Using Chargebee actions in action flows

Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the action builder to the external system.

What's my plan?

All Suites

Team, Growth, Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus

Support

Team, Professional, or Enterprise

Summary: ◀▼

You can connect action flows to Chargebee to automate customer and subscription management tasks like creating, updating, and looking up customers and subscriptions. Actions also include pausing, resuming, canceling subscriptions, retrieving invoices, and creating credit notes. Use a dedicated service account for connections and manage API keys securely to maintain control and security in your automated workflows.

By connecting the action builder to external systems, such as Chargebee, admins can integrate Zendesk with external systems in automated workflows, improving collaboration and maintaining a seamless experience across multiple platforms.

Note: The steps associated with external systems in action flows are referred to collectively as external actions.

This article contains the following topics:

• Connecting Chargebee to action builder
• Using Chargebee actions in action flows

Connecting Chargebee to action builder

Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the action builder to the external system.

When connecting to external systems for use in action flows, the following best practices are recommended:

• All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it's a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external system.
• All integrations request access to necessary scopes. However, it's important that you review and validate the scopes before authorizing the connection to the external system.
• When managing credentials for API key-based tools, such as OpenAI, it's best to store keys in a secure vault or credential manager.

To connect action builder to Chargebee

1. In Admin Center, click Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Actions > Action flows.
2. Create or edit an action flow.
3. Open the step sidebar.
4. Under External actions, click Chargebee.
5. Click Connect.
6. Follow the Chargebee prompts to authenticate and complete the connection.

   The Chargebee connection requires an API key for authentication. You'll need to provide:

   • Chargebee Site Name: Your Chargebee subdomain (for example, "acme" for acme.chargebee.com)
   • API key: Found in your Chargebee dashboard under Settings > Configure Chargebee > API Keys.
   Note: All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it is a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external system.

After you've connected to the system, you'll see an indicator that it's connected and details about the instance you're connected to, as well as the actions available for Chargebee.

Using Chargebee actions in action flows

The following Chargebee actions are available:

• Create customer
• Update customer
• Lookup customer
• Create subscription
• Update subscription
• Lookup subscription
• Pause subscription
• Resume subscription
• Cancel subscription
• Retrieve invoice
• Create credit note

Creating a customer

Use the Create customer action to create a new customer record in Chargebee.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Email Optional: First name, Last name, Company, Phone
Output	Customer details including id, email, first_name, last_name, created_at, and object type.

Updating a customer

Use the Update customer action to update an existing customer's information.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Customer ID Optional: Email, First name, Last name, Company, Phone Only the Customer ID is required. Provide only the fields you want to update. Existing values for fields you don't specify will remain unchanged.
Output	Customer details including id, email, first_name, last_name, and updated_at timestamp.

Looking up a customer

Use the Lookup customer action to find a customer by customer ID or email address.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Optional: Email, Customer ID Provide either Email or Customer ID to look up a customer. If both are provided, Customer ID takes precedence. At least one field is required.
Output	Customer details including id, email, first_name, last_name, company, phone, created_at, updated_at, auto_collection, taxability, locale, deleted status, vat_number, net_term_days, and allow_direct_debit.

Creating a subscription

Use the Create subscription action to create a new recurring subscription for a customer.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Customer ID, Plan The Plan field allows you to select from your available Chargebee pricing plans. Optional: Plan quantity, Trial end date, Start date Plan quantity defaults to 1 if not specified. Trial end date and Start date should be in YYYY-MM-DD format.
Output	Subscription details including id, customer_id, plan_id, status, current_term_start, current_term_end, created_at, activated_at, started_at, next_billing_at, trial_start, trial_end, billing_period, billing_period_unit, currency_code, auto_collection, and mrr (monthly recurring revenue).

Updating a subscription

Use the Update subscription action to change a subscription's plan or quantity.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Subscription ID, Plan Optional: Plan quantity, Proration, End of term Proration determines whether a prorated invoice is generated immediately for the price difference. End of term determines whether the change takes effect immediately or at the end of the current billing period. Both default to false (immediate change with no proration).
Output	Subscription details including id, customer_id, plan_id, status, and updated_at timestamp.

Looking up a subscription

Use the Lookup subscription action to find a subscription by subscription ID or customer ID.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Optional: Customer ID, Subscription ID Provide either Customer ID or Subscription ID to look up a subscription. If both are provided, Subscription ID takes precedence. At least one field is required.
Output	Subscription details including id, customer_id, plan_id, status, current_term_start, current_term_end, created_at, activated_at, started_at, updated_at, next_billing_at, trial_start, trial_end, cancelled_at, cancel_reason, billing_period, billing_period_unit, currency_code, auto_collection, mrr, due_invoices_count, and total_dues.

Pausing a subscription

Use the Pause subscription action to temporarily pause a subscription.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Subscription ID Optional: Pause option, Resume date Pause option determines whether to pause immediately or at the end of the current billing term. Resume date should be in YYYY-MM-DD format and specifies when the subscription should automatically resume.
Output	Subscription details including id, status, pause_date, and resume_date timestamps.

Resuming a subscription

Use the Resume subscription action to resume a paused subscription.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Subscription ID Optional: Resume option, Resume date Resume option determines whether to resume immediately or on a specific date. If Resume option is "Specific date", you must provide a Resume date in YYYY-MM-DD format.
Output	Subscription details including id, status, and resume_date timestamp.

Canceling a subscription

Use the Cancel subscription action to cancel a subscription.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Subscription ID Optional: Cancel at end of term, Cancellation reason, Comment Cancel at end of term determines whether to cancel immediately or at the end of the billing term (defaults to true). Cancellation reason includes options such as Not paid, No card, Fraud, Free account, and Other. Use Comment to provide additional context about the cancellation.
Output	Subscription details including id, status, cancelled_at, and scheduled_cancellation_date timestamps.

Retrieving an invoice

Use the Retrieve invoice action to get detailed information about a specific invoice.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Invoice ID The Invoice ID field dynamically populates with available invoices from your Chargebee account.
Output	Invoice details including id, customer_id, subscription_id, status, total, amount_paid, amount_due, currency_code, date, due_date, and pdf_url. The pdf_url provides a direct link to download the invoice PDF.

Creating a credit note

Use the Create credit note action to issue a refund or adjustment credit note against an invoice.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Invoice ID, Type, Total (in cents), Reason code Optional: Comment Type can be Refundable (for refunds) or Adjustment (for account adjustments). Total is in cents (e.g., 1000 = $10.00). For refundable credit notes, total must not exceed the refundable amount on the invoice. For adjustment credit notes, total must not exceed the amount due. Reason code must match a reason code configured in your Chargebee account.
Output	Credit note details including id, customer_id, reference_invoice_id, type, status, total, currency_code, date, and reason_code.