Latest / Sidekick's What Just Shipped / HubSpot Customer Agent invoices: answer billing questions in chat | Shipped Jun 2026
Transcript
- Rob (AI host): When a customer asks your support chat what an invoice is for, HubSpot's customer agent can now look it up, explain it, and send a copy with a way to pay. Dana (AI host): Without a human in the loop? Rob (AI host): Mostly. Rob (AI host): There's a verification step, a beta to join, and a plan question our write-up gets wrong. Narrator (AI voice): This is Sidekick's What Just Shipped, presented by Sidekick Strategies. Narrator (AI voice): Your hosts, Rob and Dana, are AI. Narrator (AI voice): The voices are synthetic, the research is real, and humans check every claim before it reaches you. Rob (AI host): Before anything else: Dana and I are AI hosts. Rob (AI host): We don't send invoices or answer billing tickets ourselves. Dana (AI host): I'm Dana. Dana (AI host): Today I'm playing a billing support manager whose queue is mostly people asking what a charge is for. Rob (AI host): Here's what shipped. Rob (AI host): HubSpot's August product updates list it under new customer agent capabilities, as Looks Up and Sends Invoices. Rob (AI host): Customer agent finds invoices, explains the charges, and sends a copy with a checkout link in the same thread. Dana (AI host): And the details? Rob (AI host): HubSpot's help page on sharing invoices, updated on the twenty-first of September, has a section called find and send invoices using customer agent. Rob (AI host): If a customer asks about a past or upcoming invoice, the agent gives details about it, sends a copy, and includes an embedded secure checkout when a payment is still outstanding. Dana (AI host): Which channels? Rob (AI host): Responses can go in the same chat window, by email, or by WhatsApp. Dana (AI host): And how does the agent know I'm the person on the invoice? Rob (AI host): Invoices require email verification. Rob (AI host): In the setup, the action protection level is set to Verify email, and it can't be changed. Rob (AI host): HubSpot's customer agent actions page explains that setting. Rob (AI host): The agent sends a verification link, and only runs the action after the visitor clicks it. Rob (AI host): If the visitor is already recognized as verified, say they're logged in, a link may not be needed. Rob (AI host): For other actions you'd pick a level yourself. Rob (AI host): None runs with no check, and Match email compares the visitor's email to their contact record. Rob (AI host): For invoices, it's locked to Verify email. Dana (AI host): Good. That's the part I'd worry about first. Where do I turn it on? Rob (AI host): Go to Service, then Customer Agent. Rob (AI host): In the left sidebar, click Train, then Actions, then View all actions. Rob (AI host): The action to pick is called Get paid quickly with payment links. Rob (AI host): Then click Continue to setup. Rob (AI host): The same August section lists two neighbors. Rob (AI host): Customer agent can send payment links when a buyer signals they're ready to buy, and you can hand any conversation to the agent from the Ticket Owner dropdown. Dana (AI host): Wait. Not Find Invoices? Rob (AI host): Not on the help page we read. Our write-up calls it the Find Invoices action. Rob (AI host): HubSpot's steps name that payment links action. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Hey, it's George B. Thomas from Sidekick Strategies. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Full honesty, this is my AI voice clone, made with my permission. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): An agent can answer billing questions. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Your support team still needs tickets, a knowledge base, and service level agreements that work. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Sidekick's Service Hub training runs live sessions inside your own portal, with your real tickets, plus recordings for new hires. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Service level rules get configured during training, with reporting dashboards. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Learn more at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Dana (AI host): Okay, the skeptic part. Who can actually use this? Rob (AI host): Here's the conflict. Rob (AI host): Our write-up says the action is in public beta for all hubs and tiers. Rob (AI host): HubSpot's help page says a Professional or Enterprise subscription is required to use the customer agent. Rob (AI host): The August post lists availability as Service Hub Pro plus, with customer agent. Dana (AI host): So Free and Starter accounts are out. Rob (AI host): Going by HubSpot's pages, yes. We'd trust those over our write-up here. Dana (AI host): So what does a Starter team do with a billing question today? Rob (AI host): The same help page covers sending by hand. Rob (AI host): Open the invoice under Revenue, then Invoices, click Actions, and choose Send by email, Copy link, or Download. Rob (AI host): Or, in the inbox, click Insert, then Invoices, and a link to the invoice drops into your reply. Rob (AI host): One catch. Rob (AI host): If you send a link in a hand-written email, the Last sent date property won't update. Dana (AI host): Anything else I'd need before it works? Rob (AI host): Three things. An assigned seat to create and manage the agent, and customer agent editor permissions. Rob (AI host): Also, a Super Admin has to enroll the account in the beta called New Actions Library: HubSpot CRM, Workflows, and Shopify actions for your Customer Agent. Dana (AI host): And cost? Rob (AI host): Deploying the customer agent to channels needs HubSpot Credits. Rob (AI host): The help page says credits are used only when the agent delivers a resolution. Dana (AI host): How many credits per resolution? Rob (AI host): This help page doesn't say. Rob (AI host): It links out to how the customer agent uses credits, so check that before you switch on every channel. Dana (AI host): And timing? Our write-up is dated the sixteenth of June. Rob (AI host): The first HubSpot monthly post we found that names it is August. Rob (AI host): The June and July posts don't mention it. So the exact ship date is unknown. Dana (AI host): Our write-up also says I get up to five trigger phrases, and that the agent can't change amounts or status. Dana (AI host): True? Rob (AI host): We couldn't confirm either from HubSpot. Rob (AI host): The help page says to review the suggested trigger phrases and add more, with no limit we could find. Rob (AI host): On amounts, the page says the agent provides details, sends a copy, and adds checkout. Rob (AI host): It doesn't spell out what the agent can't do. So that one's unknown. Dana (AI host): Fair. What about invoices from another billing tool, synced in? Rob (AI host): Our write-up says those won't work. Rob (AI host): HubSpot's page doesn't say either way, so treat that as unknown too. Dana (AI host): Okay. As the billing manager I'm playing, here's my plan. Dana (AI host): Check the plan first. Have a Super Admin join the beta. Dana (AI host): Then write response instructions in your tone, and preview the action before you click Publish. Rob (AI host): The setup steps include both. Preview at the top, Publish in the top right. Rob (AI host): And if it misbehaves later, the actions page says you hover over it and click Unpublish. Rob (AI host): Editing and deleting are for actions that aren't published. Rob (AI host): Invoice lookups, in one breath. Rob (AI host): The agent finds, explains, and sends, but only after email verification, and only on Professional or Enterprise. Dana (AI host): Every source we used is in the show notes, and the full write-ups are at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Rob (AI host): Thanks so much for listening. Dana (AI host): Check your plan, then test it the way a customer would. Narrator (AI voice): Sidekick's What Just Shipped is presented by Sidekick Strategies, with AI hosts Rob and Dana and AI-generated music. Narrator (AI voice): We're independent, and not affiliated with HubSpot. Find our research at Sidekick Strategies dot com.