--- title: Simple Reconciliation | Shopware Community Hub description: >- Match orders, PayPal transactions, and bank payouts using Merchant Dashboard reports in a repeatable monthly reconciliation workflow. canonical_url: 'https://hub.shopware.com/learn/unit/simple-reconciliation' --- # Simple Reconciliation - **Describe** reconciliation as matching three ledgers—**shop orders**, **PayPal transactions**, and **bank payouts**. - **Use** the **Activity Report**, **monthly statements**, and **custom statements** from the **Merchant Dashboard** in a monthly workflow. - **Follow** a repeatable reconciliation sequence most small teams can close in a handful of working days. - **Identify** when a remaining delta likely points to a known pitfall rather than a platform defect. # Unit 2: Simple Reconciliation — Matching Orders to Payouts **Strum & Co.'s** finance lead closed April with a new habit. Instead of exporting orders from **Shopware administration** and comparing them directly to the bank deposit — and coming up short every time — she worked through three layers: orders, then transactions, then payouts. It took longer the first time. By the third month it took an afternoon. This unit walks through the reconciliation workflow, the reports that power it, and how to handle the gaps that come up even when everything is working correctly. --- ## The Three-Ledger Model in Practice Reconciliation in ecommerce means matching three separate records: 1. **Order ledger** — what was sold and captured, in **Shopware administration** 2. **Transaction ledger** — what payment events occurred, in **PayPal Merchant Dashboard → Activity** 3. **Payout ledger** — what transferred to the bank, in **PayPal Merchant Dashboard → Money / Payouts** and the bank statement Merchants who skip the transaction ledger — going directly from orders to bank — will always find gaps they cannot explain. The transaction ledger is the middle layer that connects commerce events to cash movements. > **The join key:** every transaction has a unique **Transaction ID**. Match it back to the original **Shopware** order through the order's payment reference. Agree on the field name with finance once — then use it consistently across every reconciliation run. --- ## The Three Reports You Need Everything for layers 2 and 3 lives in **PayPal Merchant Dashboard → Activity → All Reports**: | Report | What it gives you | When to use it | |--------|------------------|----------------| | **Activity Report** | Transaction-level export — date, transaction ID, amount, fee, net, status, method — in CSV or PDF | Daily workhorse; the primary source for transaction matching | | **Monthly statement** | Bank-style summary: opening and closing balances per currency, debits and credits by category | Month-end anchor; confirms the period totals before you close | | **Custom statement** | Any date range, often up to three years back | Audits, tax preparation, and investigating historical gaps | --- ## The Monthly Reconciliation Workflow Work through these steps in order. The sequence matters — each step builds on the previous one. **Step 1 — Pull the period's reports** Download the **monthly statement** and the detailed **Activity Report** for the period from **PayPal Merchant Dashboard → Activity → All Reports**. Export the order list from **Shopware administration** for the same date range. **Step 2 — Match transactions to orders** Use the **Transaction ID** as the join key between the Activity Report and the Shopware order list. Each captured order should have a corresponding transaction row. Flag any orders without a matching transaction ID — these need investigation before you close. Most merchants automate this step through their accounting tool's **PayPal Business connector** rather than matching by hand. If you are matching manually, sort both exports by date and work through them systematically. **Step 3 — Reconcile fee totals** Sum the fee column in the **Activity Report** for the period. This is your total processing cost. Cross-check against the fee figure in the **monthly statement**. If they differ, look for refund transactions or chargebacks that carry fee adjustments. **Step 4 — Book refunds and chargebacks** Identify all refund and chargeback transactions in the **Activity Report** for the period. Note that some of these may relate to orders from prior periods — a February order refunded in March appears in the March transaction ledger, not February's. Book them to the correct accounting period per your revenue recognition policy. **Step 5 — Reconcile to the payout** Use the **payout net formula** from Unit 1 to verify the period's payout: Captured transactions − fees − refunds − chargebacks ± reserves = payout net Drill into the payout batch in **Money / Payouts** to confirm the breakdown. If the calculated net matches the bank deposit, the period is clean. **Step 6 — Export and hand off** Export the reconciled data to your accounting system and hand off to your accountant for sign-off. With clean transaction matching, this step should be straightforward. > **Strum & Co. — closing April:** > Finance lead pulls the April Activity Report and monthly statement. She exports Shopware orders for April. Transaction IDs match across 847 of 851 orders — four need investigation. Two are authorization holds that expired without capture (the orders were canceled before dispatch — correctly voided). One is a timing gap — captured March 31st, settled April 1st. One is a partial capture she does not recognize — she flags it for the owner. Everything else closes cleanly. The April bank deposit matches the calculated payout net to the cent. --- ## Accounting Tool Connectors Most accounting tools in Shopware's target markets — including common European accounting platforms — offer established **PayPal Business account integrations**. Connect the account, let transaction data flow in, and the matching step runs largely automatically. You are not building a custom bridge. You are choosing whether to automate the match through a connector or spot-check exports manually. For most SMB merchants, a connector is worth the setup time within the first two or three months of operation. **Strum & Co.** connected their accounting tool to their **PayPal Business account** in month two. The April close took half the time of March. --- ## When Fee Totals Still Look Wrong After matching transaction IDs, if fee totals still disagree, work through this checklist before opening a support ticket: **Method mix has shifted** — different payment methods carry different fee rates. If card volume increased relative to wallet volume, the blended fee rate will be higher than last month even if rates did not change. **Refunds carry fee adjustments** — when a refund is processed, the original transaction fee may be partially or fully returned depending on the method and your agreement. These adjustments appear as separate rows in the Activity Report. **Chargebacks deduct from the current period** — a chargeback on a March order may deduct from the April payout. The fee and chargeback amount appear in April's transaction ledger. **Reserve movements are not fees** — reserve adjustments reduce the payout but are not processing fees. They appear separately in the payout breakdown and will reverse when the reserve is released. If none of these explain the gap, export the Activity Report, note the specific transaction IDs where the discrepancy occurs, and contact **Shopware Support** with that detail ready. --- ## Summary Three habits that close months cleanly: - Reconcile **orders → transactions → payouts** — never orders to bank alone - Use the **Activity Report** as the daily workhorse and the **monthly statement** as the period anchor - Keep **Transaction ID** as the consistent join key — and automate the match with a connector where possible --- Next you'll see how captured refunds hit payout periods and which accounting questions to route to your accountant—not at month-end when memory is weakest.