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How Failed Payment and Expired Card Notifications Work

When a member's payment fails, Zipper automatically notifies both the member and your staff. Here's what happens and where to see failed payments.

What Triggers a Failed Payment Notification

A failed payment notification fires when:

  • A subscription renewal fails (card declined, card expired, insufficient funds)
  • A one-time charge attempt fails
  • A book-ahead renewal fails while the member has upcoming bookings (see below)

Who Gets Notified

The customer (member) receives:

  • Email, SMS, or push notification (depending on your notification settings)
  • Message tells them their payment failed and prompts them to update their card
  • Includes your studio name so they know who to follow up with

Your staff receives:

  • Email, SMS, or push notification (depending on staff notification settings)
  • Message includes the member’s name so you can follow up quickly

Book-Ahead Failures (When Members Have Upcoming Bookings at Risk)

If a member booked upcoming classes or appointments using credits from a subscription that then fails to renew, those bookings enter a grace period:

  • The member’s upcoming bookings are temporarily held
  • Zipper notifies the member that payment failed and their bookings may be canceled
  • If the member updates their payment method within the grace period, the renewal processes and their bookings are confirmed
  • If the grace period expires without payment, their upcoming bookings are canceled and credits are released

What staff see during a book-ahead failure:

The member’s profile shows their subscription as “Past Due” with a warning about the book-ahead situation. Staff can reach out to the member or manually process a charge to resolve it.

Where to See Failed Payments in the Dashboard

1. Payment Collector → Failed Payments tab

  • Navigate to: Payments > Payment Collector, then the Failed Payments tab (alongside Unpaid Registrations, Unpaid Appointments, and Unpaid Fees).

The Payment Collector page with Unpaid Registrations, Unpaid Appointments, Unpaid Fees, and Failed Payments tabs, listing customers with Charge and Dismiss actions

  • Shows a list of all failed payments with member name and failure reason, each with a Charge or Dismiss action.
  • Can be exported as a CSV

2. Dashboard home — “Needs Attention” widget

  • The main dashboard home shows a Failed Payments count in the alerts area
  • Click it to go directly to the Failed Payments list

About Expiring Cards

Stripe automatically emails cardholders when their card is about to expire — Zipper doesn’t send a separate expiring-card notification. However:

  • When an expiring card causes a payment to fail, the normal failed payment notifications fire
  • Members can update their card anytime from their account profile

Tips

  • Configure SMS + push for payment failures — faster response than email for time-sensitive billing.
  • Follow up same day: reaching out within 24 hours of a failure improves collection rates.

Troubleshooting

Staff aren’t receiving failed payment notifications? Check Settings > Organization Notifications: confirm the “Payment Failed” toggle is on and staff have correct contact info on their profiles.

Member paid but subscription still shows “Past Due”? Click Sync Stripe data on their profile (via the overflow menu) to force a status refresh.

Need a hand?

Email our team at support@joinzipper.com and we'll usually reply within a few hours.

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