What is Dunning?

Dunning is the process of recovering payments that did not go through — a declined card, an unpaid manual invoice, a failed post-trial charge. Rather than leaving you to chase every missed payment by hand, MyPetParlor runs a dunning campaign: a timed sequence of reminder emails that ends with a clear decision about what happens to the subscription and the invoice if the customer never pays.

Every invoice is linked to a dunning campaign, so when a payment fails the follow-up starts automatically — no spreadsheets, no manual reminders.

Why Dunning Matters#

A failed payment is rarely the customer walking away. Cards expire, limits are reached, and manual invoices simply get forgotten. A good dunning setup:

• Recovers revenue automatically — polite, well-timed emails resolve most failures without any staff involvement.
• Keeps messaging consistent — every customer gets the same professional follow-up, driven by your email templates.
• Ends cleanly — after the final reminder, the platform expires the subscription and fails the invoice for you (or leaves them active, if you prefer).

How a Dunning Cycle Works#

When a payment attempt fails or a manual invoice becomes past due, the invoice enters a dunning cycle:

1. The first email is sent immediately — the moment the payment fails or the invoice is marked past due.
2. Follow-up emails go out on the schedule you define — for example day 3, day 10, and day 27 — each using an email template you choose.
3. At the end of the cycle, the platform applies your end-of-cycle actions: expire the subscription or leave it active, and fail the invoice or leave it past due.

You can watch all of this happen on the invoice itself: invoices in an active cycle show a Dunning Progress timeline listing each step — email notifications, payment retries — with a status of Completed, Pending, Failed, or Skipped.

The Three Cycle Types#

Every dunning campaign defines up to three cycles, each triggered by a different situation:

Automatic and manual cycles are required on every campaign; the trial cycle is optional and can be enabled when you offer free trials on your plans.

Dunning Emails#

Each step in a cycle sends one of the platform's dunning email templates:

Campaigns and Defaults#

Dunning is configured through campaigns under Settings → Billing → Dunning Campaigns. One campaign is marked as the default and applies to all plans automatically; you can create additional campaigns with different timing or messaging and assign specific plans to them — a gentler cadence for long-standing grooming clients, say, and a firmer one for once-off services.

A campaign can also be set per customer on their account, which overrides the plan-level choice for that customer.

See Configure dunning campaigns for the full walkthrough.

When You Need to Step In#

Dunning handles the routine follow-up, but two manual controls are always available on the invoice:

• Retry collection — re-attempt an automatic charge immediately instead of waiting for the next scheduled step. See Retry collection.
• Stop collection — abandon collection entirely, cancel the remaining dunning work, and write the balance off with a credit invoice. Use this when you know the invoice will never be paid.