Manage delinquent subscription payments

How a delinquent payment is treated in StoreConnect

If a subscription payment fails, the Delinquent Date is set to the date of the first failure, and the Delinquent Reason is set with a date and any message returned by the payment provider (e.g. Card Expired).

On a successful retry, the subscription is processed as normal and the delinquent date and delinquent reason fields are cleared.

Which order gets charged: delinquent order vs renewal order

When a renewal payment fails, StoreConnect records the order that failed as the subscription’s Delinquent Order. This is the same order that was created for the renewal — it is not a new order.

From that point on, the delinquent order takes precedence and is what drives every retry. The Renewal Order field is still set — it is not cleared when a payment fails (only a successful payment clears it) — but it is not the field the system looks at while a delinquent order is present. Retries always attempt payment against the delinquent order on the schedule below.

:::warning Manually setting or re-populating the Renewal Order field on a delinquent subscription has no effect. The system continues to attempt payment against the existing delinquent order on the retry schedule, not the order you set. To change what gets charged, or to force an immediate re-attempt, clear the Delinquent Date (and Suspended Date, if set) so the subscription re-enters the normal renewal cycle. :::

Once a delinquent payment succeeds, the delinquent order and delinquent date are cleared and the subscription returns to its normal billing schedule.

Payment retries

When the Next Billing Date is in the past and a Delinquent Date is set, StoreConnect automatically retries the payment 5 times, with increasing wait times:

• 1 day after delinquent date
• 2 days after delinquent date
• 3 days after delinquent date
• 5 days after delinquent date
• 8 days after delinquent date

On each subsequent failed retry, the Delinquent Reason the date and any message returned by the payment provider is appended to the end of the existing field data, creating a log of each failed attempt.

If the final attempt fails, the Suspended Date is set, and no further payments will be attempted. We recommend that you set up a notification in Salesforce so you get alerted when this happens. You can also configure an email to go out from Salesforce to alert the contact each time a payment has failed and when it can be attempted again.

Once suspended, if you choose to try taking payment again, you need to remove the suspension date and the delinquent date from the record so it gets picked up again on the next run.

End or cancel a delinquent subscription

Retries only run while the subscription is active. As soon as its End Date or Cancelled Date passes, StoreConnect stops picking the subscription up, and the retry schedule stops wherever it had reached.

Plan for what that leaves behind.

• The subscription is never suspended. Suspension happens on the eighth retry day, and only for subscriptions still being processed. One that ends first keeps a blank Suspended Date, so a blank Suspended Date does not mean the payment was collected.
• The delinquent fields are never cleared. Delinquent Date, Delinquent Reason, and Delinquent Order stay exactly as they were, because only a successful payment clears them. The record keeps showing the failure history.
• The unpaid order is left behind. The delinquent order stays unpaid and nothing collects it. Report on these orders or write them off deliberately.

Setting an End Date in the future has the opposite effect. The subscription stays active, so retries keep running against the customer’s card, and it is still suspended on the eighth day if the end date is that far out.

:::warning Setting the End Date relative to the Next Billing Date does not work for a delinquent subscription. Its Next Billing Date is in the past, because that date only advances on a successful payment, so an end date derived from it is also in the past and the subscription ends immediately. Work from the Delinquent Date instead. Allow the number of retry days you want from the list above, or set the end date to today if you intend to stop collection altogether. :::

Customer self-service: paying a delinquent subscription

Customers can resolve a delinquent subscription themselves from their subscription page on the store.

If the subscription has an overdue payment, a Pay Now button is displayed at the top of the subscription detail page showing the amount owing. The customer selects the button, confirms payment on the next page, and the system automatically:

• Processes the payment using the card on file
• Clears the delinquent date and delinquent reason
• Advances the next billing date and next renewal date

The subscription goes back into the normal renewal cycle with no manual intervention needed.

If the customer’s payment details have changed, they need to update them before using the Pay Now option. See Manage customer subscriptions for instructions on updating payment details.

:::note The Pay Now button is hidden on a cancelled or suspended subscription, but not on one that has ended. If a subscription still has an unpaid delinquent order when its End Date passes, the customer can still pay it from their subscription page. The payment succeeds and clears the delinquent fields, but the subscription stays ended. Set the Cancelled Date instead when you want to close off both the billing and the customer’s ability to pay. :::