Dunning follows up on money that has not arrived. Your workspace sends up to three notices, one after the other, and takes a final step if the buyer still does not pay. You decide whether each notice goes out on its own or waits for your approval.
What dunning covers
Dunning knows two kinds of cases:
- One-time payments: orders on invoice with Grant access on purchase that are still pending after the due date on the invoice. The days count from that due date.
- Subscriptions: renewals whose payment failed, with Stripe or PayPal. A case opens as soon as the subscription is past due, and the days count from that day. Each failed period gets a case of its own.
Bank transfers with Grant access on payment received are not covered. Their reminder and the automatic cancellation are set in the payment method, see Offline payment methods. An order gets one dunning case at most.
Overdue invoices are checked every hour between 8 am and 8 pm German time. A failed subscription payment opens a case right away.
Switching dunning on
Go to Payments > Settings > Dunning. The page has one card for One-time payments and one for Subscriptions, each with its own Enabled switch. Both start switched off.
While a type is off, the card shows Dunning is off. Overdue invoices or failed renewals then get no reminders and no final step. Cases that are already running rest until you switch dunning back on, and a payment still closes them.
Stripe retries a failed renewal on the schedule set in your Stripe account, and the buyer gets the Payment Failed email on every failure, whether dunning is on or not. Place the final step after Stripe's last retry.
Viewing the page needs View Payments. Saving it needs Update Orders / Customers.
The three notices
Each card has three notices you can switch on, and the Timeline box next to it shows when each one goes out:
- Payment reminder: a friendly reminder that the payment is overdue.
- Overdue notice: a clear request to pay with a new deadline.
- Final notice: the last notice before the final step.
For each step, switch it on or off and set Days after the due date, from 1 to 365. Every active step needs more days than the one before it. By default, one-time payments send only the payment reminder, after 7 days, and subscriptions send all three, after 3, 7 and 14 days.
The texts of the emails are templates. Click Email texts at the top of the page to edit them under Settings > Notifications. If you turn a template off there, the step is still recorded, but no email goes out.
For one-time payments, switch on Attach the letter as PDF for each notice that should carry a formal dunning letter. Edit letter opens it under Payments > Settings > Documents > Dunning letter, where you also see a preview. Logo, colors and layout come from the shared Design of all documents.
Automatic or after approval
Each step has a Sending mode:
- Automatic: the notice goes out on its day without you.
- After approval: the case waits with the status Needs approval until someone on your team approves it. On the timeline, the step shows Approval.
Admins of your workspace get a daily email at 8:30 am German time, Dunning Notices Awaiting Approval, as long as notices are waiting.
After the final notice
Under After the final notice, choose what happens if the buyer still has not paid, and after how many Days after the due date. That day has to come after the last active notice.
For one-time payments:
- Nothing: the case stays open until it is paid or you close it.
- Revoke access, the invoice stays open: the buyer loses access, and the order stays pending. Access comes back once it is paid.
- Revoke access and cancel the order: the buyer loses access, the order is cancelled and the case closes.
Both revoke options send the buyer the Access Suspended email.
For subscriptions:
- Nothing, Stripe decides: access stays until Stripe gives up on the payment and ends the subscription.
- Pause access until paid: the buyer loses access, and Stripe keeps retrying. When a payment succeeds, access comes back on its own.
- Cancel the subscription: the subscription ends at once and its access is removed. Stripe stops retrying. Access from one-time purchases stays.
If the final step fails, it is tried again the next day. When you save the settings, every open case is rescheduled to the new days right away.
Working the cases
All cases are listed under Payments > Sales > Dunning notices.
The figures at the top show what is Overdue, the share that is 30+ days overdue, what was Recovered in the last 30 days and, under Needs approval, how many notices wait for you. Click that figure to see only those cases. With several currencies, switch them under Currency.
The Status switch moves between Running, Needs approval, Closed and All. Closed cases show Closed on instead of the next step. Each row shows the Customer, the Level reached, the Amount, how long it is Overdue, the Next step and the Status. Filter by Level, Type, Currency or Due date.
To approve several notices at once, select them, click Approve with the number of notices and confirm with Approve and send. Each customer gets the waiting notice by email right away.
Inside a case
Click a case to open it. It shows the Open amount, the Due date, the Level reached, the Last notice, the Next step and the Final step, with links to the order or subscription and to the customer. The History lists every notice and event, with Letter as PDF where a letter went along.
- Approve and send: sends a notice that waits for approval. If the email cannot go out, for example because the customer has no email address, you confirm with Approve without email in the dialog. The level is recorded, but no email goes out.
- Send with the name of the next notice: sends it now, ahead of its day. Add a Personal note (optional), which appears above the standard text of the email, check the preview and send it. This also works while dunning is switched off.
- Pause: stops the notices until the date under Resume on, 14 days ahead by default. A Reason is required, and only your team sees it. Pausing does not change the buyer's access.
- Resume: continues a paused case right away.
- Write off: closes the case without payment. A Reason is required.
Every action in a case needs Update Orders / Customers.
When a case closes
A case closes on its own when:
- the order is paid, or the subscription payment succeeds: Paid.
- the order is cancelled, refunded or deleted, or the subscription ends: Cancelled.
- the final step cancels the order or the subscription: Cancelled.
A case you write off closes as Written off. It stays closed while the subscription is still past due. If the subscription recovers and a later payment fails, a new case opens.