How to Set Recurring PayPal Payments in WordPress Form

The PayPal Recurring Payments addon for JetFormBuilder adds PayPal subscriptions to forms, manages their settings, keeps them up to date, and tracks all payments.

Table of contents:

• What PayPal Recurring Payments PRO Addon Does
• Install Addon
• How to Create a Subscription Plan
• How to Create a Form with Plans
• Action Events
• Place a Form on the Page
• How to Suspend a Subscription
• How to Activate a Subscription
• How to Cancel a Subscription

What PayPal Recurring Payments PRO Addon Does

Install Addon

Head to WordPress Dashboard > JetFormBuilder > Addons. Among all the available items, find the PayPal Recurring Payments and press the “Install Addon” button.

Then don’t forget to activate the addon to get access to all of its features. 

To do so, proceed to WordPress Dashboard > Plugins and find the installed addon. Hit the “Activate” button.

How to Create a Subscription Plan

Initially, log in to your PayPal Developer account. Hover over the Pay & Get Paid section to see the available pages. The Subscriptions page is the one we need.

So, here we can see the PayPal subscription plans in the samely named tab. Click on the “Create Plan” button to build a new one.

If you have already built some plans before, they will be suggested to you as options for selection. 

Or, press the “Create a subscription product” button to set a plan from scratch.

Fill in the suggested fields that correspond to the info about the product you will provide in a subscription.

You can complete the fields or leave some empty as they are not obligatory. Hit the “Next” button to proceed to the following step.

You can see the same window displayed before, but now the list includes the item we have just added. Select it and click the “Next” button.

This step is one of the most important for customization. Pick the pricing option that is the most preferable for the subscription plan you create.

Then push the “Next” button once again.

Give a name to the PayPal subscription plan and write a description. Click the “Next” button to continue the setup.

Adjust the settings concerning pricing. Specify the currency and check the other options available.

Don’t forget to specify the price in the corresponding field and decide how it will be charged. Hit the “Next” button to review the plan you have just customized.

It is the last step, now check the details and push the “Update” button next to the information if it needs to be edited.

Once done, hit the “Turn Plan On” button to make the plan live.

How to Create a Form with Plans

Before building the form, ensure that the PayPal gateways are activated for your website. Open the WordPress Dashboard > JetFormBuilder > Settings directory and check the Payments Gateways settings.

Toggle the Enable Gateways switcher. Optionally, you can also activate the Enable Test Mode feature.

Also, mind filling in the following Client ID and Secret Key fields. Complete them with the corresponding data and hit the “Save” button.

Go to WordPress Dashboard > JetFormBuilder > Add New. Give a title to the form and delete the default fields if you don’t need them.

Add all the desired fields to the form. For instance, our form includes a Hidden Field, several Text Fields, and one Action Button.

Navigate to the Post Submit Actions tab and select the “Save Form Record” option from the available drop-down list. Otherwise, the PayPal Checkout settings will not be active.

Also, click on the pencil-shaped button to edit the action. In the appeared window, you can enable the “Store the IP address and other request headers” that will save the user’s IP address and User Agent data.

The “Edit” button next to the enabled PayPal Checkout becomes active. Press it to get to the settings.

Enable the Use Global Settings toggle to inherit the Client ID and Secret Key you have entered earlier in the JetFormBuilder settings.

Or, if you haven’t done it before or need to substitute data, you can do it right in the following fields.

Mind setting the Gateway Action by selecting the “Create a subscription” option from the drop-down menu. 

Push the “Sync Access Token” button to synchronize the data.

As you see, the access token data is now updated. 

Select the needed option in the Subscription Plan Field. Here you can choose one of the fields you have added to the form or pick a “Manual Input” option. Now the last mentioned option is our case.

So as we have picked manual input, we need to specify the Subscription Plan we built earlier.

As for the Quantity field and Manual input of quantity fields, we leave them with the default values entered because, in our case, we don’t need to specify a quantity.

Or, type “1” in the Manual input of quantity field, and it will work in the same way.

Scroll down to available macros and fill in the messages shown to the user in the specific cases.

Click on the “Update” button to save the adjusted settings.

That’s it for the form; now, you can hit the “Publish” button.

Action Events

This tool applies actions at different performing moments, i.e., during its execution, after request processing, after checkouts, etc.

Navigate to the Post Submit Action settings of the form settings and select the action you need from the appropriate drop-down menu. 

NOTE

Except for the Save Form Record option, the Action Event settings are available for all Post Submit Actions from the drop-down menu..

