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Last updated: July 14, 2026
This page defines the standardized values and naming conventions that we use across PayPal reports. Use it to interpret transaction record types and subtypes, identify payment instrument types, and understand how report file names are structured.
The record type field categorizes transactions based on accounting principles for reporting purposes. The record subtype provides more detail about the subcategory the transaction belongs to. These fields help you understand the different categories of transactions and account for them appropriately.
| Record type | Description | Record subtypes and descriptions |
|---|---|---|
Sale | Payment received from a buyer for the sale of goods or services. | No subtype: All sales transactions, unless specified otherwise. Invoice payment: Applicable for payments received as part of invoice payment transactions. |
Refund | Payment sent to a buyer when you refund the money they paid you for a sale. | Referenced: Refund related to a payment you had received earlier via PayPal. This refund will be referenced to the original payment in your PayPal account. Non-referenced: This refund has no reference to the original payment, which was made offline. |
Dispute | Money movement resulting from a dispute filed by you or the buyer. | Chargeback: Money moved back to the buyer's PayPal account when a dispute is resolved in favor of the buyer. Chargeback reversal: Reversal of a chargeback that was debited from your account earlier. Crypto buy: Reversal of a crypto sell transaction when a dispute is resolved in favor of the buyer. Crypto sell: Reversal of a crypto buy transaction when a dispute is resolved in favor of the buyer. Crypto payment received: Crypto deposit to an account. Crypto payment sent: Crypto withdrawal from an account. |
Payment sent | Payment made for services received. | Bill payment: Payment made against the bills received. |
Other payments | Transactions that are not related to sales, including postage payments, purchases through gift certificates, third-party payments, PayPal virtual debit card transactions, donations, rebates, crypto transfers, and certain types of reversals. | Payment sent: Other payments not directly related to a sale. Payment received: Other payments not directly related to a sale. Crypto payment sent: Crypto withdrawal from an account. Crypto payment received: Crypto deposit to an account. Donation: Payment sent or received as a donation. Blocked payment: Money movement when a payment is blocked. Other: Payments that cannot be put into any other existing category. Business payment: Payment between business accounts. |
Currency conversion | Accounting transaction generated to capture currency conversion details and costs. | Balance conversion from: Accounting transaction generated when your PayPal balance is converted from one currency to another. Shows the original currency. Balance conversion to: Accounting transaction generated when your PayPal balance is converted from one currency to another. Shows the destination currency. Conversion from: Accounting transaction generated when a sale or refund amount is converted from one currency to another. Shows the original currency. Conversion to: Accounting transaction generated when a sale or refund amount is converted from one currency to another. Shows the destination currency. |
Add money | Addition of funds to your balance by you or a business event. | No subtype: General money additions to your balance. Credit card transfer: Money added to your balance using a credit card. PayPal Credit transfer: Money added to your balance using a PayPal Credit scheme. PayPal payables: Money added to your balance by PayPal, which you must pay back later. Incentive redemption: Funds added to your balance for incentives, gift certificates, or rewards. PYUSD rewards: Funds added to your balance as a reward for holding PYUSD. Currency conversion: Funds added to your balance as part of a balance currency conversion. |
Withdraw money | Withdrawal of money from your balance to a bank or non-banking institution account by you or auto-generated business events. | No subtype: General money withdrawals from your balance. Disbursed: General money withdrawals from your balance. Non-bank withdrawal: Withdrawals not going to your linked bank account. Credit card withdrawal: Withdrawals to a credit card account. Manual withdrawal: Withdrawals initiated manually by the user. Not related to automated, scheduled withdrawals. |
Bonus | Addition of funds to your PayPal balance as a bonus for services you've subscribed to. | No subtype: All general bonuses. Cash bonus: — Referral bonus: — Warranty bonus: — Protection bonus: — |
Reversal | — | Payment reversal: Payment reversals due to disputes and risk checks. Bank reversal: Reversal of a payment by a buyer through their bank account, triggered because the bank declined the payment. Incentive reversal: Reversal of an incentive payment made to you in the past. After reversal, the incentive is available for use again. |
Failed disbursement | Failure of an automated transaction that was initiated by PayPal to disburse money from your balance to your linked bank account. | Bank reversal: Failure of an automated transaction that was initiated by PayPal to disburse money from your balance to your linked bank account. |
