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Pinch Payments Zapier integrationAutomate Pinch Payments with Zapier.

The Pinch Payments Zapier integration gives you 9 triggers, 7 actions and 7 searches to link this Australian payments platform to the rest of your tools: payers, subscriptions, payment links and scheduled debits, without copying anything by hand.

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Overview

What the Pinch Payments Zapier integration actually does

Pinch Payments collects money by bank account, direct debit or card, for one-off charges and for repeating invoices. Zapier sits next to it and moves information in both directions: an event in Pinch starts an automation, or an event elsewhere makes Pinch create a payer, a payment or a link. It works on the free plan, with limits covered below.

Three results come up again and again. A payer who signs up somewhere else ends up billed in Pinch: Create or Update Payer files the person, then Add a Subscription attaches them to a plan you already set up. A payment request that leaves on its own: Create Payment Link builds a link for an existing payer, and the next step of your Zap sends it by whatever channel your team uses. A finance team that hears about churn without checking: Subscription Cancelled Event or Subscription Complete Event pushes the news to a sheet, a CRM or a chat.

What Zapier does not do here matters just as much. None of the 9 triggers is instant: Zapier checks Pinch on a timer, so a payment event reaches your other tools after a delay that depends on your plan. Every amount travels in cents, which surprises people the first time. And Zapier never goes back in time: payers and payments that existed before you switched the Zap on stay where they are.

If you are still choosing a tool, the Make vs Zapier and n8n vs Zapier pages sit next to this one.

Vocabulary

Zapier words, in plain English

Seven words come back on every line of this page. Here they are once, so the rest reads easily.

Zap
The automation you build: one trigger, then one or more actions that run each time the trigger event happens.
Trigger
The event that starts the Zap, such as a new payer in Pinch. Once the Zap is on, Zapier waits for it.
Action
What the Zap does once started: the step that creates, sends or deletes something for you, in Pinch or elsewhere.
Task
The unit Zapier bills: one action your Zap completes successfully. The allowance on your plan counts those.
Polling vs instant
Polling: Zapier asks the app for new items at a fixed interval. Instant: the app reports the event itself. All 9 Pinch triggers poll.
Filter
A step that lets the Zap carry on only when what arrived meets your condition, and stops it otherwise.
Search step
A step that looks up something that already exists, a payer or a link, so the next steps can use what it found.
Cost

What it really costs

Pinch Payments is not reserved to paid plans, so it runs on the free one. The bill is counted in tasks, not in checks.

  • Tasks on the free plan100 a month
  • Steps on the free plan2: one trigger, one action
  • Pinch Payments on freeYes, not a paid-only app
  • Instant triggers0 of 9

The trigger never costs a task, however often Zapier looks. Each action that succeeds counts once, and a failed one is not counted. The free plan gives 100 tasks a month, unlimited Zaps, a check every 15 minutes, and Zaps of exactly two steps: one trigger, one action. Add a second action, a filter or a search and the Zap becomes multi-step, which needs a paid plan. Pinch's own triggers never add to the count.

Connect

Connect Pinch Payments to Zapier in three steps

  1. 01

    Open your connections

    In Zapier, go to the Apps page of your account and click + Add connection. A connection is your Pinch account linked once, then reused by every step that talks to Pinch.

  2. 02

    Pick Pinch Payments

    Type Pinch Payments in the search box of the dialog, select it, then click Add connection. You need an existing Pinch account; Zapier does not create one for you.

  3. 03

    Sign in and allow access

    Log in to Pinch in the tab that opens and grant Zapier access to the account. If you work on payers you did not set up yourself, make sure your login has read or write rights on them.

First Zap

Your first Zap: new payer, subscription, payment link

GoalEvery payer created in Pinch Payments is put on a plan, and a payment link is ready for them.

  1. 01

    Build: choose the trigger

    Create a Zap and pick Pinch Payments as the app that starts it, with Payer Created Event as the event. Select your Pinch connection.

