📋 Overview

When a customer’s payment fails, the system may attempt to collect the payment again depending on the payment method. This process is known as retrying.

A payment showing as Retrying is not stuck,it means the system is automatically trying to collect the payment again after a failed attempt.

For Stripe payments, retries typically happen automatically (e.g. once per day) based on your retry settings.

💡 The payment will remain in “Retrying” until:

A retry is successful, or
The maximum number of retry attempts is reached

How retries work, and what you need to do, depends on whether the customer pays through Stripe or GoCardless.

This guide covers how the retry process works for each payment method, what happens when retries are exhausted, and how to resolve payments that remain stuck in a retrying state.

💳 How Payment Processing Works

Understanding why a payment enters a retrying state starts with how payments are processed. The behaviour differs depending on the payment method your customer uses.

Click the arrow to learn more about each payment processor

🆕 If a customer’s first payment on a recurring membership fails, the system will automatically remove them from any classes they registered for.

This applies only to the first payment. If any following payments fail past that point, existing registrations will not be automatically cancelled and the customer can still attend those pre-booked events.

Stripe

When a customer makes a purchase using Stripe, the payment is processed at the time of checkout. If the payment is successful, the membership is added to the customer’s profile, any class registrations are confirmed, and everything proceeds as normal.

If the payment fails, the system will automatically retry the payment every 24 hours. During this retry period, the customer’s membership remains active.

Once the number of retries reaches the limit you have set in your Customer Settings, the membership becomes unusable and the customer can no longer register for new events using that membership.

GoCardless

When a customer makes a purchase using GoCardless, the payment is initiated but may take several business days to confirm.

The membership is added to the customer’s profile and any class registrations are recorded while the payment is being processed.

If the payment is successful, everything proceeds as normal.

If the payment fails, it will appear in your Failed Payments section. GoCardless payments are not automatically retried, you will need to manually retry them from your dashboard.

✅ Understanding Payment Statuses

Payments in your dashboard can appear under different statuses depending on where they are in the process. Below is a summary of the key statuses and where to find them.

Click the arrow to view the list of payment statuses

Status	Meaning	Where to Find
Paid	Payment has been confirmed.	Billing/Revenue ➔ Reports
Pending	Payment initiated, awaiting bank confirmation.	Billing/Revenue ➔ Pending
Pending Offline	Offline payment (e.g. cash) awaiting manual confirmation.	To-Dos ➔ Offline Payments
Open / Retrying	Payment failed and is being retried (Stripe) or awaiting action.	To-Dos ➔ Open Invoices
Failed	Retries exhausted or payment must be resolved manually.	To-Dos ➔ Failed Payments
Voided	Payment was skipped and can no longer be paid.	Billing/Revenue ➔ Reports

🤔 Do you always need to take action?

In many cases, no action is required while a payment is retrying. Here's some examples of when you might need to take action, and when you won't need to take action.

❌ No action needed if:

The payment is still within its retry schedule
The customer may update their payment method
You’re happy to wait for the next automatic retry

✅️ Take action if:

You need to collect payment immediately
The customer has confirmed their payment method won’t work
The payment has been retrying for several days without success

In these cases, you can manually resolve the payment using the options below.

🔄 How To Resolve a Retrying Payment (Stripe)

If a Stripe payment has been retrying for an extended period, you can take action from the To-Dos section of your dashboard. Retrying payments appear under To-Dos ➔ Open Invoices.

Click the arrow to learn how to resolve an open/retrying payment

From the Open Invoices view, you can take the following actions on a retrying payment:

Void - Stops the automatic retry and skips the payment permanently. The invoice can no longer be paid.

Send customer a link to pay - Copies a payment link you can share with the customer, allowing them to pay using a different method.

💡 When you open a retrying payment, you can see when the next automatic retry attempt is scheduled and the reason the previous attempt failed.

If the payment has reached the maximum number of retries, it will display a Max Retries label. At that point, you can click Resolve to access additional options including changing the payment method, editing the payment, or retrying manually.

🔄 How To Resolve a Failed Payment (GoCardless)

GoCardless payments do not retry automatically. When a GoCardless payment fails, it appears under To-Dos ➔ Failed Payments. You will need to take action manually to resolve it.

Click the arrow to learn how to resolve a failed GoCardless payment

Navigate to To-Dos ➔ Failed Payments and click Actions next to the payment you want to resolve. The following options are available:

Retry	Reattempts the payment. It may take 3–5 business days before the result is confirmed
Void	Skips the payment permanently
Edit/Retry	Allows you to change the amount or date before retrying
Change payment method	Switches the membership to a different payment method and processes the payment using the new method
Cancel membership	Cancels the membership entirely, with an option to cancel any pending payments

⚠️ Before retrying a GoCardless payment, confirm with the customer that their direct debit account has sufficient funds. If a retry fails, the payment will reappear in your Failed Payments section.

💡 Future monthly GoCardless payments are not affected by a single failed payment.

✋🏻 Configuring Your Retry Limit

You can control how many times the system retries a Stripe payment before the membership becomes unusable. This setting is found in Settings ➔ Registrations ➔ Customers.

Click the arrow to learn more about the retry limit setting

Look for the setting labeled “Number of failed payment attempts before a membership is unusable.” This determines how many times the system will automatically retry a payment before stopping and marking the membership as unusable.

Once the retry limit is reached, the customer can no longer register for new events using that membership. You will need to resolve the payment manually using the options described earlier in this guide.

💡 For GoCardless, this setting counts manual retries rather than automatic ones, since GoCardless payments are not retried automatically.

For more details on customer settings, see the Customer Settings guide here.

📞 When To Contact Support

In most cases, you can resolve a retrying or failed payment directly from your dashboard using the steps above. However, there are some situations where you may need additional help.

Click the arrow to learn when to reach out for support

Consider reaching out for support if:

1️⃣ A payment has been stuck in a retrying state for an extended period and none of the available actions resolve it.

2️⃣ The payment shows as retrying in your dashboard but the charge was successful in your payment processor.

3️⃣ You have voided a stuck payment and need help reconciling the customer’s account.

For Stripe Issues

Contact our support team through the chat widget on your dashboard. The team can investigate the payment directly and, if needed, escalate to the development team for further review.

For GoCardless Issues

For detailed information about a failed GoCardless payment, you can log in to your GoCardless dashboard directly. If you need further assistance, you can contact GoCardless support at [email protected].

When reaching out, have the Payment ID ready (this follows the format PM000123456789).

❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Find answers to common questions or additional details that may not be covered in the main instructions.