PayPal Update May Impact Merchant Reconciliation Process

PayPal issued an advisory about a change it’s making that could impact some merchants’ reconciliation process. PayPal called it part of a planned technology update.

Here’s how it described the change and its impact on merchants:

What’s changing
Currently, the bank reference ID is a random alphanumeric value such as 4BW22AXTR6JBA, 548J2AXTR5JEJ, etc.

After the change, the bank reference ID will be a numeric-only value such as 1013045898212 or 1012973298624.

This numeric value will also appear in settlement reports for subscribed merchants.

What’s not changing
There will be no impact to the Custom Memo descriptor field.

Expected impact
Merchants who are using the bank reference ID for downstream processing such as reconciliation on their end will need to adapt their processes to this change. The encrypted merchant account number will be available as a separate field in settlement reports.

If merchants have any custom developments using this field and need additional time or have any questions, they should contact their PayPal support or account managers.

PayPal said it would change the bank reference IDs for transactions beginning May 5, 2021.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.