Set up WooPayments on a client site

WooPayments is a payment solution built into WooCommerce that lets your client accept credit and debit cards, digital wallets, and local payment methods directly from their WordPress dashboard. WooPayments is available in 38 countries and accepts payments in 135+ currencies. There are no setup costs or monthly fees — your client pays per-transaction fees only.

For agencies, WooPayments is a powerful way to progress through our partner tiers and earn commission.

As an agency, you can install and test WooPayments during development, but your client should complete the live account setup themselves. This guide walks you through the recommended workflow.

In this guide, you will learn how to install WooPayments, test it during development, and hand off the live account setup to your client.

Your client’s site must meet the following requirements:

• The site has WooCommerce installed and activated.
• The business is based in one of the WooPayments supported countries.
• The site has an SSL certificate and is accessible over HTTPS.
• PHP, WordPress, and WooCommerce are on recent versions.
• To earn commission, the client site must be connected to your Automattic for Agencies account.

You can install WooPayments on your client’s site using either of the following methods.

If you have purchased or plan to purchase WooPayments through the Automattic for Agencies Marketplace, assign the WooPayments license to the client’s site. The extension is activated on the site once the license is assigned.

For detailed steps, see Assign a WooCommerce extension to a site.

Follow these steps to install WooPayments directly on the client’s site:

1. Log in to the client’s site wp-admin.
2. Navigate to WooCommerce → Settings → Payments.
3. Click the “Install” button next to WooPayments.

4. WooPayments activates automatically after installation.

Before handing off the site, test WooPayments using a test account. Test accounts allow you to explore WooPayments, simulate transactions, and interact with most features without entering any personal details, business information, or using real money.

Follow these steps to create a test account:

1. Navigate to Payments → Overview in the client’s site wp-admin.
2. Begin the WooPayments signup process.
3. When prompted, select “Test payments” instead of “Start accepting payments”. This creates a dedicated test account for the site using simulated information.

4. Use test card numbers to simulate transactions and verify that the checkout process works as expected.

You can use the test account for as long as you like, and transition to a live account when you are ready to accept real payments.

When the site is ready to accept real payments, your client needs to create a live WooPayments account. This replaces the test account.

• Signing up for WooPayments requires connecting to a WordPress.com account. Signing up on behalf of someone else uses your WordPress.com account, which is not ideal.
• During signup, WooPayments asks for information about the business, including the business owner’s date of birth and tax ID number. This is part of the “Know Your Customer” (KYC) verification process required by financial regulations.
• It is not always possible to change account information once it has been saved, especially if the site accepts live transactions before the correct account information is entered.
• WooPayments sends critical account notifications — such as dispute alerts, payout updates, and verification requests — to the email address of the legal representative on the Stripe Express account. If you set up the account with your information, your client may not receive these notifications.

Before your client can create a live account, delete the test account:

1. Navigate to Payments → Settings
2. Click “Activate payments” there.

3. Confirm that you want to activate the account.

When you upgrade to a live account, the test account is deleted.

Share the following instructions with your client. Your client needs:

• A WordPress.com account (they create one during signup if they do not have one)
• A phone number for SMS two-factor authentication
• Business details: legal name, address, tax ID, and business type
• Bank account information for payouts
• A government-issued ID (in some cases, for identity verification)

Your client follows these steps:

1. Log in to the site wp-admin.
2. Navigate to Payments → Overview.
3. Click “Get started” or “Start accepting payments” to begin the signup process.
4. Provide the required business information and select “Continue”.
5. Verify business details with Stripe. A popup from connect.stripe.com appears, asking for a phone number and email address. This is a normal part of the account creation process. Once the phone number is verified, the client enters personal and business details.
6. Select the correct country for the account, as it cannot be changed later. The relevant country is the one where the business is registered, not the one in which the owner personally lives.
7. After entering all details and clicking “Agree and submit”, the client is taken back to the site where a success notification appears.

After signup, the client may see a notice on the Payments → Overview page that their account information is under review. This is normal, and the notice goes away once the information is verified.

Once the live account is active:

• Your client can configure WooPayments at Payments → Settings. Make sure WooPayments is enabled by checking the “Enable WooPayments” box.
• To test WooPayments before taking real payments, check the “Enable test mode” box. Test mode lets you simulate transactions using test card numbers to verify the checkout process.
• Review the WooPayments Settings Guide for detailed configuration options including payment methods, fraud protection, and payout schedules.

WooPayments support policies prevent discussion of specific account details unless contacted directly from the email address on the connected WordPress.com account or 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.

The support team is limited to discussing account-specific information with the verified account holder. However, they are always available to answer general questions about WooPayments functionality.