Press the Condition button to open the Edit Action Conditions & Events popup window. Here select the Events Match tab and choose one or some options from the Add Event drop-down menu:

• DEFAULT.PROCESS ー the event is performed simultaneously with the specified action. This event is executed before redirecting to check out if the PayPal/Stripe is functionality enabled;
• BAD.REQUESTー the event is performed after processing the request if the form fields have errors like the wrong field format of the media field or the field text exceeds the limit;
• DEFAULT.REQUIREDー the event is performed in any case, even if the form fields have errors or unsuccessfully performed actions. This event is launched at the end of the form response is submitted.

NOTE

The DEFAULT.REQUIRED event is a default event for the Save Form Record action and cannot be added to other events.

• GATEWAY.SUCCESSー the event is performed after the payment system has checked up on the payment made or subscription issued;
• GATEWAY.FAILED ー the event is performed if users have returned from the checkout page of the payment system without making a payment or subscribing.
• GATEWAY.SUBSCRIPTION.CANCELLEDー the event is performed if users have canceled the subscriptions;
• GATEWAY.SUBSCRIPTION.EXPIREDー the event is performed if the subscription term of use has been expired;
• GATEWAY.SUBSCRIPTION.SUSPENDED ー the event is performed if the subscription is suspended.

Users can add different actions with different events.

NOTE

If you have some actions referring to the DEFAULT.REQUIRED event, assigning the Save Form Record the last action is recommended. Otherwise, the completed action status can be saved incorrectly.

Place a Form on the Page

You can place the form on the needed page or in the pop-up. Let’s take a look at the second case.

Navigate to WordPress Dashboard > JetPopup > Create New Popup. Give a title to the pop-up and push the “Edit with Elementor” button to open the Page Builder.

Add the needed widgets to the pop-up and search for the JetForm one.

• Choose Form — select the JetFormBuilder form you have just created;
• Fields Layout — pick how the fields will be displayed, in a column or a row;
• Required Mark — change the default mark for the obligatory fields if desired;
• Fields label HTML tag — define the HTML tag used for the label of the fields;
• Submit Type — select whether the page will be reloaded or the AJAX type will be applied once the form is submitted;
• Enable form pages progress — activate the toggle if you have used Form Break Field in the form.

Publish the achieved result and head to the page editor where you want to place the button, which will lead to the pop-up. You can edit the existing one or create a new page. Once again, there are no limits; you can build a page both in Elementor and Gutenberg.

Form in Elementor

Add or search for the Button widget. Open the Advanced tab and find the needed item in the Attached Popup selector.

That’s it for the page editor, press the “Publish/Update” button and open the front end page.

Form in Gutenberg

As the JetPopup plugin is not available for Gutenberg, you can add a form there with the help of the JetForm block.

The settings presented here are the same as in Elementor.

We press the button to which we have attached a pop-up to see the form.

Complete the form with the required information and submit it by pressing the button below.

The user will be redirected to the PayPal payment page. Now log in to the account and select the bank card if needed. Press the “Continue” button.

Check the provided info and press the “Agree & Subscribe” button.

Let’s check the subscription status by heading to WordPress Dashboard > JetFormBuilder > Subscriptions.

The new subscription info is right here. We can also see that its status is set to active.

If we hover over the item, we can spot the “Suspend” and “Cancel” buttons. We will return to these features later. 

Open the created subscription to see additional details about it.

Look at the several blocks presented here. It is Payer Info, Payment Shipping, Subscription Details, and not less critical Related Form Record.

One more section available is Notes. Here you can see the messages about subscription status changes or add your note by completing the field and pressing the “Add Note” button.

You may also notice the “Suspend” and “Cancel” buttons here.

How to Suspend a Subscription

Let’s take a look at the ability to suspend the subscription. Press the “Suspend” button.

Specify the reason or leave the default value and push the “Suspend Subscription” button.

Or, there is another way to suspend the subscription. You can do it right through the PayPal account. Head to the Subscriptions tab and find the needed subscription.

Press the three dots shaped button and hit “Pause Subscription” there. From now on, the subscription will be paused.

Check the status; now it is changed to “Suspended.”

How to Activate a Subscription

The subscription can be reactivated if needed. However, you can do it only from the PayPal account.

Click the “Activate Subscription” button next to the item to enable the subscription once again.

How to Cancel a Subscription

Besides, you can discontinue the subscription. Press the “Cancel Subscription” button in the PayPal account.

Or, you can cancel the subscription from the WordPress Dashboard > JetFormBuilder > Subscriptions section.

How to Make a Refund

A refund can also be made via PayPal. Head to the Activity > All Transactions and find the “Refund” button next to the received payment. Click on it to see the refund details.

Specify the total of the refund in the Total Refund Amount. Optionally, you can fill in the Invoice Number and leave the Note to Buyer.

That’s it; now you know how to use the PayPal Recurring Payments addon available with the JetFormBuilder PRO plugin.