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How To Test Your PayPal Integration
How To Test Your PayPal Integration

The articles walks you through how to complete a test to make sure your PayPal integration is working properly.

Nick Castellano avatar
Written by Nick Castellano
Updated over a year ago

This article assumes you have followed the steps for either our PayOuts or Mass Payments integration. If you have not done so, do that first and then come back to this article.

Step 1 Create A Manual Credit

First, navigate to Manage>Affiliates and click your name (you are automatically created as a test affiliate in Refersion when you sign-up). If you aren’t there, you can make a new test affiliate by clicking on the Create New button. 

Once you are in the account details, click Manual Credit and select Enter a commission amount in the Type of Credit box, then set the credit to one penny (or your local currency of choice) and set the status as APPROVED, then click the Process button at the bottom.

Step 2 Check Your PayPal Address

Next, make sure you’ve added a PayPal email address for yourself, under Offer & Payment settings.

Please note: Do not use the same email address that you use to log in to your PayPal account. The sender email needs to be different than the receiving one.

Step 3 Make the Payment

Next, go to the Payments>Ready to Pay tab and you’ll see your .01 payment with the PayPal logo properly displayed:

Check the box next to the affiliate's name, then click 'Pay with PayPal'

Step 4 Check The Transaction On PayPal

Log into your PayPal account and make sure the transaction processed successfully.

Step 5 Check For Confirmation On Refersion

Head back to your Refersion account and double check that the status for the payment has been marked completed on the Payments>Payment Status tab

If however, you see any errors (except an insufficient funds error), then your PayPal account is not properly setup. 

Here's a list of definitions for the different PayPal generated errors. 

  • ACCOUNT_RESTRICTED Your account has been limited. You'll need to remove these limitations to send a payout.

  • ACCOUNT_UNCONFIRMED_EMAIL Your account may not have a confirmed email and a confirmed bank account or credit card. Sender may not have account status verified.

  • AUTHORIZATION_ERROR An authorization error occurred.

  • BATCH_NOT_COMPLETE Dpayout is not complete.

  • CLOSED_MARKET The recipient account is in a country that's not eligible to receive a payout.

  • CURRENCY_COMPLIANCE Currency compliance.

  • CURRENCY_NOT_SUPPORTED_FOR_RECEIVER The transaction currency is not supported for the receiver. You can send the payout in a different currency.

  • DUPLICATE_ITEM This is a duplicate item as the SENDER_ITEM_ID matches with another item in the payout. The SENDER_ITEM_ID should be unique for each payout.

  • GAMER_FAILED_COUNTRY_OF_RESIDENCE_CHECK Please check the country of residence. Payments to this country is not allowed.

  • GAMER_FAILED_FUNDING_SOURCE_CHECK The funding source for this gamer is ineligible to make payments.

  • GAMING_INVALID_PAYMENT_FLOW This payment flow is not valid for gaming.

  • INSUFFICIENT_FUNDS You have insufficient funds in your PayPal balance. You'll need to add funds to your account to complete the payout.

  • INTERNAL_ERROR An internal error has occurred. For item level errors, we'll try resending the payout thrice. If we are unable to complete the requests, you'll need to resubmit the payout after 24 hours. For payout level errors, we'll not retry the payout.

  • ITEM_ALREADY_CANCELLED This item has already been canceled.

  • ITEM_CANCELLATION_FAILED The cancellation request for this item failed due to an internal error.

  • ITEM_INCORRECT_STATUS You can cancel items only with unclaimed status.

  • MALFORMED_REQUEST_ERROR JSON request is malformed.

  • NEGATIVE_BALANCE The payout can't be completed as your PayPal account has a negative balance. You'll need to correct this before you send a payout.

  • NON_HOLDING_CURRENCY As your PayPal balance is not held in this currency, you’ll not be able to send payouts.

  • PENDING_RECIPIENT_NON_HOLDING_CURRENCY_PAYMENT_PREFERENCE The payment is pending as the recipient has set a preference to not allow auto credits to the balance in a non-holding currency.

  • POS_LIMIT_EXCEEDED You've exceeded the POS cumulative sending limit.

  • RATE_LIMIT_VALIDATION_FAILURES Sorry, we've blocked this request due to multiple invalid requests submitted previously. Please retry the payout after some time.

  • RECEIVER_ACCOUNT_LOCKED The receiver's account is locked or inactive. Any payment made to this account will appear as FAILED. You can contact the recipient to request them to activate their account.

  • RECEIVER_COUNTRY_NOT_ALLOWED As the recipient's country can't receive payments, this transaction is not allowed.

  • RECEIVER_STATE_RESTRICTED As the recipient's address is in a restricted state, payments can't be received.

  • RECEIVER_UNCONFIRMED The receiver's email is unconfirmed. Any payment made to this account will appear as UNCLAIMED until the receiver's account is confirmed. Payments will be returned if they are not claimed within 30 days.

  • RECEIVER_UNREGISTERED This receiver is not registered. You'll need to request them to sign up with PayPal to receive the payment.

  • RECEIVER_YOUTH_ACCOUNT Since the recipient is a Youth account, they can't receive payments. You can send the payment to an alternate account.

  • RECEIVING_LIMIT_EXCEEDED The recipient has exceeded the receiving limit.

  • REFUSED_ACCESS_DENIED Access has been denied as the send money option is not allowed for this merchant.

  • RECEIVER_REFUSED This payment has been refused by the recipient.

  • REGULATORY_BLOCKED This transaction is blocked due to regulatory compliance reasons.

  • REGULATORY_PENDING This transaction is pending completion of required regulatory and compliance checks.

  • REQUIRED_SCOPE_MISSING The access token doesn't have the required scope. You'll need to use the access token with the correct scope to send a payout.

  • RISK_DECLINE This transaction was declined due to risk concerns.

  • SELF_PAY_NOT_ALLOWED Payment to self is not allowed.

  • SENDER_ACCOUNT_LOCKED Your account is locked or inactive. You'll have to contact the customer service team to activate your account.

  • SENDER_ACCOUNT_UNVERIFIED The payment hasn’t been processed as this sender account is not set up or verified by PayPal. Please contact us to resolve this issue.

  • SENDER_STATE_RESTRICTED As your address is in a restricted state, payments can't be sent.

  • SPENDING_LIMIT_EXCEEDED You've exceeded the spending limit.

  • TRANSACTION_DECLINED_BY_TRAVEL_RULE This transaction has been declined as it hasn't complied with the Travel Rule Regulation.

  • TRANSACTION_LIMIT_EXCEEDED You or the recipient has exceeded the transaction limit.

  • UNDEFINED Sorry, an error has occurred. For help, please contact your account manager or our Customer Service team. You can also try sending the Payout after sometime.

  • UNVERIFIED_RECIPIENT_NOT_SUPPORTED Sender supports payments to email verified recipients only.

  • USER_BUSINESS_ERROR User business error has occurred.

  • USER_COUNTRY_NOT_ALLOWED User's country is not allowed.

  • USER_FUNDING_SOURCE_INELIGIBLE Your funding source is not eligible to make a payout.

  • ZERO_AMOUNT The payout can't be done without any amount. You must enter a valid amount that's greater than zero.

If you’re not sure what is wrong, screenshot the error message you received and reach out to us at [email protected].

Otherwise, you’re all set! If you use your PayPal account to pay yourself (or a made-up PayPal account), then the transaction won’t go through in PayPal, so you won’t lose the penny.

What's Next

Learn how to manually adjust an affiliate's commission.

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