Cobot effortlessly integrates with PayPal, streamlining member payments by allowing members to link their PayPal accounts to their Cobot profiles, ensuring secure processing of membership fees.

You can set up PayPal under Setup » Payment Methods and can choose either semi-automated or automated payments. If you are part of the EU, only the semi-automated options apply.

By default, your PayPal allows semi-automated payments. All you have to do is set up a merchant account and connect it to Cobot. Check out PayPal's website to get started.

Once you have your PayPal account, head over to your admin portal in Cobot » Setup » Payment Methods » Add Payment Method » Add PayPal.

Follow the prompts to add your PayPal API credentials. Check out this guide for more details on how to do this. If you have trouble getting the details you need, contact PayPal's support team.

Once you are connected, any new invoices generated and existing invoices in Cobot will show a "Pay Now" link, regardless of what payment method your member or non-member has chosen, ensuring all of your invoices have a payment option.

Once activated, your members will be able to choose PayPal as a payment method when they sign up, or from the drop-down in their member portal under Membership » Payment Method. Here's how it looks to them:

How your members receive their invoices will depend on your invoice settings:

BY EMAIL: Members will receive their invoices via email as soon as it is generated only if you activate this feature.

Go to Setup » Invoice Settings » check 'Send invoices by email' » Save. Members will now receive an email with a payment link as soon as their next payment is due. They will be directed to the PayPal website to make the payment. Once completed, the corresponding invoice will show up as Paid via PayPal.

IN THEIR MEMBER PORTAL: Invoices are posted to the member portal by default. Members can log in to process payments against them by clicking on their Membership tab and then 'Pay Now' on their invoice. They will be directed to the PayPal website to pay; once completed, the corresponding invoice will show up as Paid via PayPal.

PayPal is also available for on demand products, such as Drop-in Passes and External Bookings for non-members. This is not visible by default, so the first thing you want to do is head over to Setup » Payment Methods » Edit PayPal » and enable it for non-members.

Once enabled, PayPal will be an option during the Drop-in Pass or External Booking check out flow. Here is how it looks when using the External Booking portal:

They will then be taken to a log in screen to complete the transaction.

They will be emailed their invoice after the payment is complete. Click here to read more on emails.

ONLY AVAILABLE TO SPACES OUTSIDE OF THE EU

Cobot offers an additional PayPal integration called PayPal Express. When activated, members only need to choose PayPal and log in to their account once. After that, all invoices automatically get charged to the default payment method on their PayPal account. This feature does not impact your non-member/visitor payment flow.

To set this up, you need to enable your PayPal account to accept reference transactions, which requires the two following conditions:

If you meet both those requirements, reach out to PayPal and ask them to turn on reference transactions. Once enabled, you will get an email like this:

Once a transaction has been initiated, PayPal sends a message to Cobot, marking the invoice as paid, regardless of whether the money has arrived in your connected account.

If you edit or refund invoices or charges generated within PayPal, these changes will not be returned to Cobot. You'll still need to manually reconcile your invoices as we can't do anything about the message PayPal sends or control the timeliness of the funds transfer.

We recommend you do this monthly to ensure your accounting and analytics are correct.

Learn more about the other automated payment options in Cobot here.