Stripe and PayPal Bookkeeping for an Irish LTD

Start with the sale, the collection and the transfer

An order, an invoice, a captured customer payment and a bank payout answer different questions. A customer might pay a deposit before delivery, settle an older invoice or receive a partial refund. The amount collected is therefore not automatically revenue earned in that month, and a bank transfer is not evidence of the underlying supply by itself.

The CRO's proper-books guidance requires records that explain transactions and support a reasonably accurate view of assets, liabilities and profit or loss. For an online seller, a bank-feed list alone can leave out both the original activity and money still held by a provider.

First identify the legal seller. This guide assumes your LTD sells to the customer and the provider processes its payment. If a marketplace or merchant-of-record arrangement is involved, give the accountant the contract rather than applying an own-sales template without review.

• CRO: adequate accounting records and proper books

Use a payment clearing account without counting sales twice

A useful bookkeeping approach is to track each company payment-provider balance separately, often through a clearing account. The name matters less than the control: you should be able to explain how the balance changed and match the later transfer to the bank. Ask your accountant to approve the setup before importing a backlog.

Stripe distinguishes a balance-style reconciliation from matching automatic payout batches. In the balance approach, payouts are transfers between the Stripe balance and the bank, not new customer payments. Choose the reporting workflow that fits the account rather than combining overlapping imports casually.

For example, an integration might already post invoice sales, payment receipts and fees. If someone also codes every bank deposit as sales, the business can count the same activity twice. Keep a short map showing which system creates each entry, which feed matches it and which exceptions a person must review.

• Stripe: balance-style and payout-batch reconciliation

A worked example: EUR 6,000 collected is not EUR 5,500 of sales

Consider a fictional retailer reconciling one euro-denominated payment account for a complete month. It starts with EUR 500 already held by the provider, collects EUR 6,000 from customers, refunds EUR 300, incurs EUR 180 of recorded fees and receives EUR 5,500 in bank payouts. Assume no disputes, conversions, other adjustments or transfers in transit for this simplified example.

The closing balance is EUR 520: 500 + 6,000 - 300 - 180 - 5,500. Match that EUR 520 to the corresponding provider balance report. The EUR 5,500 received by the bank is only the transfer amount; it is not an alternative measurement of the month's customer collections.

This is a cash-reconciliation example, not a sales journal or tax calculation. Collections might include tax, deposits or older debts. Establish earned revenue, any tax element and the nature of refunds separately. The EUR 180 is an invented example amount, not a quoted Stripe or PayPal fee, and neither EUR 5,500 nor EUR 520 is the company's taxable profit.

Stripe: export the report that answers your question

For a period-end balance review, Stripe's Balance summary report works like a statement. Its itemised activity export includes gross, fee and net information in settlement currency. Keep the summary and the detailed CSV needed to explain it; a screenshot of the bank transfer does not supply that detail.

For an automatic payout, the Payout reconciliation report helps identify the batch of activity behind the transfer. Stripe says this report is for automatic payouts, subject to its platform exceptions. With manual payouts, or instant payouts whose composition you control, do not assume the same transaction-to-payout association exists.

Record which account, report, period and currency were exported. If two reports show different totals, check their date definitions and purpose before assuming one is wrong. You need a consistent monthly reconciliation, not every possible dashboard export.

• Stripe: Balance summary report and export fields
• Stripe: automatic payout reconciliation and limitations

PayPal: keep the balance statement and understand the activity rows

PayPal's monthly and custom statements summarise opening and closing balances and balance-affecting activity. Its guidance says these statements exclude pending items such as uncaptured authorisations. Keep unresolved items on a separate review list; an absent pending item is not automatically a missing completed sale.

The Activity Download report supplies transaction-level detail. PayPal documents a Balance Impact field with Debit, Credit and Memo values, alongside status, currency, transaction identifiers and invoice fields. Do not sum every row as if all rows were additional completed customer payments.

Preserve the original export before filtering it. In a working copy, explain which statuses and event types are included in the reconciliation and link related refunds or reversals. A spreadsheet total is only useful when the accountant can reproduce it from the underlying rows.

• PayPal: monthly statements and excluded pending activity
• PayPal: Activity Download fields and balance impact

Treat refunds, disputes and held balances as different events

Create an exception list with the original order, payment identifier, event date, amount, reason and current status. Distinguish an ordinary customer refund from a contested card payment, an additional dispute fee or a temporary restriction on withdrawing funds. Ask the accountant how each should appear; do not put every deduction into one refunds category.

