How to Accept PayPal Payments in PandaDoc Documents

You send the proposal. The client loves it. They sign it.

And then… you wait. You follow up. You send an invoice. You wait again.

That gap between “signed” and “paid” is where deals get cold, cash flow slows down, and momentum dies. The good news? There’s a way to close it entirely — by accepting PayPal payments directly inside your PandaDoc documents.

When your client signs, they pay. Right then. No redirect. No invoice chasing. No second step.

This guide walks you through exactly how to set it up — from connecting your PayPal account to collecting your first payment without leaving PandaDoc.

Why PayPal + PandaDoc Is a Powerful Combination

Before jumping into the steps, here’s why this integration is worth setting up:

PayPal is everywhere. With over 432 million active accounts globally and a 45% market share in the online payment processing industry, PayPal is the payment method your clients already trust. Consumers are 54% more likely to complete a purchase when they see the PayPal option at checkout. That kind of trust removes friction at the most critical moment — when someone is about to hand over money.

PandaDoc accelerates deals. Companies using PandaDoc have reported 50% faster proposal creation and close rate improvements of up to 28% after implementation. When you add a payment layer on top of that, the entire deal cycle — create, send, sign, pay — happens in one seamless flow.

The combination eliminates your biggest bottleneck. The traditional process of waiting for a signed proposal, manually generating an invoice, and then hoping for payment used to take days. With PayPal connected to PandaDoc, your client can sign and pay in the same session. PandaDoc customers typically receive payments in just 2 days after setup.

What You Need Before Getting Started

Getting this integration live doesn’t require any technical background. Here’s what you need:

• An active PandaDoc account on the Business plan or higher (payment collection is not available on the Essentials plan)
• A PayPal Business account (or a personal account you can upgrade to Business)
• Account owner, Admin, or Manager role in PandaDoc — only these roles can connect payment gateways

That’s it. No developers. No API keys. No third-party setup.

How to Connect PayPal to Your PandaDoc Account

This is a one-time setup. Once connected, every document you create can have PayPal as a payment option.

Step 1: Open PandaDoc Settings

Log in to your PandaDoc account. Click your name in the lower-left corner of the dashboard and select Settings.

Step 2: Navigate to Integrations

Inside Settings, find and click Integrations in the left-hand menu.

Step 3: Find Payment Gateways

Scroll to the Payment Gateways section. You’ll see options for Stripe, Square, QuickBooks Payments, Authorize.net, and PayPal.

Step 4: Connect PayPal

Click on PayPal, then hit Connect.

Step 5: Sign Into Your PayPal Account

Enter your PayPal email address and click Next. Enter your PayPal password and click Log in.

Step 6: Authorize the Connection

Review the permissions and click Agree and Connect. You’ll see a confirmation screen showing the connection was successful.

Tip: If you land on your PayPal homepage instead of a success screen, clear your browser cache and cookies, then try connecting again.

PayPal is now your active payment gateway in PandaDoc.

How to Add a PayPal Payment Block to a Document

Once PayPal is connected at the account level, you need to add a payment block to each individual document (or template) where you want to collect payment.

Open your document, template, or form

In the PandaDoc editor, open the proposal, contract, quote, or invoice where you want to collect payment.

Open the Extensions panel

On the right-hand side of the editor, click Extensions. From the list, select Payment.

Select PayPal as your gateway

PandaDoc will show your connected payment gateways. Select PayPal to tie this payment block to your account.

Configure your payment settings

This is where you decide how you want to get paid:

• Payment amount — Set a fixed amount, or let PandaDoc auto-calculate it from a pricing table in your document
• Payment type — Choose between one-time payment, installments, or recurring payments
• Percentage or fixed — Collect the full amount or a deposit (for example, 50% upfront at signing)
• Payer role — Specify which signer is responsible for the payment when multiple people are involved

Save your document

Once your payment block is configured, save or publish the document. It’s ready to send.

How to Send a Document With PayPal Payment Enabled

Sending a payment-enabled document works exactly like sending any other PandaDoc document.

Click Send from the top right corner of your document. Add your recipient’s email address, customize your message if needed, and hit Send Document.

Your recipient will receive a professional email with a link to view the document. No friction, no confusion.

What Your Client Experiences

This is where the magic happens. Here’s what the process looks like from your client’s side:

1. They open the document link in their browser
2. They review the proposal, contract, or quote as normal
3. When they’re ready, they see a Pay button at the top of the document
4. They click Pay and see the available payment options (Credit Card, PayPal, or ACH — depending on what you’ve enabled)
5. They select Pay with PayPal and are redirected to their PayPal account to confirm the payment
6. The transaction completes in under a minute

Once payment clears, the document status in PandaDoc automatically updates to Paid. Both you and your client receive confirmation emails. The payment also appears in your Recent Activity section in PayPal with the document name and URL attached for easy tracking.

Payment Types You Can Collect Through PandaDoc + PayPal

One of the underrated advantages of this integration is flexibility. You’re not locked into a single payment structure.

One-time payment — The most straightforward option. Your client pays the full amount (or a fixed deposit) at signing.

Installment payments — Split a larger deal into multiple payments over time. This is especially useful for projects where clients prefer to pay in stages.

