Get your Polar account approved

Your recipe books are sold through your own Polar account, and Polar reviews every new account before it lets it take payments. Until the review passes, your organization is in Polar's test mode: its checkout only accepts free orders and 100% discounts, and Polar pays nothing out.

Nobody can buy a priced book until the review passes. You can publish it before then, but its sales page shows it as unavailable; once Polar approves your account, the buy button appears on its own. The review can take up to 14 days, so start it as soon as your book is published.

The review happens entirely on Polar's side and Cookping cannot do it for you. Polar's checklist is written for software companies, though, so a few answers are not obvious for a food creator. This guide goes through each step and says what to enter.

Before you start

  1. Create your book in Cookping, under Books.
  2. Create your Polar account and organization, with the euro as its currency.
  3. Connect it from Settings → Selling with Polar in Cookping. Connecting also sets up the webhook that Polar's checklist asks for.
  4. Publish your book, free or priced. Cookping creates the product in your Polar account automatically, with the PDF attached, usually within a couple of minutes.
  5. Keep at hand an identity document (passport, ID card or driver's license) and your bank details.

In Polar's dashboard, the checklist appears under Verify your business. The Finish this in Polar button in Cookping's Settings opens your Polar dashboard. Every item marked as required has to be green before Polar lets you submit.

Step by step

1. Create your first product

Nothing to do here: Cookping created the product when you published your book. If the step is still unchecked, open the book in Cookping and wait until the editor shows it is on Polar, then reload Polar's checklist.

2. Set up checkout

Choose API integration, not No-code. Create a webhook is already green, because Cookping registered it when you connected.

Create an API key is marked as required, and Polar will not let you submit without it, even though Cookping never uses one: Cookping connects through Polar's authorized-app sign-in instead. To tick the step:

  1. Click Create.
  2. Name it something like "Polar review", pick the shortest expiration offered, and select as few permissions as the form allows.
  3. Create the key and close the window without copying it anywhere.

Never send this key to Cookping or anyone else. Cookping support will never ask for it.

3. Verify your identity

Polar runs an identity check through Stripe: a photo of your identity document and a selfie. It has to be done by the person who owns the organization, which is you, the seller of the book.

4. Connect a payout account

In Polar, go to Finance → Payouts and add the bank account your sales will be paid into. It has to be in the seller's name.

5. Describe what you sell

Reviewers use this to check that your business fits Polar's acceptable-use policy, so be concrete and honest. Write it in English, in your own words: it should read like you describing your shop, not like a product pitch. A description along these lines works; adapt it to your book:

I'm a food creator on Instagram (@your_handle). I write my own recipes and sell them to my audience as PDF eBooks, as one-time purchases. Everything in the books is my own work and I'm the seller. Buyers pay through Polar and receive the PDF from Polar right after checkout.

You don't need to mention Cookping. If you want to, because your product website in step 6 is a Cookping page, keep it to one sentence at the end: "The sales page is hosted on Cookping, a page builder I use; it has no part in the payment."

6. Add your product website

Enter the page where buyers actually buy. For most creators, that is their Cookping creator page, https://cookping.app/c/your-handle, which lists your books and opens Polar's checkout. If you have your own website and it links to your books, you can enter that instead.

7. Add a support email

Enter an address you read every day. Buyers who have trouble with a payment, a refund or a download will write to it, and only you can help them, so don't use a Cookping address. Cookping reuses this same address: every sales page offers a "Contact you" button that reveals it to a reader who asks, so you are never asked for an email twice. Leave it blank and your sales pages offer no way to reach you.

With a personal address such as Gmail, Polar shows two warnings: Business email is preferred and Email domain does not match your organization website. Both are expected for a creator whose website is a Cookping page, and neither stops you from saving or submitting. If you own a domain with its own email address, use that instead and the warnings go away.

This step is optional, but Polar says a public profile can speed up the review. Add your Instagram profile: for a food creator, it is the clearest proof of who you are and who you sell to.

Submit

When every required item is green, submit your details. Polar emails you if its reviewers need anything else; answer quickly, because the review waits for you.

After you submit

The Before your first payout checklist in Cookping's Settings mirrors what Polar reports each time you open Settings:

  • Under review by Polar — your details are in. Your priced books are on Polar, but buyers can't pay for them yet: their sales pages show them as unavailable.
  • Review on hold — Polar needs something from you. Check your email and your Polar dashboard.
  • Active — the review passed. Within a few minutes, the buy button appears on the sales pages of your priced books, without republishing, and Paid checkouts enabled turns green in Settings.

Payouts follow Polar's own terms once you have sales: its minimum, its settlement delay and its fees. See Recipe books & selling for how selling works once your account is approved.

If Polar declines your account

The checklist in Settings turns red with Declined by Polar or Blocked by Polar, and Polar's dashboard shows Payment access denied under Account → Account Review. Only Polar can change that decision. Paid checkouts stay unavailable in the meantime, and you can disconnect the organization from Settings at any time.

Read the reason Polar gives before you react. Technical error during validation. A manual review will be conducted is not a verdict on your business: Polar's automated check could not finish, often because it could not load your product website, and a person will look at your account next. In that case, and in most others, the same page offers an appeal box: use it to give the reviewer the context the automated check never got.

Before you write, open your product website in a private browser window and check that it loads without signing in and shows your book. If it doesn't, fix that first (the book has to be published in Cookping), because that is the most common cause.

Then write the appeal in English, in your own words, along these lines; fill in the brackets:

I believe the denial comes from the automated validation, not from my business, so here is the context for the manual review.

I'm [name], a food creator on Instagram (@[handle]). I write my own recipes and sell them to my audience as PDF eBooks, as one-time purchases. Everything in the books is my own work and I am the seller. Buyers pay through Polar and receive the PDF from Polar right after checkout. No subscriptions, no physical goods, no third-party content.

The product website is https://cookping.app/c/[handle]. It lists my books and opens Polar's checkout. Cookping is a page builder I use; it has no part in the payment.

Identity verification is done, the payout account is in my name and in the same country as the organization, and the support email is one I read every day.

If anything on the website could not be loaded or looked incomplete during validation, I'm happy to provide screenshots or a copy of the eBook.

Sending the same text to Polar support, with your organization's name, gets a human answer faster than the appeal form alone. Once Polar approves the account, Paid checkouts enabled turns green in Settings on its own and the buy button appears on your sales pages.

Frequently asked questions

Why does Polar require an API key if Cookping doesn't use one?

Polar's checklist only recognizes integrations built with an API key. Cookping connects to your organization as an authorized app instead, which Polar's checklist doesn't count. Creating a key you never copy or share ticks the step without giving anything away.

Do I have to create my book as a product in Polar?

No. When you publish a book in Cookping, free or priced, Cookping creates the product in your Polar account with the PDF attached and keeps it up to date when you republish.

Can I use my Gmail address as my support email?

Yes. Polar shows two warnings for a personal address on a website that isn't yours, but they don't block saving or submitting. Use an address you read every day, because buyers write to it.

How long does Polar's account review take?

Polar says it can take up to 14 days. Until it passes, your organization stays in test mode: free orders work, paid checkouts don't, and nothing is paid out.