When a renewal fails, RecurX records every attempt: the decline reason, the retry number and whether the customer was told. This guide shows where to find that history — for one subscriber and for your whole store — and what you can do about a failed payment. For how retries are scheduled in the first place, see Set up payment recovery.
Note: The screenshots show a sample failed renewal on a test subscriber.
Step 1: Find subscriptions with a billing issue
- In your Shopify admin, open Apps → RecurX Subscriptions → Subscriptions → Subscribers.
- Click the Billing issues tab (1). The Billing issues tile at the top shows how many there are.
- Each subscription whose last renewal failed shows the Billing issue badge (2). Click the row to open it.
Step 2: Check the subscriber's recovery status
On the subscriber's page:
- Status (1) reads Payment failed.
- The Activity timeline lists each failed attempt with its reason, newest first.
- Payment recovery in progress (2) shows where the retries are.
The Payment recovery in progress card has three values:
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Dunning status | Active while retries are still scheduled. Grace Period means the retries have run and RecurX is waiting before it pauses or cancels, as set in the retry rule. Exhausted means recovery has ended. |
| Retry count | How many retries have run so far |
| Last decline reason | The reason the bank or Shopify gave for the last failure, for example Insufficient Funds or Expired Card |
Step 3: Read the payment history
Scroll to Payment history. Each charge has a Date, Amount, Status (Paid, Failed, Pending or Refunded) and Details. For a failed charge, Details shows the reason Shopify reported (for example Insufficient funds) and its code (INSUFFICIENT_FUNDS). Hover over the reason to see what it means and what to do.
Common reasons:
| Reason | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Insufficient funds | Not enough money on the card | Often clears on a later retry. The customer can also add funds or switch card. |
| Expired payment method | The card on file has expired | The customer needs a new card — send a payment update link. |
| Payment method declined | The bank declined without a specific reason | Often temporary. If it repeats, the customer should call their bank or use another card. |
| Invalid payment method / Payment method not found | The card can't be used or isn't on file any more | The customer needs to add a card. |
| Insufficient inventory | A product was out of stock at renewal | A stock problem, not a payment problem — restock or swap the product. |
Paid charges have a View order link to the Shopify order.
Step 4: Get the card fixed
Most failed payments are fixed by the customer updating their card. RecurX's retry rules already email them, and for expired or unsupported cards Shopify emails them a secure card-update link after the first failure. To send a link yourself, see Get a subscriber's payment method updated.
Step 5: Charge the subscription again (optional)
You don't have to wait for the next scheduled retry. Once the customer has updated their card:
- Click Trigger billing now at the top of the subscriber's page.
- Read the confirmation — Shopify charges the customer's saved payment method for the current cycle and creates an order. This can't be undone from RecurX.
- Click Charge now to charge, or Cancel to go back.
A banner shows the result: Charge succeeded. Order … was created., Charge started. The order and payment appear once Shopify completes it. or Charge failed: followed by the reason.
Note: Trigger billing now appears when the payment has failed, or when the next billing date is less than 24 hours away. Shopify allows one charge per billing cycle, so an already paid cycle can't be charged again.
Tip: From the More menu you can also Resume or Pause a subscription with a failed payment, or Cancel it.
Step 6: See every attempt across your store
- Go to Retention → Payment recovery.
- Click the History tab (1).
- Billing attempts (2) lists recent subscription charges: Status (Paid, Failed, Needs verification, Pending), Amount, Decline reason, Retry number, Customer notice (Notified or Not notified — early retries can run without a message) and Date. The latest 50 are shown.
- Failed payments (3) lists failed subscription payments with the customer, amount, reason, number of retries and date.
Step 7: Watch the trend in Signal Analytics
Go to Signal Analytics and open the Billing health tab (1). It shows the Overall success rate, First try success rate, Recovered payment value, Subscriptions in dunning (2) and Lost billing attempts (failed attempts on subscriptions cancelled after retries ran out) for the date range you pick, plus a Failure analysis you can export as CSV.
FAQ
- Why wasn't the customer notified on the first failure? Some retry schedules start with retries that run without a message, so the customer isn't alarmed by a payment that clears a few days later. These show Not notified in the history.
- What happens after the last retry? The subscription is paused or cancelled, as set in the retry rule. RecurX stops after 25 billing attempts per subscription.
- Where do I change the number of retries? On Retention → Payment recovery → Rules — see Set up payment recovery.