Go-live checklist

Use this checklist when you are preparing the customer-facing surface that collects payments. It covers Hosted Checkout, Payment Links, Payment Pages, Storefront, and e-commerce plugins.

Who this checklist is for

Merchants who will direct their customers to PayMongo for payment. Most items below apply whether you integrate via the Dashboard, an e-commerce plugin, or the API. You can use more than one channel.

ℹ️

Before you start: Complete the Get Started go-live checklist first. Your account must be activated, and the payment methods you plan to use must show Active in Settings → Payment Methods.

Channel selection

Required for launch

• Confirm your channel choice

  Decide which channels your customers will use: Hosted Checkout, Payment Links, Payment Pages, Storefront, or an e-commerce plugin (Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento). See Payment Channels overview.

Best practices

• Confirm additional payment methods are active

  QR Ph is active by default once your account is activated, so you can launch a channel with QR Ph alone. Activate additional methods in Settings → Payment Methods if you want more options at checkout.

Hosted Checkout

Required for launch

• Confirm Hosted Checkout is not embedded in an iframe

  Hosted Checkout blocks iframe and embed rendering to prevent UI-redress and clickjacking attacks. Open it as a top-level page only. See Payment Channels best practices.

• Confirm Hosted Checkout works end to end in test mode

  Walk through the full customer journey for at least one payment method in test mode before going live. See Hosted Checkout.

Best practices

• Confirm success_url and cancel_url are fully qualified (if used)

  If your use case configures success_url and cancel_url, set them to complete URLs such as https://example.com/success. Avoid domain-only paths or relative paths. Test the redirect flow in test mode.

Payment Links

Required for launch

• Confirm your Payment Links flow works end to end

  Generate a test Payment Link and walk through it from share to payment. Confirm the customer-facing page, the share and copy options, and the resulting payment object all behave as expected. See Payment Links for setup.

Payment Pages

Best practices

• Confirm your order reference field appears on the checkout

  If your reconciliation depends on an internal order or invoice reference, confirm the custom field is visible on the Payment Pages checkout and captures the value you expect. See Payment Pages for setup.

Storefront

Required for launch (if used)

• Confirm your generated storefront matches your expectation

  Open Dashboard → Storefront and review the generated site. Check brand colors, copy, product display, and overall layout against your brief before publishing. Iterate on the prompt if anything is off. See Storefront for setup.

• Confirm a test transaction completes end to end

  Walk through a purchase on your storefront in test mode. Confirm the order is recorded, the payment shows in the Dashboard, and the customer lands on the correct post-payment page.

E-commerce plugins

Required for launch (if used)

• Confirm your plugin is connected and live

  On your e-commerce platform (Shopify, WooCommerce, or Magento), confirm the PayMongo plugin is connected with your live API keys and the payment methods you want at checkout show as active. See E-commerce plugins for setup.

• Confirm a controlled live-store test transaction works

  Run a controlled test on your live store before opening checkout to real shoppers — use a sandbox storefront, a hidden product, or a discount-locked checkout. Confirm the payment behavior matches the expected customer journey.

Best practices (if used)

• Confirm plugin-specific features behave as expected

  For Shopify, confirm Secure Payments, Hold then Capture, or Express Cards behave as you configured them. See Shopify plugin for setup.

Lifecycle hygiene

Required for launch

• Confirm every payment request is linked to an internal record

  Store the PayMongo payment object reference with the matching order, invoice, or customer record on your side. Before creating a new request for the same order, check whether an active one already exists. This prevents duplicate charges and reconciliation gaps.

Best practices

• Confirm an expiration policy is set for unused requests

  Expire Payment Links or Checkout Sessions that are no longer needed (cancelled, replaced, or paid through another channel) so customers do not receive valid old options.

Webhooks for checkouts

Best practices (if integrated via API)

• Confirm webhook events for completed checkouts are received

  If your channel is created and managed through the API, subscribe to the relevant payment events (payment.paid, payment.failed, link.payment.paid for Payment Links) on your webhook endpoint. Confirm the events arrive with valid signatures after a test payment. Full webhook setup lives in the Developer Tools go-live checklist.

Testing

Required for launch

• Confirm each channel works end to end in test mode

  Run a complete customer journey in test mode for every channel you have chosen. See Payment Channels testing.

Next steps

Once your channels are live and tested, finish the surrounding setup:

• Payment Acceptance go-live checklist: per-method integration, refunds, disputes
• Developer Tools go-live checklist: webhooks for payment status updates
• Money Movement go-live checklist: payouts and reconciliation