Multiple Dunning Rules
Zoho Billing allows you to add multiple dunning rules based on criteria configured by you, allowing you to have personalized rules for different kinds of subscriptions. You can also configure a unique renewal email for each of the dunning rules. This is particularly helpful for high-value customers, for whom you might want to have an extended dunning management period, in comparison to the Default dunning rule.
Let’s understand this with the help of a scenario.
Scenario: Patricia Boyle is the owner of Zylker, a SaaS company. To improve retention of her customers whose invoice total is more than $50, she decides to give them more time and reminders before taking any final action on unpaid invoices.
Patricia creates a new dunning rule with the condition Invoice Total is greater than $50. For these subscriptions, she configures multiple retry attempts with longer gaps between retries and sets up a personalized payment reminder email during one of the retries.
When a payment fails:
The system retries the payment based on the configured schedule.
An email is sent during a retry to remind her customers to update their payment details.
If payment is still not successful after all retries, the configured final action is applied.
This approach allows Patricia to treat every subscription differently, improve payment recovery, and retain customers, without needing manual follow-ups.
Creating New Dunning Rule
To create a new dunning rule:
Navigate to Settings.
Select Dunning Management under Subscriptions.
Click + New Rule.
Enter the Rule Name.
Configure the criteria for the rule from the dropdowns.
Insight:
- You can create up to 10 criteria for each dunning rule.
- Click the edit icon next to Criteria Pattern to change the criteria pattern.
Configure dunning management for subscriptions with autocharge and subscriptions without autocharge.
Click Save.
Scenario:
Patricia wants to handle weekly and monthly subscriptions differently to align with their billing frequency. With Zoho Billing, she can configure individual rules for each of these and create criteria accordingly.
Since weekly subscriptions renew more often, she wants to resolve payment failures quickly. For this, she creates a dunning rule with the condition Subscriptions Repeat Every Week. She configures shorter retry intervals such as 1 day in between and so the dunning retries completes within the same billing cycle.
For monthly subscriptions, she creates a separate dunning rule with the condition Subscriptions Repeat Every Month. Here, she adds more retry attempts with enough intervals between them, giving customers additional time to update their payment details before any final action is taken.
Insight: The number of dunning rules you can create depends on your Zoho Billing plan. Visit the pricing page to see what’s included in your plan.
Dunning for Subscriptions with Autocharge
Insight: The settings on this page will apply only to subscriptions that are autocharge-enabled. So, if autocharge for a subscription is disabled, it will follow dunning for subscriptions without autocharge.
You can configure the dunning for autocharge-enabled subscriptions with cards, ACH, and direct debits as the associated payment method. You can also set dunning for one-time invoices.
To configure dunning management for autocharge-enabled subscriptions with card as the associated payment method:
- Create a dunning rule, or edit an existing rule.
- Select the Subscriptions with autocharge tab.
- Select Cards.
- Click the On Payment Success dropdown to configure whether to notify customers on successful renewal payments.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Do Nothing | No email will be sent to your customers notifying them about successful payments. |
| Send Thank-you Email along with the Invoice | An email notification along with the invoice will be sent to your customers. You can customize this email notification as per your business. |
- Click the email template dropdown.
- Select an existing payment success email template.
- Click + Add New to create a new email template.
- Make the necessary changes.
- Click Save.
- Click the On Payment Failure dropdown to configure what happens when your customer’s payment fails.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Send Payment Failure Email Notification | Your customers will receive an email notification when payments fail for their subscription’s renewals. No retry attempt will be carried out. |
| Send Payment Failure Email Notification & Retry Payment | An email notification will be sent to your customers when payments fail for their subscription’s renewals. Your customer’s payment method will also be charged based on the Retry Preferences that you configure. |
| Retry Payment without Payment Failure Email Notification | Your customers will not receive an email notification when payments fail for their subscription’s renewals, and their payment method will be charged based on the Retry Preferences that you configure. |
Click the email template dropdown.
Select an existing payment failure email template.
Click + Add New to create a new email template.
Make the necessary changes.
Click Save.
Check Dunning for one-time invoices to enable retries for invoices that were created for one-time charges or one-time addons.
Configure the Retry Preferences.
Click Save.
Retry Preferences
In the event of a payment failure, you can configure Retry Preferences to try charging your customers again after a certain number of days.
- Enter the number of days after the initial attempt, when the payment will be retried.
