Mercury

## Does Mercury offer a Slack integration for real-time financial alerts?

## Overview Mercury provides a native Slack integration designed to deliver real-time financial notifications and enable specific actions directly within the Slack workspace. This integration, officially launched on January 7, 2024, allows businesses to connect their Mercury account to a designated Slack channel, creating a centralized feed for important financial events. The primary purpose of the integration is to streamline financial operations by embedding alerts and approval workflows into the communication tools teams use daily. It functions by establishing a secure connection via an OAuth authorization flow, which must be initiated by a company administrator from the Mercury dashboard. Once connected, the application can push notifications and facilitate actions based on user permissions within the Mercury account. ## Key Features The core feature set of the Mercury Slack integration currently centers on payment approvals and account balance inquiries. Users receive instant notifications in their chosen Slack channel when a payment requires their authorization. The integration allows these users to review the payment details and subsequently approve or decline the payment directly from within Slack, which removes the need to log into the Mercury web or mobile application for this specific task. The system also provides status updates when other designated approvers act on a payment, ensuring all stakeholders maintain visibility into the payment lifecycle. Additionally, team members can use the `/mercury-balance` or `/balance` slash commands to retrieve real-time balance information for their connected Mercury accounts. A `/mercury-help` command is also available to provide users with assistance on how to use the integration's features. ## Technical Specifications Security for the integration is addressed through several measures. The application's data retention policies are compliant with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). The service is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure within the United States. Mercury has also conducted a third-party penetration test on the integration, completed on October 4, 2023, to assess its security posture. The application is listed in the official Slack Marketplace under App ID A05SS57M4CF, where it is noted that the app does not use Large Language Models (LLMs) and is not designed for HIPAA compliance. ## How It Works Setting up the integration is an administrative function. An administrator on the Mercury account must navigate to the 'Settings' and then 'Integrations' section of the dashboard to initiate the connection. The process requires the administrator to authenticate their Mercury account and authorize the application's access to their Slack workspace. After the initial setup, other administrators can also connect their individual Slack accounts to the integration. ## Use Cases While Mercury's mobile application offers a broader range of push notifications, including alerts for low balances and large transactions, the Slack integration's current notification scope is more focused. Mercury has publicly stated its intention to expand the types of notifications sent to Slack in the future, suggesting a roadmap that may eventually include alerts for incoming wires, ACH credits, and other transaction types currently available on other platforms. ## Limitations and Requirements The integration is available to all Mercury customers, with no indication that it is restricted to specific subscription tiers such as Mercury Plus or Pro. There are no additional fees associated with using the Slack integration itself, beyond any standard subscription costs for the Mercury account. The primary limitation of the integration in its current form is the narrow scope of its notifications, which are focused on payment approvals and balance checks rather than a comprehensive stream of all account activity. Users seeking alerts for all transaction types, such as incoming ACH payments or low balance warnings, must currently rely on Mercury's mobile app push notifications or email alerts. The functionality is designed for notification and approval actions; it does not permit the initiation of new transactions, such as sending a wire or an ACH payment, from within the Slack interface. All transaction initiation must still be performed through the main Mercury dashboard or mobile application. ## Comparison to Alternatives ## Summary In conclusion, Mercury offers a functional and secure native Slack integration that enhances financial workflows by bringing payment approvals and balance inquiries directly into a team's communication hub. It operates without requiring users to switch contexts to the banking dashboard for these specific, time-sensitive tasks. While its current feature set is limited primarily to approvals and balance checks, Mercury has indicated that more notification types will be added over time. The integration is available at no extra cost to all Mercury customers and is set up by an account administrator through a standard OAuth connection process. The security of the integration is supported by compliance with financial regulations, AWS hosting, and third-party penetration testing.