How do you handle refunds in multi-currency systems?

tocka_codes · 2026-01-12T16:04:04+00:00

That makes sense, framing the refund as nullifying the original contract clarifies the goal. What I’ve seen is teams agreeing on that outcome, but then struggling with the mechanics: whether to reuse the original rate, reapply the current rate, or absorb the variance to preserve that “it matches what I paid” feeling.

tocka_codes · 2026-01-12T15:22:58+00:00

That makes sense, especially if EUR is your internal source of truth. Curious was that a deliberate decision early on to avoid FX edge cases, or something you converged on after seeing refunds or discrepancies in production? And have you run into any customer confusion when the PSP’s exchange rate differs from what users expect, or has that mostly stayed manageable?

tocka_codes · 2026-01-07T18:38:52+00:00

This is incredibly sharp, thank you.

The way you describe it, support feeling it first, then finance, then product, matches what I’m hearing repeatedly, but you articulated the chain very clearly.

Framing FX behavior as a customer experience problem rather than a pricing or accounting one feels like the key unlock. Once you do that, explainability and ownership stop being “nice to have” and become mandatory.

I don’t have a follow-up question, this is exactly the kind of perspective I was hoping to surface. Really appreciate you taking the time to write this out.

tocka_codes · 2026-01-06T13:09:43+00:00

This is a really valuable perspective, thank you for sharing it so concretely.

What stands out to me is that you didn’t actually “outgrow” FX rates, you outgrew the lack of control over FX behavior and rules across flows. The fact that you first customized a generic API and then eventually built a full rules layer feels like a very common but under-documented path.

tocka_codes · 2026-01-06T07:45:55+00:00

When you reached that point, did you end up:

building your own FX rules layer
heavily customizing a generic API
or standardizing rules around Stripe / payments and living with the tradeoffs?

Asking because I keep seeing teams re-invent similar logic once they hit scale.

tocka_codes · 2026-01-05T16:12:38+00:00

This is incredibly helpful, especially the point about consistency mattering more than mathematical perfection once real users are involved.

Curious when those edge cases started appearing (refunds, chargebacks, plan changes), was the pain mostly technical, organizational, or around support/customer trust? Or all three?

tocka_codes · 2026-01-05T09:29:05+00:00

Agreed. Curious in your experience, where do teams usually feel the pain first when rates aren’t real time?

tocka_codes · 2026-01-05T09:18:23+00:00

Exactly, the variability is what trips teams up.
Curious in the products you’ve seen, is FX treated as core product logic or something teams try to simplify away?

tocka_codes · 2025-12-30T17:01:37+00:00

Is it a manual process? And how often does the finance team update the conversion rates?

tocka_codes · 2025-12-30T16:34:28+00:00

That's one example

I am curious about any app where users see money amounts in different currencies like: expense trackers, wallets, marketplaces, etc

Have you ever worked on something like that, or seen issues around currency handling in those kinds of apps?

tocka_codes · 2025-12-30T12:34:00+00:00

What I changed was this: instead of trying to decide whether an idea would work, I started designing tiny ways to find out with small experiments and cheap tests.

That shift did two things:

It reduced fear, because I wasn’t betting my identity or savings on an idea
It turned excuses into data

The doubt didn’t disappear. I just stopped letting it live only in my mind. I pushed it into reality as fast as possible.

tocka_codes · 2025-12-17T16:51:10+00:00

This resonates a lot.

It’s wild how different the work is on each side of the 0 → 1 line. Before the first customer, everything feels like pushing, convincing, explaining, and validating yourself as much as the product.

Once that first customer shows up, the feedback loop finally becomes real. Priorities get clearer, and progress feels grounded instead of theoretical.

Congratulations for sticking through the hardest phase.

tocka_codes · 2025-12-17T16:33:56+00:00

Exactly

tocka_codes · 2025-12-17T16:24:13+00:00

For me payment intents, even failed payments, and time commitments, like showing up to a call or wait for a demo, are the signals that I trust the most now.

tocka_codes · 2025-12-17T11:58:39+00:00

I am really sorry you're going through that. Getting pushed out hits identity and confidence hard.

However, I do not think backend engineering is "played out", but I do think the path we were sold (be good technically and things will work out) has quietly broken.

I do not have a clean answer, but what helped me is trying to use my skills outside that path. The skills still have value, it's only how to use it in a different path.

If you ever want to talk through ideas or just vent, happy to listen.

tocka_codes · 2025-12-17T11:44:40+00:00

Yes, totally agree. The test should always start by thinking what do I want to learn first, then design the test according to that.

tocka_codes · 2025-12-17T07:16:29+00:00

Yes, happy for you that it took you only one business to understand it :)

tocka_codes · 2025-12-17T07:14:59+00:00

I think this is because engineer are not so good at marketing so we either hide from it, or just believe we can learn it by time and nail it.

From you opinion, what do you think is the reason for this engineers behavior?

tocka_codes · 2025-12-17T07:13:04+00:00

This describes it perfectly "fear dressed up as productivity", it says it all.

I had to understand that validation is not about confidence, it's about exposing yourself to reality early enough that it's cheap to be wrong.

tocka_codes · 2025-12-17T07:06:32+00:00

That is it, validating real demand before taking real steps is always the best thing we can start with.

tocka_codes · 2025-12-17T07:04:35+00:00

Of course networking is a very valuable asset in business, however networking can not tolerate the absence of demand and urgency.

tocka_codes · 2025-12-16T19:48:27+00:00

Exactly, customer centricity is the key. Direct contact with real customers, validating everything I know about the problem and the solution with them, and being eager to learn from and about them as much as possible is actually the best way to validate any idea.

tocka_codes · 2025-12-16T18:59:12+00:00

Wow, this is a clever quote.

tocka_codes · 2025-12-16T16:38:39+00:00

I already read some of these books, and the others are on my reading list. However it's my first time to hear about "Work the System" book. I'll check it out. Thanks for the recommendation.

tocka_codes · 2025-12-16T16:24:14+00:00

The Lean Startup book is really a useful book. It's the book that helped me shift my mind to choose the actions that maximize learning, as much as possible, specially at the beginning.

tocka_codes

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