Adjustment | Debits or credits made by PayPal to adjust your account. | No subtype: All general adjustments. PayPal Credit adjustment: Adjustments made for money you owe to PayPal on account of a PayPal Credit transfer. Account correction: Adjustments due to account corrections. PayPal receivables: Adjustment made for money you owe to PayPal on account of a PayPal payables transaction. |
Hold | Holds placed on the amount of a sales transaction or on all the funds in your account. | No subtype: All general holds, including holds on crypto. Account hold: Holds placed on your account due to a payment review. Temporary hold: A temporary hold placed on your account due to a payment review. Disbursement hold: Hold on funds before being disbursed to your account. Account reserve: Amount reserved at your account level, based on your instructions to PayPal, to manage your risk. Transactional reserve: Amount reserved at a transactional level, based on your instructions to PayPal, to manage your risk. Dispute hold: Amount put on hold to manage risk when a dispute is filed against you. Tax hold: Hold placed on funds from a sale due to a missing Tax Identification Number (TIN). |
Hold release | Reversals of holds and incentive usages in your account. | No subtype: All general reversals of hold, including crypto. Account hold release: Reversal of an account hold. See also Hold. Temporary hold release: Reversal of a temporary hold. See also Hold. Disbursement hold release: Reversal of a disbursement hold. Account reserve release: Reversal of the amount put on reserve at the account level. Transactional reserve release: Reversal of the amount put on reserve at the transactional level. Dispute hold release: Reversal of an amount put on hold to manage risk when a dispute is filed against you. Tax hold release: Release of a hold on funds from a sale. |
Funds transfer | Transfer of funds between 2 accounts, such as your PayPal accounts, PayPal accounts of partners or marketplaces, and general ledger accounts. | No subtype: All general funds transfers. Receivables financing: — Recoupment: Transfer of funds from a PayPal account, bank account, or a partner account to another PayPal account to cover a negative balance. Transfer refund: Reversal of a funds transfer transaction. Sent/Received: All general funds transfers. Fee debit: Fees charged as part of gross billing. |
Fees | Transactions that record fees that PayPal charged or reversed. | No subtype: General PayPal fees, including both variable and fixed components. Withdrawal fees: Fees charged on withdrawals from your PayPal balance under special circumstances. Chargeback fees: Fees charged on chargeback processing. Monthly fees: Monthly fees charged for your PayPal Payments Pro account or for special products such as VT and PRO. Dispute fees: Fees charged on disputes that required PayPal's involvement for resolution. Fee reversal: Reversal of a fee. Custody fee: A fee charged for holding more than the allowed balance in your account. Bank return fees: Recovery of fees charged by a bank on returns, which can be due to reasons such as insufficient funds or high risk. Campaign fees: Fees associated with a campaign running in your PayPal account. Fee refund: Refund of a fee charged to your account earlier. Payout fees: Fees charged on payouts to multiple recipients. Transactional fees: Fees charged by PayPal on a transaction. Authorization success: Fees charged by PayPal for an authorization success event. Authorization declines: Fees charged by PayPal for an authorization decline event. Capture success: Fees charged by PayPal for a capture success event. Capture declines: Fees charged by PayPal for a capture decline event. Void success: Fees charged by PayPal for a void success event. Void declines: Fees charged by PayPal for a void decline event. Refund success: Fees charged by PayPal for a refund success event. Refund declines: Fees charged by PayPal for a refund decline event. Monthly scheme fees: Scheme fees charged monthly. Authorization scheme fee: Scheme fees associated with authorizations. Verification scheme fee: Scheme fees associated with verifications. Authorization misuse scheme fee: Scheme fees associated with authorization misuses. Subscription fee: The fee charged for subscribed services. Subscription fee reversal: A refund for a previously charged subscription fee. Network fee: The fee charged when a refund or partial refund is processed. Event fees: Fees charged for every transactional event, such as transaction success and authorization declined. Scheme fees: Fees charged by schemes for processing unbranded card transactions. Platform subscription fees: Fees charged by the platform for certain services. |
Partner fees | Fees that a partner charged for processing a transaction. | No subtype: General fees that a partner charged. Partner tax: Tax that a partner withheld. |
Payout | Payout transaction. | Sent/Received: Amount that was paid out or received from a different account. |
Payout refund | Refund against a past payout transaction. | No subtype: — |
Payout reversal | Reversal of a payout transaction. | No subtype: — |
Scheme fees | — | Monthly fees: Fees charged by your interchange plus plus (IC++) scheme. |
Tax | Tax withholding to IRS. | Tax withholding: — |
Crypto currency trade | Crypto buy and sell transactions. | Crypto buy: Transaction for buying crypto. Crypto sell: Transaction for selling crypto. Crypto sell by PayPal: PayPal-initiated sell transaction. Funds transfer: Fund transfer as part of a crypto trade. |
The following table lists the payment methods that PayPal accepts. Use the Payment instrument type and Payment instrument subtype fields to identify the payment method that a buyer used in a transaction.
