Does the reference_id appear on the PayPal Dashboard in Transaction details?

[AdamDev]

Good morning,

I am a little perplexed and I think I might not be seeing the obvious and help would be greatly appreciated!

Simply put, I am using the basic Javascript SDK to create the PayPal button.
Within that code I am specifying a "reference_id" - A custom reference that we can attach to the transaction so that, in the future, we can refer back to our system to find the digital product that relates to the PayPal Transaction.

However, when I go to our PayPal Dashboard and click on a recent transaction, I can't see anything on the screen that says "Reference ID".

I mean, it seems like a really obvious bit of detail to include and maybe it's there and I don't see it?

Our system allows tutors to accept payments via PayPal and to do that they provide their CLIENT_ID (as suggested by PayPal).
We want to ensure that, if their finance officer is going through their PayPal transactions, they can easily go back to our system and find the related product/service by searching for the reference_id we attached to that transaction.  That means we have a two-way reference in place. We store PayPal's transaction id so they can find the PayPal transaction details and on the PayPal transaction details OUR reference is there so to link back to us.
Isn't that the whole point of the reference id?

Like I said, it's probably right infront of me on the "Transaction details" screen but I don't see it.
Could someone let me know if it's there please?

I know it's being passed in because when I capture the order in the SDK I can see it has returned the same reference_id back via orderData.purchase_units[0].reference_id

Surely, it's a quick fix if it's not there but I have a feeling it's there and I am getting old and my eyes are not
what they used to be back when I was a whippersnapper with eyes like a hawk 🙂

[MTS_Jennifer]

Hello @AdamDev ,

Thank you for posting to the PayPal Community.

The variable reference_id is used as a reference, when sending a PATCH request to update an order.

https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/orders/v2/#definition-purchase_unit

Since its used for PATCH requests, the information is not saved to the transaction details. If you would like to include custom information in the transaction details send a custom_id in the payment request.

custom_id string [ 1 .. 127 ] characters
The API caller-provided external ID. Used to reconcile API caller-initiated transactions with PayPal transactions. Appears in transaction and settlement reports.

Here is an example transaction with a custom_id that was included:

{
  "intent": "CAPTURE",
    
  "purchase_units": [
    {
        "amount": {
        "currency_code": "USD",
        "value": "100.00"
       
      },
     "custom_id" : "My Custom Info a234",

      "shipping": {
                "name": {
                    "full_name": "Peter Kim"
                },
                "address": {
                    "address_line_1": "123  W Main St",
                    "admin_area_2": "San Jose",
                    "admin_area_1": "CA",
                    "postal_code": "95112",
                    "country_code": "US"
                }
            }
 
         
        }
  ],

"application_context" : {
			"return_url" : "http://www.example.com",
			"cancel_url" : "http://my_cancel_url.com",
            "error_url" : "http://errorurl.com",
            "shipping_preference" : "SET_PROVIDED_ADDRESS"
           
        }
		}

 The Transaction had the information in the transaction details:

Thank you,

Jennifer

MTS

PayPal