- Select whether you want to notify your customers about payment failure if the current attempt fails.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Don’t Send Email Notification | Your customers will not receive an email notification when the retry attempt fails for their subscription’s renewals. |
| Send Payment Failure Email Notification | Your customers will receive an email notifying them of their subscription’s status, date of next retry attempt, and links to complete the payment or update their payment information. |
- Click the email template dropdown for Renewal Invoice and One-Time Invoice.
- Select an existing payment failure template.
- Click + Add New to create a new email template.
- Make the necessary changes.
- Click Save.
- Click + Add retry attempt to add another retry.
Note:
Retry attempts define how many times a payment is retried after a failure. You can configure up to 3 retry attempts.
- You can click the delete icon to delete the second or third retry attempt.
- Click Save.
You can choose what happens to your customers’ subscriptions after the final retry attempt fails.
To select the final action:
- Select the Subscriptions dropdown.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Do Nothing | Subscriptions will be moved to the Unpaid status and the associated invoice will remain overdue. However, this will not affect future renewals. If your customers make payments after their subscription has been moved to the Unpaid status, the subscription’s status will be changed to Live. |
| Cancel | Subscriptions will be canceled. Insight: Once your customer pays you for the overdue invoice, you can reactivate the subscription manually, or configure In-Term Reactivation to resume the subscription automatically. |
| Mark Subscription as Free/Canceled | The subscription will be moved to a free plan if the final retry fails. If the product does not have a free plan, the subscription will be canceled. Note: This option will be available only if you have enabled Free Plans in Subscriptions General settings. |
- Select the Invoices dropdown.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Do Nothing | The related invoice will be marked as Overdue. |
| Void | The related invoice will be marked as Void, and your customers will not be able to make payments. |
| Reverse Invoice | The related invoice will be marked as Paid and a credit note equivalent to the invoice amount will be created in the Closed status. |
- Select the One-Time Invoices dropdown.
Insight
Payments for one-time invoices such as charges for extra usage, one-time addon purchases, one-time adjustments, or setup fees, do not affect the subscription’s status. These invoices are not linked to the subscription’s recurring billing or dunning workflow.
For example, A customer has an active monthly subscription and is issued a one-time invoice for an addon purchase. If payment for this one-time invoice fails, the subscription remains active and unaffected. Since the charge is non-recurring and not part of the subscription’s regular billing cycle, the failed payment does not impact the subscription status.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Do Nothing | The related one-time invoice will be marked as Overdue. |
| Void | The related one-time invoice will be marked as Void, and your customers will not be able to make payments. |
| Reverse Invoice | The related one-time invoice will be marked as Paid, and a credit note equivalent to the invoice amount will be created in the Closed status. |
Insight:
If the final action is set to Do Nothing and the retry or dunning period is longer than the subscription’s renewal cycle, renewals may be delayed or processed together after retries are completed.
Scenario:
Patricia configures a weekly subscription with a retry period that extends beyond the 7-day billing cycle. When a renewal payment fails, the subscription remains in a Past Due state while retries continue.
During this time, the subscription crosses multiple weekly renewal dates, but renewals are not processed immediately. Once all retry attempts are completed and the final action (Do Nothing) is applied, all missed weekly renewal invoices are generated at once. This can make the renewals appear as duplicate renewals, even though each invoice represents an individual billing cycle.
This applies to monthly subscriptions as well when the retry period extends beyond the monthly billing cycle.
Dunning for Subscriptions Without Autocharge
You can set the dunning management for subscriptions without autocharge to configure what happens to the subscription if the invoice is unpaid after its due date. This is particularly helpful to prevent users from using the subscription if the invoice is unpaid after the due date.
Insight: The settings on this page will apply only to subscriptions without autocharge. So, if autocharge for a subscription is enabled, it will follow dunning for subscriptions with autocharge.
Note:
If a subscription is already under dunning with autocharge enabled, and autocharge is disabled during the ongoing dunning retries, the offline payment dunning rules will not apply to the current billing cycle. These rules will take effect from the next billing cycle onward. If you’d like the dunning to continue with the offline dunning rules when the autocharge is disabled, reach out to our support team at support@zohobilling.com for further assistance.
To configure dunning for autocharge-disabled subscriptions:
- Create or edit a dunning rule.
- Navigate to the Subscriptions without autocharge tab.
- Enable Dunning for subscriptions that are past due to configure dunning for the latest renewal invoices of your customers’ subscriptions.
- Enter the Dunning Period.
Insight:
The dunning period is the number of days the subscription will remain in the Past Due status, if the latest renewal invoice is unpaid. Your customers can make payments during this period.
