How to integrate Salesforce.com with PayPal

When you need to integrate Salesforce.com with PayPal

If your business model means that you need to make variable payments to individuals from your Salesforce.com platform, then you might want to think about integrating with PayPal.

Let’s say for example that your business is to run a website providing information and reviews on where to get a good cup of coffee. Your customer base can register on your site, and then send in reviews and ratings on their experience at a specific independent coffee shop or chain. You build up a valuable bank of information, and in return you pay your coffee drinking customers for their independent reviews.

No doubt you want a payment system that offers you the chance to pay large or small amounts, online, securely and instantly. You may want to configure your system so that payments are triggered automatically each time your coffee drinker posts another review. Or have a monthly reward for your most prolific caffeine fan.

And when you want to go international and find out where to get your Americano in Boston or your Espresso in Milan, you can pay your local reviewers in Euros, Dollars, or any other local currency.  That’s where Salesforce.com + PayPal comes in.

Making it work, and making sure it works

Integrating a payment system however, comes with its own unique set of challenges. One of the main issues that developers will face here is the problem of how to test a payment procedure effectively, without actually transacting real cash.  Our developer, Simon Lawrence, has written a step by step guide to establishing your Salesforce.com / PayPal integration, outlining all the code you will need to install, integrate and test PayPal within your Salesforce.com architecture.

Keeping track

Once you have got PayPal up and running, you will also want to read the other half of the story – what happens to each payment once it has been processed? What happens to cancelled transactions? Or payments you make to an incorrect email address? For this you will need to get your head around the PayPal IPN system, and again Simon’s guide is a good place to start.

Of course, if you have a head for business, but not the heart for code, you can give us a call and we can have a chat with you about what you need, and whether you want us to do the integration work for you.