> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://kardow.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Collect payments with PayPal
> Create a PayPal account and PayPal.me link, connect it to your job board, and get paid for job posts.
PayPal lets you charge employers for job posts in countries where Stripe is not
available. Kardow sends the poster to your **PayPal.me** link with the plan price
pre-filled, the money lands in your PayPal account, and you approve the job once
you see the payment.
If Stripe is available in your country, use Stripe instead. Stripe confirms
payments automatically and publishes the job without you doing anything. PayPal
is the fallback, and it always needs a manual check.
## Prerequisites
A PayPal account (Business account recommended)
A PayPal.me profile with a username
Owner or admin access to your Kardow dashboard
## How PayPal payments work on Kardow
Before you set anything up, it helps to know exactly what happens, because PayPal
behaves differently from Stripe:
1. An employer fills in the post-a-job form and picks one of your PayPal plans.
2. Kardow creates the job with the status **Pending** and records a **pending**
payment in your Payments tab.
3. The employer is sent to `paypal.me/your-username/49` with the price already
filled in and pays you directly.
4. PayPal.me has no return link and no webhook, so **nothing is sent back to
Kardow**. The payment stays "pending" in the dashboard.
5. You check your PayPal account, confirm the money arrived, then set the job to
**Active** in Kardow.
PayPal jobs are always created as **Pending**, even if you have auto-publish
turned on. Nothing goes live until you approve it. This is intentional: the money
arrives in PayPal, not in Kardow, so only you can confirm it.
## 1. Create a PayPal account
Skip to [step 2](#2-create-your-paypal-me-link) if you already have one.
### 1.1 Go to the PayPal website
Visit [www.paypal.com](https://www.paypal.com) and click **Sign Up**.
### 1.2 Choose your account type
PayPal asks you to pick between a **Personal Account** (everyday use) and a
**Business Account**. Choose **Business Account** and click **Next**.
A Business account is recommended for a job board: it can receive commercial
payments, shows your business name to the payer instead of your personal name,
and gives you proper transaction reporting.
### 1.3 Fill in your business information
Add your business name (or your own name if you are a sole trader), business
phone number and business address, then click **Agree and Continue**.
### 1.4 Confirm your email
PayPal emails you a confirmation code. Open the message and enter the code (or
click **Confirm Email**).
### 1.5 Activate your account
### 1.6 Describe your business
Pick the option that best matches what you do. A job board usually fits under
services or advertising.
### 1.7 Fill in your personal details
### 1.8 Fill in your business details
### 1.9 Your account is ready
## 2. Create your PayPal.me link
Kardow sends employers to a PayPal.me link, so you need one before payments can
work. A PayPal account on its own is not enough.
### 2.1 Open the PayPal.me settings
In your PayPal dashboard, go to **Pay and get paid**, then **PayPal.me**.
### 2.2 Create your profile
Click **Create your PayPal.me link** and choose a username. This becomes the last
part of your link: `paypal.me/your-username`.
Use your job board's name as the username. Employers see it on the payment page,
so `paypal.me/acmejobs` looks a lot more trustworthy than `paypal.me/john1987`.
### 2.3 Add your photo and name
Fill in the profile details. This is what employers see when they land on your
payment page.
**Write down your username.** You need it in the next step.
## 3. Connect PayPal in Kardow
In your dashboard, go to **Payments**, then open the **Payment Providers**
tab.
Find the PayPal card and click **Enable**.
Type the username you created in step 2, for example `acmejobs`.
Enter the **username only**. Do not enter your email address and do not paste
the full `https://www.paypal.me/...` URL. If you enter an email address,
Kardow falls back to the part before the `@`, which is almost never a valid
PayPal.me username, and your payment links will lead to a dead page.
Sandbox Mode is for testing only. See
[Testing your setup](#testing-your-setup) below.
Click **Connect PayPal**. The card now shows PayPal as connected, and a
"PayPal Payment Plans" section appears on the **Pricing Plans** tab.
You can change the username or disconnect PayPal at any time from the same tab,
or from the PayPal banner on the **Pricing Plans** tab.
### Verify the link before you sell anything
Open `https://www.paypal.me/your-username/1` in a browser. You should see your
PayPal.me profile with 1 pre-filled. If you get a "page not found", the username
is wrong. Fix it in the dashboard before you publish any plans.
