When you are using Book That In's subscription service, we pull in the status of the latest payment made by each customer so that you can see if there are any problems with payments.
Unfortunately, Stripe doesn't send notifications to business owners when a subscription payment fails. We can't understand why not, as this would be a very useful feature! Because of this however, we suggest you check in on your subscriptions regularly and look at the payment status (also known as the invoice status).
To see your subscriptions, do the following:
- Go to Business --> My Booking Types --> Subscriptions
- Click on the subscription in question, then click the 'View Subscriptions' tab on the right
Here's how it might look to you:
On the far right, there is a column entitled 'Last Invoice Status'. This tells you the status of the latest payment from that customer for the subscription in question.
Understanding How Stripe Works
Every time Stripe takes a payment for a subscription, it creates an invoice for that payment. That invoice goes through different stages, from 'Draft' to 'Paid', like this:
What the Invoice Status means
Draft
The invoice has been created, but payment has not yet been attempted. All invoices go through this phase, and it typically lasts for an hour. It isn't anything to be concerned about.
Void
This means the invoice has effectively been cancelled. You may see this status when a subscription is Paused - it indicates that Stripe is not going to attempt to take payment.
Open
This means the invoice is open, but unpaid. This normally indicates a failed payment and you should contact your customer to update their card details.
Past Due
Stripe's default settings mean it will try to take payment for an invoice 3 times before stopping. At that point, the status shifts to 'Past Due' and Stripe may cancel the subscription, depending on your automatic payment settings. You can change these settings.
Unpaid
This is another status to show that payment has failed. You should contact your customer to update their card details.
Preventing Failed Payments
Find out how to edit some of Stripe's default settings to prevent some issues with payments.