and choose PayPal
- Authorize Mercury to read your PayPal data
- Map your ledgers — pick or create a revenue account, a fee account, and a refund account
- Set the date you want Books to start pulling PayPal activity from
Books creates an account in your chart of accounts representing your PayPal balance. Sales and fees post there until the money is paid out to your bank.
Note: Nothing syncs until the ledger mapping step is complete.
What comes in
- Sales — posted as revenue
- Refunds — posted to your refund account
- Fees — posted to your fee account
- Taxes collected through PayPal
- Payouts — transfers from your PayPal balance to your bank account
The connection is read-only. Books reads from PayPal and never writes back.
Avoiding a duplicate PayPal account
PayPal can also be linked as a bank account through Plaid. Don't do both — linking PayPal through Plaid and through the PayPal integration creates two separate accounts in your books, and your PayPal activity gets recorded twice.
Use the PayPal integration from Accounts > Add account. If you already have PayPal linked through Plaid, remove that connection first.
Reconciling PayPal
Your PayPal account in Books reconciles like any other account, on monthly windows, against your PayPal balance for the period. Your bank account reconciles against your bank statement, where payouts appear as linked deposits.
See our Reconciling accounts in Mercury Books article.
Troubleshooting
PayPal is connected but nothing is syncing.
The ledger mapping step isn't finished. Go to Accounts, open your PayPal row, and complete it.
My PayPal activity appears twice.
You likely have PayPal linked through both Plaid and the PayPal integration. Remove the Plaid connection and delete the duplicate account.
A payout deposit is categorized as revenue.
Give it a day — Books recategorizes it as a transfer once the payout event arrives. If it doesn't resolve, categorize it as a transfer between accounts yourself.
FAQs
Will connecting PayPal change anything in PayPal?
No. The connection is read-only.
Can I match PayPal payments to invoices?
Yes. Open the transaction and match the payment to the invoice it settles. See our Matching payments to invoices, bills, and payroll article.
Can I change which accounts PayPal posts to?
Yes. Open your PayPal connection from the Accounts page and update the ledger mapping.
Does Books support PayPal in currencies other than USD?
Not currently. Books works in USD.
Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.