Managing Orders and Refunds

Once PayPal Payments is connected and live, you can manage PayPal transactions directly from your WooCommerce store’s order management interface. This includes capturing payments, issuing refunds, and viewing transaction details.

Capturing Payments

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If you have enabled “Authorize Only” payment mode in your PayPal settings (instead of “Capture Immediately”), you will need to manually capture funds after an order is placed.

To capture a payment:

  1. Go to WooCommerce > Orders.
  2. Click on the order you want to manage.
  3. If the payment is authorized but not yet captured, an Order Action called Capture authorized PayPal order will appear.
  4. Select this order action and click the action button next to it to collect the funds. The order status will update accordingly.

Alternatively, the authorized PayPal order can be captured by simply changing the WooCommerce order status from ‘On hold’ to ‘Processing’.

Additionally, PayPal Payments offers an API that enables developers to programmatically capture, reauthorize, void, or refund PayPal orders.

Tip: You can reauthorize an authorized order to extend the capture period. If the order total is reduced after authorization, you can also capture a partial amount.

Issuing Refunds

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You can issue full or partial refunds directly from the WooCommerce admin panel.

To refund an order:

  1. Navigate to WooCommerce > Orders and open the relevant order.
  2. Scroll down to the Order Items section.
  3. Click the Refund button.
  4. Enter the quantity or amount to refund. Ensure the quantity or amount are greater than 0.
  5. Click Refund via PayPal.

Note: The refund will be processed via PayPal, and the customer will receive a notification from PayPal. WooCommerce will only notify the buyer and change the order status to Refunded when the full order amount was refunded.

Voiding Authorizations

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If a payment is still in the “Authorized” state and has not yet been captured, you can void the authorization to release the funds to the buyer. Follow the same steps as if you were to issue a refund. This will void the payment on PayPal’s side and update the order status in WooCommerce.

    Viewing Transaction Details

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    To see the full PayPal transaction details:

    1. Open any order paid via PayPal Payments.
    2. Scroll down to the Order Notes or PayPal Transaction Data section.
    3. You’ll find key information such as:
      • Transaction ID
      • Payer PayPal email address
      • Capture or refund status
      • Payment status
      • 3D Secure or Fraud Processor information