PayPal
The PayPal page lets you connect your PayPal account to eTickets so that ticket sale funds flow directly to you. This section is only visible if a platform admin has enabled PayPal onboarding for your organisation.
If you do not see a PayPal item in your portal sidebar, your account has not been enabled for PayPal onboarding. Contact your eTickets platform admin to enable it.
Connection status
The page shows two connection cards — one for Sandbox (test payments) and one for Live (real payments). Each card shows its own connection status independently:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not connected | You have not yet completed the PayPal onboarding flow for this environment. Click Connect PayPal on that card to begin. |
| Connection in progress | You have started the PayPal flow but some permissions are still pending. You may need to complete an additional step in PayPal. |
| Connected | Your PayPal account is linked for this environment. Your PayPal merchant ID is shown on the card. |
You can complete sandbox onboarding without affecting your live connection, and vice versa. Each environment requires a separate PayPal onboarding flow. Being connected in sandbox does not mean you are connected in live.
Merchant capabilities
Each environment card has a Merchant capabilities section (collapsed by default). This shows the PayPal products and capabilities that have been activated on your account, such as PPCP_CUSTOM and PAYMENT_METHODS. These are managed by PayPal and eTickets — you do not need to take any action here. If a capability shows as DECLINED or is missing, contact your eTickets platform admin.
Connecting your PayPal account
Repeat the following steps for each environment you want to connect (Sandbox and/or Live):
- Click Connect PayPal on the relevant environment card. A PayPal window opens.
- Log in to your PayPal Business account (or create one if you do not have one).
- Grant the requested permissions to eTickets and complete the flow.
- PayPal redirects you back to eTickets automatically. The card for that environment shows Connected.
PayPal requires a Business account to receive payments as a merchant. Personal PayPal accounts cannot be used. If you do not have a Business account, you can upgrade during the onboarding flow.
Which environment is used at checkout
The PayPal environment used for a checkout is determined by the event's Test event setting, not by a global switch:
- Events created with Test event enabled use the Sandbox connection. No real money changes hands.
- Events created without the test flag use the Live connection. Real payments are taken.
This means you can have test events and live events running at the same time, each using the appropriate PayPal environment. See Events for how to set the test flag when creating an event.
Portal refunds use the same PayPal account that received the original payment. If your payment scenario changes after orders are captured (for example, you onboard to Promoter MoR after orders have already been placed under Platform MoR), the portal will not be able to refund those earlier orders automatically.
Contact your eTickets platform admin before changing your payment mode if you have outstanding orders that may need to be refunded.
After connecting
Once connected, a platform admin must set your payment mode to Promoter MoR before ticket sale funds will flow to your account. Until that is done, eTickets continues to collect payments on your behalf.
Contact your eTickets platform admin to confirm your payment mode after completing the onboarding flow.
What happens at checkout
When a customer buys a ticket and your payment mode is set to Promoter MoR:
- The customer pays through PayPal at checkout.
- Funds are sent directly to your PayPal account.
- A platform fee is deducted by eTickets at the time of capture.
If your payment mode is Platform MoR (the default), eTickets collects the funds and handles settlement separately.
Booking fee pass-through
Organisation admins can enable booking fee pass-through in the PayPal settings. When enabled, the platform fee and the PayPal processing fee are added to the customer's total at checkout as a Booking fee line. In this case:
- The customer sees a breakdown: ticket subtotal + booking fee = total.
- The booking fee covers the platform's costs, so the full face value of the tickets reaches your account.
If booking fee pass-through is not enabled, the platform fee is deducted from your settlement — the customer does not see it at checkout.
Booking fees are only charged on paid orders. If all tickets in an order are free (£0), no booking fee is applied even when pass-through is enabled for your organisation.
Refunds and fees
When a refund is issued, the platform and PayPal processing fees from the original transaction are not reversed. The effect on your net balance depends on whether booking fee pass-through is enabled:
- Booking fee enabled: The customer paid the platform and PayPal costs as the booking fee — those costs were not deducted from your share. Refunding the ticket face value only returns the ticket price to the customer; your net position stays approximately the same. If you also refund the proportional booking fee, your net position decreases by the combined platform and PayPal fee amounts, since those costs are now returned to the customer too.
- Booking fee not enabled: The platform and PayPal costs were deducted from your settlement. When a refund is issued those costs are not returned, so your net position decreases by the full refund amount.
In the Sales portal, the refund amount defaults to the ticket face value. If the order included a booking fee, you can optionally include a proportional share of it — see Sales for details.