Fin + Stripe: answer questions about the next invoice

A customer asks when their next payment is due. For a business selling subscriptions through Stripe, the answer needs to come from that customer's account, not a general price list. Intercom's new templates let Fin retrieve subscriptions and preview the next invoice within the conversation.

Intercom announced templates for Stripe, Chargebee, Paddle, and Recurly on November 3. Here we use Stripe for one routine: answering next-invoice questions without changing the subscription or collecting payment.

Source: Intercom: new subscription management templates.

Check access and connect the right account

A Data connector lets Fin retrieve or change information in another system. Fin can use these connectors on all Intercom pricing plans, with charges per outcome. They are available for workspaces hosted in the EU, US, and Australia.

The Stripe templates require the Stripe app to be installed in Intercom. The app documentation lists Essential, Advanced, and Expert, and a paid Stripe account. A Stripe administrator must connect the integration. This routine suits a support team already using Fin and Stripe; check access in your workspace before planning the rollout.

Sources: Intercom: Data connector access and billing. Intercom: Stripe app requirements.

Human steps: build the invoice-answer routine

An administrator makes these settings. The menu names below follow the English documentation. Fin Operator cannot yet install or configure the templates for you.

1. Open Settings > Integrations > Data connectors and choose New. Under Or start from a template, select Stripe.
2. Choose a template to find the right customer: Get customer by ID if the integration has the customer's Stripe ID, otherwise Search customers by email. The latter matches the exact email address. Read the description and choose Create to make a draft.
3. Also create connectors from Get subscriptions and Preview next invoice. The first retrieves details including subscription status and the next billing date. The second can answer how much the next invoice will be and when the customer will be charged. Do not install refund or subscription-change templates for this routine.
4. Check customer authentication under Security. Enable identity verification and protect the email field against changes through Messenger. If you use a stored customer ID, protect that too. Under Data, choose which response fields Fin can read. Keep the information needed for the invoice answer.
5. Test the connectors and the answer in Fin preview. Compare with Stripe before choosing Set live for the reviewed connectors.

Sources: Intercom: install templates and select Stripe connectors. Intercom: protect customer information.

The Stripe app only syncs live-mode data, not Stripe test-mode data. Use an account you are authorized to review and check that the selected templates only read information. A test is not automatically a sandbox: Intercom warns that testing requests that write data really changes that data.

Sources: Intercom: Stripe app synchronization. Intercom: how tests affect data.

Save this checklist before going live

This is our suggested acceptance check, not a built-in test suite. Record the result for each item.

• Correct customer: the verified identity leads to the right Stripe account. A different email address must not open someone else's invoices.
• Correct answer: ask, "When is my next payment due, and how much will it be?" Test the equivalent question in Swedish too. Check the amount, currency, and date against Stripe's preview. The answer should describe a forthcoming invoice, not claim that a payment has already happened.
• Unclear information: try a situation where the customer match is missing or multiple subscriptions make the question ambiguous. Do not approve the routine if Fin guesses the account, amount, or intended subscription. Check the handoff to your team.
• No change: check that the conversation did not create a payment, refund, or subscription change.
• Owner: record who owns the routine, when it was checked, and what needs correcting before launch.

Intercom describes handing the conversation to your team when a template cannot identify a single matching account or a request fails. Test that behavior in your own configuration. Swedish wording and dates also need to work for your customers.

Source: Intercom: customer matching and handoff.

After launch, review the first invoice questions against Stripe. Save the checklist with the connectors: installed templates are independent copies and do not update automatically when Intercom improves the original. The next administrator can then see both what the routine may do and what needs testing again.

Source: Intercom: versions of installed templates.