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— Approvals —

Build a Refund Approval Workflow in Intercom

Refunds issued without approval create financial exposure, inconsistent customer experiences, and accounting headaches. Most teams handle refund requests informally — a Slack DM, a verbal okay, or a note in the conversation. That works until it does not.

— Use case —

The informal approach

  1. 1Agent encounters a refund request that exceeds their authority.
  2. 2Agent sends a Slack DM to the team lead asking for approval.
  3. 3Team lead responds when they see the message — which may be hours later.
  4. 4Agent issues the refund and notes it in Intercom.

The problem: Slack DMs for approvals create invisible audit trails. If the team lead is unavailable, the customer waits. If the agent is impatient, they proceed without approval.

— With Supportman —

With Supportman

Supportman Approvals replaces the informal Slack DM with a structured request from the Intercom inbox — routed to your approval channel in Slack, with the conversation linked and the decision logged back on the thread.

  1. Opt in to Approvals on your Supportman account and connect Intercom and Slack (OAuth, two clicks).
  2. Agent submits a refund request from the Supportman panel in the Intercom inbox.
  3. Manager approves or rejects in Slack with a reason — the outcome posts back on the Intercom conversation.
— Quick recap —

Refunds need a paper trail — Supportman routes inbox requests to Slack for sign-off and logs the decision on the Intercom conversation automatically.

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— Common questions —

Does Supportman actually process the refund after approval?

No — Supportman handles the approval workflow. The agent still executes the refund in whatever payment system you use (Stripe, etc.) after approval is granted.

Who can approve a refund request?

You choose which Slack channel receives approval requests. Anyone in that channel with permission to act can approve or reject — most teams use a managers-only channel.

Is there an audit trail of all approval decisions?

Yes — every approval request, decision, approver, and reason is logged on the Intercom conversation and visible in the Supportman Approvals history.

Connect Slack and Intercom – that's the whole setup.

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