PayPal exports transactions with Gross, Fee, Net in the same line item. Accounting software often needs to treat Fee as a separate line item. This script parses the PayPal export and separates out these, keeping the running balance true.

PayPal CSV Exporter.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys
import csv
import locale

if __name__ == '__main__':
    """
    PayPal exports transactions with Gross, Fee, Net in the same line item.
    Accounting software often needs to treat Fee as a separate line item.
    This script parses the PayPal export and separates out these, keeping the running balance true.
    It expects downloads from the following in your PayPal account
    Activity -> Download -> Comma delimited, balance affecting payments
    """
    
    if (len(sys.argv) < 2):
      sys.exit('Missing input file')
    
    if (len(sys.argv) < 3):
      sys.exit('Missing output file')
    
    # needed to parse numbers with comma as thousand separator
    locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'en_US.UTF-8')
    
    # read files from arguments
    input_file = sys.argv[1]
    output_file = sys.argv[2]
    
    csv_in = open(input_file, 'r')
    csv_out = open(output_file, 'w')
    
    reader = csv.DictReader(csv_in)
    writer = csv.DictWriter(csv_out, ["Date", "Reference", "Paid in and paid out", "Balance"])
    writer.writeheader()
    
    for items in reader:
      date = items['Date']
      reference = items[' Name'] # There's a space after the first header item, as this line is uniquely separated by comma-space.
      gross = locale.atof(items[' Gross'])
      fee = locale.atof(items[' Fee'])
      balance = locale.atof(items[' Balance'])
      
      if fee < 0: # fee is -ve
        payment_balance = balance - fee 
        writer.writerow({
          "Date": date,
          "Reference": "Fee",
          "Paid in and paid out": fee,
          "Balance": balance,
          })
        writer.writerow({
          "Date": date,
          "Reference": reference,
          "Paid in and paid out": gross,
          "Balance": payment_balance,
          })
      else:
        writer.writerow({
          "Date": date,
          "Reference": reference,
          "Paid in and paid out": gross,
          "Balance": balance,
          })