Create an app in your PayPal business account and copy its Client ID and Secret. In Business Details › Online Payments click Set up PayPal, enter them, choose the clearing, fees and payment method accounts, then pick PayPal under Card payments on your invoices. Payments land in your PayPal balance and Exacc records them, with PayPal's fee, against the invoice.
Before you start
- A PayPal business account.
- In your chart of accounts: a PayPal clearing account (current asset) and an expense account for PayPal fees (e.g. Merchant fees), plus a payment method such as "PayPal (online)".
1. Create an app in PayPal
Sign in at developer.paypal.com with your business account and open Apps & Credentials. Make sure Live is selected (not Sandbox), then open or create an app and copy its Client ID and Secret (click Show under Secret key). To let customers save their PayPal account for future invoices, turn on Vault for the app.
2. 1. Your PayPal account
In Exacc, open Manage › Configuration › Business Details, the Online Payments tab, then Set up PayPal. Paste the Client ID and Secret and click Save and check. Exacc checks them with PayPal before saving.
- Client ID (required) - from your PayPal app.
- Secret (required) - the app's secret key, not your PayPal password.
- What your customers see - the name of the payment option on the invoice page.
- These are sandbox (test) details - only for testing with PayPal sandbox apps; leave off for real payments.
3. 2. Where PayPal payments are booked
Choose the three accounts and save. Each payment is recorded in full in the clearing account; PayPal's fee is recorded separately as an expense.
- PayPal clearing account (current asset) (required) - where each payment is recorded; it mirrors your PayPal balance.
- PayPal fees account (expense) (required) - where PayPal's fee on each payment is recorded.
- Payment method (required) - how the payment is labelled, e.g. PayPal (online).
4. Choose PayPal for your invoices
Back on the Online Payments tab, pick PayPal under Card payments on your invoices. The status line changes to Active: PayPal.
What your customer sees
On the invoice page the customer clicks Pay … with PayPal, logs in to PayPal and approves the payment. They return to a "Payment received" page and the invoice is marked paid in Exacc.
Moving money out of PayPal
When you transfer your PayPal balance to your bank, record it as a transfer from the PayPal clearing account to your bank account.
Questions
Exacc says "PayPal rejected the Client ID and Secret".
Check that both come from the same app, that you copied the Secret and not the Client ID twice, and that live details are not marked as sandbox (or the other way round).
Can customers pay by card without a PayPal account?
That depends on your PayPal account settings; PayPal decides which options it offers on its page.
Related guides
- Let customers view and pay invoices online
- Charge a customer's saved card
- Set up your chart of accounts
- Payment methods
Checked against Exacc on 12 October 2026. Machine-readable version