Multiple websites for one website payments account

[phobia13]

Hello,

I have already been using Website Payments Standard for my website, but I would like to set up a 2nd, unrelated business to it.

I don't mind referring both of these websites as businesses under a generic parent company name for the business name Paypal gives the customer, if thats what needs to be done.  But how do I go about actually setting up the second website with new Paypal buttons, when my Business Information settings only allows me to list ONE Business URL?  What exactly is the "Business URL" setting used for?

Thanks!

[TeaPartyPatriot]

I would like to know this too.

[Misty11]

Hello phobia13 and TeaPartyPatriot,

phobia13 and TeaPartyPatriot,

I do believe we may have a solution for the both of you. You can set-up what is called a Parent/Child account. You would set up one main account that would have a bank account attached to and add sub accounts to receive money from each individual PayPal 'account' name.' This would allow you to have several websites with different business names. They would each act as an individual PayPal account that you would log into but at the end of each day they funds would be swept into one bank account.

If this sounds like something that would work for you, you can call PayPal directly by clicking on the contact us link at the bottom of any PayPal page (when you are logged in) and you will be given a PIN and phone number to call PayPal directly, ask to speak to the Sales team to get it all set-up.

I hope this answers your question.

Misty

[eric396]

Hi Misty, 

Sounds like the parent/child account would work in our situation too, but I was wondering how refunds would work if the money is automatically swept out of the child account each day.    

Would the refund have to come from the parent account or could the child account handle the refund.  For example if someone buys an item from our new website (child account) but decides to return it ,  would we be able to generate a refund from that account or would it come from parent and so cause confusion?  

[Misty11]

Hello eric396, 

That is a great question!  To refund a transaction from a child account you would either need to transfer the funds back to the account or wait for a sale equal to or greater than the amount of the refund. I hope this helps.

Misty

[eric396]

thanks misty, here's a follow up if you have time:

would the 'backup funding source" kick in for the child account to do the refund if sweep already happened?  does child accounts back up funding source by default equal parent account's back funding source even if there is no bank account info on the child account?  or maybe the child account simply has no funding source period and that's why have to move funds during day before sweep?

I may be making more hassle then its worth, but seems like the timing would have to be pretty tight.  like customer needs refund today, so we would go into parent account and fund the child account using a paypal payment (i presume) then log into the child account immediately and do the refund before close of business that day?  just want to be sure about exactly how we'd need to do it and timing.

[Misty11]

Hello eric396, 

Of course I have time to answer your questions.  - that is what I am here for.

To answer your questions - The backup funding source would not kick in on the child account to do the refund, funds would have to be transferred back or the refund would need to be made before the funds are swept out. And yes, you are correct, the child account does not have a funding source attached and that is why the funds are swept out each night - the timing would need to be just right to make the refund. And yes, you would need to log into your Parent account send money to the Child account and then do the refund by logging into the Child account. I hope this helps.  

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Misty

[nicandnath]

We can't seem to find anyone at PayPal that knows what we are talking about when we ask to get a "parent/child" account system set up - we keep getting a default help response from email support that doesn't answer our question.

We've rung 4 times over the last 2 days to try and get this set up and get various odd replies that clearly indicate that they don't know anything about this arrangement. We firstly got told to check the x.com developer site (which obviously doesn't have any options to set this up) and the last time we called we got told that we could set up as many business accounts as we like with the same credit card / business details - which is clearly wrong also.

We would really like to get this setup asap - is there anyone who can help us with this, or any magical words we need to say to get through to the right team that handles this arrangement?

[kkp]

Has this question been resolved? We would like to do the same thing. And a further question, assuming it is actually possible to set up the parent/child account. Does the child account produce its own reports that track sales and expenses made in the account?

Thank you.

[nicandnath]

Just in case anyone else is going around in circles with this one (and is based in the UK) - after many many calls & emails to Paypal someone finally gave us an answer: apparently this is a US thing only and not available in the UK.