Offering PayPal as a payment option can significantly increase your conversion rates and expand your global reach.

This guide will walk you through connecting your PayPal Business account to Uscreen, understanding the required permissions for subscription billing, and managing your payment flow.

Connection Process

Step 1: Navigate to Checkout

Navigate to Settings > Checkout
Click Connect

Step 2: Enter Your PayPal Details

You'll need to enter your PayPal account details. You will need a PayPal Business account to proceed.

PayPal Business Account

If you do not have one, you can create one through PayPal's official website or during the connection process.

Step 3: Enter Your PayPal Password

Next, you'll need to enter your PayPal password. This is a secure login via PayPal.

Step 4: Agree and Connect

You'll need to agree to the terms of service and connect your account.

Step 5: Verify any additional information

PayPal may require you to verify additional information during the process.

Step 6: Success! 🎉

You'll see a success notice once the connection is complete.

Now, when you revisit your Checkout settings page, you'll see PayPal as Connected.

PayPal Requirements for Subscription Billing

What are Reference Transactions?

Reference Transactions is a PayPal feature that allows merchants to charge customers on a recurring basis without requiring the customer to approve each individual transaction.

This is essential for subscription billing models like those used on Uscreen.

What is Payment Vaulting?

Vaulting refers to the secure storage of payment methods that allows for future transactions without requiring customers to re-enter their payment details.

This is necessary for processing recurring subscription payments.

📝 NOTE: For subscription-based businesses, PayPal requires specific permissions on your account to process recurring payments successfully.

Ensuring Your PayPal Account Has the Required Permissions

When you connect your PayPal account, our system will automatically check if your account has the necessary permissions. If your account doesn't have these permissions, you'll see one of these messages in your Payment Providers settings:

"Your PayPal account is not allowed to use vault payment methods. Ask PayPal to enable Reference Transactions for your account."
"The store cannot receive PayPal payments right now. Please try a different payment method."

How to obtain Reference Transactions permission:

Contact PayPal Customer Support directly

PayPal Customer Support
Specifically request the "Reference Transaction" and "Payment Vaulting" feature to be enabled for your account
Once approved by PayPal, return to your Uscreen Checkout

After PayPal has enabled these features, you can manually verify if the permissions have been successfully granted by clicking the Retry or Try Again button in your Checkout settings.

Processing Status during Verification

If you see a Processing badge during verification:

PayPal may require more information from you
Contact PayPal Support to see if they need additional verification or permission
If there are no issues on PayPal's end, wait 2-12 hours and try the integration process again

ℹ️ INFO: You may also see this badge if you accidentally closed the integration window before completing the process.

Our system will periodically check and clear the processing badge. Please wait 2-12 hours to attempt the integration again.

Checkout Experience

When successfully connected, your customers will have the option to pay using PayPal on your Checkout.

🔗 Learn more about the Checkout

Payments and Reporting

How Do I Get Paid?

With the new PayPal integration, all customer transactions are sent directly to your PayPal account at the time of sale. This means:

Direct Payments: Customer transactions are sent directly to your PayPal account at the time of sale, eliminating the need to wait for a monthly payout from Uscreen.
Instant Access to Funds: Since payments go directly into your PayPal account, you have immediate access to the funds, which can significantly improve your cash flow management.
No Middleman: Unlike the Legacy PayPal system, where Uscreen processes payments and then transfers them to your PayPal account, the native PayPal eliminates the middleman.
PayPal Fees: Standard PayPal transaction fees apply to each sale.

🔗 Learn more about the Differences Between Legacy & Native PayPal

How Do I View Reports and Sales?

All transactions are logged directly into your PayPal account, allowing you to easily track payments, refunds, and any disputes.

🔗 Learn more from PayPal Payout Documentation

We also recommend referring to PayPal's Business Resources for detailed information on reports and sales tracking.

Business Resources Center

💡 TIP: You can still access a summary of your sales and performance in the Sales page and Sales Analytics page of your Uscreen Admin Area for a consolidated view.

🔗 Learn more about Sales Analytics

Disconnection Process

If you need to disconnect PayPal from your Uscreen account:

Navigate to Settings > Checkout
Click Disconnect
Confirm the disconnection

This will erase your PayPal merchant ID and any associated error fields.

ℹ️ INFO: You can also remove Uscreen's access from within your PayPal account, but we recommend disconnecting through Uscreen's interface whenever possible.

FAQs

Can my subscribers switch from a credit card to PayPal as their payment method?

Due to limitations between Stripe and PayPal, your subscribers cannot switch from Credit Card to PayPal or vice versa. They will need to create a new account or revoke the subscription and choose their preferred payment method at checkout.

What payment options are available with PayPal?

PayPal usually lets users make payments using their PayPal balance, credit or debit cards, or bank accounts. The payment options available to each customer are determined by their PayPal account. Uscreen has no control over these options, and they are determined by PayPal.

Will my existing members' payments now be sent to my PayPal account?

No, your existing members' payments will still be processed via Uscreen PayPal (Legacy), and you will continue to receive those payments through Uscreen. Only new members will have their payments directly deposited into your PayPal account.