Setting up PayPal Checkout as your Checkfront payment provider

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Learn more about PayPal Checkout, including understanding supported features, setting up PayPal Checkout in Checkfront, paying with PayPal Checkout, testing with Sandbox mode, enabling rebilling, setting up API permissions and third-party access for PayPal for rebilling, granting API permissions, and addressing common issues and frequently asked questions.

 

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Which plans include this feature?

Legacy:  Soho, Pro, Plus, Enterprise
New:  Available with the Growth (Subscription) or Managed plans only. 
This payment provider is unavailable to accounts on the Starter or Growth (Per Booking) plan. 
→ Learn more about our new plans or how to change your plan.

Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

Manage > Ecommerce Setup > Payment

What more do I need to use this feature?

• Admin permissions are required to manage Payment Providers.

 

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"When customers use PayPal, they can skip online forms and complete their checkout in just a few taps, helping boost your sales conversion and reduce shopping cart abandonment." ~ PayPal

PayPal Checkout facilitates processing transactions through the PayPal payment interface. When it comes time to make a payment, your Customer is redirected from Checkfront to PayPal and then back again once the transaction is complete. 

 

PayPal Checkout does not include virtual terminal functionality and cannot seamlessly integrate with the Checkfront payment page. As such, PayPal does not allow Staff to process credit cards on behalf of your Customers in the Checkfront admin area. Payments can only be made via the Customer-facing booking portal.

 

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The following is a list of standard Payment Provider features. Those available with the PayPal Checkout and Checkfront integration are marked as supported (✓).

Feature	Supported	More Info
Live Payments	✓	The ability to process payments in real time.
Rebilling	✓	The ability to re-charge using previously provided payment information (tokens). API permissions must be enabled.
Refunds	✓	The ability to return a paid amount directly to the original payment method. PayPal's default refund period is 180 days from the transaction date. Please check with PayPal for more information.
Integrated Checkout	X	Customers remain on the Checkfront domain to input details. These details are sent to the provider to process the transaction without redirecting the Customer.
Redirect Checkout	✓	Customers are redirected to the Payment Provider’s domain to input details and process the transaction.
Staff-side Payments	X	Staff can take payment through the Booking Details page using new payment information.
Terminals	X	Terminals are not available to operators at this time.
Hold Payments	X	The provider holds the payment for a certain time without charging the card. PayPal Checkout does not hold payments.
Test Mode	✓	The ability to process test payments using your Checkfront account and PayPal Checkout before going live. Referred to as Sandbox Mode in Checkfront.
Multiple Currencies	X	The ability to offer payments in more than one currency. Checkfront does not support accounts with more than one currency. While PayPal Checkout can handle multiple currencies, we can only send invoices to them in one currency.
PSD2 Compliant / 3DSecure	X	Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) compliant, including Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). Our PayPal Checkout integration is not PSD2 compliant and does not utilize 3DSecure security. However, PayPal should provide this function through their hosted redirect. Learn more here. Learn more about PSD2 here!
Can be a secondary Provider?	✓	The ability to configure a primary provider for online payments and a secondary provider for Staff-side payments through the Booking Details page. PayPal Checkout can be a secondary provider for Customers. However, it does not support Staff-side payments. When configured as a secondary provider, Customers see a Check out with PayPal redirect button on the payment page.
Additional payment methods	X	The following additional payment methods are only supported through Checkfront Payments and Stripe. Alipay iDEAL Apple Pay, Google Pay, and browser-saved cards (Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge)
Buy Now, Pay Later powered by Uplift	X	Buy Now, Pay Later powered by Uplift is an additional payment method exclusively supported by Checkfront Payments.
Google reCAPTCHA	X	Google reCAPTCHA is an add-on which helps protect your business against fraudulent activity. See the Google reCAPTCHA article for the full list of supported payment providers.
Supported Countries	✓	The list of countries PayPal supports for businesses and can accept online payments from can be found here: PayPal Global
Supported Currencies	✓	While PayPal supports many global currencies, not every currency is available. To process transactions, you must set your Checkfront account to a currency that PayPal accepts.  You can double-check if your currency is supported in the documentation below: PayPal Currency Documentation
Minimum Transaction Payment Amount	X	The minimum payment amount for PayPal (0.00) applies to test and live transactions. Please check with PayPal for more information.

