Via workflow automation (iPaaS)

Workflow automation platforms / IPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) are tools that help you automate business processes without the need to write code or host your own software. They are ideal for companies that want business efficiency without the need to invest in a strong IT department, or where the IT department is otherwise occupied.

Shuttle supports several of these platforms:

• Make.com: Make.com offers advanced control, branching logic, and visual flows for building complex automations with minimal code.
• Zapier: Zapier makes it easy for non-developers to automate tasks across thousands of apps with a clean, no-code interface.

If you require a platform not listed please contact support@shuttleglobal.com.

What is workflow automation?

Workflow automation is the orchestration of multiple systems and steps to perform a task.

Most automation platforms provide a graphical user interface, so non-technical users can configure both simple and complex processes like the one below:

flowchart LR
A[Trigger] --> B[Create Payment Link] --> C[Send to Customer]

Examples include:

• Field agents getting quotes secured:

flowchart LR
 B[On HubSpot Quote Creation]
 B --> C[Create Payment Link]
 C --> D[Email/SMS Customer]

• Event signup automation using WhatsApp

flowchart LR
 B[On WhatsApp signup message]
 B --> C[Create Payment Link]
 C --> D[Reply on WhatsApp]

• Chasing overdue invoices

flowchart LR
 B[On 15th of the Month]
 B --> C[Loop overdue Xero customers]
 C --> D[Create Payment Link]
 D --> E[Email Customer]
 E --> C

• Getting membership fees paid

flowchart LR
 B[On Manual Trigger]
 B --> C[Loop Google Sheet]
 C --> D[Create Payment Link]
 D --> E[Email Customer]
 E --> C

Workflows can also be triggered by payment notifications, so you can provide goods or services. On a notification, get the payment link: once it’s been paid, it contains detailed information about the payment, so your workflow can act on it.

flowchart LR
  A[Notification] --> B[Filter] --> C[Get Payment Link]
  C --> D{Status?}
  D --> E[Success → Provision Goods]
  D --> F[Pending → Reserve Goods]
  D --> G[Active again after a failed payment → Release Goods & Notify Customer]
  D --> H[Expired → Notify Customer]

Getting started

To use personalised single-use payment links in your workflow automation, you will need:

• A Shuttle Payment Links account
• A payment provider account (e.g. Stripe), or our sandbox gateway
• A triggering event, eg an app that you want to trigger the link generation from (e.g. Slack, Whatsapp, Invoicing app, Google Sheets), timing schedule, or manual trigger
• An account with one of the following workflow apps, which supports your triggering event:
  • Zapier 8000+ Integrations - best for wider compatibility
  • Make.com 2500+ Integrations - best for power users

In your workflow tool you can connect to Shuttle via:

1. Install the “Shuttle” connector (search for “Shuttle” in the app store or use a link at the top of this document)
2. Add “Create a Payment Link” action to one of your templates / scenarios (please view a tutorial on the platform if you’re not sure how to do this)
3. You will be prompted to “Connect Shuttle”, click the button and when prompted select if you are connecting a “Live” or “Sandbox” account. You will then be taken to a login screen to log into Shuttle and select which account to connect. You must have ALREADY created the account in the appropriate LIVE / SANDBOX mode for it to display. If required you can set up a new account, but will need to restart the connection process.

Tip!: We recommend you build your workflow using a Sandbox account, which does not process real payments, and then switch to a LIVE account when you are ready to use with customers. After switching from sandbox to live, always validate a live payment before rolling out to your customers, specifically that it makes it all the way to your bank account.

Also, when switching from sandbox to live, ensure you update ALL templates / scenarios involved in your automation.

Configuring your workflow

Shuttle provides 4 actions for managing payment links:

• Create a new payment link
• Get a payment link
• Update an existing payment link
• Delete a payment link

In addition, it raises “Payment Notifications” you can use to trigger workflows.

See Process flow for the behaviour of each.

Creating or updating a payment link

Shuttle’s workflow integrations support the following fields when creating and updating a payment link:

Input Field	Description
Currency	(Required) 3-letter currency code for the payment (e.g., USD, EUR, GBP)
Amount	Payment amount in decimal format (e.g., 29.99, 1000.00), if not specified, the amount will be requested from the customer
Reference	Your reference to track this payment (e.g., ORDER_1234, INV_567), if not specified, the reference will be requested from the customer
Success URL	Optional URL to redirect users when payment is completed
Pending URL	Optional URL to redirect users when payment is processing asynchronously (e.g., needs authorization), if not specified, the pending URL will be requested from the customer
Pending Message	Optional message to show when payment is pending (if no pending_url is provided)
Success Message	Optional message to show when payment is successful (if no success_url is provided)
Skip Receipt	If true, immediately redirect to the success / pending URL without showing messages
Save Card	Controls whether payment methods are saved, valid values are true (always save), false (never save) or blank (user decides)
Expires At	Optional when this payment link should expire (ISO date-time format, alternative to Expires In)
Expires In	Optional seconds until expiry (default 1 day - 86400)
Customer CRM Key	Your unique identifier for this customer, this will present previously saved cards for returning customers
Customer First Name	First name of the customer
Customer Last Name	Last name of the customer
Customer Email	Email address of the customer
Customer Phone	Phone number of the customer
State 1	Custom state field that will be returned in webhooks and redirects
State 2	Custom state field that will be returned in webhooks and redirects
State 3	Custom state field that will be returned in webhooks and redirects
State 4	Custom state field that will be returned in webhooks and redirects
State 5	Custom state field that will be returned in webhooks and redirects
State 6	Custom state field that will be returned in webhooks and redirects
State 7	Custom state field that will be returned in webhooks and redirects
State 8	Custom state field that will be returned in webhooks and redirects
State 9	Custom state field that will be returned in webhooks and redirects