- Select the Subscriptions dropdown.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Do Nothing | The subscription will be moved to the Unpaid status, and the associated invoice will remain overdue. However, this will not affect future renewals. If your customers make payments after their subscription has been moved to the Unpaid status, the subscription’s status will be changed to Live. |
| Cancel | The subscription will be canceled. Insight: Once your customer pays you for the overdue invoice, you can reactivate the subscription manually, or configure In-Term Reactivation to resume the subscription automatically. |
| Mark Subscription as Free/Canceled | The subscription will be moved to a free plan if the final retry fails. If the product does not have a free plan, the subscription will be canceled. Note: This option will be available only if you have enabled Free Plans in Subscriptions General settings. |
- Select the Invoices dropdown.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Do Nothing | The related invoice will be marked as Overdue. |
| Void | The related invoice will be marked as Void, and your customers will not be able to make payments. |
| Reverse Invoice | The related invoice will be marked as Paid, and a credit note equivalent to the invoice amount will be created in the Closed status. |
- Enable Dunning for one-time invoices to configure dunning for one-time invoices.
- Select the final action for the one-time invoice.
Insight: If the payment fails for one-time invoices associated with a subscription, the subscription status will not get affected.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Do Nothing | The invoice will be marked as Overdue. |
| Void | The invoice will be marked as Void, and your customers will not be able to make payments. |
| Reverse Invoice | The invoice will be marked as Paid, and a credit note equivalent to the invoice amount will be created in the Closed status. |
- Click Save.
Edit Dunning Rule
You can edit existing dunning rules according to your needs.
Insight: If you update a dunning rule while it is associated to any existing dunning invoice, the invoice will not follow the updated rule. The updated rule will be applied only to future dunning invoices.
To edit an existing dunning rule:
- Navigate to Settings.
- Select Dunning Management under Subscriptions.
- Click Edit next to an existing dunning rule.
- Make the necessary changes.
- Click Save.
Reorder Dunning Rules
Dunning rules are prioritized based on their order in the list view. This means the rules will be applied to subscriptions starting from the top, based on the specified criteria.
To change the order of dunning rules:
- Navigate to Settings.
- Select Dunning Management under Subscriptions.
- Click Reorder.
- Drag the dunning rules to the desired order.
- Click Save Order.
Insight:
You cannot change the order of the default dunning rule, since it will be applied to the subscriptions which do not meet the criteria for other dunning rules.
The dunning rules will be reordered and will be prioritized according to the updated order for future payment failures.
Configure Email Templates
You can create multiple email templates for each type of email notification for dunning management.
To configure email templates for dunning rules:
- Navigate to Settings and select Dunning Management under Subscriptions.
- Click Configure email templates.
- Select the type of email notification that you want to configure.
- Create or edit the email template.
- Click + New to create a new email template.
- Click the dropdown next to an existing template and select Edit to edit an existing email template.
- Enter a Template Name for the email template that you are creating.
- Select the CC email address.
- Enter the Subject of the email.
- Customize the email content according to your needs.
- Enter the message that you want to send to your customers in the text box.
- Use the rich text editor to format your texts. You can change the font, color, size, etc. of the texts as desired.
- Click Insert Placeholders to select values from the list of available placeholders to make your email content dynamic.
- Click Save.
Mark Dunning Rule as Active or Inactive
You can set a dunning rule as inactive if you are not currently using it, but might want to use it in the future. When a dunning rule is marked as inactive, it will not be applied to future invoices. If the rule is already associated with any existing dunning invoice, it will not be affected.
Note:
You cannot mark the Default dunning rule as inactive.
To mark a dunning rule as inactive:
- Navigate to Settings.
- Select Dunning Management under Subscriptions.
- Click the dropdown next to the dunning rule and select Mark as Inactive.
- Click Mark as Inactive in the popup that appears.
The dunning rule will be marked as Inactive and will not be applied to your subscriptions till you mark it as Active manually. To mark a dunning rule as active, click the dropdown next to the rule and select Mark as Active.
Delete Dunning Rule
You can delete a dunning rule if you will not use it anymore.
Note:
- You cannot delete the Default dunning rule.
- You can delete a dunning rule only if it is not associated with any invoices in dunning.
To delete a dunning rule:
- Navigate to Settings.
- Select Dunning Management under Subscriptions.
- Click the dropdown next to the dunning rule and select Delete.
- Click Delete.
Warning:
You cannot undo this action.
The dunning rule will be deleted.
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