Configuring ecommerce settings for payment providers

To accept online payments via Checkfront, you must configure a payment provider that supports real-time transactions. Without one, your account operates in “Reservation Only” mode, meaning customers can book without paying at checkout. This article covers how to enable, configure, test, and manage payment providers, ensuring your booking system can securely process online payments.

Read this introduction to the Ecommerce Setup feature, including how to set up, activate, test, and manage a payment provider from the Payment tab.

• Configuring ecommerce settings for payment providers (reading now)
• Configuring ecommerce settings for deposits, payment types, order confirmation, and reCAPTCHA
• Configuring ecommerce settings for taxes

Accessing the features mentioned in this article

Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

• Manage > Ecommerce Setup
   

What more do I need to use this feature?

• Admin permissions to manage payment providers.
   

Which Checkfront version supports this feature - classic items, classic products, or both?

• This feature is available in both our classic items version (Inventory > Items) and our classic products version (Inventory > Products).  → Learn more about products

Your account's Ecommerce Setup page has three main sections: Payment, Settings, and Taxes.

By default, Checkfront operates in Reservation Only mode. This state means no payment is required for a Customer to complete a booking. This setup is the most straightforward as it requires no third-party payment processing.

To take advantage of real-time payment processing, you must first enable a payment provider. Checkfront integrates with many popular payment providers, including Checkfront Payments, Stripe, and PayPal Checkout.

You can enable a payment provider directly in your Checkfront dashboard under the Payment tab (Manage > Ecommerce Setup).

Let's take a closer look at the Payment tab.  

Which payment providers are available also depends on your plan. Checkfront Payments and Stripe are the supported payment providers for accounts on the Growth (Per Booking) plan. Learn more about our new plans or how to change your plan.

Checkfront blog post Check out the following blog post for more information on choosing a payment provider: Choosing a payment provider for your Checkfront account

The Payment tab displays all available payment providers organized into Active Providers, Recommended Providers, Available to your locale, Other Providers, and a Sandbox account for testing!

The Search Providers feature at the top right of the page provides a quick and easy-to-find list of your preferred payment providers by keyword search. 

Follow these steps to activate your payment provider:

1. Navigate to Manage → Ecommerce Setup, then select the Payment tab.
2. Find the provider you want to activate (in Recommended, Available, or Other) and click on it.
3. In the setup modal, fill in the required fields (e.g., API key, secret, merchant account, callback URL).
4. Save the provider. It moves to the Active Providers section.
5. Optionally, click the + icon to add a secondary provider (e.g., for staff-side payments vs. online customer payments).

Learn more about payment providers For a detailed look at setting up your payment provider, check out the following article: List of supported payment providers

Once you've done this, move on to the next tab in the Ecommerce Setup screen to configure your Ecommerce Settings.

Those payment providers available in your region are listed under the section Available to {your country}, for example - Available to the United Kingdom.

 The list of Other Providers lists all other payment providers integrated with Checkfront.

Use the Test Payment Provider (Sandbox) to validate setup without going live with real-time payments.

Payment providers also usually have a test or 'sandbox' mode for testing your payments. See the specific payment provider articles for more information.

You can make a small test booking to simulate the workflow and confirm that everything from pricing to inventory allocation and reports to email confirmations is working as expected.

After verification, you must turn off sandbox mode and switch to your live provider to accept real-time payments.

Learn more about the Test Payment provider For a detailed look at our Test Payment Provider, check out the following article: Setting up the Test Payment Provider

Test Payment Provider availability The Test Payment Provider is not available to the following accounts: Accounts on the Growth (Per Booking) plan Instead, you can connect with your payment provider in Sandbox/Test mode. Learn more here: Setting up Stripe as your payment provider Setting up Checkfront Payments as your payment provider

The Active Providers category shows all activated payment providers. You should have one main payment provider to accept online payments.

Secondary payment providers

Some payment provider combinations support a secondary payment provider. You can find these providers by clicking the plus (+) icon at the top-right corner of the payment provider tile.

Secondary providers are helpful if you need to use one payment provider for your online payments and another for your in-person payments processed Staff-side.

Learn more about payment providers For a detailed look at which payment providers can serve as secondary providers, check out the following article: List of supported payment providers

Next Steps

You can learn more about configuring ecommerce settings with the following article in this series.