Cash collection for complex billing

Cash collection is the set of tools Lago uses to get invoices paid: payment retries, dunning reminders, progressive billing on high-usage accounts, and payment-provider integrations. The automated collection steps depend on which provider connection is configured.

Lago's official integrations with GoCardless, Stripe and Adyen handle the documented payment lifecycle. For a processor without a native integration, Lago sends billing information by webhook; your team builds and tests payment collection and status updates with that provider.

A failed payment shows up as invoice.payment_failure, and the invoice can be resent for collection from the UI or the API. Lago also generates a payment URL valid for 24 hours that a customer can use to pay directly, and a successful retry updates the invoice status automatically through the invoice.payment_status_updated event.

Progressive billing invoices a customer automatically once their cumulative usage crosses a threshold, instead of waiting for the billing cycle to end. This limits how much unpaid usage a high-consumption customer can rack up before being billed, which reduces the risk of unpaid invoices or fraud on usage-based plans.

Yes, two ways. Standard automatic dunning sends reminder emails on a defined delay and attempt count once an account crosses an overdue balance threshold. Lago's Dunning Agent goes further: it reads a customer's payment history and reliability before deciding whether to send a reminder, retry a charge below a set cap, or escalate to a person, rather than applying the same timeline to every account. The Dunning Agent is available by request.

Yes. Prepaid credits let a customer pay upfront and draw down against that balance as they use the product, reducing exposure to unpaid usage. Wallet alerts and threshold top-ups help customers refill before they run out. Your product must decide what happens when a balance reaches zero or a top-up payment fails.

Yes. Lago supports two-way accounting syncs with Xero, NetSuite, and QuickBooks, so invoices, payments, and credit notes stay consistent between the billing system and the general ledger without manual re-entry.

Yes. The same collection tools (payment retries, dunning, provider integrations) apply regardless of whether a plan is a flat subscription, pure usage-based, or hybrid. Progressive billing and prepaid credits are the two tools specific to usage-heavy plans, since that's where unbilled consumption risk is highest.