Go live checklist

Getting from your first sandbox login to live billing doesn't have to be complicated. This checklist walks you through every milestone — from setting up your integration and connecting a payment gateway to training your team and importing existing customers. Work through each step in order, and you'll be collecting real revenue with confidence.

1Before you go live 2Go live 3After you go live

Before you go live

The steps below prepare your Recurly environment for production. Complete them in sandbox and development modes so your integration is fully validated before a real transaction ever runs. Need help? Enablement packages for onboarding, data migration, and professional services can make this process significantly faster.

Sign up for a sandbox site

Create your sandbox and explore Recurly's capabilities before any real money moves. Use this time to build out your configuration — here's a list of sandbox features to discover as you get set up.

WarningWhen you're ready to go live, all sandbox customer accounts, transactions, and invoices are wiped clean so accounting starts fresh with real data. You can clear test data any time by clicking Clear Test Data.

Set up your checkout integration

Recurly offers two ways to create PCI-compliant checkouts. Choose the approach that fits your stack.

Custom checkout — Add the Recurly.js library to a new or existing checkout page, then use the API to create accounts, subscriptions, and one-time purchases in a single flow. The /purchase endpoint is the recommended starting point.

Hosted Pages — Use Recurly's Checkout to get a ready-made signup flow up and running quickly, without custom development.

Connect a payment gateway

Link your existing gateway to your Recurly account. If you don't have one yet, choose from Recurly's supported gateways and establish an account. Keep in mind that initiating a new gateway can take up to 45 days.

Enable development mode

Once you've subscribed to a Recurly plan and are ready to test against a live gateway, contact support to enable development mode on your account.

Test your gateway in development mode

Run transactions through your configured gateway(s) to confirm your Recurly integration is working end-to-end.

Train your customer service team

Make sure the people handling day-to-day subscriptions know how to manage accounts, create subscriptions, process refunds, and handle common billing scenarios inside Recurly.

Review all API and Recurly.js calls

Before you flip the switch to production, do a final review of every integration touchpoint using the API documentation.

Run through this verification checklist as part of step 7:

Complete a full customer signup in your sandbox environment. Confirm the customer account and subscription were created correctly.
Test any additional API flows — upgrades, downgrades, cancellations, and refunds.
Review all Recurly.js and API calls for operational efficiency before go-live.

Go live

Switch to production mode

When you're confident everything is working, go to the Welcome page and click the link to switch to Production Mode. This starts live billing.

ImportantSwitching to Production Mode is irreversible. Make sure you've finished all sandbox and development testing before you proceed.

Update all configurations to production

Swap out every sandbox or development setting for its production equivalent — including your payment gateways, webhooks, and any other environment-specific configurations.

Send a test transaction and void it

Now that you're in production, run one real transaction through the gateway to confirm everything is wired up correctly, then void it immediately. All transactions affect reporting and can't be deleted — voiding is the clean way to verify without leaving a real charge behind.

After you go live

Import your existing customers

Bring in your existing business data — customer accounts, billing information, and subscription history — using the API or through a Professional Services engagement.

NoteHistorical transaction data is not imported, and data from gateways may take time to prepare. Plan for this window when communicating your go-live timeline internally.

Updated 1 day ago