[BUG] Can't create DRAFT Stripe Invoice

[MartinMalinda]

With Stripe SDK, I'm able to create an invoice that has no line items:

const invoice = await stripeRequest('invoices', {
  customer: customerId,
  due_date: nowPlus30minutes,
  collection_method: 'send_invoice',
});

That's because I pass collection_method: 'send_invoice' and future due_date.

If I try to replicate the same via Pipedream action I get: Nothing to invoice for customer

I suspect some prop might not get passed well? Or perhaps there's something about invoices and Stripe API I don't understand well enough yet.

[MartinMalinda]

In my Connect code I'm trying to invoke the action as

      const invoiceResponse = await pd.runAction({
        externalUserId,
        actionId: "stripe-create-invoice",
        configuredProps: {
          app: {
            authProvisionId: stripeAccount.account_id,
          },
          customer: customerId,
          collection_method: "send_invoice",
          auto_advance: false,
          description: `Invoice for Airtable record ${recordId}`,
          days_until_due: 30,
          metadata: {
            airtableRecordId: recordId,
          },
        },
      });

With same error

[MartinMalinda]

This might be specific to days_until_due behaving differently than due_date maybe.

[vunguyenhung]

Hey @MartinMalinda, even when I add custom code to use due_date (with Stripe SDK), the Stripe SDK still shows error Nothing to invoice for customer (image below). Could you share the result when you execute the Stripe SDK on your side for comparision?

[MartinMalinda]

@vunguyenhung It passes for me with a custom request:

import stripe from 'stripe'

export default defineComponent({
  props: {
    stripe: {
      type: "app",
      app: "stripe",
    }
  },
  async run({steps, $}) {
    const key = this.stripe.$auth.api_key;
    async function stripeRequest(endpoint, params) {

      const url = `https://api.stripe.com/v1/${endpoint}`;
      // Stripe expects URL-encoded form data
      const body = new URLSearchParams(params);
      
      const response = await fetch(url, {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: {
          'Authorization': `Bearer ${key}`,
          'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
        },
        body: body.toString()
      });
  
      if (!response.ok) {
        const errorData = await response.json();
        console.error(`Stripe API error: ${errorData.error.message}`);
      }
      
      return response.json();
    }
    
    const nowPlus30minutes = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + 1800;
    const invoice = await stripeRequest('invoices', {
      customer: 'cus_S7ycYnotKQzMFX',
      due_date: nowPlus30minutes,
      collection_method: 'send_invoice',
    });
    console.log('Invoice created:', invoice.id);

    // return await client.accounts.list({ limit: 1 })
  },
})

I'll try to do it via SDK now too

[MartinMalinda]

@vunguyenhung

This passes for me also:

import stripe from 'stripe'

export default defineComponent({
  props: {
    stripe: {
      type: "app",
      app: "stripe",
    }
  },
  async run({steps, $}) {
    const key = this.stripe.$auth.api_key;
    const nowPlus30minutes = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + 1800;
    const client = stripe(this.stripe.$auth.api_key);
    const invoice = await client.invoices.create({
      customer: 'cus_S7ycYnotKQzMFX',
      due_date: nowPlus30minutes,
      collection_method: 'send_invoice',
    });
    console.log(invoice);
  },
})

[MartinMalinda]

@vunguyenhung it seems to be connected to

this.stripe.sdk()

if stripe SDK is imported directly:

import stripeSDK from 'stripe';

it works

maybe this.stripe.sdk() has some pre-defined defaults that are causing the problem here?

here I tried both approaches side by side

import stripe from "@pipedream/stripe"
import stripeSDK from 'stripe';

export default defineComponent({
  props: {
    stripe,
    customer: {
      type: "string",
      label: "Customer ID",
      description: "The ID of the customer to create an invoice for",
      async options() {
        const customers = await this.stripe.sdk().customers.list({
          limit: 100,
        })
        return customers.data.map(customer => ({
          label: `${customer.name || customer.email || customer.id}`,
          value: customer.id
        }))
      }
    },
    collection_method: {
      type: "string",
      label: "Collection Method",
      description: "How to collect payment for this invoice",
      options: [
        "charge_automatically",
        "send_invoice"
      ],
      default: "charge_automatically"
    },
    dueDate: {
      type: "integer",
      label: "Due Date",
      optional: true
    },
    description: {
      type: "string",
      label: "Description",
      description: "An arbitrary string to attach to the invoice. Often useful for displaying to users.",
      optional: true
    }
  },
  async run({ steps, $ }) {
    const params = {
      customer: this.customer,
      collection_method: this.collection_method,
      // description: this.description
    }

    if (this.collection_method === "send_invoice" && this.dueDate) {
      params.due_date = this.dueDate
    }

    console.log(params);

    const nowPlus30minutes = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + 1800;
   // this.stripe.sdk()
    try {
        console.log('this.stripe.sdk() SDK test');
       const invoice = await this.stripe.sdk().invoices.create(params); 
      console.log(invoice);
    } catch (e) {
      console.error('Stripe SDK error', e);
    }

    // SDK imported directly
     const client = stripeSDK(this.stripe.$auth.api_key);
     const invoice = await client.invoices.create(params);
    console.log(invoice);


    return await this.stripe.sdk().invoices.create(params)
  }
})

[vunguyenhung]

Got it @MartinMalinda. Thank you so much for providing us the context. I've added the ticket to Pipedream prioritized backlog

[SokolovskyiK]

@MartinMalinda
@vunguyenhung

I found the root cause — it was only a one line problem, but very important line.
Thanks to Martin’s code examples, I was able to quickly narrow in on the issue. I tested it successfully and was able to create an invoice without line items via Pipedream:

After tracing through the code and digging into the Stripe documentation, I discovered the problem was here:

return stripe(this._apiKey(), {
  apiVersion: "2020-03-02",
  maxNetworkRetries: 2,
});

The API version "2020-03-02" doesn't support creating invoices without line items — that's why it worked in Martin's manual test but failed in the Pipedream component.

I’ve updated the apiVersion to "2022-11-15" which does support that use case. The PR is up, but please note: this change could potentially impact other Stripe actions, since it upgrades the API version globally for the SDK. So it might need some careful testing before merging. So… I wouldn’t recommend merging my PR blindly 😅

[vunguyenhung]

Hi @SokolovskyiK @michelle0927 @MartinMalinda,

I was reviewing the PR and noticed the updated API version is 2022-11-15. This is still considerably outdated compared to the latest version, 2025-03-31.basil.

I have two suggestions regarding this:

• Targeted Version Update (for this ticket): Could we update only the API version 2022-11-15 used for that specific call? This might be simpler to implement for now, pending a full SDK upgrade.
• Full Update to latest version: I can create a new ticket to plan and execute an update of the entire Stripe SDK to the latest version (2025-03-31.basil). This would ensure we benefit from all recent features and security updates.

---

On another note, thank you for your contribution @SokolovskyiK

[vunguyenhung]

See ticket for upgrading Stripe version here: #16415

[vunguyenhung]

Hi @MartinMalinda the new version works for your case as below. Please use it as an example

[vunguyenhung]

Hi everyone, all test cases are passed! Ready for release!

Test report
https://vunguyenhung.notion.site/BUG-Can-t-create-DRAFT-Stripe-Invoice-1debf548bb5e8194915ed799840b35af