You don’t have to sell merchandise to be a business PayPal account holder. If you offer time, services, or make business purchases, PayPal is a safe and secure way to do it all. It’s also a great way to manage your business expenses when you start a blog. Whether or not you intend to monetize your blog, you may want to consider putting the expenses on your taxes as a sole proprietor. Setting up a business PayPal account is simple to do, but it is also important to know how to balance it.

Here is the 101 of your business PayPal Account.

Setting Up Your Business Paypal Account

Setting up your account is really easy to do especially if you already have a PayPal account. Follow these steps to set it up:

Go to Home Page: Go to paypal.com to create a business account.

If you don’t have an account, click sign up and then fill in the bubble for a business account.

If you already have an account, login to change your account and continue below for more steps:

Click on Tools Tab: The tools tab is the fifth tab over at the top of your page. Go down to business set up. Click the second tab account settings.

Confirm you email: You must click confirm your email so PayPal knows you are really the one changing the account. Once you have confirmed, you can go on to the next steps.

Link your bank: Linking your bank allows security for PayPal. You cannot set up a business account without a bank account, so if you don’t have one, be sure to get one.

Make your Business name: Business names can only be 11 characters long, but allowing your customers to know it is you billing them are assets worth having. If your PayPal business name is confusing, you may have trouble getting paid. I would suggest using your blog name, or an abbreviation.

Get PayPal MasterCard: You can only get a MasterCard if you are a PayPal business account holder. This card is much like a debit card. It allows you to access your PayPal funds from any ATM without having to wait on funds to transfer to your bank account. Essentially, you can do all your banking through your new Business PayPal account.

Balancing Your Business Paypal Account

A Business PayPal account is set up a little differently than a checking account, but, essentially, you are using a type of online banking to keep it balanced. Here are a few tips:

Check your Summary: The summary tab is the first tab on the top right hand corner of the page. In your summary, you can see a summary of all your transactions starting from the most recent. This is a good way to keep track of who has or hasn’t paid you. Within this tab, there are 3 other tabs:

Payments Received: Payments received allows you to track who you have invoiced and whether or not they have paid you. This is a great way to determine which service or shipment comes first. Once you click on this tab, you can narrow it down even farther to invoices you sent, money requests, or money you spent on your debit card. Charts and graphs help you keep track of how much you made.

Payments Sent: Payments sent helps keep a running record of all the incoming and outgoing money. Simply click on the Activity/balances to show how much you pay in fees, what has come in and how much you have spent.

Activity Balances: This is a simple way to go straight to your balancing table. Quickly look through what has come in and out of your account. You can also create graphs and charts that show how you are doing business-wise.

Reports: You can also find reports for your business in the reports tab. Track your inventory, profit, and loss. Look at your monthly financial summary or your annual summary. Print monthly statements and find tax documents.

Knowing all the ins and outs of your business account will come in handy at the end of the year. With so much to offer, there really is no other way to go, but Business PayPal!