Payment instrument type gives the main family name. Payment instrument subtype gives the granular details of the payment method under each family. For wallets and network tokens, the payment source subtype shows the card type and card brand used to fund the transaction, for example Credit card-Visa or Debit card-Mastercard.
| Payment instrument type | Subtypes |
|---|---|
Credit card | American Express, Cartes Bancaires, Cetelem, Cofidis, Cofinoga, UnionPay, Delta, Discover, Electron, Elo, Hiper, Hipercard, JCB, Maestro, Mastercard, Solo, Star, Switch, Visa, RuPay, Diners Club, Bancard, Unknown |
Debit card | Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, Discover, American Express |
PayPal | PayPal wallet |
Venmo | Venmo wallet |
Apple Pay | Debit card-Visa, Credit card-Mastercard, Debit card-American Express, Credit card-Discover |
Google Pay | Debit card-Visa, Credit card-Mastercard, Debit card-American Express, Credit card-Discover |
Network Token | Debit card-Visa, Credit card-Mastercard, Debit card-American Express, Credit card-Discover |
Direct debit | None |
Local payment method | Bancontact, Blik, Crypto, eps, giropay (legacy)¹, iDEAL, MyBank, OXXO, Pay upon invoice, Przelewy24, Sofort (legacy)², Trustly, Verkkopankki |
¹ giropay was sunset on June 30, 2024. PayPal does not support giropay payments starting July 1, 2024. Offer your users PayPal wallet and other alternative payment methods. Learn more.
² Sofort was sunset on April 18, 2024. PayPal does not support Sofort payments starting April 19, 2024. Offer your users PayPal wallet and other alternative payment methods. Learn more.
The file name for a report generated for an individual merchant account follows this convention:
${encryptedSubscriptionId}-{NodeIdentifier}-{subfamily}-{templateName}-{dateCadence}-{fileNumber}-{totalFile}-{genDateTime}.{extension}| Field | Max length | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
Encrypted Subscription ID | 7 | Subscription ID within PayPal. | ADSF13S |
Node Identifier | 45 | For merchants, the merchant's encrypted account number (PayerID). | 9HBKUHNC34696 |
Sub Family | 20 | Sub-family of the report. | BTR (Balance Transactional Report), BSR (Balance Summary Report), FTR (Fee Transactional Report), BRR (Balance Reconciliation Report), DRR (Disbursement Reconciliation Report) |
Template Name | 50 | Managed or user-given template name. | BALANCE_TRANSACTIONAL_REPORT, BALANCE_SUMMARY_REPORT, FEE_TRANSACTIONAL_REPORT, PSA_BALANCE_RECONCILIATION_REPORT, BALANCE_RECONCILIATION_REPORT, DISBURSEMENT_RECONCILIATION_REPORT |
Date Cadence | 4–29 | For daily reports, the report date in YYYYMMDD format in the merchant's time zone. For custom date range reports, {startDateTime}-{endDateTime}, both in YYYYMMddHHmmss format in the merchant's time zone. | Daily: 20220601. Monthly: 202206. Custom range: 20220801000000-20220831235959. |
File Number | 3 | Current file number or sequence from 1 to 999. | None |
Total File | 3 | Total number of files in this report, from 1 to 999. | None |
Window | 2 | Optional. 2-digit offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on which the report is generated. Useful when generating multiple reports for the same entity, such as MAM. | None |
Gen DateTime | 14 | Unique generation ID in YYYYMMddHHmmss format. | None |
Extension | 3 | Filename extension. | None |
Delimiters | 9 | - and . | None |
Total length | 185 | Maximum total length is 200 characters. | None |
Format | None | CSV (comma-separated values). | None |
For more reference material for PayPal reports, see: