I get a lot of payments with the same amount – but I can not find a way to link the daily payments I receive in my bank account to the deposits / transactions I can see in the WooPayments Backend. Please tell me where to find the reference from the bank statement on the deposits page. Otherwise there i no way to identify the payments by our accounting.
I understand that you’re having trouble linking the daily payments you receive in your bank account to the transactions you see in the WooPayments Backend.
Currently, the WooPayments Backend does not directly show the bank reference numbers on the deposits page. However, you can match the total amount and date of the deposit in your bank account with the corresponding total amount and date on the WooPayments Backend.
For each deposit, you can click on it to see the individual transactions that make up the total deposit. This should help you reconcile your bank statement with the transactions in WooPayments.
This makes the plugin a comepletey useless amateur product , because when charging the same amounts there is no way to to match the payments. Date (aproximately – becauce there is no way to be 100% sure how long it takes to receice a paymant) and amount is nothing that can be used by a professional accountant. You mention that at the moment the Backend does not show this information directy. How can I obtain it indirectly?
I must express my serious concern regarding the current functionality of WooPayments, specifically in relation to EU financial regulations.
The inability to directly link bank deposits with transactions in the WooPayments Backend by a unique identifier, such as a bank reference number, poses a significant compliance issue. EU regulations emphasize the necessity of clear, transparent, and traceable financial transactions. This is crucial not only for business efficiency but also for legal and regulatory compliance, particularly under directives like PSD2 and guidelines from the European Banking Authority.
The method of reconciling transactions by matching dates and amounts, as currently suggested, is inadequate for businesses with frequent and similarly valued transactions. This approach increases the risk of errors and makes it exceedingly difficult to maintain accurate financial records, a fundamental requirement under EU financial regulations.
Given these concerns, I strongly urge the WooPayments team to prioritize the implementation of a feature that allows users to accurately match each deposit with its corresponding transaction through a unique identifier. This is not merely a request for enhanced functionality; it is a call for necessary compliance with EU financial regulations.
I look forward to a swift and constructive response to this matter, as the current situation may render the use of WooPayments untenable for businesses operating within the stringent regulatory framework of the EU.
Just to note, we have a documentation section dedicated to transactions (linked here), where a merchant can see (and export) all related transactions at their store.
Furthermore, the deposits (also called payouts) can be viewed and filtered directly online, and also downloaded.
From version 5.9.0, WooPayments offers a more configurable fraud protection experience for merchants. This helps you avoid disputes by setting the security and fraud protection risk level that best suits your business.
Last, but not least, as WooPayments is fully integrated with WooCommerce, a unique identifier is added on each order. Visible (and clickable) from the Edit Order screen itself, for the merchant can click on it and see further details on that transaction. Below, I am attaching a screenshot, for reference.
Thank you for your detailed response and for providing additional resources and links. I appreciate the efforts made to guide me through the existing features and functionalities of WooPayments. The documentation on managing transactions and the ability to view and download deposit details are indeed helpful tools.
However, my primary concern remains unaddressed. The issue at hand is not just about viewing transactions or the efficiency of fraud protection measures. It’s about the fundamental need for a direct, foolproof method to match bank deposits – as they appear in our bank statements – with the corresponding transactions in the WooPayments system.
The unique identifier for each order in WooCommerce, while useful within the WooCommerce environment, does not facilitate the crucial task of reconciling these transactions with the deposits made to our bank accounts. In the EU, where financial transactions are required to be transparent and traceable, this lack of a direct matching system could potentially be non-compliant with financial regulations.
I understand that WooPayments is a complex system, and integrating such a feature may present challenges. However, given the importance of compliance with regulatory standards, I strongly urge the team to consider implementing a solution that allows merchants to easily and accurately reconcile their bank statements with transactions recorded in WooPayments. This is not just about convenience but about ensuring that businesses using WooPayments remain compliant with EU financial regulations.
Thank you for your attention to this critical matter. I look forward to a resolution that aligns with the legal and regulatory requirements of operating a business in the EU.
