Setting Up a PayPal Account

Setting Up a PayPal Account

Considerations Before Setting Up A PayPal Account

  1. If you anticipate a lot of transactions, consider creating an email address exclusively for your PayPal account.  Access to this email address will be required to complete the PayPal set-up.
  2. Decide who will have access to the PayPal account.
  3. How often will you make transfers from your PayPal account to your checking account?

You will need the following information:
  1. Federal Tax ID#
  2. Primary Contact Information & SSN

PayPal Fees
PayPal offers reduced merchant fees for nonprofits. Charities must be a registered 501 (c)(3).  To qualify for the lower merchant fees be sure to have your account verified as a nonprofit.
  1. 2.9% plus $0.30 USD per transaction for business accounts
  2. 2.2% plus $0.30 USD per transaction for eligible nonprofits
  3. Additional fees for credit card transactions may apply

Notes
  1. PayPal does not allow payments to and from India.  (October 2011)

Passwords
  1. Choose passwords carefully
  2. Include numbers and letters
  3. Passwords should be changed anytime your account administrators change

Step 1 - Setting Up Your PayPal Account

  1. Log-In to PayPal
  2. Select “Create a Business Account”
  3. At Select Payment Solution, choose “Website Payments Standard”
  4. Business:  for nonprofits make sure to select “nonprofit organizations”
  5. Complete the information regarding passwords and your chosen security question.
  6. Once your account is established, you will receive an email that will be needed to verify your account.
  7. Go to “My Account”, select “Profile”, select “My settings”:  confirm that the Time zone is correct

Step 2 - PayPal Account Verification

Once you have completed the initial online set-up, you are going to be asked to verify your account and to verify that you are a nonprofit.  It can take 2 – 3 weeks to have your account verified.  Be prepared to provide one or more of the following for verification:
  1. Voided Check/Bank Statement
  2. A copy of a voided check to show that you’re authorized to make transaction on behalf of this business
  3. Proof of Tax Exempt Status
  4. Proof of nonprofit status – the 501c3 determination letter
  5. Organization and payment information (possibly your by-laws)

Step 3 - Connecting PayPal to Your Membership Toolkit Account


To connect your PayPal account to your Membership Toolkit account, you must complete the payment information under Payment Configuration.

First, you will need to add the API Credentials from PayPal.

Note: the screenshots that we have in our instructions match the majority of PayPal accounts, but not all of the PayPal accounts use the same administrative look. And they change when we least expect them to! We do our best to monitor this and adjust our help files when needed.

PayPal API Signature

An API (Application Programming Interface) allows PayPal software to communicate with your shopping cart in your Membership Toolkit account. 
 
Finding Your API Signature on the PayPal Site
(Note - depending on what type of PayPal account you have, your screens may or may not match these exactly.)

1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Go to your Account Settings.
3. In the "API access" section, click Update.
4. Under "NVP/SOAP API integration (Classic)," click Manage API credentials. If you have already generated an API Signature, then View API Signature appears. Click that option to view or remove your existing API Signature.
Note: If you are prompted to verify your PayPal account, then follow the on-screen instructions.



OR




5. Select Request API Signature. PayPal generates your API credentials as follows:
  1. API Signature credentials include an API Username, API Password, and Signature, which does not expire.
  2. These values are hidden by default for added security.
  3. Click Show/Hide to toggle them on and off.
  4. When finished, click Done.
6. You will then copy and paste the following from your PayPal screen to your Membership Toolkit Payment Configuration screens.
  1. API Username
  2. API Password
  3. Signature
                  **It is important that you copy these and do not try to retype them.**

If you are still having trouble, try this link: How to Get Your PayPal API Username, Password, and Signature
 

Adding the PayPal API Credentials to Your Membership Toolkit Account


To connect your PayPal account to your Membership Toolkit account, you must complete the payment information under Payment Configuration.
  1. Go to Dashboard and select the Admin drop down menu. (only Account Owners have access to this)
  2. Select Payment Configuration.
  3. Go to the Paypal tab.
  4. Paste in the three pieces of information associated with your API credentials.
  5. Select the "test PayPal" button.  Once you receive "Success" you are ready to go!  If you do not receive a "Success" then your information is not entered correctly. It is very important that you copy each piece of the signature and paste it into the appropriate field.


Account Transfer
When you have a new officer(s), you must transfer your administrators on your bank account and PayPal account!

Account Security
Membership Toolkit does not store or see any of your financial transactions.  These are handled between you and PayPal.  PayPal handles the financial transaction for you.  You will not have access to your customer’s credit card information.

Membership Toolkit provides information about setting up your PayPal account as a service. Please refer to PayPal for the current and most accurate information. 

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