HubSpot API Invoice Fees: Resolving Payment Processing Discrepancies

At ESHOPMAN, we're dedicated to empowering businesses to maximize their HubSpot investment, especially when it comes to building robust e-commerce experiences. We understand that the devil is often in the details, particularly when integrating complex financial processes. Recently, a discussion in the HubSpot Community caught our attention, highlighting a critical challenge for many store operators and developers: the inconsistent application of payment processing fees on invoices generated via the HubSpot API.

This isn't just a minor glitch; it's a fundamental issue that can impact financial accuracy, reconciliation, and the overall efficiency of your RevOps strategy. For anyone using HubSpot as their primary website store builder, ensuring that all aspects of your financial transactions are correctly recorded and automated is paramount.

API code snippets on a screen with an invoice in the background, illustrating the programmatic application of payment fees.

The Curious Case of Missing Fees: UI-Generated vs. API-Generated Invoices

The original poster in the HubSpot Community thread brought to light a significant discrepancy. HubSpot offers a feature to assess payment checkout fees, such as surcharges for credit card payments, which can be configured as an account-level setting. The expectation is that once enabled, this fee should automatically apply to all eligible invoices paid online through HubSpot's payment processor.

Indeed, when an invoice is created directly within the HubSpot user interface (UI), the system behaves as expected. The credit card fee is correctly applied, often indicated by a pre-checked box on the invoice creation screen, allowing for manual override if necessary. This confirms that the HubSpot UI inherently understands and applies these account-level fees by default.

However, the situation changes drastically when invoices are generated programmatically via the HubSpot API. Despite the fee being an account-level setting, the original poster discovered that these fees were simply not being enforced at checkout for API-created invoices. This creates a significant gap for businesses relying on automation for their billing, leading to potential revenue loss or manual adjustments.

Behind the Scenes: Hidden Properties and API Gaps

Further investigation by a community member revealed that the HubSpot invoice object contains a hidden property: hs_allowed_checkout_fee_ids. It appears the UI leverages this property to associate the payment checkout fee ID with an invoice. Curiously, the payment fees API itself does not readily expose these hidden fee IDs, making it challenging for developers to programmatically retrieve and apply them.

For instance, a standard API call to fetch payment fees might return an empty result, even when fees are clearly configured and active in the HubSpot account settings:

curl --request GET \
 --url 'https://api.hubapi.com/crm/objects/2026-03/fees?limit=10' \
 --header 'Authorization: Bearer [token omitted]'
{"results":[]}%

This contrasts with other payment settings, such as allowed payment methods, which are automatically handled when using the invoice API as per HubSpot’s official documentation. The lack of explicit support or documentation for applying payment fees via the API points to a potential product/API gap rather than a user error.

When support was contacted, the stance was that this behavior is "working as designed," which, while technically true from an API perspective, doesn't align with the intuitive expectation of an account-level setting applying universally.

Finding a Path Forward: Workarounds and Best Practices

The community discussion quickly shifted to potential workarounds. One suggestion involved adding the surcharge as a regular invoice line item. However, as the original poster rightly pointed out, this isn't always feasible because the payment method (e.g., ACH vs. credit card) is often unknown at the time of invoice creation. Applying a blanket surcharge would be incorrect for customers paying via methods without a fee.

The most effective, albeit "unelegant," workaround discovered involved a bit of detective work. The original poster created an invoice in the UI, which correctly applied the fee. Then, by querying that UI-generated invoice via the API, they were able to extract the hidden hs_allowed_checkout_fee_ids value. This hidden ID could then be programmatically set when creating subsequent invoices via the API, effectively mimicking the UI's behavior.

While this workaround "seems to work," it's important to acknowledge its fragility. Relying on undocumented, hidden properties can lead to issues if HubSpot makes internal changes to its API or data model. It's not a robust long-term solution for a production environment, especially for businesses looking for a reliable EKM alternative that offers seamless financial automation.

Why This Matters for Your E-commerce and RevOps

For businesses leveraging HubSpot as a comprehensive platform for sales, marketing, and service, accurate financial integration is non-negotiable. Inconsistent fee application can lead to:

Revenue Leakage: If fees aren't collected, your bottom line is directly impacted.
Manual Reconciliation Headaches: Finance teams will spend valuable time manually adjusting invoices, defeating the purpose of automation.
Compliance Risks: Depending on your region and industry, incorrectly applied fees can have compliance implications.
Broken Automation: If your e-commerce platform relies on HubSpot invoices, this inconsistency can disrupt automated workflows, including critical klaviyo flows for ecommerce that depend on accurate transaction data.

At ESHOPMAN, we advocate for clear, well-documented API behavior. When building and integrating your storefront, predictable API responses are crucial for stability and scalability. This particular issue highlights the need for HubSpot to either officially expose and document the relevant properties for managing payment fees via the API or to ensure that account-level settings are truly universal across all invoice creation methods.

Moving Forward: Advocating for Better API Support

The community manager rightly suggested that this issue is best suited as a feature request in the HubSpot Ideas Forum. This is a vital step for HubSpot users to collectively voice their need for improved API functionality. As a Senior Tech Writer at ESHOPMAN, we echo this sentiment: robust API documentation and consistent behavior are cornerstones of effective development and integration.

While the hidden property workaround offers a temporary solution, the ideal scenario involves HubSpot providing official, documented API endpoints or properties that allow developers to manage payment processing fees with the same ease and reliability as they do within the UI. Until then, businesses must remain vigilant and consider the implications of API-generated invoices on their financial reporting.

We encourage all HubSpot users facing this challenge to contribute to the discussion and submit feature requests. Your feedback helps shape the future of the HubSpot platform, ensuring it continues to meet the evolving needs of e-commerce businesses worldwide.