What Are These PayPal Notification Emails?

Damian asked:

I joined Subscription Boss & set it up, looks to be working correctly, but what is this email?

Array ([paypal_ipn] => a:32:{
s:19:"transaction_subject";s:0:"";
s:12:"payment_date";s:25:"00:21:58 Feb 22, 2014 PST";
s:8:"txn_type";s:16:"express_checkout";s:9:"last_name";s:3:"Doe";
s:17:"residence_country";s:2:"US";
s:9:"item_name";s:32:"Setup Charge for Test Membership";
s:13:"payment_gross";s:4:"0.25";s:11:"mc_currency";s:3:"USD";
s:12:"payment_type";s:7:"instant";
s:22:"protection_eligibility";s:10:"Ineligible";
s:11:"verify_sign";s:56:"AFd.erwt7Voes2Mr85yut0RloHozAkJHPfCa2lg4u3m6Y5IcLKQuileb";
s:12:"payer_status";s:8:"verified";s:3:"tax";s:4:"0.00";
s:11:"payer_email";s:18:"[email protected]";
s:6:"txn_id";s:17:"9R38147904376032U";s:8:"quantity";s:1:"1";
s:14:"receiver_email";s:20:"[email protected]";
s:10:"first_name";s:6:"John";s:8:"payer_id";s:13:"CJDGDQKUM9E6A";
s:11:"receiver_id";s:13:"C82923HX5D2";s:11:"item_number";s:0:"";
s:19:"payer_business_name";s:15:"Cool Stuff";
s:15:"handling_amount";s:4:"0.00";
s:14:"payment_status";s:9:"Completed";
s:11:"payment_fee";s:4:"0.25";s:6:"mc_fee";s:4:"0.25";
s:8:"shipping";s:4:"0.00";s:8:"mc_gross";s:4:"0.25";
s:6:"custom";s:7:"p8:test"; s:7:"charset";s:12:"windows-1252";
s:14:"notify_version";s:3:"3.7";
s:12:"ipn_track_id";s:13:"ddcd458abf12d2";}
    [txn_id] => 67D3904376032U
    [txn_type] => express_checkout
    [txn_time] => 2014-02-22 08:21:58
    [mc_currency] => USD
    [mc_gross] => 0.25
    [payment_status] => Completed
    [recurring_payment_id] =>
    [custom] => p8:test
    [product_name] => Setup Charge for Test Membership
    [payer_email] => [email protected]
    [receiver_email] => [email protected]
    [id] => 1
)

Russell answered:

This is a notification of an order for Test Membership.

These emails are generated whenever anyone pays, fails to pay, cancels or get refunded.

There are a “heartbeat” to let you know the system is working.

I recommend you use a forwarded email address to a gmail account where you can apply filters so the email can be automatically marked as “skip the inbox” and “read” then archive.

The filters rules can be based on the Email Subject so you can use different archive folders for sales (new orders), regular payments, payment failures, cancellations and refunds.

Over 99% of these you do not need to look at, however very occasionally the email will tell you about a failure to process an order.

The scenario is one where the order has gone through on PayPal but SubscriptionBoss cannot make the order on Infusionsoft because:

• your Infusionsoft API key is wrong or has been changed
• your Infusionsoft application is not responding
• your firewall has blocked the outbound connection to Infusionsoft
• the ProductId or SubscriptionPlanId defined in SubscriptionBoss does not exist or no longer exists, or is no longer active in Infusionsoft and therefore Subscription cannot make an order because it cannot identify the product

The steps to resolve the issue are to add the order (and possibly the contact) manually. There is sufficient information in the email to do this.