While this is not currently possible with the default WooPayments settings, you can customise it with some additional coding. Custom coding is outside the scope of support we can provide on this forum. You can consult with a developer who can help you create a custom solution.
It would be great to have you add your ideas as a Feature Request. This is where developers go to look for future plugin features and improvements.
I hope that this helps point you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Thank you for the screenshot provided, which helps in understanding your perspective. However, it appears there might be a slight misunderstanding regarding the nature of my issue.
My concern is not about having transaction numbers on the customers’ bank statements. Rather, it’s about identifying WooPayments deposits in my own bank account. Specifically, when WooPayments deposits funds into my account, these deposits are not easily traceable back to the corresponding transactions or batches of transactions in the WooPayments system.
In the EU, where I operate, it’s crucial for accounting and regulatory compliance to have a clear, direct link between the deposits made into a bank account and the corresponding transaction records. This is not about the information provided to customers, but about the information necessary for merchants to reconcile their accounts.
I appreciate the suggestion to consider custom coding and the invitation to submit a feature request. However, given the fundamental nature of this issue and its implications for legal and financial compliance, I believe this feature should be a standard part of the WooPayments platform.
Could you please advise if there’s any existing feature that I might have overlooked, or if there are plans to include this functionality in a future update? This capability is vital for the effective and compliant operation of my business.
Thank you once again for your time and support in this matter.
I understand your need to trace WooPayments deposits back to the corresponding transactions or batches of transactions for accounting and regulatory compliance purposes. This is indeed an important feature for merchants operating within the EU.
At present, WooCommerce Payments does not directly link deposits to specific transactions within the WooCommerce dashboard. However, you can view a list of transactions included in each deposit by going to Payments > Deposits in your WooCommerce dashboard. Clicking on a specific deposit will then show you the transactions that make up that deposit.
We are also continuously working to improve our platform and your feedback is crucial in this process. Hence, we suggest you raise it as a feature request here where our developers look for the updates to be added to the next release.
Will you proactively inform your EU-based customers about the current state of compliance with EU regulations? Transparency in this matter is crucial for us, the merchants, to ensure that we are also adhering to our regulatory obligations. This is not possible with your software right now.
This is not possible with your software right now.
Just to make sure that we are on the same page and to be able to help you further, can you please specify what you mean that it isn’t possible with WooPayments?
WooPayments inability to match bank account deposits with their corresponding transactions by some kind of uniqe ID (reference) is a serious problem. It is a crucial requirement for financial compliance in the EU.
Our team would like to review the EU regulation you are referring to. Can you please send us a link to EU’s laws on that? Where have you encountered those legal requirements? That being said, the bank transaction number is typically assigned by the merchant’s (your) bank to deposits the bank received. So we don’t see how we would know what number your bank assigns to the receipt.
The EU regulation that necessitates clear traceability of financial transactions can be derived from the principles laid out in the EU’s Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, specifically around the transparency of financial transactions for anti-money laundering purposes. You can review the Directive here: EU Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD4).
Regarding the bank transaction number, I understand that it is assigned by the merchant’s bank. However, having a consistent and identifiable reference number from WooPayments that appears in the bank statement would significantly ease the process of reconciling transactions for merchants.
With every transaction you usually have IBAN, Name, reference and amount. You make up the reference – why not simply use the same ID that you use internally for the deposits and display it?
This capability would not only streamline accounting processes but also align with EU regulatory expectations regarding financial transparency and traceability.
Thank you for the input. Our team has in fact had the introduction of trace IDs to the UI and reporting for some time. An issue is open here on the public repository.
There are two possible routes to take on this – the one you’ve suggested, and the one mentioned in the repository, where we add the trace ID to reporting on the site and to the CSV files obtained from the site, allowing reconciliation.
Bank statement descriptors can be unreliable for this, as statement descriptors can vary somewhat from institution to institution and from country to country. But the trace ID should be a constant.
Thank you for the reminder on this, and I’ll be reaching out to the team to ensure this is on their radar.
