Using Recurly 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 Recurly to automate customer account and subscription management. Actions include creating, updating, and looking up accounts and subscriptions, as well as canceling subscriptions and retrieving invoice or transaction details. Use a dedicated service account for connections and provide Recurly API credentials. This integration helps streamline billing and subscription workflows within your support processes.


By connecting the action builder to external systems, such as Recurly, 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 Recurly to action builder
Using Recurly actions in action flows




Connecting Recurly 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 locate your Recurly domain and API key
The Recurly connection requires an API key for authentication. You'll need to
provide:
Recurly subdomain: The subdomain portion of your Recurly URL (for example,
"yourcompany" from yourcompany.recurly.com).
API Key: Your Recurly private API key, found in Recurly under
Integrations > API Credentials > Private API
Key.


See the Recurly
documentation for more information.

To connect action builder to Recurly
In Admin Center, click
Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Actions > Action
flows.

Create or edit an action flow.
Open the step sidebar.
Under External actions, click Recurly.
Click Connect.
Follow Recurly's prompts to enter your Recurly API key and complete the
connection.
Important: 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
Recurly.



Using Recurly actions in action flows

The following Recurly actions are available:
Create account
Update account
Lookup account
Create
subscription
Update
subscription
Cancel
subscription
Lookup
subscription
Lookup invoice
Lookup transaction




Creating an account

Use the Create account action to create a new customer account in
Recurly.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Account Code The Account
Code is a unique account identifier with a maximum of 50
characters. Use a Zendesk user or organization ID for
easy cross-referencing.
Optional:
Email, First Name,
Last Name,
Company, Tax
Exempt
Tax Exempt can be set to Yes or
No.



Output
Account details including id, code, email, state,
created_at, and hosted_login_token.








Updating an account

Use the Update account action to modify an existing customer account in
Recurly.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Account Code Account Code
can be either the account code or UUID.
Optional:
Email, First Name,
Last Name,
Company
Only provide values for
fields you want to update. Existing values for fields
you don't specify will remain unchanged.



Output
Account details including id, code, state, and updated_at
timestamp.








Looking up an account

Use the Lookup account action to retrieve account details by account code
or UUID. Use this action to retrieve comprehensive information about a customer
account, including subscription status and billing details.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Account Code The Account
Code can be either the account code or UUID.



Output
Account details including id, code, email, first_name,
last_name, company, state, balance, has_active_subscription,
has_past_due_invoice, created_at, and updated_at.








Creating a subscription

Use the Create subscription action to create a new subscription for a
Recurly account.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Account Code,
Plan, Currency,
Collection method Optional:
Quantity, Trial End
Date, Start Date,
Billing Info ID
Consider the
following when using the Create subscription
action:

The Plan field dynamically populates with available
subscription plans from your Recurly account.
Currency options include USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD,
JPY, and INR.
Collection Method determines billing behavior:
automatic charges on renewal, manual sends an
invoice.
Trial End Date and Start Date should be in ISO 8601
format (for example, 2026-12-31T00:00:00Z).
Quantity defaults to 1 if not specified.
Billing Info ID is not currently supported and
requires Recurly's "Wallet" feature.




Output
Subscription details including uuid, account_code,
account_email, plan_code, plan_name, state, quantity,
currency, current_period_started_at, current_period_ends_at,
trial_ends_at, activated_at, and created_at.








Updating a subscription

Use the Update subscription action to change an existing subscription's
plan, quantity, or timeframe.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Subscription UIID Optional:
New Plan,
Quantity, When to
Apply
The New Plan field dynamically
populates with available subscription plans. When to
Apply determines whether changes take effect immediately
(Now) or at the next billing cycle (At renewal). Only
provide values for fields you want to
update.



Output
Subscription details including uuid, state, plan_code,
plan_name, quantity, and updated_at timestamp.








Canceling a subscription

Use the Cancel subscription action to cancel an active subscription at
term end or immediately.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Subscription UUID Optional:
When to Cancel
When to Cancel
determines the cancellation timing: "At term end"
(recommended) cancels at the end of all billing cycles,
while "At next billing cycle" cancels at the next
billing date. Choose the option that best fits your
business policy.



Output
Subscription details including uuid, state, canceled_at,
and expires_at timestamps.








Looking up a subscription

Use the Lookup subscription action to retrieve detailed subscription
information by UUID. Use this action to retrieve comprehensive subscription
information, including billing periods, pricing, and cancellation status. The
output includes both current state and historical timestamps.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Subscription UUID



Output
Subscription details including uuid, account_code,
account_email, plan_code, plan_name, plan_interval_unit,
plan_interval_length, state, quantity, currency,
unit_amount, subtotal, current_period_started_at,
current_period_ends_at, trial_ends_at, activated_at,
canceled_at, and expires_at.








Looking up an invoice

Use the Lookup invoice action to retrieve invoice details by invoice
number or UUID. The output includes pdf_url, which provides a direct link to
download the invoice PDF.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Invoice ID Invoice ID can be
either an invoice number (for example, 1234) or
UUID.



Output
Invoice details including id, number, account_code,
state, type, subtotal, tax, total, balance, currency,
created_at, due_at, closed_at, and pdf_url.








Looking up a transaction

Use the Lookup transaction action to retrieve payment transaction details
by UUID. Use this action to retrieve detailed payment transaction information,
including payment method, gateway response, and transaction status. The output
includes timestamps for voids and refunds if applicable.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Transaction UUID



Output
Transaction details including uuid, account_code,
invoice_number, subscription_uuid, type, status, amount,
currency, payment_method, gateway_code, gateway_message,
created_at, voided_at, and refunded_at.








{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "TechArticle",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10943967416218-Using-Recurly-actions-in-action-flows",
"url": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10943967416218-Using-Recurly-actions-in-action-flows",
"headline": "Using Recurly actions in action flows",
"description": "You can connect the action builder to Recurly to automate workflows by creating, updating, and retrieving account, subscription, invoice, and transaction data through external actions.",
"articleSection": "Product help",
"datePublished": "2026-06-25T22:52:29.536298+00:00",
"dateModified": "2026-06-25T22:52:32.033591+00:00",
"inLanguage": "en-US",
"mainEntityOfPage": {
"@type": "WebPage",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10943967416218-Using-Recurly-actions-in-action-flows"