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Handle Unpaid Invoices, Suspension, Cancellation and Reactivation

Apply the verified retry, suspension, cancellation and reactivation rules for unpaid customer invoices without overriding automated billing logic.

Written by Jean-Charles

1. Purpose & Team Roles

  • Purpose: Standardize the lifecycle management of unpaid accounts, suspensions, cancellations, and reactivations while ensuring strict compliance with billing rules and system logging.

  • CS Owner: Handles weekly customer calls, logs outreach notes, sends Intercom macros, and assists with manual reactivation.

  • CS Team Lead: Conducts weekly account reviews, authorizes cancellations in Chargebee, decides exception cases, and approves refunds/credit notes.

  • Chargebee (Automation): Acts as the single source of truth for payment retries, invoices, suspensions, and account states.

2. Automated Payment Retries

  • Direct Debit: Up to 2 automated retries.

  • Credit Card: Up to 5 automated retries.

Never manually override an automated retry or payment status based on informal customer requests. Automated retries stop automatically once the limit is reached.

3. Weekly Unpaid Outreach & Macro Workflow

  1. Team Lead Review: Reviews failure reasons weekly in the Unpaid Doc and assigns accounts to the CS Owner.

  2. Weekly Calls & Intercom Macros: CS Owner calls the customer weekly. If unreachable, send the corresponding Intercom macro:

    • 1st Unpaid Invoice: B_1ST_UNPAID_NOREPLY_...

    • 2nd Unpaid Invoice: B_UNPAID_BEFORE_SUSPENSION_...

    • 3rd Unpaid Invoice: B_UNPAID_AFTER_SUSPENSION_...

  3. Wire Transfer Requests: Download outstanding invoices and send via macro B_BILLING_WIRE_TRANSFER_... alongside company bank details.

  4. Documentation: Log current status, call notes, and date in the Unpaid Doc after every attempt.

4. Suspension & Cancellation Gates

Account Suspension Criteria An account is eligible for suspension if it meets either of the following:

  • 3 or more unpaid invoices (the website automatically goes offline).

  • Total balance > €220 (EUR) AND the oldest invoice is > 45 days overdue.

Exceptions:

  • Invoices with a future expected_payment_date are temporarily excluded from suspension calculations.

  • If the very first invoice remains unpaid after the 60-day activation grace period, the website status displays "Coming Soon" rather than "Suspended".

Account Cancellation Criteria

  • Trigger: The 4th unpaid invoice initiates the cancellation workflow (does not mean auto-cancellation).

  • Approval: Only the CS Team Lead can authorize and schedule the final cancellation in Chargebee after reviewing account debt and customer context.

  • Execution:

    1. Record the cancellation reason in the Cancellation Doc.

    2. CS Owner sends the final notice to the client via Intercom using macro B_BREAKUP_EMAIL_....

5. Reactivation Protocol

  1. Verification: Confirm that all outstanding balances are fully settled in Chargebee.

  2. Activation: Guide the customer to reactivate manually in-app or process it directly.

  3. Propagation Window: The website should automatically return online within ~15 minutes after Chargebee registers payment.

  4. Technical Escalation (If site stays offline):

    • First, verify domain health and DNS setup.

    • If DNS is fine, escalate in Slack channel #support-setup.

    • Escalation Requirements: Provide account link, site URL, payment proof, Chargebee status, reactivation timestamp, DNS findings, and exact error state.

    Warning: Do not repeatedly toggle or modify the billing state while waiting for resolution.

6. Refunds & Credit Notes

  • Standard Policy: Strictly no refunds and no credit notes.

  • Exceptions: Require explicit customer negotiation and mandatory CS Team Lead approval.

  • Audit Trail Requirements:

    • Before Action: Save a durable approval record containing the approver name, date, reason, amount/scope, affected invoice, and approved action.

    • After Action: Log the billing reference/outcome in Chargebee and confirm the resolution to the customer in writing via Intercom.

7. System Record Requirements

  • Chargebee: Invoice/payment states, retry outcomes, scheduled cancellations, reactivation states, refund/credit references.

  • Unpaid Masterfile: Account status (To Call, To Cancel, In Progress, Retried), weekly review notes, and call logs.

  • Intercom: Customer communications, payment updates, suspension/cancellation notices, reactivation guides.

  • CRM: Outbound call attempt logs.

8. Related Child Execution SOPs

  • Initial Payment Failures (Invoices 1 & 2): Article 16257786

  • Weekly Suspension Gate & Exceptions: Article 16257792

  • Cancellation Scheduling & Reactivation Support: Article 16257796

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