skip paypal if cart total is zero

In some cases, customers on my site will be able to order a "free gift." I want to have them go through check out as normal, and write to the order tables. Instead of going to paypal as most order so, this should skip right to the checkout-success page.

Is there a recommended method for accomplishing this?

Many thanks.

you would need to write an if statement around the checkout behavior to skip it if the cart total is 0.

what paypal system are you using?

Paypal Standard?
PayPal Pro?
Or payPal Express Checkout?

I'm using PayPal Standard

on the confirm page, the following form element sends the cart to paypal:

<form name="checkout_PP_LI_Hid"  action="https://www.PayPal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">

use an if statement to set the action to post to the success page if the cart total cost is 0:

<?php if($yourCartName->GrandTotal() > 0) { ?>
<form name="checkout_PP_LI_Hid"  action="https://www.PayPal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<?php } else { ?>
<form name="checkout_PP_LI_Hid"  action="checkout_success.php" method="post">
<?php } ?>

where yourCartName is the name of your cart object.