Recurring payments — Collect the first payment through PandaDoc, then use your PayPal dashboard to set up automated recurring billing for subscription-based services or retainers.

Partial deposits — Set a percentage of the total deal value as the payment amount at signing. Useful for service agreements where work begins before full payment.

Custom amounts — For situations where pricing isn’t tied to a pricing table, you can manually enter the payment amount directly in the payment block.

Fees to Know

PandaDoc charges no transaction fees for processing payments through its platform. However, PayPal has its own standard transaction fees, which vary by country, payment type, and account tier.

You can find the current PayPal fee schedule directly on PayPal’s website. For most standard card transactions in the US, PayPal typically charges a small percentage per transaction plus a flat fee. Factor this into your pricing if payment processing costs are a concern.

How to Check Payment Status in PandaDoc

You never have to wonder whether you’ve been paid. PandaDoc gives you a clear view of every document’s payment status directly in your dashboard.

From your document list, filter by payment status to see which documents are:

• Waiting for payment — Signed but not yet paid
• Paid — Payment received and confirmed
• Completed — Document workflow fully finished

If a client pays you outside of PandaDoc (bank transfer, check, or cash), you can manually mark the document as Paid so your records stay accurate.

Using Templates to Save Setup Time

If you send similar proposals or contracts regularly, build the PayPal payment block directly into your template.

Set your payment preferences at the template level — payment type, amount logic, payer role — and every new document created from that template inherits those settings automatically. You don’t have to configure payments every time. It’s already there, ready to go.

This works especially well for:

• Service agreements with standard pricing
• Monthly retainer contracts
• Recurring project proposals where payment terms are consistent

PandaDoc’s Security Standards for Payments

A common concern when collecting payments digitally is security. Here’s what you need to know:

PandaDoc does not process your client’s card data directly. That responsibility sits entirely with the payment gateway — in this case, PayPal. PandaDoc acts as the platform, while PayPal handles the transaction.

Both platforms operate at the highest levels of security. PayPal is PCI DSS compliant, uses advanced encryption, and has AI-driven fraud detection monitoring billions of transactions. Your client’s financial information is tokenized for protection and never exposed to third-party tools.

The integration also allows clients to complete payments without sharing their personal or financial details with anyone other than PayPal — a platform they already trust.

Why Businesses Are Moving to In-Document Payments

The shift toward embedded payments isn’t accidental. Businesses chasing payments after the fact are losing deals to friction.

Consider the traditional flow: proposal sent → proposal signed → invoice created → invoice sent → follow-up email → payment received. That process can take anywhere from 3 to 14 days, and every day is an opportunity for the client to reconsider, get distracted, or delay.

Now consider what happens when payment is embedded in the signing experience. The client is already in a “yes” mindset when they sign. Adding payment to that moment is seamless — it takes less than a minute to complete, and the deal is fully closed.

Nearly 1 in 4 online transactions in the US are completed through PayPal, and over 35 million merchant accounts worldwide rely on it. When you embed this into your proposal workflow, you’re meeting clients exactly where their financial comfort already lives.

Companies using PandaDoc have reported cutting proposal creation time in half and reducing admin overhead by thousands of hours annually. The payment integration compounds those gains by eliminating the invoice-to-payment delay entirely.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Payment option not showing up in the document

Check that your PayPal account is still connected under Settings → Integrations → Payment Gateways. If the connection has expired, reconnect it and re-add the payment block.

No payment gateway configuration options visible

If you’re working on a form (rather than a document), make sure the form is unpublished first. Payment configuration options are only editable in unpublished forms.

Document status is “Completed” but payment wasn’t collected

Once a document reaches “Completed” status, payment options can no longer be added or modified. You have two options: manually mark the document as Paid if payment was collected outside PandaDoc, or create a new document with payment settings properly configured before sending.

Landed on PayPal homepage instead of success screen

Clear your browser’s cache and cookies, then reconnect PayPal from the Integrations page.

Seeing “No payment gateway connected” message

This appears when a payment gateway was disconnected after a document was created with payment settings. Go to Settings → Integrations → Payment Gateways and reconnect PayPal, then return to your document.

Conclusion

Accepting PayPal payments inside your PandaDoc documents is one of the simplest, highest-impact workflow improvements you can make today.

The setup takes minutes. The impact is immediate. You stop chasing invoices and start receiving payments the same day deals close. Your clients get the frictionless experience they expect from a trusted payment platform. And your pipeline moves faster at every stage.

Here’s the short version of everything covered:

• Connect PayPal once under Settings → Integrations → Payment Gateways
• Add a payment block to each document, template, or form where you want to collect payment
• Configure your payment type — one-time, installment, recurring, or deposit
• Send the document and let clients sign and pay in a single session
• Track payment status directly in your PandaDoc dashboard

One step still determines whether any of this actually matters: getting the right people to your proposals in the first place.

If your pipeline is inconsistent — if you’re spending more time hunting for opportunities than closing them — that’s the real bottleneck. A polished payment workflow doesn’t help if there aren’t enough qualified prospects seeing your proposals.

That’s exactly what SalesSo does. We build complete outbound systems — targeting, campaign design, and scaling — that keep your calendar full of decision-makers ready to move. So when you send a PandaDoc proposal with PayPal embedded, it’s going to someone already warmed up and ready to sign.