Connect PayPal and refund from the inbox
Connect your PayPal business account so agents see a customer's PayPal payments beside the ticket and refund them in full or in part without leaving Hushdesk.
Last updated 2 min read
With PayPal connected, every ticket shows the customer's PayPal payments in the sidebar, with a Refund button for full or partial refunds. Agents stop switching to PayPal to look up a payment.
Before you start
- Who can do this: owners and admins connect PayPal. Agents refund.
- Plan: every plan.
- You need: a PayPal business account and a REST app on developer.paypal.com with Transaction search ticked.
- Shopify orders: they already refund back to PayPal from the order card's Refund. PayPal here is for everything else.
Step by step
- On developer.paypal.com, open Apps & Credentials, switch to Live and open your REST app.
- Copy the Client ID and the Secret.
- In Hushdesk, open PayPal in the apps directory and paste both.
- Press connect. Hushdesk asks PayPal before saving, and works out whether the keys are live or sandbox.
What happens next
- A PayPal section appears in the ticket sidebar, under Shopify, listing the customer's payments from the last 90 days.
- Refund opens a dialog: choose Full or Partial, add an optional note for the customer's receipt, then confirm.
- The refund shows on the ticket's timeline as "refunded … via PayPal" with the transaction ID.
Tips
- Ask customers who paid with another PayPal email for their transaction ID and use Find by transaction ID.
- Use the reason chips in the refund dialog so receipts read the same across your team.
- A payment that was just made can take about three hours to appear: PayPal's search runs behind.
Troubleshooting
"PayPal did not accept that client ID and secret"
The keys are wrong or belong to a deleted app. Copy them again from Apps & Credentials, making sure both come from the same app.
"Turn on "Transaction search" for this app in the PayPal developer dashboard, then try again."
Open your REST app on developer.paypal.com, tick Transaction search under its features, save, and press refresh on the PayPal section.
"This payment is older than PayPal’s 180-day refund window."
PayPal does not allow refunds after 180 days. Send the money another way, such as a store credit.
"That is more than is left to refund on this payment."
Part of the payment was refunded already. The dialog shows how much is left.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need PayPal connected to refund Shopify orders paid with PayPal?
No. The Refund button on the Shopify order card already sends the money back through PayPal, because Shopify refunds through the gateway the customer paid with. Those orders show a PayPal badge. Connect PayPal for sales outside Shopify, such as WooCommerce, invoices or PayPal buttons.
Where do I find my PayPal client ID and secret?
Sign in at developer.paypal.com, open Apps and Credentials, switch to Live, and create or open a REST app. Copy the Client ID and the Secret into the PayPal sheet in Settings, Apps. Tick Transaction search in the app's features so Hushdesk can find payments.
How does Hushdesk find the customer's payments?
It searches your PayPal transactions from the last 90 days for payments made from the email on the ticket. If the customer paid from another PayPal email, paste the transaction ID they quote into Find by transaction ID. PayPal adds new payments to search within about three hours.
Can an agent refund more than was paid?
No. The refund can never be more than is left on that payment, partial refunds included. Hushdesk checks the amount before asking PayPal, and PayPal checks it again. Each refund is sent with its own request ID, so a double click or a retry never refunds twice.
Who can refund through PayPal?
Owners, admins and agents can refund from the PayPal section beside a ticket. Viewers can see payments but not refund. Only owners and admins can connect or disconnect PayPal. Every refund is written on the ticket's timeline and in the audit log, with the amount and PayPal's refund ID.
What does Sandbox mean on the PayPal section?
The saved credentials belong to a PayPal sandbox app, so refunds only move test money. Hushdesk detects live or sandbox when you connect and shows a Sandbox label beside the payments. Reconnect with the Live client ID and secret to refund real payments.
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Related articles
- Find and connect apps in the app directoryBrowse the Hushdesk app directory, see what each app adds and can access, connect the live ones, and vote for the apps that are coming soon.
- Read the Shopify order card in a ticketWhat the order card beside a ticket shows, including status chips, items, fulfilments with tracking, address, totals, order tags and linking.
- Connect your Shopify storeInstall the Hushdesk app on your Shopify store from Settings, Apps. Orders, customers and fulfilments sync into tickets; Growth and Scale add more stores.
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