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 in order 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 suit 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 us.

Last but not least, some personal comments about PayPal:

• PayPal works well for credit card payments, but it is not a full credit card merchant, i.e., on the bank statement of the client PayPal will be listed for the payment, but not the name of your organization.
• All participants need a (free) PayPal account to do the payment. However, this depends on the country of the merchant (conference organizer), for some countries this is not required (e.g. US merchants).
• The supported payment methods depend on the countries of the involved parties (but mainly on the country of the receiver of the payment).
• Paypal is quite cheap for credit card payments: They only charge per booking and charge no setup or monthly fees.
• The money arrives immediately on your PayPal account, most acquirers transfer the money after 30 or 60 days to your bank account.
• In our opinion the service of PayPal is the main drawback. They respond slowly on requests and their replies often consist of standard text modules. For example, if they ``freeze'' your account for "suspicious" activities, it might take about a week to reactivate it.
• It can be useful to create two PayPal accounts in advance, so you have a "backup account" if one is under inspection by PayPal. If you try to create a second account after your account is under inspection, this account will be "frozen", too.