--- title: Transactions and Dashboards | Shopware Community Hub description: >- Order-level data in Shopware administration versus bird’s-eye views in the PayPal Merchant Dashboard, plus account links and sandbox access. canonical_url: 'https://hub.shopware.com/learn/unit/transactions-and-dashboards' --- # Transactions and Dashboards - **Explain** what payment information **Shopware administration** shows per order versus what lives in the **PayPal Merchant Dashboard**. - **Navigate** the four dashboard areas merchants use most—**Activity**, **Reports**, **Money / Payouts**, and the **Resolution Center**. - **Use** **account management** features—including **dashboard links**, **disconnect**, and **sandbox** accounts—for each connected **PayPal Business account**. - **Route** order-specific questions to **administration** and business-wide questions to the **Merchant Dashboard**. # Unit 1: Transactions and Dashboards — Where to Look for What **Strum & Co.'s** finance lead spent her first week after go-live looking for a payments overview dashboard inside **Shopware administration**. She expected something like a stats panel — totals, trends, payout history. She could not find it, and assumed something was misconfigured. Nothing was misconfigured. The overview she was looking for lives in the **PayPal Merchant Dashboard**, not in **Shopware administration**. Once she knew that, the confusion disappeared. This unit explains the two-surface split clearly — what each system shows, what it does not show, and which one to open for each type of question. --- ## What the Order View Shows **Shopware administration** is order-first. When you open a payment record in administration, you are looking at one commerce record with its payment context: - **Status** — authorized, captured, refunded, and so on - **Payment method** — which method the customer used - **Amount** — what was charged or authorized - **Available actions** — capture, refund, cancel, or void where supported for that order This is exactly what you need when someone asks about a specific order. It is not designed to show aggregate views — totals, trends, fee roll-ups, or payout history across the business. Those live in the **PayPal Merchant Dashboard**. That split is by design. **Shopware administration** is where you act on orders. The **PayPal Merchant Dashboard** is where you understand the payments business at scale. > **Setting expectations with your team:** when you onboard finance or support, tell them upfront — *administration is for acting on a specific order; the Merchant Dashboard is for everything bird's-eye.* One sentence saves significant confusion later. --- ## The PayPal Merchant Dashboard — Four Areas That Matter When you onboard finance or operations to **Shopware Payments**, walk them through these four areas in the **PayPal Merchant Dashboard**. Bookmark it and enable email notifications there. ### Activity — Transaction List **Activity** is your transaction list. Two entry points: - **Activity → All Transactions** for the full list with filters - The **recent activity panel** on the home screen for a quick glance Filters typically include date, transaction type, and status. Each row shows date, name, status, transaction ID, gross amount, fee, and net amount. This is the first place to go when a specific transaction needs to be traced — for example a payment that shows authorized in **Shopware** but has not captured, or a refund that the customer says has not arrived. ### Reports — Exports and Statements Under **Activity → All Reports**, three report types are relevant for day-to-day operations: | Report | What it gives you | |--------|------------------| | **Activity Report** | Customizable transaction-level export in CSV or PDF — the workhorse for reconciliation | | **Monthly statements** | Bank-style summaries: opening and closing balances, debits and credits by category | | **Custom statements** | Any date range, often up to three years back — useful for audits and tax preparation | Finance lives here at month-end. Support uses it when a customer needs confirmation of a transaction that does not appear clearly in the order view. ### Money / Payouts — Balance and Transfers **Money** — sometimes labeled **Payouts** in navigation — shows: - Current **PayPal** balance - Funds on **hold** - Recent **transfers** to your bank account - A **breakdown** of what each transfer contained when you drill into a single payout batch This is where **Strum & Co.'s** finance lead now starts every morning. When the question is "where is our cash?", this is the answer. ### Resolution Center — Disputes, Claims, and Chargebacks The **Resolution Center** lists every open **dispute**, **claim**, and **chargeback** with status, response deadline, and the next required action — respond, view, or accept. This is not a tool you discover only when a case goes wrong. It is a view you check regularly — ideally weekly — so nothing falls past its deadline unnoticed. The Disputes Essentials course covers the full workflow; for now, know where the door is. --- ## Account Management and Dashboard Access **Shopware administration** links you to the right **PayPal Merchant Dashboard** for each connected account. For each connected account, administration provides: - **Direct links** to the **PayPal Merchant Dashboard** — your bridge from order-level work in Shopware to bird's-eye activity, reports, payouts, and the Resolution Center - **Manual disconnect** functionality when you need to rotate, retire, or replace a connection — for example during a channel cutover or entity restructuring A **dedicated sandbox account** is available for development, staging, and QA validation. Use it with your change-control rules before pointing a production sales channel at a live account. > **In multi-brand or multi-entity setups:** always confirm which connected account processed an order before opening a dashboard link. Payouts, fees, and disputes follow the account — not only the Shopware order number. --- ## Which Surface to Open — Quick Reference | Question | Start here | |---------|-----------| | Refund this customer for this order | **Shopware administration** — order payment panel | | Why did February's payout differ from February's revenue? | **PayPal Merchant Dashboard → Money / Payouts** and **Reports** | | Do we have open disputes this week? | **PayPal Merchant Dashboard → Resolution Center** | | Export all transactions for the accountant | **PayPal Merchant Dashboard → Activity → All Reports** | | Open the dashboard for the PayPal account tied to a specific channel | **Shopware administration → payments / connected accounts → Merchant Dashboard link** | | What status does order #12345 show right now? | **Shopware administration** — order view | | What fees were deducted from this week's payout? | **PayPal Merchant Dashboard → Money / Payouts** — drill into payout batch | --- ## Summary Two surfaces, one operational habit: - **Shopware administration** — act on a specific order; manage which **PayPal** accounts your channels use - **PayPal Merchant Dashboard** — understand the payments business; trace transactions, reconcile payouts, manage disputes Neither surface replaces the other. The habit is knowing which one to open first — and that decision is almost always driven by whether the question is about **a specific order** or **the payments business as a whole**. --- You'll then practice the per-order actions you use most—capture, refund, cancel, and void—and the authorization habits that keep fulfillment aligned with when money moves.