Dunning software that follows each failed invoice to the end
Dunning is everything that happens between a failed renewal and either a paid invoice or a closed subscription. RevenueLeak is dunning management software built on your billing data. It reads every failed invoice read-only, runs a schedule of retries, emails and in-app notices that fits the reason for the failure, and shows in dollars which invoices are still open and which ones were brought back.
What a complete dunning process covers
A failed payment needs more than one retry. A complete process decides when to try the card again, when to ask the customer for a new one, how long access stays open, what the last message says and what happens if nobody responds. When any of these steps is missing, the subscription ends quietly and the finance team sees only a lower MRR line. Our audit lists every failed invoice of recent months and marks which steps actually ran on it.
- Retries spaced by decline code, not a single fixed retry.
- An email sequence with one clear action in each message.
- An in-app notice for customers who still log in.
- A grace period with a stated end date.
- A final notice and a clear outcome, paid, paused or closed.
Dunning schedules set per decline code
Automated dunning software works best when the schedule depends on why the payment failed. A soft decline such as insufficient funds can succeed later without any change, so the schedule places retries near common paydays and in the customer's local morning. A hard decline such as an expired or stolen card will keep failing, so the schedule skips retries and goes straight to a card update request. Each rule holds up to eight attempts across up to 28 days, and every rule can be edited or switched off. The retry logic itself is described on the failed payment recovery page.
| Step | Soft decline | Hard decline |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0 | Payment fails, retry scheduled | Payment fails, card update email at once |
| Days 1 to 7 | Retries at spread hours, email after the second failure | Reminder email with the update link |
| Days 8 to 21 | Retries near paydays, reminder email | In-app notice, second reminder |
| End of grace period | Final notice, then the outcome you chose | Final notice, then the outcome you chose |
Email sequences that ask for one thing
Every dunning email says what happened in plain words, names the plan and the amount, and carries one link to a secure payment update page. The page needs no login, shows the open invoice and uses the card form of your billing system. When the customer saves a new card, the invoice is retried right away and the rest of the sequence stops. Emails go out from your own verified sending domain, so the customer recognizes the sender. Dunning emails count inside the monthly email limit of your plan.
- Email one says the payment did not go through and links to the update page.
- Email two repeats the plan name, the amount and the link.
- Email three states the date access ends.
- The final notice confirms the outcome.
In-app notice and a grace period with a clear end
Customers who still use the product often never open billing emails. For them an in-app notice shows a short banner with the same link as the emails. You add it with one script tag, and it appears only to users of accounts with an open failed invoice. The grace period is the time access stays open after the first failure. You set its length per plan, and the date it ends is the same in the banner, the emails and the final notice, so nobody gets mixed messages.
Final notice and pause instead of cancel
At the end of the grace period the subscription needs an outcome. Instead of closing it, the final notice and the update page can offer a pause of one, two or three months where your billing system supports pausing. A paused subscription keeps the customer record, the plan and the price, and comes back on a set date. If the customer does not choose, the rule applies the outcome you picked in advance. Cancellations that follow a failed payment are tracked separately on the reduce churn page, because they are a different problem from a customer who decides to leave.
Working next to built-in billing dunning
Stripe, Chargebee, Recurly and Paddle each ship their own retry and email settings. We do not switch them off. The audit reads every attempt and every email they sent, then adds only what is missing, a retry they skipped, a reminder they never sent, a notice before access ends. Cards that are about to expire are handled before they fail by the card updater, which lowers how many invoices enter dunning in the first place.
What dunning is worth on your numbers
The audit shows the value of invoices that failed and were never recovered. For example, if 1,500 USD per month of renewals ends after a failed payment and a better schedule brings back a third of it, that is 500 USD per month. The price of each plan, from Starter at 49 USD monthly to Enterprise, sits on revenue optimization software, so you can do the arithmetic on your own numbers.
Questions about dunning software
No. The audit uses read-only keys, and retries and emails run only after you switch a rule on.
Yes. We read what they do and add only the steps that are missing.
From your own sending domain after you verify it, and nothing is sent before that.
You set it per plan, and the same end date appears in every email and in the in-app notice.
Yes. Every dunning and card update email counts inside the monthly email limit of your plan.
Yes. The estimate on the home page runs without an account, and dunning is part of the paid plans.