  2. 02

    Test the trigger

    Run the test: Zapier brings back the three most recent payers of the account. Pick a real one, so the mapping in the next steps uses true values.

  3. 03

    Add the subscription

    Add Add a Subscription as the action. Map the payer from the trigger into Payer Id, then paste the Plan Id (pln_) of the plan you want them on.

  4. 04

    Add the payment link

    Add Create Payment Link. Fill the amount in cents, the description shown on the payment page, the allowed payment methods and the return URL. This third step makes the Zap multi-step: paid plan.

  5. 05

    Test, then publish

    Test each action and read what came back in Pinch. When both look right, publish the Zap to switch it on. From then on, only payers created after that moment go through.

Triggers

The 9 Pinch Payments triggers

9 events start a Zap when something happens in Pinch Payments. Zapier checks for them at the interval your plan allows.

1

Bank Results Event

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a Payer is created.”

Starts a Zap on the bank results event Pinch records, going by its name. Zapier's own description for it repeats the payer line word for word, so treat that text as a slip and look at real data first.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one
When to use it
your bookkeeper wants bank outcomes logged in a spreadsheet without opening Pinch.
Watch out
run the trigger test and read the three items it returns before you map anything.
2

Payer Created Event

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a Payer is created.”

Fires on each new payer added to your Pinch account, whether your team typed it in or another Zap created it. It is the natural start of an onboarding flow.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one
When to use it
a new payer should get a plan, a welcome email or a CRM record without anyone retyping their name.
Watch out
payers created before the Zap was published are never picked up.
3

Payer Updated Event

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a Payer is updated.”

Reacts when an existing payer changes in Pinch, so the copy of that person in your other tools can follow.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one
When to use it
you keep payers mirrored in a CRM and want edits made in Pinch to land there too.
Watch out
never pair it with Create or Update Payer in the same Zap. The update would wake the trigger again, and the loop eats your tasks.
4

Realtime Payment Event

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a realtime Payment occurs.”

Catches the payments Pinch charges on the spot rather than on a schedule. Whatever its name suggests, the trigger itself is checked on a timer.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one
When to use it
a sales channel should hear about each card or bank payment taken during the day.
Watch out
the name describes the payment, not the speed of the Zap.
5

Scheduled Process Event

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a Scheduled Payments are processed.”

Starts when Pinch processes scheduled payments, the debits planned ahead for repeating invoices or instalments.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one
When to use it
your accounts team reconciles scheduled debits in a sheet and wants each processing run added without exporting anything.
Watch out
a large processing run can return a big batch at once, and Zapier's flood protection may hold it back.
6

Subscription Cancelled Event

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a Subscription is cancelled.”

Tells your Zap that a subscription has been cancelled in Pinch. This is your churn signal, the one most teams find out about too late.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one
When to use it
an account manager should get a task to call the customer back while the decision is still fresh.
Watch out
cancellations from before the Zap went live stay invisible to it.
7

Subscription Complete Event

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a Subscription is completed.”

Fires when a subscription reaches its end in Pinch, which is not the same as a cancellation: the plan simply ran its course.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one
When to use it
a finished payment plan should trigger a renewal offer or close the file in your CRM.
Watch out
if you watch both this and Subscription Cancelled Event, build two Zaps so each ending gets its own follow-up.
8

Subscription Created Event

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a Subscription is created.”

Picks up every new subscription between a payer and a plan, including the ones another Zap creates with Add a Subscription.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one
When to use it
a new recurring customer should appear in your revenue tracker or in a team channel.
Watch out
a Zap that both creates subscriptions and listens to this event will run twice per customer; keep those jobs apart.
9

New Event

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a new Event is added.”

The catch-all: it fires on any new event added in Pinch, whatever its kind. Handy when the specific triggers above do not cover the case.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one
When to use it
you want a single audit log of everything happening in the account.
Watch out
it lets everything through, so a filter step, and therefore a paid plan, is usually needed to keep only what matters.
Actions

The 7 Pinch Payments actions

Pinch Payments gives you 7 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Create or Update Payer

Action

In Zapier“Create or Update a Payer”

Files a person in Pinch, or refreshes them if they are already there. First Name and Last Name are the two mandatory boxes.

