Are Your Paypal Records Driving You Crazy?

Paypal is one of the best inventions of the interwebz in my opinion.

It makes receiving, sending and paying safe and secure.

However.

Paypal is a bitch when it comes to doing your record keeping. A time sinking, stress inducing, holy mother of unicorns when will it all end bitch.

I’m going to concentrate on payments you have made rather than payments received. I’ll save that for another post (I have fun stuff saved up for that one, keep an eye out).

So what do you do?

Give Yourself A Break

First step is to remember you aren’t omniscient.

You aren’t to know everything beforehand.

This is a good tip for business in general, including corporates and banks who believe they do know everything, going by certain recent behaviours (ahem, did some politics slip in there, I do apologise 😉 )

So when you are faced with line after line in your bank statement with ‘Paypal’ and no other details, forcing you to spend hours digging up who you paid, for what and why, remember it isn’t you.

On the other hand, if you have to do this every year, kick yourself up your lovely backside right now, and go do something about it.

Like contact me for some help and a brownie.

Have a cookie.

Do Something! aka Stop The Stress Happening Again

When I was doing my 2012-13 tex return, this above is what you don’t want.

Lots of unidentified Paypal payments that took me a lot of frustration and hours to detail. What was I buying, what was it and who was I paying, dammit!

Nightmare. That’s hours of my life I’ll never get back that could have been spent nibbling chocolate truffles and quaffing cocktails.

I took action and moved as many payments as I could away from Paypal debit and bank transfer. There will be a delay before it’s easier for me as there is a year’s lag when doing a tax return but that’s manageable.

At the moment I’m doing 2013-14 and although I have line after line after Paypal payments with no details, I know that it will be different next year when I do my 2014-15 tax return

(and yes, it is still doing my nut in, that’s why I am writing this post to help you out).

[Tweet “Good record keeping is about step by step, making it better”]

How To Make It Easier

1. Check your bank and credit card statements

• Paypal payments appear differently depending on the bank and how you paid
• For example, it’s only my bank statements I have this issue with (paid by bank transfer and debit card). My credit card statements have the details

2. Remember to keep your sanity

• No matter how frustrating, it’s not worth getting anxious or panicky over
• If medically necessary (ahem), make some cookies

3. Take action as it suits your personality

• Option 1: Go through your statements and change your method of payment in one session to get it over with all at once
• Option 2: Every time you receive the Paypal payment notification in your email, change that payment to avoid overwhelm
• Do which one works best and don’t get caught up in ‘the perfect thing’, taking action is what matters

 

Paypal transactions, if they’re driving you round the twist, give me a call.

I can make it a whole lot easier even if I can’t magic all the Paypal nuttiness away. And send you cake of course. ‘Cause who does tax returns without cake?

Have you also read 5 Ways To Save Money On Bank & Paypal Charges.

 

Do Paypal payments drive you crazy too? What do you do?