To use PayPal with ConfTool Pro you need an ordinary, verified PayPal-Account. Details about creating such an account can be found at the PayPal Website.

The following steps are required, to use your PayPal account with ConfTool Pro.

1. Account Upgrade

First you have to upgrade your account to a "Business Account" (if not already done before). Please note that this might have consequences on the fees of PayPal in your country.

Page "My Account" => "Overview"

    Left side below "Upgrade": "Upgrade Account"

        upgrade to "Business Account".

Please note that you will also have to verify your account to receive money. Furthermore, PayPal will probably ask for a proof of identity (as fax or uploaded document), if you receive more than a certain amount of money, e.g. 1000 Euro for EU citizens.

2. Settings of your PayPal account for the use with ConfTool Pro

Page "My Account" => "Profile" right column "Selling Preferences"

• "Create New Button" and "Auctions": not relevant
• "Payment Receiving Preferences":
  Block Payments in a Currency You Do Not Hold: Yes
  Block accidental payments by blocking duplicate invoice IDs: Yes
  Block payments from users…: not used
  Block the following payments: not used
  Display “Add Instructions to Seller”: No
  Credit Card Statement Name: Enter names that suits you.
• "Instant Payment Notification Preferences": Activated
  Please enter the address of your ConfTool installation as return URL, e.g. www.example.org/conftool/ (Please note that this URL is only a dummy, the full URL will be set by ConfTool automatically).
• "Reputation": not relevant
• "Customer Service Message": not relevant
• "Website Payment Preferences":
  Auto Return: On
  Transfer Payment Details: On
  Please enter the address of your ConfTool installation as return URL, e.g. www.example.org/conftool/ (Please note that this URL is only a dummy, the full URL will be set by ConfTool automatically).
  Encrypt Website Payments: Off
  PayPal Account Optional: On (if you want people to allow paying without opening an account - not available to sellers in all countries!)
  Getting Customer Contact Telephone Number: Off (not relevant)
• "Encrypted Payment Settings": Deactivate
• "Custom Payment Pages": not required.
  You can use this page to customize logo and colours of your PayPal payment page.
• "Invoice Templates": not relevant
• "Language Encoding": Western European Languages

3. Enable PayPal in your ConfTool Pro installation

• Go to "Settings" => "Base data for Participant Registration"
• Set "Enable PayPal Payments" to Yes
• Disable the "Test Mode in PayPal Sandbox"
• Enter the e-mail address of your PayPal Account
• Verify the currency for PayPal bookings.

That should be it. Please test your configuration with a smaller booking. If you encounter any problems, please contact me.

Last but not least, some personal comments about PayPal:

• PayPal may be used for credit card payments, but it not a full credit card merchant, i.e., on the statement of the customer PayPal is listed for the payment, but not the name of your organization.
• All participants need a (free) PayPal account to do the payment. Someone told me recently that is not the case (any more), but I currently don't know how to bypass this.
• Paypal is quite cheap for credit card payments, as they ``only'' charge per booking but have no setup or monthly fees.
• But, in my opinion the service of PayPal is a severe drawback. They respond slowly on requests and their replys often consist of standard text modules. For example, if they ``freeze'' your account, it might take weeks to reactivate it. Please consider this!