When to use it
someone fills in your sign-up form and must exist in Pinch before any payment.
Watch out
it belongs before every other action, since the rest of them ask for a Payer Id.
2

Create Realtime Payment

Action

In Zapier“Create a real-time payment against a credit card or bank account”

Charges a card or bank account right away, for the amount you give in cents.

When to use it
a one-off order confirmed in your shop tool should be collected straight through Pinch.
Watch out
typing 50 asks for fifty cents, not fifty dollars. Check the amount field twice before you publish.
3

Create or Update Scheduled Payment

Action

In Zapier“Create or update a scheduled payment”

Plans a debit for a given date, or changes one already planned. It needs the Payer Id, an amount in cents and a transaction date.

When to use it
an invoice raised in your accounting tool should turn into a dated Pinch debit.
Watch out
the minimum is 100 cents, so $1; anything lower is refused.
6

Add a Source to a Payer

Action

In Zapier“Add a Source to a payer”

Attaches a way to pay, a source, to an existing payer. You give the Payer Id (pyr_) and the source type.

When to use it
a client has just handed over their bank or card details through another tool and Pinch needs them on file.
Watch out
the payer has to exist first; chain it after Create or Update Payer or a search.
7

Add a Subscription

Action

In Zapier“Create a Subscription between a Payer and a Plan”

Puts a payer on one of your Pinch plans, using the Plan Id (pln_) and the Payer Id (pyr_).

When to use it
a deal marked as won in your CRM should start recurring billing on its own.
Watch out
Zapier cannot create the plan; set it up in Pinch first and copy its id.
Searches

The 7 Pinch Payments searches

7 search steps look for data that already exists in Pinch Payments, so a later step can use it.

A search step fetches something that already exists in Pinch and hands it to the steps after it. In the editor, searches sit at the bottom of the Action event list, under SEARCH. Any search turns the Zap into a multi-step one. Three settings decide what happens when the result is not the expected one.

1

Find an Event

Search

In Zapier“Finds an Event using the EventId”

Looks up one Pinch event when you already hold its Event Id, the only box to fill.

When to use it
a note in your support tool references an event and the Zap needs its full details.
Watch out
it does not browse events; without the id, it has nothing to work with.
2

Find Payer

Search

In Zapier“Find a payer by their Payer Id”

Retrieves a single payer from their PayerId.

When to use it
an earlier step carried the pyr_ id and you need the rest of the payer record for an email or a sheet.
Watch out
if all you have is a name or an email, List Payers is the right search, not this one.
3

List Payers

Search

In Zapier“List all payers matching the filter criteria (name or email).”

Returns the payers whose name or email matches what you type in Filter (Name or Email), the one required box.

When to use it
a form gives you an email address and you need the matching Pinch payer before charging them.
Watch out
several payers can match; set the multiple-results option to what your next step expects.
7

Find a Subscription

Search

In Zapier“Finds a Subscription using the SubscriptionId”

Reads one subscription when you know its Subscription Id.

When to use it
a cancellation request arrives by email with the subscription reference, and the Zap needs the matching record.
Watch out
a missing id stops the Zap unless you switch on the no-result setting.

The three settings every search exposes

  1. Successful if no search results are found?
    Left on its default, a search that finds nothing stops the Zap there and the steps that depend on it are skipped. Switch it on and the Zap carries on empty-handed.
  2. Create X if it doesn't exist yet?
    This box turns a search into a find-or-create. Pinch Payments offers no such variant, so you will not see it on these searches.
  3. If multiple search results are found?
    Three ways out when several items match: keep the first one, which is the default, stop the Zap, or pass all of them on.
When it breaks

When it breaks

Zapier attaches no help article of its own to Pinch Payments. What breaks comes from the way Zapier works and from the shape of Pinch's fields.