Output Field	Description
Payment Link ID	Unique identifier for the created payment link
Payment Link URL	The URL that can be shared with customers to make payment
Expires At	Expiry date for the payment link

Get payment link

You can fetch a payment link using its ID up to 1 year after it was last updated.

Input Field	Description
Payment Link ID	(Required) ID of the payment link to retrieve

This returns both information about the payment link and information about the payment. Information always returned (where it exists on the payment link):

Output Field	Description
Payment Link ID	Unique identifier for the payment link
Payment Link URL	The URL that can be shared with customers to make payment
Status	Current status of the payment link (ACTIVE, PENDING, COMPLETED, EXPIRED, ARCHIVE)
Created Date	When the payment link was created
Updated Date	When the payment link was last updated
Expiry Date	When the payment link expires
Currency	3-letter currency code
Amount	Payment amount in decimal format
Reference	Your reference for this payment
Success URL	Redirect URL for completed payments
Pending URL	Redirect URL for pending payments
Pending Message	Message shown for pending payments
Success Message	Message shown for successful payments
Skip Receipt	Whether to skip the receipt page
Save Card	Whether payment methods are saved
Account CRM Key	Your unique identifier for this customer
Account First Name	First name of the customer
Account Last Name	Last name of the customer
Account Email	Email address of the customer
Account Phone	Phone number of the customer
State1	Custom state field 1
State2	Custom state field 2
State3	Custom state field 3
State4	Custom state field 4
State5	Custom state field 5
State6	Custom state field 6
State7	Custom state field 7
State8	Custom state field 8
State9	Custom state field 9

Information only available after payment attempted:

Output Field	Description
Account ID	The account ID from your CRM/PSP integration
Contract ID	Unique identifier for the contract
Contract Reference	The reference entered by the customer (when allowed)
Contract Amount	Total value of the contract
Contract Currency	Currency of the contract
Contract Status	Current status of the contract
Charge ID	Unique identifier for the charge
Charge Amount	Amount of the charge
Charge Status	Status of the charge
Transaction ID	Unique identifier for the transaction
Transaction Amount	Amount of the transaction
Transaction Currency	Currency of the transaction
Transaction Status	Status of the transaction
Transaction Reference	Reference entered by the customer
Transaction Processed	When the transaction was processed
Gateway Status	Status returned by the payment gateway
Gateway Message	Message returned by the payment gateway
Gateway Reference	Reference returned by the payment gateway
Payment Method ID	Unique identifier for the payment method
Payment Method Type	Type of payment method (credit card, bank account, etc.)
Payment Method Status	Status of the payment method
Payment Method BIN	First 8 digits of the card (for card payments)
Payment Method Last4	Last 4 digits of the card (for card payments)
Payment Method Expiry	Expiry date of the card (for card payments)
Payment Method Name	Name on the payment method
Payment Method Token	Token representing the payment method
Payment Method Source	Source of the payment method

The key fields you care about are:

• Payment Link Status: When deciding what to do next
• Contract Reference: If you allow the customer to enter a reference
• Transaction Reference: The unique payment ID displayed on the receipt screen and sent to the payment gateway (e.g. “REF-00001234”)
• Transaction Amount: The amount of the transaction
• Gateway Status: The response from the payment processor
• Gateway Message: The error message (or at times pending message) returned from the payment processor
• Gateway Reference: The payment reference returned from the payment processor (eg Stripe ID for the payment)
• Payment Method Name: A descriptive name of the payment method used(eg “Visa ending 1234, exp 12/34”)
• Payment Method Token: The token representing the payment method used by the payment processor if the card is saved (eg Stripe ID for the saved card)

Payment notification

Shuttle provides a trigger event called “Payment Notification”, this will fire on key events in the payment lifecycle:

• PAYMENT_LINK.CREATED - When a new payment link is created
• PAYMENT_LINK.UPDATE - When a payment link is updated, or a payment attempt on it fails while the customer is still on the payment page
• PAYMENT_LINK.PENDING - When a payment has been submitted but is awaiting authorisation
• PAYMENT_LINK.FAILED - When a pending payment is declined
• PAYMENT_LINK.COMPLETE - When a payment is successfully processed
• PAYMENT_LINK.EXPIRED - When a payment link expires
• PAYMENT_LINK.ARCHIVE - When a payment link is archived (deleted)

Each notification contains the following fields you can use to access the payment link for further information:

• action - The event type (e.g., PAYMENT_LINK.COMPLETE)
• payment_link_id - The ID of the payment link
• state1 … state9 - State fields (if configured)

You should use the payment link action and state fields to filter which events you care about and call “Get Payment Link” to get the payment link details.