 

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To enable Paypal Checkout in Checkfront, log in to your Checkfront account and navigate to PayPal Checkout (Manage > Ecommerce Setup > Payment).

Select PayPal Checkout from the Payments section.

 

In the pop-up window for PayPal Checkout, enter the email matching the one on your PayPal account, and click Activate.

And that's it! Your PayPal Checkout payment provider is now activated, and you're ready to take payments.

 

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Once PayPal Checkout is enabled, Customers are given the option to complete the payment with PayPal.

 

If PayPal Checkout is set up as the only Payment Provider (primary), then a green Pay button displays on the payment page for the Customer to select.

Once selected, the Customer is redirected to PayPal to pay and then to Checkfront after completing the transaction.

 

If PayPal Checkout is set up as a secondary Payment Provider, then a yellow Check out with PayPal button is displayed near the top of the payment page for the Customer to select.

Once selected, the Customer is redirected to PayPal to pay and then to Checkfront after completing the transaction.

 

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PayPal Checkout sandbox mode allows you to test end-to-end transactions using the PayPal sandbox without needing a live credit card.

During setup, check the Enabled sandbox (test) mode box after supplying your PayPal email address.

Remember to turn this off again when you want to start processing live transactions!  

 

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The rebilling feature allows Staff to recharge using previously provided payment information (tokens).

To enable rebilling for PayPal Checkout, check the box when configuring the Payment Provider in Checkfront.

In addition, you must ensure you have granted API permissions in PayPal, as seen below.

Finally, when a Customer makes a payment for your services, they must also check a box during checkout to authorize rebilling.

 

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Next, you must permit Checkfront to access payment information from your PayPal account. The following steps show you how to do that.

 

1. Log in to your PayPal Business account. Click to select the Profile menu and then choose Account Settings from the dropdown menu. 

 

 2. From the Account Settings page, select Update in the API access section.

 

3. From the Your payment API credentials page, select Grant API permission.

 

4. Choose Add API User from the Third Party API Users page.

 

5. In the window that displays, supply the Checkfront API Username of acct_api1.checkfront.com in the search field and press your keyboard's Enter key.

 

6. Next, you set the permissions for Checkfront from the results that show. For normal operation, we require the following permissions to be checked:

• Use Express Checkout to process payments.
• Issue a refund for a specific transaction.
• Process your Customer's credit or debit card payments
• Authorize and capture your PayPal transactions.
• Obtain information about a single transaction.
• Charge an existing Customer based on a prior transaction.

 

7. Once you check the relevant permissions, click the Add button. You then receive a confirmation message on the Third Party API Users page stating the third-party application (Checkfront) is successfully added.

 

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Listed here are common errors or situations you may come across when using PayPal:

Things don’t appear to be working at the moment. Please try again later. This error may occur due to the following: You may need to disable Encrypted Website Payments within the Selling Tools area in your PayPal account. An incorrect email address credential may have been entered in the Checkfront PayPal integration. Your PayPal account may require verification to accept payments. You are connecting to a PayPal personal account rather than a PayPal business account. For any errors you cannot resolve, we suggest contacting PayPal support to see the problem with your account so that it can be resolved and payments can be accepted. You do not have permission to make this API call. This error occurs if all of the required API permissions are not selected. Check here for the permissions that are needed. Permission denied. You are not authorized to do this kind of transaction. This error occurs if all of the required API permissions are not selected. Check here for the permissions that are needed.

 

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• Does the payout go into my linked PayPal account?

  Our PayPal Checkout integration links to your PayPal business account. Any Customer payments are then deposited to that linked account.
  
  

• Does the Customer need a PayPal account to pay, or can they pay using a credit card via PayPal?

  When a Customer pays on the redirected PayPal website, it's possible they may need a PayPal account to complete the credit card payment. This requirement depends on your business location and the available settings within your PayPal account.