Missed payments
What happens when a card payment fails, when Footer365 tries again, and how signatures pause while your email keeps flowing.
Card payments sometimes fail: a card expires, a bank blocks a payment, or there are not enough funds. Footer365 gives you plenty of time to put it right, and it never stops your email. This article explains what happens and in what order.
If you buy Footer365 through a reseller, your reseller bills you and this article does not apply to you, apart from what it says about insolvency.
Your email is never stopped
Whatever happens with a payment, your email keeps sending and receiving as normal. The most that happens is that Footer365 stops adding signatures until the invoice is paid.
The timeline
Each monthly invoice is raised on the first of the month and your card is charged straight away. The invoice has a due date 14 days after it was issued. If the charge fails:
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| The day the charge fails | The invoice is marked Overdue and your billing contact gets an email saying the payment did not go through. |
| 3 days after the due date | Footer365 tries the card again. If it fails, your billing contact gets another email with the date of the next attempt. |
| 7 days after the due date | Footer365 tries the card again, and emails if it fails. |
| 14 days after the due date | The last attempt to charge the card. If it fails, your billing contact gets a warning: no further attempt will be made, and signatures pause on the date it names unless the invoice is paid. Your email keeps flowing whatever happens. |
| 21 days after the due date | If the invoice is still unpaid, signatures are paused. Your billing contact gets an email saying so. |
The warning always gives you at least 7 days. If it could not be sent 14 days after the due date, for example because the email failed, it is sent as soon as it can be, and signatures pause 7 days after it rather than 21 days after the due date. The warning names the date either way.
Every period here is counted in calendar days. Weekends and bank holidays count like any other day and never move a date.
You can see the due date on each invoice under Billing > Invoices.
Put it right
The quickest fix is to update your card before the next attempt:
- Go to Billing > Payment method (open it).
- Select Update card and enter the new details on Stripe's secure page.
The next scheduled attempt then uses the new card. If all the attempts have already passed, or you would rather pay another way, contact Footer365 support to settle the invoice.
See Your payment card.
While signatures are paused
Every page of the portal shows Signatures are paused while a payment is outstanding, with a reminder that your email is unaffected. People who can view billing also see a View invoices button.
- Email is delivered normally, just without the Footer365 signature or any campaign banner.
- Your templates, rules and settings are all kept.
- You can still sign in to the portal.
As soon as the outstanding invoice is paid, signatures restore automatically, usually within a few minutes. Your billing contact gets an email to confirm.
If you dispute the invoice
If you think the invoice is wrong, email [email protected] within 30 days of the invoice date, saying why. Once Footer365 has recorded the dispute, the invoice shows Disputed: Footer365 does not try the card again, warn you about it or pause signatures over it until the dispute is closed, and a pause it caused is lifted. When it is closed, your accounts contact is emailed the outcome. The timeline then carries on for anything still owed, and signatures are only paused after a further warning that gives you at least 7 days. See "Dispute an invoice" in Invoices and VAT.
If your organisation enters an insolvency procedure
If your organisation enters a formal insolvency procedure, such as administration or liquidation, tell Footer365 support and give the insolvency practitioner's details. Under section 233B of the Insolvency Act 1986 the service continues while the practitioner pays for the service supplied after the procedure began (Customer Agreement 16.3A):
- Unpaid invoices for the time before the procedure began are a claim in the insolvency. They show as Claim in insolvency under Billing > Invoices, Footer365 does not try to collect them, and they never pause signatures. A pause resting only on them is lifted.
- Invoices for the time after it began are collected as described above. If one goes unpaid, signatures can pause, and the subscription can be ended, as for any other missed payment.
- At the practitioner's request, a committed term can continue as a monthly subscription. The rest of the term is then a claim in the insolvency rather than invoiced.
- The subscription can also be ended with the practitioner's agreement or a court's permission.
If you buy through a reseller, the practitioner deals with your reseller, who agrees with them whether and on what terms the service continues. If your organisation has entered administration or liquidation, your reseller may ask Footer365 to confirm it. Once Footer365 has checked the Companies House record or the Insolvency Service's register and confirmed it, your reseller may end your subscription. It ends as any other subscription does: see Cancel your subscription. This is not how a reseller ends a customer that has simply stopped paying it. That is an ordinary cancellation, and it keeps a committed term running to its end.
Avoid a missed payment
- Keep the accounts contact under Contacts on Account > Settings pointing at a mailbox someone reads, so payment emails are not missed. See Company settings.
- Watch for the card expiry warnings, sent 30, 14 and 7 days before your card expires, and update the card when you get one.
Good to know
- Footer365 tries each invoice no more than once a day.
- If more than one invoice is unpaid, signatures restore only once all the invoices that caused the pause are settled.
- Failed payments and retries are recorded in the audit log, if your account has one.
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