You can connect a PayPal Business account to Paperform to accept payments using credit or debit cards, PayPal, Venmo, and PayPal's Pay Later feature.
First, you will need to have a PayPal Business account set up to accept payments. Once that's ready to go, follow these steps to connect it to your Paperform account and use it for checkout on your forms.
Connect the account in Live Mode
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Starting in your Paperform Dashboard, head to Account Settings → Account Services.
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Click "Connect PayPal Business" at the top of the page (under "Payment Accounts").
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Select "Live Mode" from the pop-up and continue to connect.
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From here, you'll be prompted to either sign into your PayPal Business account or create a new one for this integration. Enter your email and region, then click "Next." If a PayPal Business account exists using this information, you'll be prompted to log in.
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Once you have logged in to PayPal Business, follow the prompts to allow Paperform access to your account.
Connect a test account using Sandbox Mode
PayPal's Sandbox Mode allows you to connect a separate test account to Paperform, which you can use to make sure everything is working correctly before real money is exchanged. We recommend utilizing this feature, but it's not required. If you would like to start taking real payments right away, you can skip to the next section of this article.
To connect a Sandbox Account to Paperform:
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Log in to the PayPal Developer Dashboard.
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Navigate to Testing Tools → Sandbox Accounts.
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You can use the default test accounts found on this page if you like, or create new ones. You will need one Business and one Personal account to test the payment flow in Paperform.
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Select the Business account that you would like to use with Paperform, and you'll be brought to a page with login credentials for this account.
Keep this page open, and return to Paperform in a new tab or window.
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In Paperform, head to Account Settings → Account Services and click "Connect PayPal Business."
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Select Sandbox Mode.
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Enter the email address for your Sandbox Account (Business) from the PayPal Developer window that you still have open. Do not enter your regular PayPal Business login email. On the following page, copy over the email and password for your Sandbox Account to log in.
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Follow the prompts to allow Paperform access to your Sandbox Account.
Use PayPal Business on a form
Once your PayPal Business and Paperform accounts are connected, you can configure a form to accept payments. Edit the form, head to Configure → Payments, and select your account under "Payment account used on this form."
PayPal payment account configurationIf you have connected both Live and Sandbox Mode, you should see them each appear as separate options. Connect the test account first if you want to experiment, or switch over to the live one when your form is ready for real customers.
Testing in Sandbox Mode
You can log in to either of your Sandbox Accounts in PayPal by visiting sandbox.paypal.com and entering the credentials from your PayPal Developer Dashboard. In this testing environment, both will look like real accounts: your Business account will receive fake "payments" from Paperform, and the Personal account can be used as a customer who is paying via their own PayPal account.
If your form is set up in test mode, you can fill out and submit it to be taken to a test checkout page.
Select "PayPal" to send a test PayPal payment through. You will be prompted to log in—this is where you can use those Personal credentials from the Developer Dashboard. If you proceed with this transaction, you can see the funds being sent from your Personal Sandbox Account to the Business one.
Alternatively, you can select "Debit or Credit Card" to test payments using PayPal's test card numbers.
For more information on Sandbox testing, visit PayPal's sandbox testing guide.
Gotchas
- Paperform forms do not support using PayPal for subscriptions. If you would like to set up subscriptions, you can do so with Braintree or Stripe.