Documentation

How RescueDunning works

1. Connect Stripe

Connect your Stripe account via OAuth (one click, no code changes). We request read-only access to customers, subscriptions, and invoices, plus webhook delivery. Your checkout and billing code stay exactly as they are.

2. We listen for failed payments

Point a Stripe webhook at the webhook URL shown in your dashboard with the events invoice.payment_failed and customer.subscription.updated enabled. When a payment fails, Stripe notifies us in seconds and we open a recovery case — one case per failed invoice (duplicate deliveries are deduplicated).

3. The Day 1 / 3 / 7 email sequence

The case immediately queues three branded emails — your logo, your colors, your voice:

Day 1: “Your payment failed — quick fix” with a one-click card-update link.
Day 3: a friendly reminder while the subscription stays active.
Day 7: a final notice before the subscription is paused.

Every link carries a signed token to your branded card-update portal. The moment the customer updates their card, the case closes as recovered, the remaining emails are canceled, and the recovered MRR lands on your dashboard.

4. Pre-dunning: beat the failure

Our killer feature. A nightly scanner finds cards expiring in 30, 14, and 7 days and emails those customers to update their card before the next invoice. A payment that never fails is the cheapest recovered revenue there is. Stripe doesn't do this.

5. Watch the dashboard

MRR at risk, recovered revenue this month, recovery rate, active cases, the full email outbox, and the pre-dunning watchlist — every number dunning earns you, in one place.

Sending email (DNS)

RescueDunning sends through Resend (or Postmark) from your own domain — e.g. billing@acmesaas.com — so replies and reputation are yours. Before first send, add these DNS records (your provider's dashboard gives you the exact values):

SPF — TXT record authorizing the provider to send for your domain.
DKIM — CNAME records that cryptographically sign every email.
DMARC — TXT record (e.g. v=DMARC1; p=none; to start) telling receivers what to do with failures.

Until those records verify, providers will quarantine or reject your mail — so set them up before you connect your first real merchant.

FAQ

Will this double-email customers Stripe already retries?

No. Stripe retries silently — it never emails the customer. Our sequence is the only customer-facing outreach, and it stops the instant the card is updated.

What if a customer cancels mid-sequence?

The customer.subscription.updated webhook marks the case lost and cancels the remaining emails automatically.

Do you store card numbers?

Never. Card updates go through Stripe's Billing Portal. We never see or store full PANs.

Can I customize the email copy?

Yes — templates are branded with your logo, colors, and voice at send time. Per-merchant copy editing is on the roadmap.

What does it cost?

Starter $19/mo (≤500 tracked subscribers), Pro $49/mo (≤2,500, email customization, retry scheduling), Scale $99/mo (unlimited, priority support). Annual billing is 10× monthly — 2 months free. No per-recovery fees.