Table of Contents
Activating Pro License
- After purchasing a license and downloading the PRO version, install it the same as any other plugin, and then navigate to the PayThem menu.
- Enter the license key and activate your PRO version. *Remember to deactivate the free version plugin if it is still active on your website.
Accounts - PayThem, Open Exchange Rates, FraudLabs
Before starting configuration, ensure that you have the keys ready that you wish to use. Links are provided to open accounts and/or get keys.
- PayThem will provide a Username, Password, Public Key and Private Key. Each User requires an approved Reseller Account to obtain API credentials from PayThem. The Reseller Account wallet needs to be topped up in order to start using the API for purchases.
- Open Exchange Rates offers free and paid plans. The free plan allows for 1 exchange rate update every hour, which should be sufficient. Additional guidelines and screenshots are provided below.
- PayThem PRO is compatible with FraudLabs Pro, which may help prevent fraudulent orders. Follow the link to learn more about their free and paid plans.
PayThem Credentials and IP Whitelisting
If your website has a dedicated/static IP address, be sure to provide the IP address to PayThem for whitelisting. As soon as your account is locked to your IP address, API requests from any other IP addresses will be ignored, providing an additional layer of security for your account.
- Enter the credentials received from PayThem.
- Select Test (Sandbox) or Live (Production) environment. *Note that Sandbox and Production credentials are different. Production credentials cannot be used for Sandbox testing and Sandbox credentials cannot be used on Production. Be sure to select the environment that matches the credentials that you are using.
- After clicking the Save button, if a successful connection has been established with your Reseller Account, status will appear as “Online” and your API Wallet balance will be displayed.
Manual Exchange Rate and Default Markup Percentage
- It is highly recommend to make use of the Automatic exchange rates feature, but in case of emergency or personal preference, the plugin provides for a manually captured exchange rate as well. If your store’s default currency is the same as your Reseller Account (API Wallet) currency, simply enter 1. However, if your Reseller Account is USD and your website’s default currency is CAD for example, then the conversion rate to enter would be 1.34 for example, based on rates obtained from https://www.xe.com/ at the time of writing this guide.
- The default Markup Percentage is a safety net feature for newly created products. In case the store owner forgets to set customer pricing on a specific product for example, the selling price of that product to customers will automatically be set using this markup percentage. For example, if a Store Owner has set the default markup to 4.7% (as shown in screenshot above) and forgets to set the customer pricing for a product that costs $23.75, customer will be able to purchase the product for $24.87.
Get An Open Exchange Rates Key
- Open Exchange Rates Free Plan is sufficient for hourly updates. Should you require more frequent updates, signup for the appropriate plan.
- If you want the Free Plan, be sure that it is selected.
- Then complete the short signup form.
- Navigate to App ID’s.
- And Generate New App ID if required.
- Copy the App ID for capturing in the PayThem Pro plugin’s Pricing tab.
Automatic Exchange Rate and Default Markup Percentage
- Enter the App ID obtained from Open Exchange Rates.
- Set the update frequency, typically every hour.
- After Saving, you should see the current Exchange Rate. A scheduled task will be created in WooCommerce to run at the frequency set. *Note that in case of emergency the scheduled task can be forced to run on demand.
- The default Markup Percentage is a safety net feature for newly created products. In case the store owner forgets to set customer pricing on a specific product for example, the selling price of that product to customers will automatically be set using this markup percentage. For example, if a Store Owner has set the default markup to 4.7% (as shown in screenshot above) and forgets to set the customer pricing for a product that costs $23.75, customer will be able to purchase the product for $24.87.
Logic Settings Tab
- Customers will see stock available up to the limit set here. *Recommended to leave default as displayed.
- Decide when an item should be purchased from PayThem. Selecting “Processing” means that the ordered items will be purchased from PayThem immediately after the customer has paid. Selecting “Completed” means that ordered items are only purchased from PayThem when the order status changes to “Completed”. *”Processing” is recommended to reserve the stock for the Customer as soon as possible after paying, to help avoid the situation where stock becomes sold out on PayThem before the order is released to the Customer. If the order is not released to the customer for any reason, the items remain in the store’s inventory for the next Customer to order.
- Control when items are released to the Customer. *”Completed” status is recommended because this offers the opportunity for fraud screening before releasing the order. This setting is also compatible with FraudLabs Pro.
