When a subscription is set to auto-pay, Cornerspot charges the customer's saved payment method automatically each time an invoice is due. Sometimes a charge doesn't go through — a card is declined, expired, or needs extra authentication. This guide explains how Cornerspot responds to a failed auto-pay charge, when a subscription moves to Past due, and where to watch it all from the subscription's detail page.
Where to watch a subscription's billing health
Open a subscription from the list under Members & Billing → Subscriptions to reach its detail page at /dashboard/billing/subscriptions/{id}. A few surfaces tell you everything about its payment status.
1. The status pill
The status pill in the header is your first signal. A healthy subscription shows Active (or Trialing). When a payment lapses, it can move to Past due — your cue that a charge hasn't been collected and the subscription needs attention.
2. The charge method
Next to the frequency, the header shows the charge method: Auto-charge when the customer has auto-pay turned on, or Manual invoicing when they don't. Auto-pay is the path that can fail — customers enable it themselves in the member portal, and it requires a usable card or bank payment method on file.
3. The Invoices card
Every invoice this subscription generates lands in the Invoices card. When an auto-pay charge fails, the invoice it was trying to pay simply stays unpaid here while Cornerspot retries — so this is where you confirm whether the money has actually been collected.
4. The Activity timeline
The Activity timeline logs the subscription's billing and lifecycle events. A failed charge and a move to Past due are recorded here, giving you a running history of what happened and when.
What happens when an auto-pay charge fails
Cornerspot follows a dunning sequence designed to recover the payment without manual chasing:
- Declined or errored card: auto-pay is marked failed and the customer is notified that Cornerspot will retry tomorrow.
- Expired card or invalid bank mandate: the customer is prompted to update their payment method, since a retry can't succeed against an unusable method.
- Off-session 3-D Secure required: auto-pay is set to action required, asking the customer to authorize the charge in the member portal.
How you find out
Your billing managers receive a dashboard notification — "Auto-pay failed" — that links straight to the affected subscription or invoice, so the problem surfaces without anyone watching for it. If the payment keeps lapsing, the subscription can move to Past due, which you'll see on its status pill.
Tips
- The fastest health check is the status pill — Past due flags a subscription whose payment hasn't been collected.
- When auto-pay reads action required or failed, the customer needs to step in (authorize the charge or update their payment method) — point them to the member portal.
- Pausing or cancelling a subscription automatically turns auto-pay off, so it won't keep trying to charge.
- These billing events — Auto-pay failed and Subscription past due — can also drive automations, so you can route a task or alert to your team automatically (see the automations tutorial).