Account Setup

Setup Checklist

The following check list can be used to ensure that everything is configured and that your settings are in place.

• You have signed up for an account and verified your email address
• You have added your products to CheckoutJoy
• You have configured your payment gateway account(s) and completed the specific setup guide for that gateway(s)
• You have included the checkoutjoy widget in Kajabi
• You have added a valid payment card to the billing section

Recommended setup order

A surprising number of new accounts get stuck because they try to configure CheckoutJoy, the payment processor and the host platform in parallel, and end up debugging a chain of issues at once. The order below isolates each piece so failures are easy to diagnose:

1. Confirm your host-platform plan supports external payment integrations. This is non-negotiable for several platforms — for example, Thinkific's Start plan does not support external payments; Kajabi PRO is required for the API integration. If your plan doesn't support what you need, no amount of CheckoutJoy configuration will fix it.
2. Get your payment processor merchant account approved. PayFast, Paystack, Razorpay and similar processors have their own onboarding, KYC, and entity checks. This is often the longest-lead-time item — start it first and don't let it block other setup steps.
3. Install the CheckoutJoy app on your host platform (the Thinkific app store, the Kajabi script snippet, the Kartra integration, etc.).
4. Configure the processor inside CheckoutJoy with the credentials from step 2.
5. Do a real end-to-end test purchase. This validates checkout, processor connection, post-purchase automation (tag assignment / offer grant) and the success-redirect URL — all in one go. It's the fastest way to verify the whole stack actually works.

If you find yourself running in circles after more than a day or two of trial-and-error, ask support for a short onboarding call rather than continuing to debug alone — most stuck setups are resolved in 15–20 minutes once we can see the configuration end-to-end.

Trial mechanics

• The free trial is 14 days.
• Extensions and restarts can be granted by support — common reasons are waiting on processor approval, custom-domain DNS propagation, or website-development work. Reach out before or shortly after expiry; account data and configuration are preserved across a restart, so you pick up where you left off.
• If you never add a payment method, you're never charged. The trial simply expires and the account becomes inactive. Deleting the account isn't necessary to avoid charges.
• The trial auto-converts to a paid subscription at the end of the 14 days only if you've added a payment method during the trial.
• When a trial expires without conversion, checkout pages start returning 404. Re-activate the plan to bring them back.

Testing your live checkout end-to-end before launch

The fastest way to validate the full stack (checkout → processor → host platform access grant → success redirect) is a real transaction — but you don't want to charge yourself full price. Two safe patterns:

• 99%-off coupon — create a coupon worth a large discount and apply it at checkout, leaving a small residual charge (most processors don't allow zero-amount transactions, so test with a few cents/Rand).
• Temporarily lower the product price — set the price to a small test amount, complete the purchase yourself, then restore the price.

After the test purchase, verify in all of these places:

1. The CheckoutJoy order shows Completed.
2. The processor's dashboard shows the payment as successful.
3. The buyer (you) received the access grant on Kajabi/Thinkific/etc.
4. The success-redirect URL fired.
5. The invoice (if invoicing is enabled) was generated and emailed.

Plan management — what's self-serve and what isn't

Failed account-billing retries

If CheckoutJoy can't charge your card on a renewal, you'll get a "payment error" email. Retries happen automatically every 3 working days — you don't need to do anything unless the underlying card is the problem. To update the card, go to Settings → Billing and update the payment method; the next retry will use the new card.

If you can't update the card (card not accepted, validation error, post-email-change UI glitch), ask support for a direct payment link for the outstanding invoice.

Cancelling CheckoutJoy doesn't cancel your buyers' recurring subscriptions

Important distinction: cancelling your CheckoutJoy account removes your access to the dashboard, but existing recurring subscriptions in your connected payment processor (Stripe, PayPal, PayFast, etc.) continue to charge your buyers on schedule. The processor manages those agreements directly with the buyer's card.

If you want to stop billing your buyers as well, cancel each subscription explicitly before cancelling CheckoutJoy — either from the CheckoutJoy dashboard or in the processor's dashboard. After CheckoutJoy is cancelled you lose dashboard access but the processor-side subscriptions are still live.

Before cancelling, export your orders to CSV from the dashboard. The CSV remains valid after cancellation; dashboard access does not.

Login troubleshooting

For pending purchases, common processor errors, and other operational issues, see the dedicated Troubleshooting & FAQ page.

A few login errors look alarming but are almost always cookie/state issues, not account problems:

• "Unable to get user session following successful sign-in" — usually stale cookies in your browser. Try an Incognito/Private window or clear cookies for the CheckoutJoy domain.
• "User Doesn't Exist" appearing for an account you know exists — same root cause. Sign in fresh from Incognito; the issue typically clears after one good login.
• One browser works, the other doesn't — usually cookie state diverged between browsers. Sign in cleanly on the broken browser after clearing CheckoutJoy cookies.

Mixing email/password and Google sign-in

If your account has both an email/password method and a Google sign-in linked, pick one and stick with it. Switching between sign-in methods on the same account can produce session errors. If you're already in this state, contact support to consolidate the account.

Browser troubleshooting baseline

For any "weird" dashboard or checkout behaviour, run this checklist before reporting a bug:

1. Reload the page in Incognito / Private mode — rules out stale cookies and extensions.
2. Try a different browser — rules out browser-specific cache.
3. Clear cookies for the CheckoutJoy domain.
4. If sign-in is involved, confirm you're using the same method (password or Google) you've used before.

If the issue persists after this, send support a screenshot or short Loom of what you're seeing — text-only descriptions are usually too ambiguous to diagnose UI bugs.