- CSV Files can be provided to Customers who order larger quantities. This value determines the minimum order quantity before a CSV file will be provided to the Customer. *Recommended to set a value of 10 or 20. *Note that CSV files should be opened with dedicated text readers rather than typical spreadsheet tools, which may display the codes in CSV files incorrectly.
- Should regular orders (less than the CSV threshold) be emailed to Customers, or should the Customer only receive a notification email and then need to login to view the items in his/her order history?
- Decide whether CSV orders should be emailed to Customers, or require the Customer to login and download the CSV file? *Recommended to enforce that Customer login and download larger orders.
Notification Settings Tab
- Enable Low Wallet Balance notification emails. *Recommended so that you get a warning when your API Wallet balance falls below the value that you set.
- Enter the value at which you want notification emails to start sending to the store’s default email address.
- Price Mismatch emails will immediately notify the Store Owner if any PayThem product was sold to a Customer for less profit than the minimum set by the Store Owner. For example, a Store Owner creates a Fixed Price product that makes 5% profit, but the cost price of the item increases, resulting in less profit than the Profit Margin Threshold (4.5% in screenshot above), an email will immediately be sent to the Store Owner, listing the product and profit made on the sale. The Store Owner can immediately adjust the Fixed Pricing. *Recommended to help avoid losses.
- Set the minimum profit percentage required.
Bulk Import / Create WooCommerce Products
- Before starting, it is best to have already created desired categories for the WooCommerce products to be imported. Then navigate to the Bulk Import menu. *Note: Only PayThem products that have not already been linked to a WooCommerce product will be visible on the list for import.
- Specific brands or products can be searched/filtered.
- If you have already setup currency exchange rate conversion, cost prices will be displayed in the Store’s default currency.
- Select the products to be created. Depending on the quality of your hosting, up to 100 products may be created at a time. Once selection is completed, use the dropdown menu to select “Import” and click on “Apply” button to proceed.
- Displays the cost price in the currency of the PayThem Reseller account.
- Displays the cost price in the Store’s default currency, based on the manual or automatic exchange rate.
- Start typing the category name to select the desired category. *Tip: If many similar categories will be used, save time by pasting the category name.
- PayThem’s product name may be replaced or edited if desired.
- Select the Pricing Model for the product, Default, Fixed or Percentage. Default will use the default Markup Percentage saved in the plugin’s Pricing tab and no further settings are needed.
- If Percentage Pricing is selected, then enter the new percentage markup to be applied to the cost price.
- If Fixed Pricing is selected, then enter the new Fixed Price (Store’s default currency) that Customers will pay.
- Once all fields have been set as desired, click on “Import Products” to create WooCommerce products. *Note that newly created products will be set to draft status for final review/adjustments before being published.
A summary of successfully created WooCommerce products is provided for review. Proceed to individual WooCommerce products to make any final adjustments before publishing for Customer to purchase.
WooCommerce Product Settings Overview
- Bulk Imported products will automatically be linked to the relevant WooCommerce product. When creating a single WooCommerce product manually, select the PayThem product to connect to this WooCommerce product.
- Upon publishing the product, the plugin will immediately purchase and reserve local inventory up to this level. When an order is received for this product, the oldest local items will be supplied to the Customer first before additional fresh stock will be purchased to restore local stock levels back to the value entered here. Carrying local stock ensures that Customer orders can be fulfilled even if PayThem temporarily runs out of stock. If set to 0 (zero), the plugin will only purchase items from PayThem when an order is received from a Customer.
- Displays the cost price of the product.
- Here the Pricing Model can be set/changed as required. Selecting “No” will use the default Markup Percentage saved in the plugin’s Pricing tab to calculate the regular selling price to Customers. Fixed Price and Percentage Models are explained in more detail below.
- If available, default redemption instructions received from PayThem will be displayed here.
- Store Owners may select to “Hide” redemption instructions, in which case Customers will not receive any redemption instructions.
- Store Owners may select “Show Custom” and then then enter custom redemption instructions as desired, which Customers will see when receiving ordered items.
- Additional stock may be purchased and stored/reserved locally at any time. This could be useful when preparing for a seasonal holiday or larger order for example. Simply enter the number of items to purchase and click “Purchase”. Unlike the “Buy & Carry Stock” which will continually replenish local stock levels back to the value set, items purchased through this widget will not automatically be replenished. It is a once off purchase of additional stock.
