Accepting Payments with Paypal

Paypal
Paypal is a popular multi-currency Payment Gateway. Paypal has a free service called Paypal standard, and a preimum service called Website Payments Pro.

Paypal Standard

Paypal Website Payments Standard is a quick way to start accepting credit card payments for your bookings and reservations with Checkfront.

Unlike most payment processors, Paypal Website Payments Standard for Business requires no setup fees, no subscription fees, and no lengthy approval process. It does however require that users process payments on Paypal.

Please note that Paypal standard does not allow you to process credit cards on behalf of your customers, in the Checkfront admin.

Paypal Website Payments Pro

Paypal Pro (not available in the Soho account) is a robust payment processing system capable of meeting most businesses processing needs.

Unlike Paypal standard, you have full control of the checkout process including a fully branded and integrated payment page. Paypal Pro requires and additional monthly subscription fee has billed by Paypal.

Paypal Pro allows you to process payments on behalf of your customers in the Checkfront admin by using the “Add Payment button” when viewing an invoice. This is great for walk-ins and phone bookings.


Paypal API Setup

Assuming you have already created your Checkfront account, the next thing you’ll need is a Paypal Business Account (free) or Paypal Website Pro account.

Once your Paypal account has been activated, you’ll need to give Checkfront permission to add payments to your account:

  1. Login to Paypal
  2. Go to your Profile in the main navigation bar.
  3. Under the Account Information section, click on API Access.
  4. From the API Access page, you’ll be presented with two options. Select: Option 1, Add or Edit API Permissions
  5. From the next page supply the Checkfront API username where it asks ‘Enter API account username‘: acct_api1.checkfront.com. Enter it exactly as shown here — not your Checkfront URL.

  6. You will be given the options to set the permissions for Checkfront. For normal operation, we require the following permissions:
    • Process your customers credit or debit card payments.
    • Use Express Checkout to process payments
    • Authorize and capture your PayPal transactions.
    • Issue a refund for a specific transaction.
    • Charge an existing customer based on a prior transaction.

Checkfront Setup

To enable Paypal in Checkfront, login to your account and navigate to Extend / Payment Modules. Select either Paypal Standard, or Paypal Pro depending on your account type and supply the email address to your Paypal account.

Once activated, remember to enable payment processing via the Manage / E-commerce menu within Checkfront.

Regional Support

Paypal is available to merchants in many countries. You can check if your country and currency is supported here. Note: website payments pro is only available in the US, Canada and the UK.

Sandbox Mode

Paypal sandbox mode allows you to test end-to-end transactions using the Paypal sandbox. You need a Paypal developer account in order to take advantage of this feature. You will need to follow the same API Authorization setup instructions and use jm_1252482764_biz_api1.checkfront.com for the API username.

Once setup in Paypal, you can supply your sandbox email address in the Paypal setup within Checkfront, and select the “sandbox” checkbox.

Test Credit Card Numbers

For Paypal PRO, you can use the following test credit card numbers on Checkout:

Visa: 4012888888881881
Mastercard: 5555555555554444
Amex: 378282246310005

Use an expiry date in the future, and any three digit number for the cvc.

Chained Payments

Chained payments is part of Paypal’s Adaptive Payments, and allows you to take a single customer transaction and split it amount multiple recipients.

Additional Notes

Paypal Website Payments Pro operates under different names internationally, sometimes referred to as Paypal Pro, or Paypal Pro Hosted Solution. These are 100% compatible with our Paypal Website Payments Integration.

France: PayPal Intégral Evolution
Spain: Pasarela Integral
Japan: Website Payments Plus