PayPal
Your receptionist can email a caller your PayPal payment link, or create a draft PayPal invoice for your team to check and send. The payment link goes out with Reception’s own custom procedure email, so it needs no extra connection. Invoices go through Zapier, because PayPal’s API only accepts short-lived access tokens.
Never let your receptionist collect card numbers or PayPal passwords. Callers pay through your PayPal link or invoice, never by reading payment details out on a call.
Option 1: email your payment link
This is the simplest setup. The link and the email’s wording are fixed, so a caller can’t change the amount or where the money goes.
Get your payment link
In PayPal, copy the link you want callers to use, such as your PayPal.Me link or a payment link for a fixed amount, for example a deposit.
Write the email
In Reception.ai, go to Settings → Notifications, open the Email tab, and edit the custom procedure email template. Add a subject, a short message, and your PayPal link. See Notifications.
Add a procedure
Add a procedure with a trigger such as “When the caller wants to pay or asks how to pay”. In the steps, tell your receptionist to confirm the caller’s email address, then send the email with @send_custom_email. Type @ to insert the send_custom_email tool as a reference. Your receptionist can only send the email from a procedure that references it.
The email goes to the email address on the caller’s client record. If there isn’t one, your receptionist asks for it first.
Option 2: draft PayPal invoices
Use this when each caller owes a different amount. Your receptionist only creates drafts. Nothing reaches the caller until your team checks the draft and sends it from PayPal.
Connect Zapier
If you haven’t yet, connect Zapier in Reception.ai. PayPal is a premium app on Zapier, so you need a paid Zapier plan and a PayPal Business account.
Connect PayPal in Zapier
Zapier asks for a client ID and secret from a PayPal developer app. In the PayPal Developer Dashboard, open Apps & Credentials and create an app. Start with Sandbox. You need a separate app for Live.
Add the PayPal actions
In your Zapier MCP server at mcp.zapier.com, add the actions below from the PayPal app. For each field, either set a fixed value or let the AI fill it in, as listed.
Assign the tools
In Reception.ai, open the Zapier integration’s Tools tab, select Refresh tools, and assign each action as listed.
Test it
Test your receptionist by asking for an invoice. A draft appears in your PayPal invoices. When it works, reconnect PayPal in Zapier with your live app.
Actions
Draft an invoice
If your prices vary and you let the AI fill in the amount from your price list, check each draft before you send it. Ask your receptionist to spell the caller’s email address back.
Look up an invoice
Your assistant can then tell you whether an invoice is paid. Don’t assign it to the Client: invoices show the recipient’s details and amounts, and callers rarely know the ID.
Don’t add PayPal’s Send Invoice or Create Payment actions for your receptionist. With them, a caller could get your receptionist to send invoices or payment requests from your PayPal account to any address. Send drafts yourself from PayPal.
Limitations
- Your receptionist can’t take payments on the call, check a caller’s payment, or issue refunds.
- Search Invoice finds invoices by ID only, not by name or email.
- Option 1 uses Reception’s one custom procedure email. If you already use it for something else, combine both in one email or use Option 2.
- Each Zapier action your receptionist runs uses tasks from your Zapier plan. Zapier currently counts two tasks per successful call; failed calls aren’t counted. When the plan runs out, the actions stop until it resets.