A held amount is not automatically a processing expense simply because it has not reached the bank. Establish where it appears in the provider's records, whether it is available or restricted, and what evidence supports its eventual release or loss. Avoid forcing a reconciliation by writing off an unexplained difference.

A payment refund also does not, by itself, complete the invoice correction. Where a VAT credit note is required, Revenue lists particulars including a unique number, the reason and a cross-reference to the original invoice. Connect the commercial correction and payment movement, and have any disputed tax adjustment reviewed.

• Revenue: information required on a VAT credit note

Close the right period and account for money still in transit

Use consistent start and end dates, time zones and currencies. Stripe allows financial reports in the account's time zone or UTC and explains that the choice affects filtering and timestamps. A difference around midnight can be a reporting boundary rather than a lost payment.

A payout initiated near month-end may reach the bank later. Match its identifier, amount, provider status and eventual bank arrival, and ask the accountant how to carry the timing difference. Do not invent a sale or expense just to make two reports with different cut-offs agree.

Reconcile each currency separately before combining figures in company accounts. Keep original-currency amounts and conversion evidence. A euro bank receipt does not erase a sterling balance still held on the platform; our separate GBP and USD accounting guide covers the wider currency questions.

• Stripe: report periods, time zones and settlement currencies

Keep Irish tax treatment separate from dashboard labels

A provider category called tax, sales or fees is not a professional assessment of an Irish company's liability. Give the accountant the actual product or service, customer locations, invoice dates, delivery evidence and relevant agreements. Explain subscriptions, deposits, gift vouchers or marketplace sales at the outset rather than assuming all receipts have one treatment.

Likewise, do not choose a VAT reporting date simply because that is when the net payout reached the bank. If the company uses, or is considering, the cash-receipts basis, review the authorisation and receipt-timing questions in our dedicated guide. That issue is different from reconciling the payment account.

Keep provider fee documents as well as transaction exports. Ask for a review of the actual supplier and service before assuming all charges have identical VAT treatment or that tax is recoverable. Request specialist advice where the business model, overseas activity or marketplace contract makes a simple own-sales approach unsuitable.

Build a monthly accountant handover that can be checked

Agree one recurring close date and a named person to prepare the pack. Include the reports and supporting evidence, not passwords, card data or a public spreadsheet of customer details. Use the provider's appropriate access roles or a secure document-sharing route agreed with the accountant.

Revenue says the business remains responsible for its records even when an accountant keeps them. Preserve a traceable link from order or invoice to payment, adjustment, settlement and ledger entry. This also makes a change of bookkeeper less dependent on one person's memory.

• Identify the company seller, each payment account and each currency balance.
• Supply opening and closing statements plus original transaction exports for the period.
• Match invoices or orders to payment IDs, including deposits and older debts.
• List fees, refunds, disputes, restrictions and unresolved differences separately.
• Match payout references to bank entries and explain transfers in transit.
• State which integrations already post entries so imports do not duplicate them.
• Provide supporting invoices, credit notes and conversion evidence securely.
• Record who reviews exceptions, approves corrections and completes any tax filing.

• Revenue: business record keeping and linking documents

Keep records outside the provider's download window

Section 285 of the Companies Act requires relevant accounting records to be preserved for at least six years after the end of the financial year containing the latest date to which they relate. Do not substitute a provider's current online download window for the company's retention obligation.

Keep readable original exports, the final reconciliation, supporting documents and an explanation of adjustments in a backed-up company archive. Ask the adviser whether unresolved matters or other requirements mean a longer period is needed. Test retrieval before cancelling an account or removing an integration.

• Companies Act: Section 285 retention starting point

What to confirm before buying accounting support

StartCompany.ie connects businesses with accounting support. Describe the channels, monthly transaction volume, currencies, integrations and any unreconciled months when requesting a quote. Say whether you need a one-off cleanup, a new clearing-account setup or ongoing monthly bookkeeping.

Confirm whether the proposed scope includes payment-platform reconciliation, disputed transactions, VAT review, year-end accounts and tax returns. A formation package does not automatically include those tasks, and a bookkeeping engagement does not automatically include resolving every historic dispute or cross-border tax issue.

Agree the records required, secure handover method, review frequency, excluded work and total payable before instructing the provider. For a business still being formed, compare the relevant incorporation package separately. Incorporation does not guarantee payment-provider acceptance, banking access or any particular tax treatment.