Stripe, PayPal, Shopify and Patreon in one live number

If you earn in more than one place, you probably know the routine. Open Stripe, then PayPal, then Shopify, then Patreon. Copy four numbers into a spreadsheet, convert two currencies, and hope nothing came in twice. By the time it adds up, it’s out of date.

This guide covers what it takes to add those platforms up honestly, whatever tool you use, and how odo keeps the total live for you.

Why four dashboards don’t add up

Each platform answers a slightly different question:

• Stripe shows payments and a balance, before or after its fees depending on where you look.
• PayPal lists everything that moved through your account: sales, but also refunds, transfers, currency conversions and payouts from other platforms.
• Shopify counts orders, including the ones you marked as paid by hand.
• Patreon reports what your members pledged, and pays it out later, often into PayPal.

So a straight sum is wrong in several ways at once. The money is in different currencies, the platforms don’t agree on when a day starts, and some of it shows up twice: a Patreon payout landing in PayPal is income Patreon already reported.

Five rules for one honest number

These hold whether you add things up in a spreadsheet, a script or odo.

1. Count each sale once, where it happened. A payout is money moving between your own accounts, not new income. Count a pledge on Patreon, not again when it lands in PayPal.
2. Pick gross or net, and stick to it. Gross is what buyers paid. Net is what you keep after refunds and fees. Mix the two and every comparison is off.
3. Convert at each day’s rate, into one currency, so last March isn’t valued at today’s exchange rate.
4. Cut days at your own midnight, so “today” means the same thing on every platform.
5. Know how fresh each part is. Some platforms report a sale within seconds, others hours later. A total should tell you which parts it’s still waiting for.

How odo adds it up

odo reads each platform directly and adds everything into one number that counts up live, in your currency. Each one takes a few minutes to connect, in Settings → Add a source:

• Stripe: paste a restricted key with Balance set to Read and nothing else, or use Connect with Stripe where you see it. odo reads Stripe every minute.
• PayPal: create an app on developer.paypal.com, turn on Transaction search, and paste its Client ID and Secret. Only your own sales count: payouts other platforms send you, transfers and currency conversions are left out, so Patreon money isn’t counted twice. PayPal lists payments up to three hours late, so they arrive in odo when PayPal lists them.
• Shopify: make an app in Shopify’s Dev Dashboard that can read orders, install it on your store, and paste its Client ID and secret. Only money a payment gateway moved counts: cash, orders marked as paid by hand and gift-card redemptions are left out.
• Patreon: register a client on Patreon and paste its tokens. odo renews them as they expire.

Each is read through the platform’s own API, so its numbers carry odo’s verified seal: odo read them itself, nobody typed them in.

Live, not refreshed

Between readings the number doesn’t sit still. odo works out your usual pace from your own history and counts up at it, then settles on the real figure as each source reports. When the counter is ahead of what’s been reported, the line under it says so, and you can turn the pace off to see only confirmed money.

Everything is converted into your currency (any of 30, at the European Central Bank’s daily rates), cut at your own midnight, and shown for the day, the month or the year, gross or net. Changes like “▲ 12% vs yesterday” compare confirmed money only, so an estimate never flatters them.

Counted once

Some money reaches two of your accounts. A Shopify store that takes PayPal records the order, and your PayPal account records the same payment. When you connect a platform whose sales also land in one you’ve already connected, odo tells you, and Customize → Counted in the number lets you leave one of the two out.

What one number is good for

• A glance instead of a chore. Open it and the day so far is there, every platform included.
• Goals. Set a target for the day, the month or the year and watch the ring fill.
• Something to share. Your own live page at odo.gg/you, if you want one, with the seal on numbers odo read itself.
• The next question. Once the total is easy, the useful question is where it came from. odo also measures your website and traces each sale to the visit and post behind it. Read Which TikTok made the sale? to see how.

odo connects to 170+ platforms, these four among them, and the plans are on the pricing page.