Six cases to know before you switch the Zap on. For anything else, the Zapier troubleshooting page covers the general method.

  • No catch-up on the past

    A Zap only reacts to what happens after you publish it. Payers, payments and subscriptions that already existed are not picked up; moving them is a separate job.

  • The payer loop

    Payer Updated Event plus Create or Update Payer in one Zap: the update wakes the trigger, which updates again. The Zap runs in circles and burns tasks.

  • Big batches held back

    After a bulk import of payers or a large scheduled run, a trigger can return a huge batch at once, and Zapier's flood protection may hold it back.

  • Amounts a hundred times too small

    Every Pinch amount is in cents. A price mapped as-is from a shop tool lands a hundred times too low; convert it to cents before the Pinch step.

  • Scheduled payment refused

    Create or Update Scheduled Payment rejects anything under 100 cents, so $1. Small test amounts fail even though the rest of the Zap is fine.

  • Nothing fires twice, by design

    Zapier remembers what it has already seen on a polling trigger, so the same payer or payment never starts the Zap twice.
Need help

Need help automating Pinch Payments with Zapier?

A person reads every message.

FAQ

Pinch Payments and Zapier, the questions people ask

01Is the Pinch Payments Zapier integration free?
Yes, as long as your Zap stays at two steps. Pinch Payments is not reserved to paid plans, so the free plan can run it with 100 tasks a month, unlimited Zaps and a check every 15 minutes. The catch is the shape of the Zap: one trigger and one action, nothing more. A second action, a filter or a search makes it multi-step, and that needs a paid plan. A payer-to-subscription Zap fits on free; payer to subscription plus payment link does not.
02How many tasks does a Pinch Payments Zap use?
One per action that succeeds, and none for the trigger. Zapier can check Pinch as often as your plan allows without counting anything; the bill starts only when an action completes. A Zap that creates a payer, then adds a subscription, uses two tasks per run. An action that fails is not counted. A few apps and actions take more than one task when they complete, so count your steps before picking a plan.
03Is the Pinch Payments integration real time?
No. All 9 Pinch Payments triggers are polling triggers: Zapier asks Pinch for new items on a timer. The interval depends on your plan, 15 minutes on Free, 2 on Professional and 1 on Team and Enterprise. On paid plans you can change how often a trigger checks and run a check by hand from the editor. Realtime Payment Event follows this rule too: its name describes the payment, not the delay before your Zap runs.
04What do you need to connect Pinch Payments to Zapier?
An existing Pinch Payments account, and read or write rights on any payer you did not create yourself. In Zapier, open the Apps page, click + Add connection, search for Pinch Payments and confirm with Add connection. A tab opens where you sign in to Pinch and grant Zapier access. The connection is then reused by every Pinch step of every Zap, so it only has to be done once per account.
05Why does a Pinch payment show the wrong amount?
Because Pinch reads every amount in cents. If a step sends 50, Pinch understands fifty cents. Create Realtime Payment, Create or Update Scheduled Payment and Create Payment Link all work this way. Convert the amount to cents before the Pinch step, and test with a real value before you publish. For scheduled payments, note the floor of 100 cents, so $1: anything below is refused, which often breaks quick tests made with tiny amounts.
06What if the Pinch Payments operation you need does not exist?
The editor offers exactly 23 operations for Pinch Payments: 9 triggers, 7 actions and 7 searches. If yours is not among them, look first at combining what is there: a search can fetch an existing payer, link or subscription and feed a later action, which often covers the gap. If no combination works, the integration cannot do it today, and the Hack'celeration team can look at the case with you to find another route.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for Pinch Payments?
Decide by criteria rather than by brand. On Zapier you get 23 ready-made Pinch operations, a free plan that suits two-step Zaps, and polling triggers whose delay depends on the plan you pay for. So ask three questions. Does your scenario fit one trigger and one action? Can your team live with a delay between a Pinch event and the reaction? Will the other tool offer the same Pinch operations you plan to use? Check that last point before switching.
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