Hi Ben,

Thanks for asking.  Sadly, FreshBooks only accepts the API Certificate and will not work with the API Signature.  Was there a particular reason why you wanted to use the API Signature instead?  Thanks Ben.

Hi Ben,

Thanks for following up.  You might want to double check with PayPal regarding using both certificate and signature at the same time.  I'm not as familiar with the use of both at the same time, but it wouldn't hurt to check if it could result in no additional development work.  Sorry for the inconvenience and Good Luck~

Best Regards,

Hello, I am the developer that Ben was referring to and was trying to do some extra research on this topic.

Ben was actually slightly mistaken about the preferred method that PayPal recommends.  In their developer documentation, they note this:

NOTE: While API signature is recommended, you can also use API certificate.

And with the certificate, they don't recommend using it if you do not have full access to your web server (you host with another company).

PayPal does not allow you to have both a signature and a certificate for your business account.  I do not know the reasoning behind this business rule, I just know it is impossible.

When performing payments in your web application with PayPal, you either have to include the signature with the payment, or you have to point to a certificate that has been installed on the server.  The signature method is significantly easier for development, esp if your hosting company will not install the certificate for you.

Now if I understand it correctly, Freshbooks must use a certificate.  Therefore getting a signature for PalPal is not possible and cannot be used in the web application.  And if your web host refuses to install a certificate, you can see how it would therefore be impossible to use both Freshbooks AND PayPal web payments in your application.  You essentially would have to change your hosting, or stop using Freshbooks.

As a suggestion for your application, you may want to consider adding a signature as an option to your users, as you probably don't want your users to have to make this kind of decision. 

Liz

I need to change to the API signature since another service I am using only uses the signature. So, I guess I won't be able to accept credit cards on freshbooks anymore.  PLEASE allow the API signature, my customers have grown to like paying with a credit card and now I have to take it away. This really stinks.

+1 on this.  I have already established a signature with Paypal Website Payments Pro so it's not feasible to create a certificate to use with Freshbooks.

bharper wrote:

I am currently using the PayPal API Certificate to connect with FreshBooks.

Is it possible to use the API Signature instead?

Has there been any update to this?  COMFUSERS just added Paypal Website PRO integration with Freshbooks using an API Certificate.  Now our other payment apps are out of luck as they use the API Signature method (which by the way, is the recommended method according to Paypal).

So I have two options, either loose Freshbooks credit card payment ability or loose all of the other Apps payment ability.  Hmmm, not really a solution on either end.

Regardless, what is the status of Freshbooks changing integration to an API Signature and getting rid of the API Certificate method?