Subscriptions | Retry Logic & Dunning
Failed charges are recovered, not lost — how the retry sequence and dunning emails bring lapsed payments back.
Every subscription business loses revenue to expired cards and empty accounts — unless the retry machinery catches it first. Orbit's dunning flow does that automatically.
What happens on a failed charge
The scheduled charge fails (expired card, insufficient funds, bank decline).
The subscription enters the recovery flow instead of dying: the charge is retried after a gap, and again on a schedule designed to catch payday.
The customer gets dunning emails — “your payment didn't go through, update your card here” — with a direct link to fix it in their account.
Only after the sequence exhausts does the subscription lapse to a failed state. Every step shows on the subscription in your dashboard.
Tuning it
The Subscriptions → Dunning page holds the settings: how many retries, how far apart, and what the emails say. The defaults are sensible; adjust the cadence to your customers (weekly payers vs monthly salary cycles).
Tips
Most recovered payments come from the customer updating their card, not from retries — make sure the dunning email's fix-it link is prominent.
Watch the recovery rate monthly; a slipping rate usually means tired email copy, not tired customers. See Subscriptions | Payment Recovery for the full flow.
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