Is Dunning Applied to All Failed One-Time Charges and Transactions?

No, dunning in Recurly is specifically tied to invoices. Therefore, whether a failed one-time charge or transaction goes through dunning depends entirely on whether an invoice was successfully generated for it.

Here’s how it works:

• When Dunning Applies (Invoice Generated): If a charge is created and then subsequently invoiced, and the payment for that invoice fails, the invoice will then enter your site's dunning management process. This means Recurly will follow your configured dunning rules to attempt to recover the payment over a period of time. One-time charges that are designed to create an invoice upon initiation will follow this dunning process if their payment fails.

• When Dunning Does Not Apply (No Invoice Generated): If a one-time transaction is posted (meaning the charge, transaction, and invoice generation are all attempted through a single, immediate call), and the payment fails, the entire process fails immediately. In this scenario, the invoice will not be generated. Since there is no invoice to dun, the customer will typically be prompted to try the payment again, and the transaction will not enter the dunning process. Initial transaction failures, where no invoice is successfully created, generally do not go through dunning.