Recover Revenue · Failed Payments

    See the failed payments Stripe stopped retrying. By name, in dollars.

    Every morning, North Metric reads your Stripe account and lists the charges that failed, why they failed, which ones are still recoverable, and what each one is worth. Then it sends the dunning email for you.

    $890
    recoverable this month
    11
    failed charges
    3
    urgent · 48h left

    Read-only Stripe · Emails from your domain · Flat price, no share of what you recover

    Three ways failed payments hide from you.

    The dashboard looks fine.

    New MRR covers the hole. A charge fails, the subscription drifts from active to past due to cancelled, and the top-line chart never dips.

    $890/mo leaking

    North Metric sees it.

    Every failed charge listed by name, amount, and decline code. The top-line chart is optional; the past-due list is not.

    Every customer, every dollar, daily

    Stripe retried. Stripe gave up.

    Smart Retries fix timing problems. They cannot fix an expired card, a closed account, or a bank that said do not honor. Those need a message to a human, and Stripe sends one grey email.

    85% need more than a retry

    North Metric sees it.

    Decline codes sorted into retryable versus dead. The retryable ones get your best retry day. The dead ones get a message from your domain.

    Right action per decline code

    You find out when they email support.

    The customer lost access, not the subscription. By the time they write in, the retry window closed and the invoice is void.

    72-hour window, missed

    North Metric sees it.

    Card-expiry warnings at 30, 60, and 90 days. The customer updates their card before the charge fails.

    Prevent, don't recover
    Payment Recovery · Lead agent

    Keep Smart Retries on. See what they leave behind.

    Stripe reports that Smart Retries recover about 57 percent of failed charges on average. Founders at $10K to $300K MRR routinely measure 20 to 25 percent on the defaults. The gap is the failures a retry cannot fix.

    Payment Recovery scans every failed charge daily and splits them by decline code, so you see which ones are timing, which ones are a dead card, and which ones are gone.

    • Every failed charge in the last 30 days, every morning
    • Split by decline code
    • Recovery likelihood from your own history, by code
    • Dollars at risk per customer, ranked
    Failed ChargesLast 30 days
    Acme Corp
    $340/mo · Expired card
    Email sent
    Bright Labs
    $149/mo · Insufficient funds
    Retry Thu 9am
    Northwind
    $299/mo · Do not honor
    Call issuer, 2 days
    Total recoverable$890/mo · 11 charges
    Payment Recovery · Dunning

    Dunning management that sounds like you, not like Stripe.

    When the card is gone, retrying is noise. Payment Recovery sends a short sequence from your domain, in your name, with a one-tap card update link, and stops the moment the payment clears.

    Retry timing follows your best recovery day and the decline code, not a fixed schedule. Customers who pay by invoice get the same sequence with a pay link.

    • Emails from your sender, your brand, your words
    • Three touches over 21 days, stop on success
    • Retry on your best day, by decline code
    • Card-expiry warnings 30, 60 and 90 days ahead
    Dunning Sequence
    Day 0
    Your payment didn't go through
    Day 3
    Quick fix: update your card
    Day 10
    We'll pause your account on Friday
    Done
    Stops on payment
    Cash Collector · Also in this group

    Billed is not collected.

    MRR is what you billed. Cash is what arrived. Cash Collector reconciles the two every month and names the gap: failed charges still open, disputes pending, processing fees, and timing between invoice and settlement.

    For a finance hire it is the reconciliation they would otherwise build in a spreadsheet.

    Billed vs CollectedThis month
    Billed$24,714
    Collected$23,180
    Failed (open)$890
    Disputes$310
    Fees$334
    “Retry 3 failed charges · 48h left · +$640/mo”
    Delivered via The North, Slack, weekly email, and Claude via MCP
    See your past-due list on a call →
    Metrics

    Involuntary churn is 20 to 40 percent of your churn. Split it out.

    3–8%
    Failed Charges
    of charges fail on first attempt
    Learn more
    ~7 mo
    Recovery Window
    a recovered subscription lasts
    20–40%
    Involuntary Churn
    of all churn is involuntary
    Learn more
    Failed Charges
    failed_charge_amount
    Below 1–2% of MRR
    P50: 7% / 5% / 4%
    Guide
    Refund Rate
    refunds / (paid + refunds) × 100
    Lower is better
    P50: 0.8% / 0.7% / 0.5%
    Guide
    Net Cash Flow
    cash_received − refunds − fees
    Gaps to MRR = prepay, refunds, fees
    Guide
    MRR Movement
    new + expansion + reactivation − churn − contraction
    Positive net movement monthly
    Guide
    Failed Charge Rate
    failed / (paid + failed) × 100
    Lower is better
    P50: 7% / 5% / 4%
    Involuntary Churn Rate
    MRR lost to failed payments
    20–40% of total churn
    Not yet computed
    Methodology

    How Payment Recovery decides.

    1

    Window

    Failed charges from the last 30 days, de-duplicated to the most recent attempt per customer. Open invoices count as at risk.

    2

    Classification

    Split by Stripe failure code: insufficient funds and generic declines are retried; expired cards get an update request on day one; do-not-honor gets a request to call the bank; fraud blocks are never retried.

    3

    Recovery likelihood

    Per decline code, from your own history. Fewer than five attempts falls back to 40 percent, labelled low sample. An estimate, not a prediction.

    4

    Retry timing

    Success rate by day of week over 180 days. Best day recommended only with five attempts behind it. Otherwise retry in three days, or end of month for insufficient funds.

    5

    Card expiry

    Every active card bucketed at 30, 60 and 90 days, ranked by MRR. Five cards or $5,000 within 30 days is critical.

    What it does not do

    Never writes to Stripe. Daily, not real time. Totals gross; probabilities are historical, not predictive.

    How it compares.

    FeatureStripe aloneDunning specialistsNorth Metric
    RetriesOne scheduleDecline-awareDecline-aware, your best day
    EmailsOne grey Stripe emailBranded sequenceBranded, from your domain
    Sees the leakAnalytics tabDashboardDollars per customer, daily
    Card expiryUpdater onlyPre-dunning30 / 60 / 90-day warnings
    Billed vs collectedNoNoYes — Cash Collector
    PriceIncluded$250+ or 15–30%Pro $79 flat
    Write accessN/AUsuallyNever
    Our 12.6% promise

    Find 12.6% of your MRRin 14 days, or it’s on us.

    During your 14-day Pro trial, three agents — Churn Radar, Payment Recovery, and Upgrade Finder — read your Stripe data daily and price every risk and opportunity in dollars. If they don't surface at least 12.6% of your current MRR in actionable opportunities, we extend your trial automatically. If we still haven't found it, your first month of Pro is on us.

    Frequently asked questions

    Connect Stripe See what failed Recover it

    See your past-due list on the call.

    Bring your Stripe account. Twenty minutes, and you leave knowing what failed, why, and what it’s worth.

    Read-only access · No credit card · Agents trial 14 days