Dunning & Recovery
Dunning is the process of recovering failed payments through automated retries, escalating notifications, and account restrictions. When a payment fails (e.g., during renewal), BillHive enters the subscription into a dunning workflow to maximize recovery before resorting to cancellation.
When Dunning Starts
A subscription enters dunning when:
- A renewal payment fails after the initial 5-day mandate wait period
- A scheduled payment is declined by the payment gateway
- An invoice payment fails during auto-collection
- A renewal invoice on net terms is still unpaid after its due date. The due date is counted from the renewal date. Dunning starts on the day after the due date, and not for a subscription that was cancelled or expired meanwhile.
The subscription status changes to In Dunning.
Dunning Stages
BillHive’s dunning workflow escalates through progressive stages:
| Stage | Action | Business Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Payment Reminder | Friendly reminder email that payment failed, with a link to update payment method | DUNNING_PAYMENT_REMINDER |
| 2. Urgent Notice | Stronger notification emphasizing the urgency of payment | DUNNING_URGENT_NOTICE |
| 3. Account Restricted | Customer access is limited; notification sent about restrictions | DUNNING_ACCOUNT_RESTRICTED |
| 4. Account Suspended | Full access suspended; strong notification to resolve immediately | DUNNING_ACCOUNT_SUSPENDED |
| 5. Final Notice | Last warning before subscription cancellation | DUNNING_FINAL_NOTICE |
| 6. Subscription Cancelled | Subscription is cancelled due to non-payment | DUNNING_SUBSCRIPTION_CANCELLED |
| 7. Win-Back Offer | Post-cancellation outreach with a special offer to re-subscribe | DUNNING_WIN_BACK |
At any stage, if payment is recovered, the subscription returns to Active and the dunning workflow is terminated.
Payment Retry Logic
Between dunning stages, BillHive automatically retries the failed payment:
- Scheduled retries are spaced according to your dunning period configuration
- Each retry attempt is logged with success/failure status
- The business event
SCHEDULED_PAYMENT_RETRY_ATTEMPTis emitted for each retry
Retry Success Analysis
The Dunning & Recovery dashboard shows retry effectiveness:
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Retry Success by Attempt | Which retry attempt (1st, 2nd, 3rd) is most effective |
| By Failure Reason | Recovery rate per failure reason (Insufficient Funds, Card Expired, etc.) |
| By Payment Gateway | Recovery rate per gateway (Stripe, Razorpay, etc.) |
Manual Review
When automated dunning has been exhausted but cancellation hasn’t been triggered, cases can be escalated for manual review:
- Business event:
DUNNING_MANUAL_REVIEW - These cases appear in the Escalated Dunning table on the Billing & Payments dashboard
- Shows: Customer name, Amount at risk, Days in dunning, Status, Last activity
Dunning Outcomes
| Outcome | Status Transition | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Payment recovered | In Dunning → Active | Payment succeeded during a retry. Normal billing resumes. |
| Subscription cancelled | In Dunning → Cancelled | All retries exhausted. Subscription terminated for non-payment. |
| Manual resolution | In Dunning → Active | Admin manually resolves the payment issue. |
Related Events
Additional payment-related events that may trigger alongside dunning:
| Event | Business Event | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Payment successful | PAYMENT_SUCCESSFUL | Any successful payment |
| Payment failed | PAYMENT_FAILED | Any failed payment attempt |
| Final payment failure | FINAL_PAYMENT_FAILURE | Last retry attempt failed |
| Card expiry approaching | CARD_EXPIRY_APPROACHING | Proactive warning before card expires |
| Payment method invalid | PAYMENT_METHOD_EXPIRED_OR_INVALID | Payment method no longer valid |
Configuration
Dunning behavior is controlled by:
| Setting | Location | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Retry Schedule | Settings > Dunning | The days after the first failure on which payment is retried. The number of retries and the dunning period come from it. See Configure Dunning. |
| Auto-Collect | Per subscription | Whether BillHive automatically initiates payment collection |
| Dunning stage timing | Workflow configuration | Timing between dunning stages (configured in Camunda BPMN) |
Analytics
Monitor dunning performance on the Dunning & Recovery dashboard:
- Overall recovery rate, revenue at risk, and revenue recovered
- Retry success rates by attempt number
- Failure breakdown by reason and gateway
- Escalated cases requiring manual intervention