## 4. Create your PayPal pricing plans
Employers can only pay with PayPal if you offer a plan attached to it.
Go to **Payments → Pricing Plans** and click **Add Plan**, then choose
**PayPal**.
PayPal supports two types:
* **One-time** - the employer pays for a single job post.
* **Bundle** - the employer pays once for a pack of job posts (for example,
10 posts).
| Field | What it does |
| - | - |
| Plan name | Shown on the post-a-job page, for example "Standard listing" |
| Job quota | How many job posts the plan includes (1 for one-time) |
| Price and currency | The amount pre-filled on your PayPal.me page |
| Duration (days) | How long the job stays live |
| Features | One bullet per line, shown on the plan card |
The plan is created active and visible, so it appears on your post-a-job page
straight away. Use **Hide** or **Deactivate** on the plan card if you are not
ready to sell it yet.
### A note on currencies
Kardow builds the link as `paypal.me/username/AMOUNT` for USD and
`paypal.me/username/AMOUNTCURRENCY` for everything else, for example
`paypal.me/acmejobs/49EUR`. Make sure your PayPal account accepts the currency
you price the plan in, otherwise PayPal will show the payer an error.
## 5. Confirm payments and publish jobs
This is the part you have to do by hand for every PayPal order.
A new PayPal job shows up under **Payments** with the method "paypal" and the
job status **Pending**. The job is not visible on your board yet.
Open your PayPal activity and confirm you received the payment, and that the
**amount matches the plan price**.
PayPal.me lets the payer change the pre-filled amount before they confirm.
Always check the amount received, not just that a payment arrived.
In the **Payments** tab, use the status dropdown on that row and set the job
to **Active**. You can also do it from **Jobs** in the dashboard.
If no payment ever arrives, leave the job as Pending or set it to Draft. It
never becomes public on its own.
### Bundles are credited immediately
When an employer buys a **bundle**, Kardow activates their credits at the moment
they submit the form, before you have seen the money. That keeps the buying
experience smooth, but it means an employer could post their remaining bundle
jobs without paying.
Every job still lands as **Pending** and waits for your approval, so nothing goes
live unchecked. Just remember to confirm the bundle payment arrived before you
start approving that employer's jobs.
## Testing your setup
**Sandbox Mode** (on the PayPal card in **Payment Providers**) skips PayPal
entirely and marks the payment as completed so you can walk through the flow
without paying anything.
Sandbox Mode is not a PayPal sandbox account. It bypasses payment completely, so
anyone posting a job while it is on gets a free listing. Turn it off before you
go live.
For a real end-to-end test, keep Sandbox Mode off, create a \$1 plan, hide it from
your public page, and post a test job through it yourself.
## Limitations
| | PayPal | Stripe |
| - | - | - |
| One-time payments | Yes | Yes |
| Bundles | Yes | Yes |
| Recurring subscriptions | No | Yes |
| Automatic payment confirmation | No | Yes |
| Automatic job publishing | No | Yes |
| Promo codes | No | Yes |
| Paywall and Talent Directory plans | No, use Stripe | Yes |
| Countries | 200+ | Limited |
PayPal plans cover job posting only. Paywall subscriptions and Talent Directory
access need Stripe, Polar or invoicing.
## Troubleshooting
The username is wrong. Go to **Payments → Payment Providers → PayPal →
Configure** and enter the username exactly as it appears in your PayPal.me
profile, without the `paypal.me/` prefix and without your email address.
Check three things: PayPal is connected in **Payment Providers**, you have at
least one PayPal plan under **Pricing Plans**, and that plan is both
**Active** and **Visible** on its plan card.
This is expected. PayPal.me cannot tell Kardow that a payment happened, so
the record stays pending. Confirm the payment in PayPal and set the job to
Active yourself.
PayPal.me allows the payer to edit the pre-filled amount. Ask them to send
the difference, refund them from PayPal, or approve the job anyway. Kardow
does not enforce the amount.
Use Stripe or Polar. PayPal on Kardow is a one-time payment fallback and
cannot do recurring billing or automatic confirmation.
## Related guides
What employers see on the post-a-job form
Bill employers instead of taking card payments
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