How to get a PayPal custom Activity report that shows Notes

People sometimes enter a Note with a donation, and sometimes their note requests a response

Here is how to create a PayPal report that shows transactions (donations) from a date range, with any Notes.
This is accurate as of 1/27/2024. PayPal keeps changing their website, so this will eventually not be fully accurate.

  1. Login to the PayPal website, using the login that you want data from.
  2. You want “Activity download”, also called “Activity report”. Here is one way to get to it.
    1. Click “Activity” on the menu bar at the top of many pages. That displays 2 drop-down menus. Click “All Reports” on the “Reports” menu.
    2. If a “Switch to classic view” switch is displayed, select it. So far, I find the “new Report view” to only be annoying, not useful.
    3. Click “Activity download” on the vertical Reports menu on the left side.
  3. The heading “Activity report” should now show at the left side of the main part of the page.
    1. Set “Transaction type” to Completed payments.
    2. Set “Date range” to what you want.
    3. Set “Format to CSV”.
  4. Click the “Customize report fields” link, which will display a “Customize your report” pop-up.
    1. There are a number of categories of report fields displayed in the pop-up, with a carat to the right of each to click to display the list of fields in that category. Here are the fields to check in each category. Make sure that all other fields are unchecked. PayPal seems to remember what fields you last checked in this report, within a PayPal account.
    2. In Transaction details, check only “Note” and “Transaction buyer country code” (everything else unchecked)
    3. In Buyer details, check only “CounterPart status” and “Contact phone number” (everything else unchecked)
    4. In Shipping details, nothing checked (everything unchecked)
    5. In Auction details, nothing checked (everything unchecked)
    6. In Cart details, check only “Item title” (everything else unchecked)
    7. In Funding details, nothing checked (everything unchecked)
    8. In Risk details, nothing checked (everything unchecked)
    9. In Payflow details, nothing checked (everything unchecked)
    10. Uncheck the “Include shopping cart details as line items under each transaction” checkbox near the bottom of the pop-up.
    11. Click the “Save” button at the bottom of the pop-up.
  5. Click the blue “Create Report” button
  6. A message will be displayed: “Your request is being processed. We'll email you when the report is ready to download on this page. In certain cases, it might take a little longer, depending on the time period and the volume of activity.”
  7. When the Action (rightmost column) becomes “Download” for the top item below “Activity reports (up to 12 reports)”, click it to download a file named “Download.CSV”. Rename that file to something meaningful.
  8. These CSV files open usably in MS Excel and Apple Numbers on my Mac. Apple Numbers makes them more easily readable, by adjusting each column's width to fit the heading and data. Excel is not so helpful, making all columns the same relatively narrow default width, so you need to expand each column as needed.