Subscriptions app Billing and Inventory Settings

Sometimes a subscription order can't be processed — a customer's card is declined, or a product is out of stock. Billing and inventory settings control how Essential Subscriptions retries these orders and what happens if they keep failing.

To change them, go to Settings → Billing and inventory settings → Change.

Payment Method Failure

Controls what happens when a subscription charge is declined.

• Number of retry attempts — how many times to retry a failed charge. (0–10, default 3)
• Days between retry attempts — how long to wait between retries. (1–14 days, default 7)
• Action when all retry attempts have failed — choose one:

- Pause subscription and send notification - Cancel subscription and send notification (default)

Customers are emailed about failed payments based on your Customer Notification Emails settings, so they have a chance to update their card before the subscription is paused or cancelled.

Not Enough Inventory

Controls what happens when an order can't be created because a product is out of stock.

• Number of retry attempts — how many times to retry. (0–10, default 5)
• Days between retry attempts — how long to wait between retries. (1–14 days, default 1)
• Action when all retry attempts have failed — choose one:

- Pause subscription and send notification - Cancel subscription and send notification (default)

Tip: Inventory issues are often temporary, so the defaults retry more often and over a shorter gap than payment failures — giving stock time to be replenished before the subscription is paused or cancelled.

Saving Changes

Make your changes and click Save. The summaries on the main Settings page update to reflect your new retry and failure rules.

What the customer sees

These settings decide how long the retries run. What the customer is told along the way, and the two things that surprise merchants most, are covered in When Customers Are Charged, and What Happens When a Payment Fails: nothing is emailed after the final attempt, and out-of-stock failures email the customer nothing at all.