Here we are discussing some simple steps to make and paypal sandbox account and its use. So, when we want to use Paypal in our site as a payment gateway, in this case we need to implement it in test environment to check whether it is working fine or not. So, we need to implement paypal in sandbox mode which needs to follow few simple steps :

  1. Just open paypal developer link here : https://developer.paypal.com
  2. Click on Sign up button to make a new account ( Click on Log in if you have any account here)
  3. Put the necessary fields with a correct mail id.

payAfter registering here, Just Log in here using the details you have mentioned in Sign up process. After Log in you will get redirected to the home page of https://developer.paypal.com .
Now, follow the below mentioned steps to setup business as well as personal accounts :

  1. Now click on Dashboard showing in the top navigation of the page.
  2. Then click on Accounts link on left side of the page under sandbox.
  3. Here paypal have already created two accounts for your testing purposes. Like if you have sign-up your current account using xyz@gmail.com then the automatic accounts created by paypal for you are like :
    • xyz-facilitator@gmail.com (It is test Business account)
    • xyz-buyer@gmail.com(It is Personal account)
  4. You can use these account for your testing purposes otherwise create new accounts by clicking on the “Create Account” Button at right top of the page.

After doing this much of work we need to change the passwords for both the accounts for our use. So, for this just click on “Profile” link near by each mail id’s and edit the password for both the accounts separately.

Now, just go the https://www.sandbox.paypal.com and login with facilitator account(Business) details. Now check the received payment section ,it should be blank because we didn’t make any payment till now. Use this mail id as a Business account mail id where you are integrating this Paypal sandbox payment gateway.
If you are integrating this in any of the wordpress website then it is required to put the facilitator account mail id in plugin settings.

Your buyer account(Personal) will be in use while you are making a purchase, just select the option to pay with paypal account and continue to pay the amount.
After the successful payment, just check your facilitator account (Business) by log in here : https://www.sandbox.paypal.com, You will find the amount deducted from that buyer account will show here.

This confirms that your payment using sandbox is working fine in this case. If you feel any difficulty in implementing this, put your comment here and I will try to solve your issue.