How to Split a PayPal Payment on a WooCommerce Order

by Drew | Last Updated May 26, 2020 | Published on Nov 10, 2019 | Tutorials | 36 comments

Overview

This tutorial uses the following plugins which will be required in order to complete the process.

PayPal for WooCommerce
PayPal for WooCommerce – Multi-Account Management

Using these plugins, we will setup multiple PayPal accounts on a single WooCommerce store, and we will process an order where separate item payments are split into separate PayPal accounts based on rules that we create.

Video

1. Download and Install the PayPal for WooCommerce Plugins

To follow along with this tutorial you will need to have our FREE PayPal for WooCommerce plugin, as well as our paid add-on for the Multi-Account management.

Get the Plugins

Plugins Installed

You are ready to continue when you have WooCommerce, PayPal for WooCommerce, and the PayPal Multi-Account Manager plugins installed and active.

2. Configure a Primary PayPal Account in Express Checkout

Follow our Express Checkout setup guide to get PayPal payments working in general on your website.
The account you configure here will be the primary account where any payment that does not trigger a secondary account will be paid.

3. Go to WooCommerce -> Settings -> PayPal Multi-Account Setup

4. Create a Secondary PayPal Account Rule

Follow our documentation to configure your secondary PayPal account rule.
In this example, we are creating a rule that will send all payments for products owned by the “angelleye” Author ID to the PayPal Email set in the rule.
- In this example, the “angelleye” vendor owns a product called PayPal Help.
- A 10% commission will be split as well, which is paid directly to the site admin account.
- This is very useful for marketplace plugins like WC Vendors or Dokan, for example.
Click Save Changes after configuring your secondary account rule.

PayPal for WooCommerce Split Payment by Vendor ID

5. Create an Additional Secondary PayPal Account Rule

Follow our documentation to configure your secondary PayPal account rule.
In this example, we are creating a rule that will send all payments for the “Premium Support” product to the PayPal account for sandbox-seller@angelleye.com.
Click Save Changes after configuring your secondary account rule.

You’re Ready to Rock!

We have successfully configured a primary account in the main Express Checkout plugin, and secondary accounts in the Multi-Account plugin.

Now we can submit an order that will trigger both rules and see how the PayPal payment gets split between the two.

Add Both Items to the Shopping Cart

Checkout with PayPal

Order / Payment Details

The order details in WooCommerce show two separate transaction IDs because the payment was split between two separate PayPal accounts.

We Can Also See Separate Transactions in the Individual PayPal Accounts

Need Additional Help?

Schedule a live meeting with Drew Angell, PayPal Certified Developer, and get all of your questions or concerns answered.

Get Direct Help from a PayPal Partner

Featured PayPal Products and Services

36 Comments

← Older Comments

Jonathan on November 15, 2020 at 4:33 am

Hello, I have set up a marketplace. I have WC Vendors, Woocomerce, Paypal for Woocomerce and PayPal for WooCommerce – Multi-Account Management set up. I am using the Paypal express checkout also. When a customer buys a product on my marketplace, Paypal sends them an email/receipt letting them know where specifically their money has gone. It tells them how much commission I get and the breakdown of how much the seller gets. As you can understand I do not want the customers knowing how much I, the site owner gets. I only want the woocommerce order invoice email which provides the high level details of their order. Any help? thanks Jonathan
Reply
- Drew on November 19, 2020 at 12:23 am
  
  I’m sorry, but the nature of a Parallel Payment is always going to show the separate payments because they are indeed separate payments. You can try disabling the line items and that might give you more of what you’re after. That’s the best I can tell you, though. Sorry I don’t have a better answer for you on that.
  Reply
- Tamie on January 17, 2021 at 10:58 pm
  
  Oh, that is disappointing. I suppose a note can be made on the checkout page stating the payment will be split. Just feels unprofessional.
  
  Who pays the Paypal fees?
  Reply
  - Drew on January 19, 2021 at 5:39 am
    
    Each receiver pays their own PayPal fee based on the amount they receive and the rate their account qualifies for.
    Reply
confused on December 26, 2020 at 3:03 am

Not easy to follow, or see, or understand. Im guessing youre supposing everyone reading this is 90% tech savvy and 100% first language english…
it would have been MUCH easier to SEE whats going on here in this explanation IF you’d named these accounts in the demo as SITEOWNER and SELLER, and then we could have seen IN the forms who gets what and which image is explaining what.
Or maybe Im just a dumba**
But I cant follow it, and after reading it a few times I still have no idea if this is the plugin Im looking for or not.
Reply
- Drew on January 13, 2021 at 4:21 pm
  
  Hi. Very sorry for the confusion. Did you watch the video as well?
  Reply
James on January 4, 2021 at 1:28 pm

What happens if a PayPal account gets limited? Will all the other accounts be linked?
Reply
- Drew on January 13, 2021 at 4:16 pm
  
  There are many variables in play that would affect this. I would say that yes, if PayPal dug into it they could probably see that the accounts are related in some way (coming from the same site/ip address.) Whether or not that means they would all become limited depends on a wide variety of things. Difficult to say without more details.
  Reply
Thomas on February 28, 2021 at 3:42 pm

Hi,
Please help me with the following so that i know if i can buy your plugin.

-Can i use your plugin “WooCommerce Multiple PayPal Accounts Plugin” to split for example payment, that i get for selling ONE product that costs 240$, between 3 PayPal accounts? I have read your tutorial about split payments, but it’s in the case of one order containing multiple products, not one.

-If i can use your plugin to split payment that i get for selling ONE product, will the payment be split between the three accounts instantly? or it will go to one PayPal account then will be split?

Thank you very much!
Reply
- Drew on March 4, 2021 at 5:47 pm
  
  I’m sorry, but it’s not currently setup for that particular use case. We could make it work that way, but we’d have to bill you for custom feature enhancement. If you’re interested in that please submit a ticket at http://www.angelleye.com/support and we can talk about that more. Thanks!
  Reply
Marko on April 24, 2021 at 5:24 am

Hi. Regarding that last question by Thomas. If it is not possible to split the payment of an individual product, why is this ideal solution for WC Vendors. I really love the concept, but I would love to use it for a marketplace to split the earnings between the author and the site admin.

Does it work with Woocommerce Subscriptions? If so, I guess probably not for the scenario above, where subscription would be split between two accounts.

Is this a one time $99 payment?

Lastly, does PayPal allow such practices? I mean, is it risky to use it on a marketplace with 100 sellers?

Thanks for your patience & bye!
Reply