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APM (alternative payment methods) in Settings opens the Alternative Payment Accounts screen. Here you manage your company’s non-card payment accounts, such as PayPal.

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Where to find it

In the admin, click the Settings gear in the top bar. In the Settings sidebar, under Payments, select APM.

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What’s on the screen

The top bar holds the Add Payment Account button. The banner below it mentions tax calculations, but you set up tax on Taxes, not here. Card payment gateways have their own Gateways screen in the same Settings group. The Alternative Payment Accounts card has an Onboard PayPal Merchant button next to its heading and a table of your accounts. The search box above the table matches an account’s Reporting Name (the name used in CSV exports, event logs, and integrations) or payment type, not the Display Name shown in the table. The Sort By menu sorts by Name, or by Country (how many countries an account has), in Ascending or Descending order. Click a row to edit that account. The three-dot menu at the end of each row has Edit and Delete.
What you can do here depends on your role. Without APM permissions, APM doesn’t appear in the Settings sidebar. Depending on your permissions, you may also not see Add Payment Account, Onboard PayPal Merchant, Edit, or Delete.An admin can grant these on Roles, on the role’s Permissions tab, under Settings › APM. To connect PayPal or check a PayPal account’s setup, the role also needs the PayPal permission, under Commerce › PayPal.

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Connect a PayPal account

Each click on Onboard PayPal Merchant adds a new, inactive PayPal account to the table, even if you don’t finish in PayPal. Its name is Paypal followed by the date and time. To remove an unfinished account, open its three-dot menu and click Delete.
1

Start onboarding

Click Onboard PayPal Merchant. The button reads Redirecting to PayPal… while Fluid prepares the link, and then PayPal opens.
2

Finish in PayPal

Complete the steps PayPal shows you.
3

Check the result

When PayPal sends you back, the admin shows Checking Status…, then PayPal Connected!, and a moment later returns you to APM with the message PayPal account is ready! You see this even if the new account stays off, as described below.If PayPal reports a problem, you see Setup Incomplete and the reason. Follow the instructions in the message:
  • If you fixed something in PayPal, click Retry Verification.
  • If the message tells you to go through onboarding again, click Back to Payments, and then click Onboard PayPal Merchant to start again.
  • If the reason is Merchant ID not found, see What does Setup Required mean?.
To go back to APM instead, click Back to Payments.
Before you save a PayPal account you connected with Onboard PayPal Merchant, make sure Sandbox Mode is off.
When setup completes, Fluid turns the account on and makes it available in all of your company’s countries, but only if it’s your company’s first PayPal account. If your company has had a PayPal account before, even an unfinished one, the new account stays off and has no countries. To use it, turn it on. For a first account, Fluid also sets up a PayPal card gateway. If you don’t already have one, Fluid creates one named PayPal Credit Card Gateway, and it appears on the Gateways screen. You can rename a connected account by editing its Display Name and Reporting Name.

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Turn on a PayPal account that stayed off

1

Wait for verification

Wait until the Setup Required badge next to the account is gone. See What does Setup Required mean?.
2

Open the account

Click the account’s row. The Edit Payment Account panel opens.
3

Choose countries

Under Available Countries, select the countries where you want to offer the account.
4

Turn it on

Turn on Active.
5

Turn off Sandbox Mode

Turn off Sandbox Mode.
6

Save

Click Save Changes.
Only one active account of each payment type can serve a country. If another active account of the same type, such as an earlier PayPal account, already serves any of the countries you select, Fluid won’t save the change. Turn that other account off, or remove the overlapping countries from one of the two accounts, and then save again.

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Add a payment account

1

Open the form

Click Add Payment Account. The Add Payment Account panel opens.
2

Name the account

Enter a Display Name. The admin dashboard and storefront show this name. Enter a Reporting Name. CSV exports, event logs, and integrations use this name. Both are required.
3

Choose the payment type

Select a Payment Type. The list shows non-card payment types only. To use a payment method from an installed droplet, select Droplet. You can’t change the payment type after you create the account. To use a different payment type later, add a new account.
4

Choose countries

Under Available Countries, select at least one country. The list shows the countries your company sells in that the payment type supports. If you change the payment type, the form clears your country selection.
5

Fill in the type's fields

Enter the credentials and any other fields that appear for the payment type. Required fields have a red asterisk. See Fields that depend on the payment type.
6

Choose whether it's active

Active is off by default for a new account. Turn it on to offer the account at checkout. Checkout offers an account only while it’s active, and only in its Available Countries.If another active account of the same payment type already serves one of the countries you selected, Fluid won’t save the account while Active is on. Turn the other account off, or remove the overlapping countries.
7

Save

Click Add Account. A message confirms that Fluid created the account, and the account appears in the table.
If something is missing, the panel shows an error under the field, such as At least one country must be selected.

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Fields that depend on the payment type

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Edit a payment account

1

Open the account

Click the account’s row, or open the three-dot menu at the end of the row and click Edit. The Edit Payment Account panel opens.
2

Make your changes

Change the fields you need. Saved credentials appear masked. Clicking a masked field clears it. Leave it empty to keep the saved value, or enter the whole new value to replace it. For a PayPal account you connected with Onboard PayPal Merchant, turn off Sandbox Mode before you save.
3

Save

Click Save Changes.

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Delete a payment account

1

Choose Delete

Open the three-dot menu at the end of the account’s row and click Delete.
2

Confirm

In the Delete payment account? dialog, click Delete. This can’t be undone.

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FAQ

It appears next to a PayPal account whose PayPal setup isn’t verified yet. Click Setup Required to check the account’s status with PayPal again. If the check fails, you see Setup Incomplete and the reason, as described in Connect a PayPal account.Merchant ID not found means Fluid hasn’t received the account’s PayPal merchant ID yet. If you finished the PayPal steps, click Setup Required again later. If you didn’t finish them, click Onboard PayPal Merchant to start again, and delete the unfinished account. The new account stays off until you turn it on.
Until you choose a Payment Type, the field shows Select an integration to filter by available countries. If it shows No countries available for this integration., that payment type doesn’t support any of the countries your company sells in. You manage your company’s countries on Countries.