Configure recurring billing and dunning settings
This guide shows you how to set up how MapleGather handles failed recurring-billing charges — including how many retry attempts your org allows, how long after the final failed retry a member lapses, and the per-attempt message stored with your policy.
Who can do this: Admins with the billing:write-policy permission (to update dunning settings) and billing:read-policy (to view them). The Finance sub-role typically holds both.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”- You must have Stripe connected to MapleGather first. See Connect Stripe and configure your payment processor.
- Changes to dunning settings are stored against your organization and apply to all future failed charges across it.
- Nothing retries a failed charge on its own today. These settings are the policy those retries will follow; retry execution is planned, not running. Until it runs, a failed renewal stays unpaid until the member pays it, or replaces their card and then pays.
-
In the admin sidebar, select Billing & payments, then select Payment processor, then select Dunning (or navigate directly to Recurring billing & dunning (at
/admin/billing/payment-processor/dunning)). -
In the Max retry attempts field, select how many retry attempts your org allows before the dunning cycle ends. You can choose from 1 to 4; the default is 3. More attempts means a longer period before a membership lapses, but also a longer period of member friction.
-
Under Retry schedule (days after the failed charge), enter the day each retry runs, counted from the failed charge: Retry 1 through Retry 4, 1 to 30 days each. The default is days 1, 3 and 7, with Retry 4 blank. Fill the boxes in order and leave later ones blank to use fewer retries. Each retry attempt runs on one of these days, so set at least as many retry days as your Max retry attempts — for 4 attempts, fill in Retry 4.
-
In the Days before lapse after the final retry field, enter how many days after the last failed retry the member’s membership lapses. The default is 30 days.
-
The Use adaptive retry timing switch is on by default. It selects the timing mode your retries use once they run: on, MapleGather adjusts when each retry runs around its scheduled day, which generally recovers more than fixed spacing; off, each retry runs exactly on its scheduled day. Turn it off only if your org requires fixed retry spacing for accounting or policy reasons. The switch takes effect once automatic retries are running; until then, changing it changes your stored policy only.
-
In the Per-attempt member copy section, edit the stored message for each attempt. There are fields for each attempt up to your Max retry attempts count. These messages are stored with your policy. No failed-payment (dunning) email is sent yet, so members don’t receive them today, and they do not appear in the member portal banner.
-
When you’re done, select Save dunning settings.
Verify
Section titled “Verify”You’ll know it worked when “Dunning settings saved” appears. Your new settings are stored against your org and apply to all future failed charges.
If something goes wrong
Section titled “If something goes wrong”- “Max retry attempts must be between 1 and 4” — the list only offers 1 to 4, so this appears only if the settings changed elsewhere while you were editing. Reload the page, choose a value between 1 and 4, and save again.
- “Max retry attempts can’t be more than the number of retry days” — each attempt needs a retry day. Fill in another Retry box, or lower Max retry attempts, and save again.
- “Enter 1–30 days for each retry, starting with Retry 1 and without gaps” — a retry day is outside 1 to 30, Retry 1 is blank, or a box is blank before a filled one. Fix the days and save again.
- “Days before lapse must be between 0 and 90” — enter a whole number of days from 0 to 90 and save again.
- “You have read-only access to dunning settings” — contact your org’s primary admin to request the billing:write-policy permission. Finance sub-role admins typically have this access.
- Settings don’t appear to have saved — if Dunning settings saved didn’t appear, the save didn’t go through and your settings are unchanged; the message above the form says why. “Something went wrong. Please try again.” means MapleGather couldn’t complete the save (for example, your connection dropped before it answered). Save again.