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Create campaigns

Automatic dunning uses campaigns. Apply a campaign to a whole billing entity, or tailor it to individual customers. Create several campaigns to cover different thresholds or cadences. To set up a campaign, go to Settings > Dunning and follow these steps:
  1. Assign a name, code, and description for easy identification.
  2. Set an overdue balance threshold with its designated currency.
  3. Add additional currencies for thresholds as needed.
  4. Specify the delay between attempts, in days.
  5. Define the number of attempts for the campaign.
  6. Add the email addresses to put in copy of every dunning email of the campaign.
  7. Apply this campaign to a billing entity or a customer.

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Overdue balance threshold

You can define thresholds for all supported currencies. When a customer reaches the specified threshold in their invoiced currency, the dunning campaign is triggered. If a customer’s invoiced currency is not supported in the campaign, they are not eligible for it.

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Attempts & delay

A dunning campaign begins when the overdue balance threshold is reached. Subsequent attempts follow the set delay. The campaign ends once the overdue balance is paid or all attempts have been exhausted.

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Apply dunning to a billing entity

Setting a campaign at the billing entity level applies it to all customers that inherit the billing entity’s dunning behavior, except those who either:
  • Have a specific campaign assigned to them, or
  • Have dunning deactivated.
Alternatively, you can leave the billing entity without a campaign and assign dunning campaigns individually to each customer.

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Automatic dunning on customer

A campaign set on the billing entity applies to all the customers attached to it. You can override this on a customer, by assigning a different dunning campaign or by deactivating dunning for that customer.

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Change from one campaign to another

If you change the default campaign or assign a different campaign to a customer, any ongoing dunning process stops. The campaign you assign takes precedence and starts from the beginning.

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Dunning behavior

  1. Automatic payment attempt: Lago initiates a payment intent for the specified amount through the connected PSP.
  2. Failed payment: If the payment fails, Lago sends the customer an email with a payment request and a URL to complete the payment (excluding GoCardless).
  3. Successful payment: On success, the attached invoices automatically reflect a succeeded payment status.

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Dunning and payment methods

Dunning applies to every overdue invoice, whatever payment method was set to collect it. Choosing Manual payment on a subscription, a one-off invoice, or a top-up only tells Lago not to charge that invoice automatically when it is finalized. It does not exclude the invoice from dunning. Once the invoice is overdue, a dunning campaign groups all of the customer’s overdue invoices (one payment request per currency and per billing entity) and attempts a single automatic payment for the combined outstanding amount, using the payment provider set on the customer. If the customer has no default payment method stored in Lago, Lago falls back to a payment method already saved for that customer at the provider (with Stripe, the first one attached to the Stripe customer).

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Prevent automatic charges for a customer

To make sure a customer is never charged on any payment method when one of their invoices becomes overdue, open Edit dunning behavior for this customer on the customer and select Deactivate dunning. No dunning attempt is triggered for them, so they stop receiving dunning emails as well. Leaving the customer’s default payment provider empty also prevents the charge and keeps the dunning emails, but it is not a guarantee: if a payment provider is set on that customer later, dunning can charge them again.

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Edit a dunning campaign

You can edit every detail of a dunning campaign. Changes affect the customers linked to the campaign and can trigger new dunning attempts.

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Delete a dunning campaign

Deleting a dunning campaign immediately stops the campaign for all the customers linked to it, and no further dunning attempt is made. If the deleted campaign is not the default one, those customers revert to the billing entity’s settings, and join the default dunning campaign when one is set.

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Need more than a fixed sequence?

A campaign runs the same attempts and delays for every customer. If you need the next step to depend on the account, the Dunning Agent reads twelve months of payment history first. It waits on customers still inside their usual payment lag, chases the net amount after a partial payment, sends a card-fix link when a charge failed, and escalates large or unanswered accounts to a person. It runs alongside campaigns.