Fixed Price Model In Local Or Foreign Currency
- Selecting the Fixed Price method, the Customer/Regular price can be set in the Store’s default currency, or any other currency. If the store’s default currency is Canadian Dollar and the Store Owner wants to sell the item for exactly CAD 5, then Canadian Dollar is selected as the currency and a value of 5 is entered, before clicking the “Change” button. The regular price will display as “5.00”. However, if a product needs to be sold at a Fixed Price in a different currency, this is also possible. For example, in the above screenshot, the product must be sold for USD 5, resulting in a Regular Price of CAD 6.78 (because this store’s default currency is CAD).
- Selector for the fixed price currency to be used.
- Value in the selected currency.
- “Change” button must be clicked to apply the new Regular Price.
- Shows Regular price in Store’s currency (CAD in this example). *Note: Once applied and published, the Regular price will automatically be adjusted as exchange rates change to ensure that Customers are always paying the correct equivalent price in the Store’s default currency.
Percentage Price Model
- Select Percentage Model.
- Enter the Percentage Markup to be applied to the cost price.
- The resulting Customer/Regular price is displayed.
*Note: This custom percentage overrides the default Markup Percentage captured in the plugins Pricing tab. Unless this percentage is different to the default percentage captures, it will make no difference. Only use this option if this products percentage needs to be different to the to the default Markup Percentage.
*Tip: The biggest advantage of using percentage based markup (default or custom) is that Customer prices will automatically be adjusted whenever PayThem prices increase or decrease, saving Store Owners the effort of updating prices and reducing the chances of any losses due to price fluctuations.
Products List Screen
Navigating to the Products menu, brands and products can be searched/filtered.
- PayThem products which are connected to a WooCommerce product already will show as “Linked”. Clicking in the “Link” will open the WooCommerce product for viewing/editing if required.
- The Auto Sell Price column displays the Customer/Regular price based on the default Markup Percentage captured on the plugin’s Pricing tab.
- If the default Markup Percentage is being used, the Override column will display “-“. However, if the default price is being changed at product level, Fixed Price or Percentage, the the resulting Override Price will be displayed.
- If local inventory is available, the quantity being carried locally will be displayed here.
- If a product is no longer available from PayThem, it will be marked as “Discontinued”. *Note: If a product is discontinued, any local inventory should be sold, before trashing the WooCommerce product. One the WooCommerce product has been deleted completely, the discontinued product can safely be deleted from the Products screen to keep the database and list clean.
WooCommerce Product Inventory
- Locally carried stock can be seen under the Inventory menu in WooCommerce product
Stock Report Inventory
The Stock Report shows all inventory that has been received and stored locally, regardless whether the items have been released to Customers or not.
- Stock can be searched/filtered by brand or product name.
- Stock can be filtered to view only items in stock or only sold items or all items.
- If a product has been set to Buy & Carry Stock or if a product has been reserved for a Customer’s order, the item will show as “instock”, while sold items will be show as “sold”.
- Order number will be displayed if the stock item has been released to a Customer.
- Filtered lists can be exported to a CSV file if required. For example, in stock items can be exported for a year-end financial stock take.
*Note: To help keep the database clean, items will automatically be removed when the order is trashed in WooCommerce.
Reserved Stock Report
Whenever items have been reserved for an order, the list of reserved stock items can be seen on this report.
- In this example, Order 109 is in Processing state and 1 item has been reserved for this order.
*Note: If the item is not released to the Customer for any reason, such as cancelling the order for example, the item will disappear off the Reserved Stock Report, but remain in local stock and become available for the next Customer that orders this product.
Transaction Report
The Transaction Report retrieves transactions recorded on PayThem servers, which may be useful for reconciliation purposes.
- Date selection for the report. *Note: Start and end dates cannot be more than 31 days apart because this is potentially a lot of data that could be returned if your Store does many transactions every month. Always select the shortest required period to get the results as quickly as possible.
- Transaction Reports can be exported to CSV files if required. *Note: Exported reports are in the currency of your Reseller account.
Customer Emails
The above screenshot shows an example of PIN delivery via email. If a CSV file was attached, a note would be displayed referring to the attachment.
Example of an email where the Customer is required to login and view their order and/or download a CSV order.
Customers can view PIN deliveries by viewing their Orders through the My account section of the website.
Customers can navigate to the “Download Codes” menu item via My account to download CSV orders.
- Customers should always use a dedicated text reader to open CSV files because many spreadsheet type applications may alter the codes contained in CSV files.
- Clicking on the “Download” button will download the CSV file for the specific order.