I’m a developer or agency. How can I set up WooPayments for my client?

If you’re a developer or agency building a site for a client, and the client plans on using WooPayments, you can of course test WooPayments first to ensure that everything works as expected before handing over the final project.

We strongly recommend using sandbox mode and allowing the client to sign up for their own live account. The following sections expand on these best practices.

To test how WooPayments functions on your client’s site, we recommend using sandbox mode. This is for a few reasons:

• Sandbox mode uses a WooPayments test account that doesn’t require you or your client to enter any personal information.
• Sandbox mode can be easily enabled on a staging site, and a live account can be created when migrating to production.
• Disabling sandbox mode allows your client to quickly sign up for WooPayments with their own live account.

If you’re setting up WooPayments for a client, it’s best to have them complete the account creation process on the live site themselves for several reasons:

• Successfully creating the account requires knowledge of the client’s personal information, which developers or agencies may not have.
• A phone number is needed for SMS two-factor authentication. This phone number should be the client’s, so that they can access their Stripe Express account later.
• Signing up for WooPayments requires connecting to a WordPress.com account. Signing up on behalf of someone else will use your WordPress.com account for this, which is not ideal.
  • If this happens, you can request the WooPayments account be deleted or you can transfer the account to the client.
• It’s not always possible to change all of the account information once the account has been created.
• Creating an account on behalf of a client can be a barrier for them to receive timely support, as noted below.

Our support policies prevent us from discussing specific details of a WooPayments account unless we are contacted directly from one of the following emails:

• The email address on the connected WordPress.com account.
• The account email on the Stripe Express account.

Ideally, both of these email addresses should be the client’s, even if the site was developed by a third party. Thus, as the developer or agency, it’s unlikely that you will be able to submit support requests on behalf of your client.

If you do need to submit a support request on behalf of your client, please provide us with one of the two email addresses listed above. That way, we can first verify with the client that we are permitted to discuss their account with you.