How to carry out a test payment with PayPal – and how to refund PayPal payments

We have chosen PayPal as one of our payment methods.
Now we would like to test whether participants will be able to pay via PayPal.

How do we carry out a test payment?
Can this test transaction be canceled in PayPal later on?
How can we refund the test payment?

(A German version of this article is available.)

It is always a good idea to test your payment settings.

First, please create a test user account:
Overview => User and Participant Management => Create New User Account
If available, please press the button "Submit and Begin With Participant Registration" to finish the user registration process and start with the participant registration.
Otherwise, please press the button "Create User Account Only".

If you have already created a test user or if the participant registration module is not active, please go to the list of users:
Overview => User and Participant Management => List of All Users
... and in the column "Action" select "Register Participant" for that user.

Simply carry out a test participant registration for a test user from beginning to end.

In the section "Total Discount", please enter a discount that lowers the total sum so that the amount due is small enough for a test payment (see image 1).

Alternatively, you can enter a test credit (negative values) in the section "Extra Fee or Credit" to reduce the payment amount (see image 2).

Don't forget to choose PayPal as payment method.

Log in as the test participant, and on the "Overview" page click on the PayPal button to start the payment (see image 3).
Follow the steps in PayPal to finish the test payment.

Log back into ConfTool as an admin and head on over to the Details of the Participant's Registration to make sure that the payment has been automatically marked as paid in ConfTool.

Log into your PayPal Business account to refund the test payment:

• Click on "Activity" at the top of the page.
• Select the payment you want to refund.
• Click on the button "Refund".
• For the option "Total Refund Amount," enter the amount you want to refund and then click on the button "Issue Refund".

Please be advised that PayPal will not levy any extra fees to issue the refund, but - depending on where you are located - the fees you originally paid as the seller for the transaction are either not returned to you at all or only the variable fee will be reimbursed.

The refund is automatically stored in ConfTool.

You can now delete the participant registration and the user account of the test person.


Hints:

You can find more information about how to refund payments via PayPal at:
Reimbursing payments via PayPal, Stripe and other online credit card payment gateways.

PayPal also allows refunds of partial payments. Related information is available on this page:
Cancelation of single event - partial refund via PayPal.

For further information on cancelling registrations and refunding payments via the ConfTool system, please take a look at:
Canceling of single items/events - reimbursement of partial payments.